Zerubbabels encouragement to finish the temple. A sermon preached before the honourable House of…

These words are part of the interpretation of a stately Vision of a Candlestick, and two Olive trees standing thereby, and pouring Oil into it, made to the Prophet Zechariah, in the 2. and 3. verses; & the scope and matter both of that Vision, and of this Interpretation, is to encourage Zerubbabel their Prince, and with him the Priests and Elders of the Jews, to finish the building, and make complete the ornaments of ⟨p. 2⟩the Temple, whereof the foundation had many years before been laid, but was left imperfect, and was left dis-furnished. And this his scope is plainly and without a Parable held forth in the 9. ver. The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, his hands shall also finish it. And indeed, to stir him and them up unto this perfecting Gods house, unto which work they had been too backward, (as appears by Hag. 1, 2, 3, and 4. verses, The people say, The time is not come that the Lords house should be built) was the principal end why God sent unto them no less then two Prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, as two extraordinary Ambassadors from heaven, on purpose to put them on upon it, (for the finishing of the Temple is a business of that moment as is worth two Prophets at any time.) And this appears not only by both their Prophecies, but also by the story, Ezra 5. 1, 2. THEN the Prophet Haggai and Zachariah prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah, in the name of the God of Israel.—[Then] rose up Zerubbabel and Jeshua, and began to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem, and with them were the Prophets of God, helping them. That same particle, or circumstance of time, [Then,) doth refer us to the story of those times, recorded in the book of Ezra, as that which is necessary for the full understanding of their two prophecies; what is recorded there, being the occasion of them; but more especially for the understanding of this piece of our Prophet Zechariah his Prophecy, which I have read unto you, which wholly concerns ⟨p. 3⟩the finishing of the Temple.

THese words are part of the interpretation of a stately Vision of a Candlestick, and two Olive trees standing thereby, and pouring Oyle into it, made to the Prophet Zechariah, in the 2. and 3. verses; & the scope and matter both of that Vision, and of this Interpretation, is to encourage Zerubbabel their Prince, and with him the Priests and Elders of the Jewes, to finish the building, and make compleat the ornaments of