used by the Psalmist and his Rock which yet had a God had a Lord or a Father which is a plain character of Christ. As very many others which an attentive Reader will easily observe through the whole book of Psalmes yea the Prophets also in very many places And the Proverbs do not onely bid us lift up our voyce to Wisdom and cry aloud to Understanding but commands us also to call her our Sister and our near kinswoman which is a plain character he means That Wisdom which was hid in Christ in whom are hid All Treasures of wisdom For He is the Power and Wisdom of God who hath made him also Wisdom for us and unto us Being our Brother who of old dwelt with Prudence and was brought up with him But His delight was with the Sons of men whom he is not ashamed to call His Brethren Nay he commandeth us to call him Brother saying also that a Brother is Born for a Day of Trouble and to call His Wisdom our Sister and His Understanding our near Kinswoman which is a Comment on that of the Psalmes He is Thy Lord and therefore Worship him But He is also Thy Brother and therefore Kisse him also least thou displease and grieve him which we see all along through the Canticles also Shall I add yet more to perswade or encourage you in praying to Christ Or why rather to Christ then to God otherwise Though we may speak to the Father also and with great comfort and boldnesse If at least I can and dare say My Father forgive me as I forgive others which yet I desire to do and in some measure do but oft found it so hard to make it the measure of Gods forgiving me that it made me oft turn to Christ and say Lord teach me to pray this Prayer as John taught his Disciples And at length I hope he taught me and to speak and pray to Him also as He to His Father For he is not onely my Lord but my Father also and the Father of Eternity or as some read it of the World to come Yea and my Father in Heaven where he then also said he was Nay the Son of man which is in Heaven and your Father which is out of Heaven or came out of Heaven in that remarkable passage of our Saviour added by St. Luke to the Lords Prayer taught his Disciples in a secret place as they found him praying and said Lord teach us as John taught his Disciples and he taught them with some difference from what he said before all the People in his Sermon on the Mount whom yet he bid say Our Father c. But in Luke he addeth If you that be evil can give good gifts to them that ask you How much more your Father who is or who came Out of Heaven For so it is in the Original and by that character he may perhaps hint That very prayer may be spoken to him For He that seeth Him seeth the Father also and He that worships him worships the Father also and Him that serveth Him the Father will love and honour He that speaketh to him speaketh to the ear and Heart of God For the whole fulnesse of the Godhead is in Him and that I may not separate the Persons or have wrong conceits of God as I am apt enough to and so it may be worship Idols of my own making in my own brain which may be easier and so more dangerous then Idols made by my own hands I chuse much to speak to Christ and to God onely as in Him As of old They were to pray to the God of Abraham that spake to Moses and dwelt in the Tabernacle between the cherubims of glory shadowing the Mercy Seat covering the Arck so I speak to God onely as He is in Christ where he dwelleth for ever And though it may be very lawful to pray to God through Christ and for Christ Yet not to speak of out aptnesse to look on God as wholly wrath in Himself when he is Love even the Father is Love and so loved the world also that he sent his onely begotten Son to save the world and not to destroy it If one should run me in to the heart and I should cry to God the Father to cure me for Christs sake would he not answer and all wise men Go also to the Physitian or to the Chyrurgion who is to work out thy cure under God and is so appointed by God So when sinne or Satan Tempts or wounds me to the heart if I cry only to God to heal or help me for Christs sake will he not say Go to Ioseph I have trusted him with all things go to the proper Physitian or Surgion for the heart Jesus Christ whom I sent sanctified for that end to heal your soul and body both And He that heareth and learneth of the Father will go to him who indeed is the End of the Fathers Teachings and Drawings as he is the End of all the Law And Himself also crieth Come unto me and learn of me and buy of me and I will give you drink and Ease and Rest and Ey-salve thst you may see And though none come to him but whom the Father drew yet himself also promised that lifted up he would draws All men even All men unto himself And out of his belly shall flow Rivers of Living Waters And to the Woman of Samaria he said If thou knewest the Gift of God and who it is that speaketh to thee Thou wouldst Ask and ask of Him surely and He would give thee Living Water which should be a Fountain still flowing up to Eternal Life And they did pray to Him here on Earth and sure we might do so again if we should meet him here or could see him with our bodily eyes or could lay hold of him with our hands and wash his feet with our Tears and wipe them with the hairs of our heads If I should meet him as I walked why might I not speak to him as Paul did when he saw him in the way or afterwards in the Temple as he was praying Or as Stephen did when he died And is he not as neer us and as ready to hear and help and save us Now though we see him not with our bodily eyes as he was then And yet sure if we could but learn to speak and do all we do in the Name of Jesus Christ as we are bid we should even see and feel and taste Christ in our selves and in one another When it shall please God to reveal Christ in us as St. Paul speaketh to the Galathians intimating that he may be in us when we do not see him or believe him so for God onely can manifest himself and him to us and how or why doth he manifest himself to us and not unto the world But he hath promised to be among and in us and manifest himself and his Fathers Name that the love
more than That I will not be your God or I will not shew you mercy Or Thou shalt Die and thou shalt not Live as it was said to Hezekiah and yet he did not Die but Live Or that to Samuel or Jeremiah Thou shalt not Pray for This man or This people Which yet it may be made them Pray More than they did before and so perhaps was One good means to recover them that else might have been so irrecoverable And so This very saying of Christ if he had so said I will not Pray for the world might have been a great means to save the World and to recover them by convincing them of their forlorn and desperate estate For This may be one great End of the heaviest Threatnings in the Scripture not only to shut men under fear and guilt that so they may be fitter Objects of Pity and Mercy but to Convince them also that they may be in a way for mercy It being the great Art of the Holy Ghost to work along with the Word sutable to the Subject and Object it hath to work upon And in a sharp Threatning it is as Vinegar or burnt Allum or some Corrasive to putrid flesh that must be taken off And How will a poor Soul Tremble under This That Christ who is Love it self should once say I will not Pray for you As every one is ready to apply it to himself while under the Convincing Work of the Spirit which is promised to Convince the world also of sin and Righteousness But he doth not say I Will not Pray for the world but only I Do not Just perhaps as in the Chapter before he said to his own Disciples I do not say I will pray for you for the Father himself loveth you And in That day you shall ask me Nothing And hitherto you have asked Nothing Which are Negatives comparative not absolute And why not This also I do not pray only or mainly and chiefly for the world but for Those thou hast given me out of the world And it may be Christ finds enough upon him as a Man and so only he Prayes to mind his Elect and care for Them Though God and He also as God Loveth the world also and the Peoples in distinction from Israel as Moses expresseth it Yea and He was given also for the world and sent to bear away the sins of the world and not to condemn but save the world and to be a Propitiation for the sins of the world As we read with many such passages in This very Apostle who records This Prayer And if we take the words asstrictly as we may being only in the Present Tence I do not yet Pray for the world We know not how soon he yet might pray for the world also Though he Now did not Seeing in this very Prayer towards the end he prayed for others Many others then he Now Prayed for at the beginning of it And I know not but the VVorld might Then come in also if I should grant it did not Now. Epecially seeing One great End of all he asked for his Disciples also and for all others was that the World may come to know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me And in the beginning of this very Prayer Christ sheweth that it is Eternal Life to know God and Him whom God had sent And by this he proved that his Disciples knew the Name of God and kept his Word because they now believed that God sent him and knew surely that he was come out from God And yet in the latter end of this Prayer he beggeth so and so for His and all that should believe that the whol World also might come to know that God had sent him and had loved them as he loved him Which may be added to That we noted in the chap. before VVhen the Comforter shall come to You he shall Convince the VVorld also of sin and of Righteousness And yet as himself and St. Paul also said the World as the World and the Carnal man as Carnal did not receive conceive or understand the Spirit or the things thereof So in a safe sence also we may say Christ did not Then Pray for the World that As the World they might be saved or be Happy while they remained Such But that they might be changed and called out of the World and so Turned from Darkness to Light from the Power of Satan unto God and then might also receive an Inheritance among them that are sanctified through Faith in Christ. Which was the sum of This Prayer it may be and the great Commission given by our Lord himself when he sent Paul to the Gentiles and made him a Minister and Witness or Martyr also to the whole World And He gives us This Sum of the Gospel he was to preach That God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself and Not imputing their sins And the Mystery of Godliness God manifest in the Flesh and believed on by the VVorld And if any take the VVorld here for the Systeme of Elements and not for Men of the World I may say Christ also might mean only the Worldly Systeme which he prayed not for but for all men of the world and in the world But St. Paul in several places saith and that also in the Spirit or person of Christ whom we found before as Ezekiel the strong God and yet the Son of Man to be the great Watcher and Warner for every man and as Ezekiel bid to order a Sacrifice for every one that erreth and is simple he was Warning every man and Teaching every man in all Wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus And he bids us Love All men and prayes they might Love All men even as He loved them Yea and we are bid to Honour All men For Man is the Image and Glory of God And directly against the sence which some suppose in Christs words I pray not for the World but for These St. Paul exhorts first of all That Prayers Intercessions Supplications yea and giving of Thanks also be made for All men Which he saith is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour Who Will directly Will have All men All men to be saved and to come unto the knowledg of the Truth For there is One God and One Mediator between God and Men All Man-kind the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a Ransom for All for he is the Propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole World to be testified or witnessed or manifest in due season or its proper seasons For it is plural in the Original expressing divers several and proper seasons for the manifestation of That Truth to the World Of which we may speak again in Times and Seasons And yet also in a True and safe sence we may say Christ loveth not the World as the World nor
here in dust or thick clay And yet his Wisdom and the Best in him being now united to Flesh will not must not say to the Foot I have no need of Thee yea must not disdain to say to this Worm Thou art my Brother or my Sister and Corruption is my Mother or my neer kindred And while others talk of Doing the Law and performing it to others I am mainly bent to see and hope believe and pray that Christ will Do it and perform it unto me and so by working in me teach me and help me also so to Act to others in some measure As he doth to me What is the Law which hath so long kept us in awe As if it had or could disanul the free Grace of God and Covenant thereof which was made with our Fathers and with us in them also so many hundred years before the Law rose up As also the Goodness and Pities of God were from everlasting to everlasting and so much longer and stronger than his wrath which we use to call his Justice which is not in him but as a stranger coming cross his way or calling on him and at most was but of yester day when some poor creature had sinned Is not the Law the very mind and Heart of God even That God which is Light and Love and perfect goodness Is it not summed up by Christ himself into Love All the Law nothing but Love Thou shalt Love the Lord thy God with all thy mind and heart and might and the other is like unto this Like unto This For Man also is like unto God and thou must Love yea and honor Man too But Like as thou dost God Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy self But how can I possibly Love God or my Neighbor before God Love me yea and some way manifest his Love to me Can I first give unto God or lend him that it may be paid again Is it Probable or Possible that I say not noble generous or Ingenuous for my God to ask and expect my Heart and Hearts Love to him before he had given his Heart and Hearts Love to me What shall we say then Having loved Man once he loved him still being his own in his own Image which he yet owns still in him after the Fast and after the Flood too Thou shalt not shed Mans blood for in the Image of God He is created Nay St. Paul is so bold as to call man not only the Image of God but also his Glory the Image and Glory of God And yet he speaks of Man as Man and of every man saying also that Christ is the Head of every man and that Man is the Image and Glory of God And Wisdom which is Christ plainly saith His delights were not only with Man but with the Sons of men or Man-kind And there were no Sons of men till after the Fall and when man had sinned And Gods Philanthropy or Love to Man-kind so much spoken of by St. Paul and others in the New Testament is also observed by Moses himself who beginning to bless the twelve Tribes of Israel plainly saith God loveth the Peoples also for the word is Plural and may take in all the Gentile Nations also in the Earth yea he carries them all in his bosom as the word he there useth may import Though he have also some especial to them that sit at his Feet and receive the Law at his Mouth which he there giveth for a sure Character of Gods especial Love even his Giving and their Receiving of his Law the Good and Royal Law of Love And God so loved the World even the World that he gave his Son for the world not to condemn the World but to save it for God even the Father himself is Love and hath sent forth his Son in Love and hath also promised his Spirit to convince the world even the World of Sin and to powr it out on all flesh that All may see the Glory of God Yea every eye may see his Salvation And hath therefore given his Law to the World even to the worst of men as St. Paul argues to Timothy that by it he may convince them and draw them to Christ. Having so shut them all up in unbelief and conclude them All under sin and breach of the Law that he might have Mercy on them Which indeed and properly speaking could not be shewed till there was an Object for it and there was no Misery which is the Object of Mercy till Sin was in the world And doth not This very Law this Holy perfect Royal Law of Love express and speak this Heart and Love of God to every man that it speaketh to and that is the worst of men living Doth it not say Thou shalt love me because I love thee Doth it not begin to every Man to whom it speaks and say I am the Lord thy God even Thy Lord and Thy God! and Therefore Thou shalt have No other God because I am Thy God And therefore thou shalt not bow to Images but Worship me only because I only am the Lord Thy God And therefore thou shalt honor my Name and not abuse my Love or take my Name or Goodness in vain or turn it into Wantonness because I am the Lord thy God And wilt thou not both love and honor That is Reverence that great and Reverend Name The Lordthy God Not a Terrible Name but a Reverend Name and therefore to be loved and greatly honored or Reverenced as God bids us Reverence his Sanctuary and a Woman must Reverence her Husband and the time is coming that we shall not call our God Baali that is My Lord or hard Master But Ishi my Husband And yet we shall then most Love and Reverence him with Godly Sonly Fear and Reverence And because this Name of the Lord my God is so great and holy and reverend Therefore I am bid to reverence it and hallow it even as the first Petition of our Lords Prayer teacheth us to pray and by no means to take it in vain For they that name it must depart from Iniquity And although the words added of not holding him guiltlesse that takes his Holy Name in vain ought still to keep me in great aufull Reverence yet they ought not to make me have any hard thoughts of God as if he were an Hard Master which our Saviour shewed as the Root of all miscarriage And those words may seem to speak a selfish person and so hard to please and so unexorable when displeased that do little suit the sweet and Gracious Heart of God which is Pure and Peaceful hardly provoked and Gentle easie to be entreated Slow to anger and without fury which rest onely in the bosome of Fools Delighting in Mercy and abounding in Goodnesse The Father of Mercies pardoning Iniquity Transgression and Sin And when he is provoked to visit and chasten yet he doth it Gently and Slowly and by degrees not at once
then he will dispence with loving our Neighbour yea but shewing pitty to his Oxe or Ass fallen into a pit And as if God would measure all our Love to himself by our loving our poor Neighbour St. John saith Let a man never talk of loving God whom he never saw if he do not love his Brother whom he hath seen and if he do but see him in want and shut up his bowels though his wants be not wept or worded out but only Seen How doth the love of God dwell in such a man as we found also in Esay when thou Seest the naked that thou cover him Which hath sometimes been very sweet to me when I had no words or tears to expresse my miseries to Christ or was sensible enough of any of my wants Yet I have often spoken to him from that place and others in the Psalmes or Job or Lamentations Crying See my affliction though I do not see it or am afflicted for it as I should or would Yet do thou See my miseries Even when I see them not and let thy tender eye affect thy tender heart for the Love of God dwelleth in thee Do not therefore shut up thy bowels when thou seest my want though I do not see it or am not affected with it Give me Eye salve that I may see And thou hast promised an holy Spirit to Convince the world of sinne Righteousnesse and Judgement Withhold not Good whilst it is in the God of thy hand to do it Why then wilt thou send me away saying Come again to morrow when it is in the power of thy hand to do me good For thou hast All power in Heaven and Earth Thou art the Wisdome of God and the Power of God And a Brother is born for a day of Adversity And there may be also the greatest â—ffering where there is but little sorrow yea and the greatest sorrow where the least Expâ—ession either in tears or words A piercing look with an eye fixed on Christ in a promise as one able to help and made for it and why then do we doubt of his Will may be a better Prayer than a great many words or tears They are little Griefs that speak or are spoken Great ones are stupid or at least silent So also are Praises They may be best when they attend God in Silence As the Jews also teach us on those passages of the Psalms My soul is silent before thee and Praise waiteth on thee in silence for so it is And Silence is commanded us all not only in those places which bid our words be Few as Solomon and our Saviour also But when God ariseth and doth manifest himself out of his Temple or in his Holy place as his Presence Chamber we are especially commanded to be Silent before him as we read in the last words both of the second of Habakkuk and the second of Zechary And there is not only an Evil but a Good Day also when All prudent men will hold their Peace as we read in another Prophet But it is yet sweter than many words or any can express to consider that if Christ did neither love Us nor Himself nor his Father as he surely doth Yet his very Duty to Him and that Law which bids him Love the Lord his God with all his heart and soul and minde bâ—ddeth him do it also With all his Might And so also to propagate his love to All he can by all means he may Yea and to work while it is Day and to do whatever is in his hand to do with all his might least the night cometh on him also and there be no more working or Councel in the place whether we are all going Is it indeed enough for Him in himself and his own person to have no other God or other wayes of worship than are Right and set by God and not to bear his Name in vain who yet beareth it more upon him both in words and Actions than all men living Except he also propagate this Love of God his waies of worship and his Name his True Name which is his Nature all he can or may and he may quicken whom he will with all his Might to all his Children Servants Neighbours Subjects and Relations under him and in his Povver and they are All. May I indeed suffer any Servant or any other though I may bear vvith children vvhile they are children and vvith Naturals or Ideots alas vve are All so to Him all our lives May I suffer any man within my power or Family to worship a false God or the True God in a False manner or to take his Name in vain while I can help it Is He not Lord of All the Family both in Heaven and Earth Are we not All in his hand and under his power who hath All Power in Heaven Earth and hath All things delivered to him of his Father Can we wonder now why he so often promiseth to manifest the Name of God that All may know it from the greatest to the least Yea and his Enemies also It being so usuall in Ezekiel and other Prophets to close up all his Threatnings with this You shall all know me or I will bring you to Know my Name Which is also the great end of the Psalmists sharp and bitter prayers against All the enemies of God which we find mustered up together in the 83. Psalm That they may seek thy Name O Lord and that they may know that Thou whose name is Jehovah art the most high God over all the Earth which was also the great end of that great work on Nebuchadnezar And the same Psalms tell us also that when men come or are brought to Know the name of God they will trust in it And there also Christ often promiseth He will declare his Name to his Brethren and as if they were too few to the great Congregation also And how great that Congregation is or shall be I cannot tell When also he came to dye he acknowledgeth this for the great work he had to do in the World I have finished thy work I have manifested thy Name unto the men thou gavest me out of the world And as if this were not yet enough towards the end of that prayer he prayeth for More this being the Covenant Ask of me and I will give thee All Nations and Peoples and persons even the utmost ends of the Earth and those also afarr off in the Seas And is his heart so narrow that he will not Ask when he might have us All and all things for asking Ask then heartily that thou maist receive seek us All heartily and thou shalt find us All Knock heartily at the door of our hearts and by virtue of the promise and Covenant of God they shall be opened to thee Neither pray I for these alone which thou hast yet given me shallâ—at â—at any tâ—me hereafter beleeve on me through their word That they All may be
before the worst of sinners And we see how gracious Christ was also to the Woman of Canaan although she were as a Dog or one degenerate into a Dog-like spirit and nature Yet the Dogs also enjoy Crumbs and in great Families and Christ is Lord of All the Family in Heaven and Earth The very Dogs have better Diet than it may be Children have in other houses And That Dog-like Woman of Canaan was received into favor and had great Grace and Faith given her though a cursed Woman under the greatest Curse both of God and Man Noah cursed her and God also cursed her so that he commanded all his people to hate and curse her Nation so that they might neither Treat with them nor seek their good all their daies Which we see how Christ observed towards her when he would not so much as Treat with her or speak to her till his Disciples as the Representatives of his Church interceded with him for her or it may be against her for the Text is somwhat doubtful Yet by Faith Her heart also is purified and there is No difference between Jew and Gentile No not a Cursed Canaanite Which might also be seen long before when the high and proud and stout Gibeonites some of the chiefest of those cursed Canaanites bowed down and though by a Wile only they got into a Covenant with Joshua a mighty Type of Jesus yet they could never be cast off No by no means by no means But when Adonizedech the Lords Justice King of Jerusalem and other Kings with him would have chalenged them back again as to have brought them back into the Curse again Joshua must not only stand up and rise early Yea and march all night in defence of these poor late accursed Canaanites but also the Sun and Moon must stand still over Gibeon and the course of Nature must be changed rather than Gibeon must be deserted or so much as left into the hand of Gods Justice in his own Throne which is Adonizedech King of Jerusalem And Gibeon is not only made one of the greatest Scenes of Gods presence a long time together as we often find in Scripture before it was Solomons greatest High Place Where God also appeared to him after such great Sacrifices in Gibeon But also This very History of the strange Works of God in defending Gibeon is made the Type of what God means to do Hereafter also I suppose for his People and his Enemies also When he shall rise up to do his great and strange Work of Gibeon or as he did at Gibeon or Mount Perazim Where also at Davids coming up the five great Lords of the Philistins rose up against him as at Gibeon the five great Kings of the Amorites or Canaanites against Joshua And about Gibeon also the great Quarrel was ended between David that is Love and the House of Saul that is the Grave or Hell Acted by Abner the Fathers Light or Understanding and by Joab his Will or Affection which were here reconciled and a New Heaven and Earth brought up As afterwards the New Jerusalem when David beat the Jebusites which had their name from Treading down for the Holy City must be Trodden down till the Times of the Centiles be fulfilled And a Type of This Fulfilling of Time might be in That when the twelve men of Joab and Abner ran through one another as the twelve hours of Day and Night and there fell down slain on Sauls side 360. For their common Year had so many Daies in it And though Saul himself was dead cut off by God because he sought to the Devil and would not seek to God as we read in Chronicles although he complained that God would not answer him But the Truth was he would not seek to God who could yet have pardoned All but he would not ask it and God therefore cut him off and for his sparing Amaleck himself was slain by an Amalachite if at least he Lyed not to David who could not be quiet in the Throne till he had also cut off the Amalachites whom Saul spared even after Sauls Death His House and Family was sorely punished and Davids Kingdom also afficted with divers years Famine for Sauls afflicting the poor Gibeonites though it were in Zeal to Israel So much doth God abhor All Cruelty and hard Usage of any poor men though in never so much Zeal for God or his Cause or any of his People Which the Lord make me and all mine and all His still to remember in all my Actions lest I afflict some poor Gibeonite in Zeal to Israel and thinking I do God good service By All which we may also learn that even Those that are most Hated or cursed by God as These Gibeonites and Canaanites were and Children of Wrath and curse as much as any Nation or People we read of Yet they may come to be Blessed and Loved by the same God who so hated and cursed them And yet He changeth not himself but Them whom he first cursed and so shut them up in guilt and sin and sorrow That their cries that is His in them might draw out his own bowels and compassions more to them by how much more he had cursed or afflicted them Which is one of the great Mysteries of the Gospel running Through the Law and the Prophets and the Curses thereof Which should teach us not to despair under the hardest and worst words God doth or ever will speak against us while we live O do not say This Evil is from God and why then should I wait or Hope on Him Yea rather make hast to bow down and Worship and seek his face as the 3d Captain to Elijah For the King of Israel is a merciful King He is a gracious God and He delighteth in those that sear him and Hope in his goodness Trembling at his Word For it is still good for a man to Hope and patiently wait for the salvation of God Let me also tell you It is an honor that God will speak to us though he do but chide us Threaten us sharply rebuke or chasten us which himself and we may call Hating or cursing us But His Frowns and Chidings and Hatings and Cursings as we may interpret them may be better than the Smiles and Loves and Embracings of the whole World besides And we do not only read him saying I have forsaken the dearly beloved of my soul as we see Christ himself was so forsaken but also that he Hated Her even the dearly beloved of his soul as we read in Jeremy and did not only strike her with an hard and sore and Cruel stroke as an Enemy but even Curse her and make her a Curse As we know he dealt with Christ himself his dearly beloved Son and as a Type of Christ with Israel Because he knew them and they should have known him above All Nations of the Earth Therefore he would punish them above All Nations So that he never
may be from News brought by Pigeons As in Those Countries To This day And Jonah signifies a Dove sent to Nineveh as Israel to Assyria and Babylon When All or any of These were Burnt Offerings or Sin Offerings for the whole Church or Priest They were All the Lords consumed by Fire as pledges that the persons offending were guilty of cutting off or perishing for their sins But in particular Sin Offerings or Trespass which were greater guilt and Shame as the Heb sounds the Priest had His and in Peace-Offerings the Offerer had also His part to eat besides the Blood poured out and the Fat and Inwards consumed by Fire to the Lord. Which might not only be a Token of Their Peace with God as the Apostle speaks but also that God accepted and pardoned Those who were represented by such Offerings Gods receiving or eating them as himself expresseth it seemed an Emblem of his Turning them and their natures into His As we dayly do to all we eat and wel digest Or that Christ who was Typed out in All of them was made All to All or for All. As Not only a Lamb for the Lambs in the dayly Sacrifice in which God had his Bread and flesh at morning and Bread and flesh at Evening as he allowed to Elijah and other persons But a Goat also for the Goats At the change of the Moon and the solemn Feasts especially the Feast of Atonement About the end of the Year or Fulness of Times as the Apostle speaketh which we shall consider a little more distinctly As there is a measure of Syncerity which the Scripture calls Integrity Perfection or Fulness of Heart as Calebs Heart filled after God and Sardis Works were not filled up before God And the Lord answered Abimelech Thou didst it in the Perfection of thy Heart which yet is not Absolute Perfection So there are such or such periods of Time which the Scripture reckons Perfect and calleth Fulness of Time or some kind of Eternity which yet are not such Absolutely but to man So Long or so uncertain or Hidden as the word intimates which is used for Ever or Eternity Seeing God hath so Hidden some Times and Seasons in his own Breast that the Son himself saith He knew them not Which yet some interpret as That saying I pray not for the World as if he said I do not now speak or manifest My knowing owning or praying for them till its proper season And there were such seasons also or Revelation of Times and Seasons as appeareth in the Revelation And Blessed is He that Readeth That Book Which is cleerer perhaps for the great things of Doctrine Worship and Discipline also than every eye seeth at one or two readings And may we not say with Job Seeing Times are not Hidden from the Almighty why do They that know Him not see his Daies or Times also For That is the sence in the Original rather than as some read or comma the words Thus VVhy do they that know him not see his daies As the Schools make Motion to begin from Rest as in Heb Resit or Rest is the Beginning of Creation and all Motion So the Jews and other old Nations did begin to reckon Time which is the Measure of Motion from Night in Heb Nihat Rest which is as proper to Night as Motion is to Day As our Saviour also speaketh I must work O happy necessity while it is Day for the Night cometh when No man can work And again Walk in the Light and are there not Twelve hours in the Day And so many also they made in the Night Observing perhaps that the Moons mean Motion was her own Diameter Twelve times to the Suns moving One of His and so twenty four for his two breadths of Day and Nights Motion round the Heavens which is also the proportion which the Ancients made and kept between their Sun and Moon in Metals Gold and Silver But on the Twelve sons of Darkness as of Ishmael or Esau and the Twelve sons of Israel which are called Children of Light We glaunced before in the twenty four Elders and the Watches or Watchers also As in our Bodies are twelve Ribs on the one side and twelve on the other with such and such distinctions and Vertebres And in either Jaw or Pallat like the two Hemispheres of Day and Night There are twelve Teeth with their Watchers also which some call Dogs And the common meetings of our Jaws and signal Pulses are in many Languages called Times or Tempora the Temples As the Jews also called Teeth by a word next akin to Years and our Ears are neer our Temples growing up as Time and Years did after the Creation Changing All things by chewing and devouring them as Time and Saturn did with the Poets and so Turning them into our own Natures And the very Name of Year as of Teeth also in Heb intimates Changing and its Numeral Letters make up Three hundred fifty five As there were Daies in their Lunar Year and Three hundred sixty in the Plural Regimen as in their Solar Years as we touched before at the great Change of Time in the last Battel between David and the House of Saul And Their word for Year hath a double Plural both Feminine and Masculine as their Years were Lunar and Solar And such periods of Exact meeting of Sun and Moon after such Courses and Motions make up such or such a Fulness of Time or Perfection which in Scripture Language may be called an Age or Ay or Ever or the like Phrase by which they express the World also which is usual in many languages As where some read He hath set the World in our Heart it is Eternity or the same VVord which is so Rendred in very many places And though it may be hard to determine what the Scripture meaneth by Fulnesse of Time or Times which is so spoken about our Saviour Time especially as if it were the end of one World and beginning of another Or the end of that which was to answer to the first Night of Creation or the Time before the Sun appeared in the World and the beginning of Light or Day as we may often read in the new Testament yet for some little Essay towards it we may remember that the Hebrew word for Seven or Sevang as some sound it the English Saxon being much Hebrew is very neer a kin to That which signifieth Fulnes and their word for Ten is also Riches which turned backwards maketh their Rash or wrech or Rich or Rushing wicked and unquiet man and by a little changing of places the same letters make a Goat and a Devil also to which there may be frequent allusions in Scripture which we may touch again Shall I add that All the Words I now remember in all the Bible to expresse such a Fulnesse or perfection of Time as is stiled Age or Ay or Ever or Eternity in their very numeral Letters if no more
from the Right Hand or South of the Altar in Benjamin the Highest of That Land they say whose Borders ever Go up in Josuah never Down and an other was the Gate of the Firstlings which may be of use ere long to determine its Place and Times also as God shalldirect us The 11 Outermost Cubits of This Inward court were Rayled in for the clean men of Israel Level with the Gate Nicanor The 11 next going up by one cubit and 3 half cubits where the Levites stood singing in their VVainscot Ducan on the Highest step were for the Priests who had no Bar from the Altar but a Row of Pillars Supporting the covering Moses Altar of Sittim-wood and its Plates and Grate of Brass 3 Cubits High and 5 square Solomons Brazen Altar 20 square and 10 High Ezekicls 12 by 12. Which yet they interpret a square of 24. As 12 from the middle to either side And so the Altar of the 2d Temple was Yet so that its bottom of a Cubit hight and bredth was a square of 32 Cubits Onely they cut off the Southeast Corner that All of it might be in Benjamin who was to be the Ravening Wolf on the Lambs But in the Morning to devour the Prey and in the Evening to Divide the spoil As we saw before in the Morning Seeking and the Evenings Finding As Job also In the morning Thou wilt Seek me O but Do it Heartily And in Hoseah They will seek me in the Morning From a Cubit Height where each side was 32 it Rose Up to 5 Cubits at 30 Bredth One more at 28 called its Circuit And One more at 26 brought up the Horns from a Cubit Base to a Cone bending outward at a Cubit Height and Thence One Cubit Higher brought it to 24. and so it was at the Top. Which from the Circuit Upward being 4 Cubits was called Gods Hill on Gods Lion Or Harel on Ariel as Ezek. 43. 15. But they went not up by those or any other steps which was forbidden even at the first giving the Law in Exod. 20 But by a slopeing kinde of Causey at the South side which they called by a Phrase somwhat near the English Cabesh but nearer to the Hebrew Lamh and to make Tame as a Lamb we saw it before As if God would intimate a Lamblike spirit was the best way to Tread on a Lion as they called That part of the Altar As the 91st Psalm Thou shalt tread upon the Lion and the Serpent The Young Lion and the Dragon shalt thou Trample under foot Because he hath set his Love upon me I will deliver him and I will set him on High because he hath known my Name Which I choose for my Portion rather than the World and desire my friends to begg it also Ezekiels Altar hath other particulars which deserve more notice as God shall give us opportunity And That also The whole Mountain and its limits round about shall be Most Holy as we saw before in Jeremiah reaching to Tophet also or the very Ashes of the Children burnt to Moloch in Gehinnon From the Altar to the Porch were 22 Cubits as the Porches Floor was Higher than the Floor of Shushan Gate by 22 Cubits that is Twice 11. And if the Altars Bosome as the Prophet calls it were Thrice Eleven the Court will be 7 times 11. or 77 to the Porch 12 Steps or half cubits high but whole cubits broad besides half paces every 3d step Led up the Priests and Down again from Thence to Bless the People after Incense as we saw before With the Migrepha between the Porch and Altar with the great Laver also as the Sea of Sodom still before the Lord at the Right Hand Southeast As Solomons molten Sea at the Southeast corner Of 3000 Baths or about 24000 Gallons which we may consider again although 2000 filled it up to the usual coks or Pipes at that distance as might best suit Their Bathings which could not be when the Sea was Full of 5 cubits Depth 1 Kings 7. 26. 2 Cron. 4. 5. The Porches Gate was 40 cubits High and 20 Broad without a Door being alwaies Open as a Type of That within that must be ever Open also As the Gates of New Jerusalem Esay 60. 11. Apoc. 21. 25. The Front was as Gold to the Eye with curious work Full 70 cubits High and 25 Broad The Bredth of This Open Gate was equal to the Inward Bredth of the whole Temple which was 20 cubits As before in Solomons which was Double to the Tabernacles Breadth But the whole Bredth was Treble to Solomons Inward House and Double to the whole with All its Side chambers And its Height Double also but in the Porch which in Solomons also was 120 cubits As Cyrus commission Lay its Foundations strong as we saw in Esay 60 Cubits High and 60 Cubits Broad So that Their weeping at These was not for quantities which Here were Greater but qualities and loss of the cloud and Holy Fire and Ark and Urim and the 5th perhaps yet Greater though the Jews made it less than the Holy Ghost The Spirit of Prophecy hinted they say in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is 5 wanting in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will be glorified and will Take pleasure in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hag. 1. 8. Where we may also finde the Etymology of Erets as we saw before Ezek. 20. 40. 30 side-chambers 6 cubits Broad and so were the 8 at the West End but There the Two Uppermost were longer than the other 6 but 12 long With 4 Out-doors on either side between the 5 Chambers of 5 cubits Height in 3 Stories with Enteries 7 or 8 cubits broad and Stairs to the 2d Story besides the great winding stair Case at the North-East corner to the Top of All and Bothside Galleries of 3 cubits before all the Chambers but the West End which had only their Entries and stairs of each story on either side But the Southside Galleries were called The Conduits As curiously laid from the Rock Etam or Nepthoah seeming the Highest place of that Land or the World Whence Water came to the Water-gate or Well at the Southside as Rivers turn in the South and Ezekiels waters in the South and Thence they came to the Great Laver c. So that Water could be brought up for Bathing or other uses to the Top of all the Gates and Buildings Which we may shortly understand without much charge and Cruelty to Horses The Length of All the Porch and House and Oracle within was 70. But the Walls about made 70 broad and 100 Long from East to West And so the Porch they say from South to North 100 cubits And the Height of Herods Temple was 100 As the Middle Isle of a Church between the Side-chambers As the Middle walk of this Royal Stoe we saw before was Double to the other two in Height of 50 cubits and above 30 Broad as both the other Walks
wherewith he loved him might be in us and he in us also which is the great thing he promised and prayed for that All that did and shall believe in him through all ages might be One with Him He that is joyned to the Lord is One spirit with him and know you not that Christ is in you and the hope of glory in you also except you be Reprobates and that they might be made perfect in One They in Him and He in them For if they be In him onely they may bear little fruit except he also be In them as the sap of the Root is in the Branch or the spirit of the Head is in every member of the body knit together by bands or nerves receiving nourishment from the Head yet so also that every joynt supplies to one another so blessed a thing it is to be in union with Christ Jesus our Head and in communion of Saints and fellowship with them as his Members and fellow Members to each other So that as the eye may not say to the hand I have no need of thee so neither may the Head say a very sweet scripture to the foot or least toe of the foot I have no need of you For he doth not onely take care of the least pin of the Tabernacle but indeed is made up of a multitude of differing Members for if they did not differ they were All One and the whole Body were but One Member and as in all our bodies one part is Hot another cold One Hard another soft one puls up another down and so it must be and yet most accurate Harmony in All parts and in the whole So is it and so must it be with the Body of Christ the fulnesse of Him a most remarkable expression that filleth All in All and yet they are All in Him and His Body and have all His Mind and spirit flowing acting and abiding in them even the same spirit which is in the Head but in several and differing measures and proportions to several ends and uses as in all the differing Organs and Members of our Bodies For All are not eyes or ears or hands or feet and yet All are Members And as it is natural to the spirit that is now in any of our members on the least touch of fear or other passion presently to run to the Head or Heart as its fountain and thence soon to bring out new supply of more spirits as occasion is whence we first look pale in our passions and then quickly redder then before so in the Body of Christ any little Touch upon any of his members makes the spirit of that Member presently run to the Head which is chief or to the very heart of God the Root of the matter in him also and soon returns with a Legion of Angels as a stock of new spirits or it may be with Christ himself calling as to Saul when he pinched some of his little fingers and toes or other parts of his body Saul Saul why dost thou pinch or persecute me Even me the Head or Heart of all these Members and the whole Body for if any one member be pressed or hurt the Head and all the Body is grieved or pressed also And why do you press me saith Christ for in all their affliction he is afflicted And certainly it is not more Natural for the Spirit of the Body or any one Member of it to run up to the Brain or Head then it is for the Spirit of Christ and those that have received it upon all occasions yea alwayes to be breathing to God in Christ Yea to Jesus Christ himself the head of the Body And through him onely to God the Father that is the whole Deity who is the head of Christ also As Christ is the Head of his Members Yea as St. Paul saith the Head of every man and the Church is his Glory also as his Fulness even as the Woman is the glory of the man and man is the Image and glory of God So is the Church and special Members or Messengers of it as Titus was the Glory of Christ. So also Christ speaketh in the Prophets I will place Salvation in Zion for Israel my glory And again Thou shalt also be a Krown of glory in the hand of the Lord and as a Royal Diadem in the hand of thy God Thou shalt be no more termed forsaken but Hephzibah Which also was the very Name of Hezekiahs Queen living about that time And again that they might be unto me as a People and a Name and a Praise and a Glory And although they then rejected that great honour offered them yet it must be and shall be For God hath said it and ordained it The skies shall power down Righteousnesse and the Earth shall open and they shall bring forth Salvation And again I will build them as at first and I will cleanse them from all Iniquity and I will pardon all their Transgressions And it shall be to me not onely a name of Joy But a Praise and Honour or Glory before all the Nations of the Earth Should not a Spouse converse with her Husband Or should she be runing to his Father rather or Himself in all her wants or desires And yet his Father also will hear and Answer For he that speaks to the Son speaketh to the Father also And the Son speaketh nothing of Himself but as the Father speaketh And That surely is one great Reason why we should speak to Christ Immediately to Christ and to God onely through Him As of old they might not offer up their own sacrifice but by the hand of the Priest So now he is our Priest our High Priest also to receive all the Vials of Insence even from the Elders who are Priests also but the High Priest as the great Angel of the Covenant offers up the Prayers of All Saints And we should bring them all to him and desire him to present them with all our wants and all our returns also of praise and service unto him And this seemeth clearly the sence of those Scriptures that bid us offer all we offer unto God not only in his Name but also Through Him presenting them to Him that he may present them to the Father And our Immediate coming to the Father while we say 't is through Christ though it may be lawful also in its season if rightly understood Yet surely may be fitter for that time when the Son also shall give up the Kingdom to his Father that God may be All in All. Though it may be Then our Prayers shall cease Or be turned to Praises or Embracings as also with the Spouse when she is not onely betrothed as now but maried also to Christ as she shall be As the Revelation also represents her when the New Ierusalem comes down from Heaven as a Bride decked for her Husband And yet Then also which I have a little wondered at She seems to be