The Resurrection Revealed, Book 3 · Chapter 2 · Section 9
SECT. IX.
Wherein is conſidered the words of Nehemiah, Chap. 1. v. 8, 9, 10, 11 For proof of the maine of the general Propoſition.
Nehemiah 1.8.
Remember, I beſeech thee, the word that thou commandedſt thy ſervant Moſes, ſaying, If ye tranſgreſſe, I wil ſcatter you abroad among the Nations. Verſe 9. But if ye returne unto me, and keep my Commandments, and do them, though there were of you caſt out to the utmoſt part of Heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and wil bring them into the place that I have choſen to ſet my name there. Verſe. 10. Now theſe are thy ſervants, and thy people, whom thou haſt redeemed by thy great power, and by thy ſtrong hand. Verſ. 11. O Lord, I beſeech thee, let now thine eare be attentive to the prayer of thy ſervant, and to the prayer of thy ſervants, who deſire to fear thy name, and proſper thy ſervant this day, and grant him mercy in the ſight of this man. For I was the Kings Cup-bearer.
§. 1 THeſe words, we ſee, are ſpoken by Nehemiah to God in prayer. He plants the footing thereof upon Gods promiſe, quoted out of Deut. 30. v. 1. to 10. (diſcuſſed but now Sect. 7.) viz. That though God ſhould for their ſinne ſcatter the whole Nation of the Jewes, conſiſting intirely of twelve Tribes (for in that mighty body they were, when Moſes wrote that of Deuteronomy) and diſperſe them among al… the Nations, and caſt them out unto the utmoſt part of Heaven, yet that God had promiſed hee would gather them from thence, and would bring them into the place that hee had choſen to place his name there.
§. 2 So that this great Saint Nehemiah, layes the great foundation of his faith in prayer for the reſtoring of the Jewes upon that promiſe of God, delivered by Moſes; wherein his ſupplication is an exact directory-application, how we ſhould underſtand that place of Moſes, as a thing not fulfilled to this day.
§. 3 Nehemiah looks beyond the deliverance from the Babyloniſh Captivity ſet on foot by Cyrus, and beyond the returne of the Two Tribes. As whiles he was in the Babyloniſh Captivity for ſo many yeers, his ſoule lived by faith on this promiſe, that he and the reſt of his brethren of the two Tribes ſhould be delivered; ſo now that the Two Tribes are returned, he ſtill urgeth that promiſe to perfect the whole worke, in what of the latitude and extent thereof, it was yet unfulfilled. Nehemiah, ſhould ſeem, was cleer in that ſenſe of perfecting the returne of the whole twelve Tribes, and to have a better ſettlement in their owne land, then this Embryon of imperfection in the preſent ſtate of Two Tribes returned did repreſent; and according to that ſenſe his faith is ſtrong, and his prayer fervent.
§. 4 In all which Nehemiah was very right, we our ſelves being judges. For as the threat was of the twelve Tribes in one entire body, Deut. 28. and preſſed Chap. 29. So the promiſe Chap. 30. is to them all, and touching all Captivities, as it is cleerly held forth in ſeverall expreſſions, both in Deut. 30, and in this firſt of Nehemiah, of ſcattering them among the Gentiles, or among all the Nations, or of caſting them out to the utmoſt part or end of Heaven, and of gathering them thence, and fetching them thence. For if the Jewes in any of the Captivities that were to follow Moſes his words, either Philiſtian, Syrian, Egyptian, or Babylonian, ſhould ſticke faſt, and never be delivered, Moſes his promiſe, and Nehemiahs faith and prayer ſhould come all to nothing. And if God deliver ſome of them from all theſe Captivities, and not all of them from all, and from any other that ſhould follow after, or continue beyond the fore-named Captivities, Nehemiahs faith, hope, and prayer ſhould not be anſwered, nor his deſires ſatisfied, though wrought in him by the extraordinary working of the Spirit of God.
§. 5 But Nehemiah is confident upon this promiſe, that his faith, hope, and deſires in this prayer ſhall be fulfilled, and therefore is he ſo fervent in urging the ſaid promiſe now after the two Tribes had been returned out of Babylon at leaſt theſe twelve yeers (for their return was about the 3514 yeer from the Creation. And Nehemiahs journey to Hieruſalem which he began with his prayer, was not till Anno mundi 3527.) The good man had in his eye, not onelyonly the building of the walls of Hieruſalem (which was but a ſmall matter in compariſon) but the returne of the Ten Tribes alſo, which had been carried away afore into Captivity into Aſſyria, and ſtill continued, when Nehemiah prayed, in that Captivity in Halah and Habor, by the River Gozan, Cities of the MEDES, 2 Kings 18.9. &c. For there ſtill they are in Nehemiahs time, as appears by the Genealogies of them of the Two Tribes that returned, Ezra. 2. Nehem. 8. Among whom the Pedigree of the Ten Tribes is not found.
§. 6 Indeed the Two Tribes in the greateſt part were returned, as an earneſt, or firſt fruits of the returne of the reſt, and for aſſurance of Chriſts coming of Judah (where God continued them till that was done, Chriſt was born, for time and place, &c. according to the Prophets.) But this is ſhort of gathering the twelve Tribes from among all Nations, and from the utmoſt end of Heaven. The Two Tribes were brought from Babylon to Jeruſalem, which, they ſay, are diſtant the one from the other about ſix hundred miles. But what is this in compariſon of Media, and Perſia towards the North and North-Eaſt of the world, the length or ends of Heaven being counted from the North pole to the South? or what is this to the gathering of them, and ſince of the Two Tribes alſo, in the greateſt part ſcattered among all Nations (as Rab. Ben. Iſrael, and our experience do ſhew) to fetch them from thence?
§. 7 Therefore we conclude, as Nehemiah prayed, beleeved, and hoped, ſo we to this day ſee, that Moſes his promiſe (urged by Nehemiah) is not the one halfe fulfilled. But it ſhall. The Saints prayers and hopes are not loſt, though ſometimes long ſown, ere they come up. The Apoſtles prayer for the converſion of the Gentile Kings and Nations, Act. 4. was anſwered in Conſtantine the Great his time, though three hundred yeers after. And the prayers of the Saints under the Altar, Rev. 6. ſhall be anſwered, though now ſince above one thouſand and five hundred yeers they are not fulfilled.