in case of Pure Chance Meadling and for no stroak or stabbing or any other kind of That now called Man-slaughter which I doubt may lie very heavily upon some Nations might have Refuge to the Cities of Refuge and be There preserved by the Judges in the Gates from the Kinsman or Avenger of Blood Till the Death of Him that represented our great High Priest And the 3 Cities of Refuge on the Right side of Jordan were Higher than the 3 on the Left which were also out of Canaan the Land of Rest. But we saw before How Jacob Crossed his Hands in Blessing the Sons of Joseph who lift up his Fathers hand to remove it but could not and afterwards put his Hand upon his Fathers Eyes which we may consider again With Eglon the Calf or Beast destroyed by Ehud a man of Benjamin or of the Right Hand but Turned Left handed and Sodom also set at Judahs Right Hana when her Captivity is Turned in Ezekiel Though she be There also called the Younger sister As Ephraim was the Younger Brother and yet as most or all younger Children in all the Bible to be preferred before the Elder And God owneth it also saying in the Prophets Ephraim is my First Born And so the Lost son also among the Millions of Ephraim who must make the Fulness of the Gentiles must have the Best Robe and the Fatted Calf and be Preferred before his Elder Brother In a word the First shall be Last and the Last First and you know not what you ask when you speak of sitting at his Right Hand or his Left Shall I add that although the Right Hand was generally Best with the Jews Yet with the Romans directly contrary in This also the Left hand Thunders and other Auguries were judged Better than at Right Hand Was it because Their Left hand was neerest or opposite to Heavens Right Hand or God giving them all their Blessings Or shall we say that After the Temple God himself seemed to Turn his Face Westward As Christ on the Cross and so That was now at his Right Hand which before at his Left and That Now before him which was formerly behind him It is True we read That Expression of Gods Turning But in the 80 Psalm and many other places it speaketh His Turning of Us. Yet in a Right sence As we cannot Love Him till He Love us so we cannot Turn To Him Till he Turn To Us or be Turned As the Phrase is of the Great Mystery of God in Christ Turning himself Toward us and us to Him Reconciled to us Did the ancient Christians also that prayed Towards the East do it in opposition to the Jews still Bowing to the West as we touched before Or Believing God or Christ on the Cross was now Turned quite contrary to the Posture He was in before Or supposing Christ the Mercy Seat of the Divine Presence to be still over the Mount of Olives where he went up into Heaven and There sitteth at the Right Hand of God till All his Enemies are made his Foot-stool But if This were All That Posture or Bowing Eastward becometh None but Those only which are in the Western Corner of the World For They that are more Eastern than Jerusalem must on that account Turn Westward and the Southern Christians Northward and the Northern Southward O but when shall we come to believe and know that Our Blessed Savior is In us as his great Prayer and Promise was As his Father is in Him and yet when Here on Earth he lifted up his Eyes and Hands to Heaven as his Fathers chiefest Residence And so we also Even Then when it shall please God to reveal Him in us As in Paul and to make him In us the Hope or Evidence of Glory All the Elders bowed to the Lamb with all their Vials full of Odours which are the Prayers of Saints as we read in That Blessed Book which Blesseth All that Read and understand it But in our little Body we have Hot and Cold Moist and Dry Muscles pulling up and down drawing in and out and yet All Those All other contrarieties make excellent Harmony So in His great Body the Church of his First Born and the World also much greater contrarieties than we can well express are reconciled and accepted also by Him who hath purposed in himself to Reconcile All things Even All things To Himself in and by and Through our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and by the Blood of his Cross. Who is God over All Blessed for Ever Amen And to All that are called to be Saints or in Any place for it will be in All places call upon Jesus of Nazareth Their Lord and Ours I am bold to say because God hath said it and written it also Let Him that standeth Take heed lest he fall And there is No Temptation on you to you but what is common to man But God is Faithful who will not suffer you to be Tempted above your ability but with the Temptation will also make a way to escape that you may not run away but be able to Bear it However God may bear it from you or bear it with you and upon you Wherefore my Dearly Beloved flee from Idolatry I speak as to wise men Judg what I say And How comes in This Wherefore unless the Temptations to Idolatry be of All the Greatest and most dangerous And of All Idolatries That of our own Fancy or vain Imagination that is Image-making of our own Hearts more dangerous and more provoking God to Jealousie than All other Idols As we touched before in the second Command But who art Thou O man that judgest another or settest at naught Thy Brother If in any thing we differ God shall reveal This also Yet a little while and we must stand before His Throne who said This is my Commandement and yet again My New Commandement that you Love One another and Take Heed you fall not out by the way and by This shall all men know you are my Disciples if you love one another And it must be also Even as He hath loved us And by This we have boldness and confidence to pray and hope and believe he heareth us and loveth us when we love one another And to Brotherly kindness Add Love And that your Love abound and increase to One another and to All men To All men Yea and Honor All men And the Time is coming and already come he said that ye shall worship the Father neither at This Mountain nor at Jerusalem but in every place True Worshipers shall Worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth For the Father Seeketh such to worship him and such he will Finde O Thou that Hearest Prayer unto Thee shall All Flesh come and to Thee shall the Vow be performed Praise waiteth for Thee O God who dost both possess and inherit All the Praises of Israel in silence For so the Phrase speaketh and so the Jews
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
but in three or four Generations as it may be born least the spirit that he hath made should fail before him And when he afflicteth He will not do it for ever For he doth it not willingly or from his Heart but he will Turn again and shew compassion because he delighteth in Goodnesse and his pitties and compassions never fail and his tender Mercies are over all his works yea all his works shall praise him the earth and all that is in it and the Sea also is full of his Goodnesse He openeth his Handwide and filleth all things with Good and giveth the desire of every living thing Every Tree in the Forest shall clap hands and sing and rejoyce the very Dragons shall praise him the Owls shall answer one another in his Praises Every thing that hath breath shall praise him All flesh shall see his glory and every eye shall see his Salvation For what is Glory in some places speaking thus is Salvation in others and so in the Gospel also Citing it out of the Prophets In a word there is nothing in that Threatning or in any other in this Law and why then should we fear the Gospel but what speaks Gods tender Love and Gratious Pities and Compassions Even his very Jealousie which yet is made the Foundation of all his visitting springeth from Love It is so in man much more in God who is love its self and when he means to shew his greatest Love to his poor people in recovering them from all captivity and sorrow he expresseth it by being Jealous over them and for them with a great Jealousie And St. Paul calleth his tender bowels to the poor Saints a Godly Jealousie or a Godlike Jealousie Lest a stranger should attempt to get away their heart which he had like God the Father Espoused to his dear Son Jesus And when the Lord resolves both effectually and speedily to recover his back-sliding people he promiseth to move them to Jealousie also as himself is moved with Jealousie for them lest another get their heart from him which would never trouble him if he did not very much love them and very tenderly And although Jealousie in Christ for it is proper to an Husband may seem as the Wrath of a man that will not spare or pardon in his day of visitation as the wise man expresseth it Yet even That very phrase of Not sparing or Not pardoning which yet is one of the hardest or harshest expressions in the whole Scriptures is no other than the very same Solomon doth not only observe and commend but require and commanâ—â—so in a tender hearted Father to the Son of his own bowels whom yet he must Chasten and not spare or pardon 't is that very phrase Which yet sure cannot mean that he shall be alwaies angry and never reconciled but that he sorely chasten and correct in earnest and as an Ordinance of God and not for lust or dalliance or so as may occasion sin or harden in the sin so visited May it not be possible also that the dearest children of God even Moses may commit such a Failor in his Generation work as may in such a sense be never forgiven that is Sorely chastened as David was and be still remaining as a Spot for that Generation work though they may and shall be saved May They also or only commit such Unpardonable sins And such a visitation may be threatned in the second Command as was promised rather than threatned to Davids children Who yet had the everlasting Covenant and the sure Mercies or as the Acts expresseth it the sure Holy things of David which are also promised to every Believer or every one that Thirsteth and thirsting cometh to the Waters even to them and their seed for ever So that if his children break the Law and shal despise his Statutes Then will I visit their Transgression with the Rod and their Iniquity with stripes He will chasten them with Rods and as Ezekiel expresseth it cause them to pass under the Rod and Bond of the Covenant So that Rods are a part of the Cevenant and its Bond. But he will not take away his Everlasting Kindness Yet as he speaketh of Solomon perhaps one of the greatest sinners ever living for this I will afflict or chasten the House of David but not for Ever Not for ever I will not retain my Anger for Ever which is expressly forbidden Man in general And so Christ also in the very Law that saith Thou shalt not avenge thy self or reserve thine Anger No not till the Sun go down For so this Law is pressed upon us and why not so upon every one made under that Law also and by consequence on Christ himself Nor shalt thou bear any grudg or thought in thy heart against the Children of thy People for my Covenant is with them and their childrens children also for evermore Therefore thou shalt bear no grudg against them or any of their Children But thou shalt love thy Neighbor as thy self Which our Savior and the Apostles so much the sum of the whole Law And to this very place and the phrase here used of not reserving Anger or not retaining ought in heart he very many times alludeth when he saith of himself I will not retain for ever or I will not reserve my Anger or I will not be alwaies Wroth or I will not contend for ever and the like expressions which himself and all the Scripture affirms of him divers times as one of the first and chiefest things we ought to believe os him Which is also a most comfortable acknowledgment that He also takes himself to be obliged with the following words of the same verse which he citeth also several times Thou shalt love thy Neighbor as thou lovest thy self Very sweet as Lying on Man to Man but yet much sweeter as it lieth on Christ the Son of Man to Man Man-kind every Man As I hope will be fully cleered anon Nor do I find any thing in any of the Commandements contrary to this No not That of Gods Jealousie which we touched before and his visiting the Iniquity of the Fathers on their children Even when he seeth so much Iniquity in the Father that by his general Laws of Justice Truth Equity and Mercy too for they go all together he must visit yet he is so slow to anger and so loth to afflict that he will do it by degrees and by steps and not so that may make the Father so miserable as he deserves and might very justly be But so that he may have some part of the rod as David had and his children also some other part of it so as may bring them to see and know and acknowledg the Iniquities of their Fathers also Which God promised rather than threatned to Moses on Mount Sinai also as we read in the 26. of Leviticus so much cited and confessed sor their Fathers also in the ninth chapters of Daniel Ezra and Nehemiah
Love And so before the fall he loved man And being fallen with a Sweeter better Greater Kinder kinde of Love of Pitty Mercy and most tender Bowels of Compassion Which was ever in that Infinite Fountain of All being But it appeared not abroad till the Wisdom of God contrived how to shut up some in fear and guilt that so he might at once shew Justice Truth and Mercy also which then Met and Kist Embracing one another And the Lord foreseeing and Resolving all this that so it should and so it must be while his Heart was such and such it must be while he was and is himself which was and will be ever and beyond all words that expresse Eternity He still spake so wisely that when he threatned most yet he lefr an Issue for goodnesse to come forth and shew it self with Truth and Justice too And therefore at the very first Command and Threatning to our Father Dying thou shalt Dye or thou shalt surely Die he did not tye his hands or bind himself without such Reservations as might still afford room large enough for Truth and Mercy both I shall not enquire at present upon what account it pleased the Lord to abridge Adam in Paradise of That which he granted before when he gave him for meat e-Every hearb bearing Seed and every Tree in which is the Fruit of a Tree yielding Seed which is not Usual with God To give and then to take away without demerit Nor do I say Adam obliged himself to that which he needed not if he had considered his former Pattent or his Deed of Gift But this I say in general there is not a Word Command or Threatning spoken to man that is not spoken by Christ And first therefore spoken by God in and to Christ who then speaketh nothing but what God said to him in him and As the Father spake it unto him so he speaketh unto man But certainly there was not any one word ever spoken by God to Christ either Precept or Threatning with any purpose to make him Despair But to Do believe and live And by consequence never any one Word or Threatning of the whole Law spoken by Christ to any man but As the Father spake it unto him not to make him Despare but believe and live For which also see Deut. 5. 29. 29. 29. Psalm 78. 5 6 7 8. 81. 13. Prov. 22. 19 20. Isa. 48. 17 18. Rom. 15. 4. John 3. 17. 17. 5. 34. 12. 47 48 49 50. 20. 31. Again I do not see plainly what God meant by Dying when he said thou shalt surely dye or dying dye Or that if he meant the worst of deaths for kinde he meant it so also for Duration Seeing Christ when he bore the Curse and its heavy weight did not dye such a kinde of death or at least for such duration as it is supposed to be here threatned And the very phrase here used to Adam is threatned to Davids Child by Bathsheba and to many others in the Scripture And to Hezechiah it is added Thou shalt not live And yet he did not die but live And David hoped that his Child might live notwithstanding that threatning dying it shall die or it shall surely die And sure when it did die he did not believe it dyed Etetnally or that this was threatned by that phrase so frequent also in Scripture And if God had meant any such Eternal death to Adam by that threatning it is somewhat strange that after the fall he removed them out of Paradise and guarded it so least they should yet eat of the Tree of Life and Live for Ever though he had said Thou shalt surely dye But to put the matter out of doubt We may see Gods Meaning of this Threatning in the 24. cha of Ezek. where he saith the people should so certainly die in their sins and pine away in their Iniquities with the most terrible expressions and most vehement assertions that can well be imagined as Because I would have purged thee and thou wast not purged thou shalt not be purged till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee I the Lord have spoken it it shall come to pass and I will do it I will not goe back neither will I repent But you shall pine away for your iniquity c. which is the terrible Threatning reserved for the last place in that famous and gradual Judgement so solemnly denounced in the twenty sixth of Leviticsn And As a Seal of this most heavy doom Ezekiel is strucken dumb and can no more admonish or comfort them so finally devoted to destruction so that he never speaks a word more to them from that 24. chap. to the thirty third And there God lets and bids him speak again unto the Children of his people By which very phrase we are led back to that sweet place we cited so lately out of the 19. of Leviticus of bearing no grudge against the Children of his people but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thy heart but shalt certainly rebuke him and not suffer sin to lye upon him Which is the Text on which the Lord so comments to the Son of man whom God there setteth up as a mighty Type of Christ to be the great Watchman and warner to his brethren and his neighbours Or to be a light to lighten the Gentiles also each man and every Man that cometh into the World Adding also on that occasion that if a Nation or a people of a place do of themselves in a time of darknesse and danger choose a man and set him up for a Watchman or a Teacher or a Ruler among them there being alike reason God will own it as His Ordinance though but of Humane Choyce and Institution Which may be compared with That of the Apostle of submitting to Mans Institutions in Government even for the Lord or as an Ordinance of God To be much considered by those that reject Rulers or Teachers if they cannot shew a special Call or Mission by God Upon That occasion the Son of Man which also reacheth to Christ whose work is much described in Ezekiel hath his strict yet general Rules also when ever God threatneth Man And Then remembring the last solemn Threatning but now cited from the 24. chapter which was the last spoken to them He commandeth Thus O thou Son of Man speak unto the House of Israel Thus you speak saying If our sins be so upon us that we must Pine away in them which was the last great Threatning How then shall we or can we possibly Live Say unto them As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the Death of the wicked even of the wicked but that the wicked Turn from his Way and live Turn you Turn you from your evil waies for why will you die O ye House of Israel And then giveth that sweet and yet general Rule for interpreting All the
he had Blessed him He appeared to Abraham by the Name Elshaddai God Almighty and Abrahams believing but This Power was imputed for Righteousnesse But afterwards by the Name Jehovah which speaketh his Will also And I will be what I will be or what I can be As the Words are and not as some read them I am what I am which the lowest Creature may be said to be And at the Close of the Baptists Testimony of Christ in the third of John This is made the very Ground work of our Faith and Hope in Christ and coming to him because the Father hath loved him and given All things into his hand And so doth himself also make it several times in That very Gospel For the Father Loveth the Son and sheweth him all he doth and will shew him greater things then these that you may Marvel For as the Father quickens the dead even so the Son quickeneth whom he will For the Father judgeth no man but hath commited all judgement to the Son that all men should Honour the Son even as they Honour the Father For as the Father hath Life in himself so hath he given the Son also to have Life in himself and hath given him Authority to execute Judgement also because he is the Son of Man And again the Hour is come that the Son of Man should be Glorisied But as a Corn of Wheat he must first die that so he may be made a quickening Spirit and then he shall bring forth much Fruit for he will not die as a Fool dyeth But will improve his death to the utmost and do as much good as he Can and will Work while he may VVork Least the Night come and then he cannot VVork He will therefore do what is in his Hand and Power to do and will do it with all his Might Remembering him that said withhold not thy hand while it is in thy Power to Work Say not to thy Neighbour goe and come again to Morrow When it is now in thy Power to do him Good And now shall the Prince of this World be cast out And I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw All men unto me and Him that cometh to me will I in no wise I will not I will not cast him off or cast him out But walk while you have the Light least Darknesse come upon you These things he spake and did Hide himself from them But he came and Cryed again He that seeth me seeth him that sent me I am come a Light unto the World and he lighteth every one that cometh into the World that whosoever believeth should not abide in Darknesse If any Man hear my Words and believe not I judge him not for I came not to judge the World but to Save the World and these things I say that you might be Saved And again Jesus knowing that the Father had given All things into his hands and that he was come from God and went to God he riseth from Supper and took a Towel and girded himself and washed his Disciples feet O see his Heart when he hath Power for all this is because the Father had given All things into His Hands And when Judas was gone out immediately after the Sop though St Luke seem to make him present at the Sacrament and one of the twelve of whom or to whom he spake of twelve Thrones and Judging the twelve Tribes of Israel he saith Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him and if God be glorified in him God shall also glorifie him in himself and shall straightway glorifie him And shall not All bow to him and to the Glory of God also And if God be glorified in them God will glorifie them with himself or where is the stress of our Saviors Argument And again It is expedient that I go for else the Comforter will not come and when he comes he shall convince the World of sin For so God loved the World that he sent his Son not to condemn the world or Judg it but to save the world by That which he will give for the Life of the World And again which he shall give unto you for Him hath God the Father sealed And again I have many things to say unto you but you cannot bear them now Howbeit when the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all Truth for he shall glorifie me and shall receive of mine and shew it unto you All things that the Father hath are mine therefore I said that he shall take of mine and shew It unto you And again Father Glorifie thy Son that thy Son also may glorifie Thee a Good Comment on the Lords Prayer for who can first give to God that it may be given or can lend that it may be paid again As thou hast given him Power over All flesh that he should not onely may but should give Eternal Life to as many as thou hast given him And if That be not yet plain enough before in That very chapter he repeats it again saying I pray for them I pray not for the world but for them which thou hast given me For they are Thine And all Mine are Thine and Thine are Mine and I am glorified in them And his saying here I pray not for the world stands as much alone without a Fellow or any like it as most words in all the Bible And how can we build any great matter of Faith upon That which hath not two or three Witnesses to confirm it Yet if it were said I Will not pray for the world Is it more or more obliging or concluding than That in Hosea Call her Lo-ruhamah I will no more have mercy upon the House of Israel and I will not have mercy on her children and I will not be their God And yet he did turn again and had pity on them because he delighted in Mercy and where it was said You are not my People There it shall be said You are the Sons of the Living God So also Thy Name shall be no more called Jaacob but Israel And yet God himself often called him Jaacob after This. So also I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice And I did not command your Fathers or speak to them concerning Sacrifice And in the same Prophet They shall teach no more saying Know the Lord. And You murmur not against us but God And they have not rejected Thee but Me. As in the Gospel I came not to Judg the world nor will I Judg you And again I do not or I will not call you Servants And You shall ask me Nothing And when thou makest a Feast Thou shalt not invite thy Friends In all which and divers other places sure we do not believe any absolute Negative but Comparative Or at least not so definitive but such as may be reversed And why should that saying I will not Pray for the world if he had said so oblige Christ
Palm tree which it also signifies as That which Riseth by Pressing down and was used at the Feast of Tabernacles and yet also by the Jews shaking their Palms Thrice every way crying Hosanna Hosanna As their Fathers did to Christ spreading Palm branches as we read in the Gospel But how Hated and Cursed Things and Persons may be Loved and Blessed as changed by Him that is not changed as we read in the same Prophet to which also St. James alludeth who also telleth us We are All begotten by One Father and that He hateth putting away in himself also I hope more than any person We must speak anon When I consider the solemn engagement of God to his Son Ask of me and I will give thee all Nations and the utmost ends of the Earth or in the Gospel-words Ask and thou shalt receive seek and thou shalt finde knock and it shall be opened which was first said to Christ before he said it unto us and he saith it to every one and with that also Because it is so to every one therefore so to you or them that then heard him I have often thought it such a ground of Faith and Hope that instead of doubting whether I was given to him or not I have often pressed it on him Ask me that thou mayst receive me seek me and thou shalt finde me and by vertue of the Covenant my hard heart also shall be opened to thee if thou wilt knock heartily Now thou saist thou standest at the door and knockest O but do it heartily which is the great Law of All Servants and thou art the Lords Servant and so called through the Prophets Gospel all the Bible And the Lords servant must be gentle towards all even to them which oppose themselves c. I have also judged it an unworthy thought of God to think he would so solemnly bid him ask what he would and whom he would and then to tye his tongue or narrow his heart so as he durst not or he would not ask as many as he could dispose or manage And to put it out of doubt I see him very solicitous to perswade and assure us that the Father hath so far prevented all his asking or our fears doubts that he hath given him all Things all Persons all Power in Heaven and Earth And on this Rock he grounds his Calls and all our Faith and Hope and coming to him For we must needs have staggered at all his words and promises till with Abraham we were fully perswaded that he was able to perform what ever he promised and this was imputed to him for Righteousness and not unto him only but unto us also it shall be imputed a strange expression to the Gentile Romans If we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead who was delivered for our offences and raised again for our Justification We erre greatly not knowing the Scriptures and the mighty Power of Christ which if we knew we should not dispute his will but rowle our selves upon it as we daily pray and say Lord if thou wilt thou canst make us whole and cleane The God whom we worship is able to deliver us out of this Pit and fiery Furnace was it not a great mystery But however we will not worship the Golden Image of the Beast or him that was or is to be a Beast and to eate grass as an Oxe nor will we receive his character or name or number of it though set up in the plain of Dura every Generation of this World made up of 6. in bredth and 60. in height 666 was also the number of Talents of Gold brought yearly unto Solomon But of this again in our discourse of times and numbers weights and measures And when our Saviour himself came to dye and all the Scripture was against him that he could not live yet he was not afraid to put himself upon the infinite Power of God with Father if it be be possible and all things are possible The Angel to the Virgin said all things shall be possible with God and Christ several times with God all things are possible and at his coming down from the Mount an embleme of his second coming he addeth all things are possible to him also even to a poor weeping man that believeth All things are possible to thee O Father and to mealso they shall be possible But not my will but thine be done on Earth and my Earth also as in thy highest Heavenly Throne which shall also be my Throne And Father I will that those which thou hast given me to whom thou hast given all things may be with me and see my Glory and sit on my throne also And his Throne is established with Mercy as we read in the Prophet Isa. Yea rather with Mercy than Truth or any other thing for so the Proverbs say Mercy and Truth preserve the King but his Throne is established with Mercy So that if he cannot hold both he must let go Truth and all Justice rather than Mercy For Mercy shall triumph over all Judgement and in Judgement he still will still doth remember Mercy And he that sheweth not mercy in all things and all times shall have no mercy shewed him and himself bid them go learn what that meant I will have mercy and not sacrifice or mercy rather than any sacrifice He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what the Lord delighteth in to do Justice but especially to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Ride on prosperously because of Truth and Meekness of Righteousness and seeing God accepteth mercy rather than any other sacrifice let him guide thee also in the way he shall chose and best accept as the Psalmist speaketh I will therefore sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever for I have said mercy shall be built up for ever Mercy and Truth shall go before thy face O blessed are the people that know that joyfull sound and understand it They shall walk O Lord in the light of thy countenance in thy name they shall rejoyce all the day for they that know thy name will trust in it and in thy very Justice they shall be exalted Mercy and Truth are met together Righteousness and Peace do kiss each other Melchizedek the King of Righteousness is also King of Salem that is Peace and his Throne of Judgement in the Revelation is a white Throne and is established with mercy For his mercy endureth for ever for his mercy endureth for ever Even that Mercy which is Over all his works and his compassions never fall And Solomon saith he that honoureth his Maker hath Mercy on the Poor He shall hear the Poor when he cryeth and him that hath no Helper no Helper He shall save their souls and shall redeem them from deceipt and violence or as this Psalm is expressed in Ezechiel He shall offer sacrifice for every one that erreth and is simple
Lord. For he Cometh He Cometh to Judg the World The Lord Reigneth let the Earth rejoyce and let the many Isles be glad The Heavens declare his Righteousness and all the People see his Glory Which in the next Psalm is All the ends of the Earth have seen the Salvation of God As in Luke also All flesh shall see the salvation of God Which in Esay is Thus The Glory of God shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together And in the same Prophet Sing O Heavens for the Lord hath done it Shout O lower parts of the Earth break forth into singing ye Mountains O Forrest and every Tree therein And again Look unto me and be saved All the ends of the Earth For I am God and there is None else I have sworn by my self for there is No Greater that to me every Knee shall bow and every Tongue shall swear and pray and praise and confess to the Glory of God and my Father who said Ask of me and I will give thee the utmost ends of the Earth And while our Saviour lived on Earth he travelled to Aegypt and to other places about the Holy Land As taking possession of them Blessing them also by his blessed presence For the time was coming yea and Then come when not only at That or other Mountains of that Holy Land but in All places men should Worship God in Spirit and in Truth For the Father Seeketh such to worship him Yea and Those Lands also that had so afflicted and oppressed the People of God in all Ages even Aegypt and Assyria must come to sharers with the Land of Israel it self in the greatest Blessings For in that day shall Israel be a Third and but a Third with Aegypt and Assyria even a Blessing in the midst of the Earth whom the Lord of Hosts himself shall bless saying Blessed be Aegypt my People and Assyria the work of my hands as we read in the Prophet Esay to be compared with other places And the Reason given in the very Law of Redemption speaketh This because the Land was Gods Land and they were but Gods Tenants in it though in the Best and freest Fee for it was given to Abraham and his seed for Ever who was Heir of the World as the Apostle speaks And yet So that they must still acknowledg God to be their Lord Paramount their Grand Landlord And They might never give or sell or aliene no nor forfeit it which is very comfortable but so that it still must and should and shall be Redeemed again by the Tenant himself or his Kinsman Or however which was still to be observed it must go out Free wholly Free at the great Year of Jubilee of which more ere long And the Reason was This Because the Land was Gods Land and He would still retain his Right to it and in it and would still dispose it as he pleased whatever the present Tenant did And doth not the same Reason hold for All the Earth Yea did it not hold from the very first Fall of Adam and Man-kind in him Was not Then also the Earth even the whole Earth the same Landlords Had he not as much Right to it as to This Land of Canaan Would he so easily quit his Right in it Though Man a weak and vain and foolish Creature made a Forfeiture of His Possession or His Right shall it not then be as it was divers times with this Land of Canaan that when he shall have purged out the filth thereof by the spirit of Judgment and of Burning That which remaineth shall be Holy And why may it not be Thus also with our bodies and our flesh which hath so long been As the accursed Earth Yea as Babylon it self an Habitation of unclean spirits and a Cage of all unclean birds Why may it not also become the blessed Land of Promise and the Land of Rest Yea the Holy Place and Temple of the Lord of all the Earth Which is a Phrase very much to be marked As a name in which the Lord himself seemeth to glory being also the same Lord that is stiled the God of the Spirits of All flesh Which may be the Foundation of That Prayer and That Promise also that All flesh may and shall be brought to praise and bless the Lord as also that All the Earth must be full of the Glory of God For the place of his very Feet must be Glorious And what Glory Then will be upon This Earth when the Curtains or Canopy of the Heavens shall be drawn and the Glory of God shall appear and will the Earth as his chiefest Residence Will he not Then Give the Greatest Honour to the Weaker Vessel and the more abundant honor to the most uncomly parts or That which lacked most before It might be added also that the very City Jerusalem was not only Accursed as the rest but longer than other parts of the Land Trodden down by the accursed Jebusites which had their very name from Tredding down as the Revelation also seemeth to allude and These Jebusites grew up to be so Odious that before he conquered them 't is said His Soul even Davids Soul that is Love it self Hated them Even Them who possessed That very Fort which was afterwards his Darling and the dearly beloved of his Soul Yea That which God Chose-above all the Gates or Cities of Judah Yet in it self besides its accursed possessors it was but a dry barren Rock and so called Zion Drought or a Dry barren place And Morijah also where the Temple stood was but the Threshing place of one of these accursed Jebusites though as a Liberal Prince to David himself And though in Hebrew it may signifie the Lords Teaching yet others bring it up to Myrrh or Bitterness and in Greek it signifieth Foolishness to which also the Apostle may allude in several places And by This time I may conclude this Discourse of Turning accursed places or unholy into Blessed and Holy with That solemn saying of our Saviour The last shall be first and the first last Which he repeated so that I often think it might intimate a greater Mystery than I am yet sensible of As if All the Course of Gods Providence were as a Wheel in constant Motion pulling down the high Spoaks and bringing up the low ones Which Moses also long before described in his Psalm of Nature Grace and Glory Thou turnest man about as grinding him with the upper and the lower Milstone of Grief and Pain to clay or dust and Then thou sayest Return again Again ye Sons of Man Return again O Lord How long and let it repent thee concerning thy servants That is Make them Turn and Repent as we find it plain enough in the 80. Psalm and divers other places that Gods Effects In Man are expressed as His Affections To Man O satisfie us with thy Free Grace in the morning when our Night of pain and sorrow is past For Though sorrow
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