remembring Joseph's Afflictions is too sad a Witness against their Protestantship Prop. 4. V. 4 Though Grace and Gifts too are Supernatural yet when engrafted they become a Second Nature The Church is not like the Candle but the Candlestick that neither has Light nor Aptitude to be turned into a Flame yet when the Light is added she becomes like the Olive-Tree with a native Fatness Rom. 11.17 Christ is the Root of the Olive-tree the Church is a wild Branch engrafted Hear her own Confession Hos 14.8 I am like the green Fir-tree fruitless by Nature But Christ answers From me is thy Fruit sound Prop. 5. V. 5 A Penal Prodigy usually kills the Persecutors of Protestants they die not the usual Death of Men but by prodigious Punishment Monstra Poenarum God by a Visible Hand writes Mene Tekel on their dying Carkasses 1. If any Man hurt great or small If he 2. Will when the Power is restrained if the Enmity remain 3. Kill'd Violence shall be visible 4. There is a Necessity of it He must All Necessity of it with God is only a Decency Heb. 2. It became him to make the Captain of our Salvation a compleat Sufferer 5. After this manner as Elijah did the Captains with their Fifties 2 Kings 1. And as the Earth opened and devoured Corah Dathan and Abiram Numb 16.30 so an Earthquake ver 13. shall devour them Instances of this are many Charles the V. the first Persecutor after the Solemn assuming that Name dy'd like Dioclesian Philip the II. of Spain the next great Pushing Horn set up the Inquisition forâ—…d the Armado made it his Business to root out the Reformation was made a remarkable Spectacle of Divine Displeasure He was tormented two Years with Anguish and Pain in his Bowels and the no less loathsom and stinking Disease of Vermin crawling on him and from him than painful His Country remains a Monument of the Divine Stroke in it's VVeakness unto this Day Some complain of the want of an Historia Nemeseos a well-attested Account how evil has hunted the violent man to overthrow him Psal 140.11 But it 's sure there is no want of matter for such a History for fewer Ringleaders of Persecution have escaped than those who have suffered and might deservedly be Chronicled in Tabulis Parcarum But there is a greater Difficulty to find certain Rules of Distinction between such Judiciary Punishments and Common Evils I shall give a few 1st When the Punishment is a Pourtraicture of the Sin as Absalom's Incest was of David's Adultery and as the Dogs licking Jezabel's Blood was of her causing Naboth's Blood to be shed and licked by Dogs Isa 33.1 When thou shalt cease to spoil thou shalt be spoiled When a Person triumphs over another's Distress and is smitten with the same then the Judgment carries the Signature of the Sin and the Rod hath an audible Voice 2ly When Judgments surprizes the Sinner in the Act as it did Herod and Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 4.31 Acts 12.23 God executes Sentence against an evil Work speedily for Patterns to prevent others Eccles 8.11 3ly When the Crimes are such as God hath not only threatned Death against but Judiciary Death 1 Tim. 5.4 Some Mens Sins are open before hand going before to Judgment Such an one is Persecution especially in them who take no warning from other Men's Falls Psal 10.5 His ways are always grievous thy Judgments are out of his sight Jer. 2.3 All that devour him shall offend for mine Eyes are upon him saith the Lord. 4ly All National or Universal Judgments though little in degree they are Penal Signs of his Displeasure such as Famine Sword and Plague 5ly When Scripture has foretold the Judgment as here in the Text the Prophecy and Fulfilment make two sufficient Witnesses 6ly So doth the Person and the Judgment Job 34.26 He striketh them as wicked Men in the open sight of others Luke 13.1 7ly When many of a Company as Four or Five of Twelve or Twenty that have been Social Assistants of a Murder 8ly When the Sin lies in the Mean and the Punishment in the End Unjust Means for Honour or Riches cursed with Poverty and Contempt Prop. V. 6 The Prayers of true Protestants are of great Interest in Heaven By no other mean did Moses and Elias work the Miracles referred to in the Text and no less Influence has the Prayers of Saints to the Plagues Symbolized by them though Second Causes are more visible in producing the former Effects The Fire Thundering and Lightning that brought forth the Trumpets came out of the same Censer from which the Saints Prayers did ascend Rev. 8.5 So all the shutting up of Blessings from Heaven and turning the Benefits upon Earth into Curses yea all the Plagues that fall on Babylon comes from their Prayers The Second State is that of their Death contained in other Four Verses 7 8 9 10 which I shall summ up in Five Propositions Prop. 1. V. 7 The seeming hard and Hieroglyphick Terms of Scripture this Book contains are of as fixed and determin'd a Sence as any other Words or Terms in all the Scripture There is a fair Instance of this in the term'd Beast which is the Subject of this Verse and a considerable part of the whole Book which every where signifies the Roman Empire under it's last Form of Government viz. As it is divided in Ten several Kingdoms For 1. That the Four first Beasts in Daniel signifie the Four Monarchies and the Fourth Beast the Roman Empire is an undoubted Axiome 2. That the Beast in the Revelation is the same with Daniel's Fourth is sufficiently evident First The Time and Duration is the same Times Time and Half a Time Secondly From the End thereof at the Beginning of Christ's Kingdom Thirdly From the Form thereof 10 Horns or Dominions to no other Kingdom in the the World can these three Characters agree 3ly The constant Form under which this Book considers the Beast as it 's formal Object is Ten Horns Rev. 17.11 13. and 13.1 Prop. 2. There is necessarily supposed some great Defection and Backsliding of the Protestants or Witesses after their begun publick Testimony before their Death For 1. Sin must always go before Punishment Though this Death is brought for other Ends than meer punishing yet there is no place for Punishment where Sin does not precede 2. Their great Interest in Heaven for plaguing the Earth as often as they will is suppos'd lost when they fall in War before their Enemies 3. The Threatning or Warning given in the 9th and 10th Verses of the 14th Chapter implies a Danger of Apostasie Hence the very Nature of the Sin is pointed at viz. A returning to Babylon and re-conforming to her in Doctrine Worship Discipline Frame of Spirit Life and Conversation with Politick Interest and Ends which some think make the Number of the Beast's Name that is have another Name but may be numbred under that Prop. 3. A providential Work
of Reformation meets with many Rubbs and Difficulties in the way when the Cause of Truth and Godliness does thrive and prosper apace of a suddain it is often blasted some surprizing adverse Wind arises in it's Face The Children of Israel must take many a backward turn in the Wilderness after they are come to the Borders of Canaan and the People of Israel are longer in building the Second Temple than they were in Captivity So here the Witnesses after their great Interest in Heaven and prosperous Fightings with their Adversaries are suddainly conquer'd and kill'd and thrown in the open Streets The first preaching of the Gospel met with no greater Opposition than the Reformation has done If we consider the Power of the Spanish Emperor the Author of the sad Overthrow of the Protestant Patriots the Duke of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse c. the Authority of a Council viz. Trent a subtile Dividing Interim a horrid and cruel Inquisition a bloody French Massacre the Succession of a Popish Queen Mary in the room of a Protestant King a formidable Catholick League to root out Protestants a Division among the Ministers of the Reformation and a Party arising with that Name that were a Scandal and Reproach to the whole and another Party Apostatizing and saying Let us return to Egypt again Prop. 4. That the time of the War and being Kill'd is Extrinsick and antecedent to the Three Days and a Half and therefore might justly have all the Sufferings and Persecutions of Protestants referr'd to it Prop. 5. The State of our Lord 's Humiliatson and Suffering is an exact Pattern of this Death-state of the Witnesses where also our Lord was Crucify'd 1. In his preaching or bearing Testimony to the Gospel for three years and a half i. e. 1260 Days 2. At finishing his Testimony he drinks a most bitter Cup. 3. He is kill'd and lies dead threes days and a half 4. There is a kind of utter Death upon his Gospel or Testimony during that time 5. This was done under the Romish Jurisdiction by the same Bestial Power and in the same Babylonian Streets 6. The King of France did kill the Protestants from the very same Motive and Spring that the Pharisees did persecute Christ viz. A Jealousie and Fear of being suspected as defecting and declining from the Romish Power 7. There are some unexpected Friends a Joseph of Arimathea to take Care of his Body as here a mixt Multitude does of the Witnesses The one to afford Decent the other to prevent Undecent Burial Lastly There are his Enemies who cried Crucify him Crucifie him rejoycing and triumphing over his Death at the Passover as here the Men of the Earth do who had seiz'd the Estates of the Dead Witnesses The Two last States of Resurrection and Ascension are contain'd in two Verses viz. 11 12. From which observe First That the Scheme is quite alter'd For 1. They are before Dead now Alive 2. Before deserted of the Spirit of God now they enjoy it 3. Before they lie fallen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now they are on their Feet 4. Before their Enemies rejoyc'd and triumph'd over them now they are afraid of them 5. Before they are as low as the Dust in the Streets now they ascend to Heaven 6. Before they are contemned as unworthy of Toleration now they are in highest Power and Authority 7. Before they tremble before their Adversaries now the Men of the Earth quake before them 8 Before their Enemies slay them now their Enemies are slain or give Glory to God with them Prop. 2. There is a Likeness to Christ in their Exaltation as was in their Humiliation 1. In a Resurrection to Life 2. In an Ascension to Heaven in a Cloud 3. In a terrible attending Earthquake 4. In a plentiful Effusion of the Spirit of Life from God 5. In a constituted Church of Jew and Gentile but with this difference before the Gentile was engrafted upon the Jewish Stock now the Jew is added to the Gentile Rom. 11.15 Rev. 16.12 6. In a Fall of Gentilifm or the Roman Power in Religion before their Testimony IV. The last two general Heads are the two Consequents contained in the 13th and 14th Verses viz. the Earthquake and the third Woe 1. For the Earthquake it is confequential in Order of Position but concomitant as to the time For the Text saith In the same Hour Or as other Copies In the same Daâ— But Grotius and Mead judge it to be an antecedent translating 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There had been a great Earthquake that is a great Military or Civil Commotion and Justling between the Beast and the mixt Multitude who would not suffer them to be put in Graves which became a Mean of their Restauration The rest of the Verse favours this Sence which is set down as a three-fold Effect of this Earthquake 1. A Tenth part that is one Kingdom fallen off from the Romish Power to the Reformed Religion 2. A Slaughter of Seven Thousand Names of Men or Men of Names Persons or Persons in Dignity and Office 3. The Conviction or Conversion of all the rest of that Nation from Idolatry to the Worship of God alone It is to the Earthquake that I shall confine the following Discourse though I doubt not it is to be understood mystically 2d Sâ—rn for a Military or Civil one an Ecclesiastical or Spiritual one but there is probability to include a literal one also as a prodromical Omen or Monitory Symbol of the former For a Literal one did accompany Christ's Resurrection which is the Pattern of this 2. It is an usual Method of Divine Providence to send such Similary Prodigies before the Fulfilment of Prophesies whose Terms are borrowed from them For Instance The first Trumpet is said to bring Hail and Fire mingled with Blood which is commonly judged to be fulfilled under Julian and Valence Anno Christi 364. of whom Nazianzen speaks thus Valens insurrexit repentè nebula grandine plena A Cloud full of Hail as much a Hater as a Worshipper of Christ In Persecution next to Julian not an Apostate but yet no better Christian A Shower of Hail fell in his Reign whose Drops a Man's Hand could hardly Grasp that not only kill'd Men but Beasts and he himself shed as much Blood of true Christians being a bitter persecuting Arrian as might have been mingled with it Neither was there wanting Fire by Thunder and Lightning and Earthquakes in the very Letter For Nice where the first Council sate that pretended an Infallible Authority was utterly overthrown by one and Ten Cities in Crete more many Cities in Sicily Land and Sea changed their Stations Ships carried to Mountains and Mountains dashed against each other 2. The Second Trumpet mentions a great Mountain burning with Fire which some apply to the breaking forth of Vesuvius which made most dreadful Havock in Italy But if they mean it 's first Eruption that was sooner in Titus's time
come to call me to an Account Wo is me I have not minded a God more 2. It serves for our Conviction not only of being sinful but of Sin 's being rooted in us and reigning over us When God fills a Land with Prodigies it argues it guilty of Atheistical Unbelief carnal Security Earthly-mindedness Hard-heartedness and meer Formalness in Religion For 1st God doth nothing in vain he doth not use extraordinary Means when ordinary Means can prevail Isa 5.4 What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it I have used all ordinary means of Conviction and Conversion but yet they remain Covetous Por their Work is to joyn House to House They remain profane for they rise early to follow strong Drink they remain hypocritical therefore follows prodigious and extraordinary Methods Their Hills shall tremble and their Carcases shall be torn in the Streets After the same manner and with the very same People doth Christ deal in his time Matth. 11.17 They would neither dance to Piping nor would they lament to Mourning therefore prodigious Judgements destroys the People and lays their City desolate 2ly We find all these People toward whom God used miraculous Dispensations to have been an unbelieving carnal secure People We find three Seasons of Prodigies Moses's time Christ's time and Elijah's time in all of which we have the evident Discoveries of the most rude heard-hearted People that ever was on the Earth after their safe Passage through the Red Sea it is said The People feared the Lord and believed him But it is added They soon forgat his Word Ezek. 16. They were as unteachable as New-born Babes that were neither salted nor swadled 1 Cor. 14.22 Signs are only given for them that believe not hence God did not work Miracles in bringing his People out of Babylon as he did in bringing them out of Egypt 4ly If all Punishment suppose Sin extraordinary Punishment presupposes extraordinary Guilt One of these two we must conclude when God exerciseth a Land with extraordinary Prodigies that all Sin is very vile and hateful in his sight which a carnal Sinner is very unwilling to believe seeing a pure eternal Mind only in the spotted Glass of his own corrupt Mind Or we must conclude that there is a great deal of Sin in us when we see a God of all Grace and all Consolation a Father of Mercies whose very Being is Love unto whose natural Actions Judgement is a Foreign thing to see such an one Thundering in his Power from Heaven and stamping in his Anger upon the Earth untill the Dust of his Footstool ful the Air with Clouds When we see him either visibly threatning by Prodigies and only beating the Ground before us with his Rod of Iron or more surprizingly punishing us as he did Corah Dathan and Abiram we cannot but conclude we have highly offended him An Instance of the latter kind we have heard of with Terror from Jamaica and one of the former we have gently felt according to God's usual Method of patient and merciful dealing with England We have usually but some drops of the Hail that destroys our Neighbours the Rod is but shaken over our Heads while their Backs are severely smitten he deals with us as a Father with his Children to let the Blow fall on the Ground that he seem'd to level at our Face While we behold these things and consider the Nature of God we cannot but conclude Sin is a very evil thing or that we are very guilty 3d Vse That prodigious Presages serve for is to raise our Expectations about great future Judgments or Mercies 1st It puts us in expectation of the great Day of Judgment an Earthquake being one of it's Forerunners Rev. 16.18 Luke 21.26 There are considerable Reasons to perswade us of the Nighness of it tho' we know not the Year or the Day 1. Because the New Heaven and Earth which is to be the Foundation of that long look'd for 1000 years is to come after the Dissolution of the World by Fire 2 Pet. 3.7 The Heavens and the Earth which are now are reserved unto Fire against the Day of Judgment and perdition of ungodly Men ver 13. Nevertheless we look for a new Heaven and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness Rom. 8.21 The Creature it self also shall be delivered from the Bondage of Corruption into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God So the Day of Judgment is nearer by a 1000 Years than many expect 2. The Day of Judgment seems partially to begin with the utter ruine of Antichristianism 2 Thes 2.8 The Lord shall destroy him with the brightness of his coming Rev. 19.3 Before the Marriage Supper of the Lamb it is said Her smoak rose up fir ever and ever ver 20. The Beast and the false Prophet are to be cast alive into the Lake of Fire burning with Brimstone Dan. 7.12 After the Body or Nation of the Beast is given to the burning Flame Greece and Asia with it's Inhabitants continue preserved though without Dominion until Christ's everlasting Dominion begins which is the second coming without Sin unto Salvation 3. After the Rise of the Witnesses there is but only one Woe to come and one Trumpet to sound Rev. 10.7 The Angel swore that there should be Time no longer but in the Days of the Voice of the 7th Angel 2ly It ought far more to put us in Expectation of the great Revolutions that must be before then Earthquakes also being Forerunners of them as we see in the Text and ver 19. in the opening of the Temple There are Seven Great Kevolutions at hand 1. The Rise of the Witnesses 2. A plentiful Effusion of the Spirit 3. The Reformation of a Nation or Kingdom 4. A great Military Slaughter of Persons or Civil Death of Papal Dignities 5. An utter Ruine of the Turkish Empire which is a passing away of the Second Woe 6. The Conversion of the Jews which is to be by the coming of the third Woe or drying up the River Euphrates by the Sixth Vial. Lastly The persecuting Arm of the Beast broken though his Life shall be longer continued 3ly It may put all impenitent Sinners whose Reformation neither ordinary means nor such extraordinary has produced in far more certain expectation of dreadful Punishments For 1. No impenitent Nation under such ordinary and extraordinary means continuing impenitent ever escaped Destruction Pharaoh and his Kingdom can witness this The Jews God's own peculiar People can also witness this Matth. 11. John 10. They would not be perswaded by the Miracles and prodigious Signs Christ wrought therefore he brought prodigious Desolations upon them and they remain Prodigies to this Day scattered like the quartered Members of Rebels against their King and preserv'd separate from all the Nations where they dwell that they may be the more visible 2. The God that has Power and cannot lie has sentenc'd utter Ruine for their Lot Because they regard not
limits to it but indefinitely about the end of the great Period and no other Comment than the Aspect of the Divine Providence which affords us several Arguments to judge it present at this Day 1. From the Universality of the Suffering of Protestants who are under the Roman Beasts Jurisdiction Some killed some fled some Apostatized some Absconded the Authority of some whole Nations and Provinces brought under in acknowledgment to the Papal Power and Profession of its Religion all this is visible in the Savoy and French Persecution in the prevailing of Popery in Poland and Hungary in a Popish Person being made Prince Palatine and another was King of Brittain and Ireland through all the Streets of this great City Babylon according to the degree of her Power has Persecution been meted out to Protestants 2. From the Bitterness and the grievousness of the Persecution Daniel says it shall be such a time of Trouble as never was since there was a Nation The Text represents it under the Emblem of Dead Carkasses lying in the Street and in the 14th Chap. 13th Verse Death is said to be a State preferrable to it It is not a State of Universal Temporal Death for Faith and Patience remains their Duty neither is a Resurrection so suddenly supposeable from that kind of Death nor could the Enemies bear the sight of so many Carkasses so long but an Universal Temporal Death of the Witnesses being excepted no bitterer Persecution can be expected than has been of late some in England and Scotland where only Drops of that Shower fell begged no greater Mercy at their Enemies Hands than the tolerable Death of a Malefactor but the Torments and Temptations of the Sufferers in France has filled Volumes and may more 3. From the apparent Death both upon the Cause and Hearts of Protestants some years ago they could taste an Earnest of that Prophesie of smiting the Earth with Plagues as often as they will but now they can work no Deliverance in the Earth formerly a Harmony of Confessions was an easie and pleasant work but now there is Breach upon Breach formerly there was a Spirit of Life in all kinds of Worship but now Deadness and Formality are Epidemical Distempers but when the Witnesses rise a Spirit of Life from God will enter into them and they shall be called up to Heaven 4. The present Consederate Armies seems to be a Comment on that mixture of Tongues Kindreds and Professions ver 9. that will not suffer these Dead to be Buried nor Publick Affairs to lye in this prostrate Condition under these Papal Feet and Toes a Person Dead and Unburied in the Eastern Mystical Style to which this Book is very Conform is a Symbol of a low and sickly but yet hopeful and recoverable Condition 5. From the apparent Decay of the Turkish Empire the sixth Trumpet and second Woe are evidently the same and it s generally agreed they do both represent the Turks Invasion of the Eastern Empire the Thirteenth Hundred Year of our Lord begins the Ottoman Aera and their Successful Invasion of the Roman Territories There is but then wanting four or five years to the passing away of the second Woe for the whole Period of the sixth Trumpet is but an Hour and a Day and a Month and a Year that is Three Hundred Ninety six years and the passing away of this VVoe ver 14. is immediately consequential to the rising of the Witnesses I do not enlarge upon periods of Time 1. Being not useful in Popular Sermons 2. Because a Piece of great Pains is to be Publish'd on them quickly The third Two are two States the State of the Witnesses before Death and after the Resurrection Christs Witnesses appear in this state like Joshua in filthy Garments but in the future with a fair Mitre on his Head and change of Raiment Zech. 3. They are here in Dust and Ashes hereafter in Heaven and Paradise here in Sackcloth there in Glory This Two admits of a subdivision into Four 1. The state of Sackcloth 2. The state of Death 3. The state of Resurrection to Life The 4. Of Ascension to Heaven All which I shall only explain by some Doctrinal Propositions The First state is contained in the third fourth fifth and sixth Verses from which I observe 1. V. 3 That what we obtain thorough the most visible influence of second Causes is yet Gods Gift Industry and Diligence are most necessary means of Knowledge and Utterance yet to Prophesie he gives Power 2. God doth not only fore-know but determine the Times of every State For 1260 years the terrible Beast with his Ten Horns Blasphemous Mouth and Train of Gentiles cannot stop their Mouth from Prophesying nor can they or all their Friends or their Interest in Heaven change their Raiment they shall Prophesie 1260 years and they shall Prophesie in Sackcloth Acts 17.26 He hath determined the Times before appointed 3. Prodigality in Protestants before the Resurrection is an Hainous Crime 1. It is an attempt against Providence God says ye shall not get out of a Sackcloth condition but you will try it if by any means Money can be had therefore God looses the Beasts Chain to Rob them of it as a Priest told a French Lady This Persecution is to Humble your Pride but the next Judgment will utterly ruin Us. 2. It is a shameless Breach of Divine Precept 1 Tim. 2.9 Modesty and Cheapness are the two measures for Furniture and Apparel 3. It is out of Fashion Unseasonable There are two Rules to know what is seasonable by the one from Heaven who makes all things Beautiful in their Season and appoints the Brides Ornaments and the Sufferers Sackcloth the Times to mourn and to rejoice The other from Hell Eph. 2.2 that is to follow the Course of the World and be like my Neighbours Now the time of the Worlds Rejoicing and Feasting is the time of the Saints Death and Suffering ver 8 9. And è contra the Saints take their Fashion and Figure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from Gods Providential dealing with them When our Husband puts a Bill of Divorce in our Hands and our Father threatens to disinherit us VVhen the Spirit of the Lord has forsaken our Assemblies and the Ministration of the Gospel become a Savour of Death shall we be pleasant and merry and put on fine Attire when Antichrist prevails and the Interest of our Lord seems to lose ground Isa 5.12 and 22.12 VVhen the Lord calls to weeping and girding with Sackcloth shall we not regard the operation of his Hands 4. It is unsuitable to our Brethren in a Day of Affliction God leaves some rich to relieve them that are poor 1 Tim. 6.17 And to be rich in good Works But how many as the rich Corinthians 1 Cor. 11.2 rather shame them that have not than relieve them The Pomp and Splendor of some Men in their Stately Palaces vast Revenues Epicurean Tables Lordly Trains and Attendants without
3. Hophmannes expounding the Locusts to be the Jesuits who received their Universal Diploma from the Pope 1543. says They had Swarms of Locusts for their Fore-runners through Germany Italy Poland and Hungary and left a double Plague behind them of Jesuit and Famine The Text thus explained affords these Four Doctrines 1. That Earthquakes are both signal and penal Prodigies There was a great Earthquake and the 10th part of the City fell 2. Sinners Penalties are Saints Praemiums the Punishment of the one is accompanied with Reward to the others nay there is Goodness to both For though they suffer their course of Sinning is stopt which is the worst Evil of the two God destroys not for Destruction sake he lets not carelesly his Creatures fall out of his careful Hand but the greater Good is to the Saint who enjoys both Deliverance and serving his God without Fear and most Glory to God who manifests his Holiness by such angry Stamps of his Foot such visible Threatnings This Earthquake shakes Antichrist's Foundation and by it the Graves of the Dead Witnesses are opened and many Antichristians turn'd Glorifyers of God 3. There is reason to expect signal Earthquakes though we dare not assert that this which is come is one of them we expect untill we see more of the Event There are three great Earthquakes yet to come 1. This in the Text at the Resurrection of the Witnesses 2. One at the opening of the Temple ver 19.3 The greatest of all under the 7th Vial at the Day of Judgement Rev. 16. The First of these is very nigh for the Prophecy of the Reformation before this Earthquake is set down in Seven several Steps and we can read in History or see in Providence six of them fulfilled 1. A Publick Church built by the Measures of Sacred Scripture ver 1. a publick Testimony for Christ and a Prophesying 2 Churches and Ministers sill'd with Grace and Gifts like Candlesticks and Olive-Trees Read Melchior Adamus Clark's Lives and other Accounts of our Famous D vines 3. A most wonderful and successful spreading of the Gospel notwithstanding all Opposition Satan was as busie as ever the Pope and Emperor had neither less Force and Power nor less Subtilty and Enmity nor did they use less Diligence than the Pagan Emperors and Pharisaical Jews did against the Preaching of the Gospel at first It seems no less a Miracle to see Reformed Churches now than Christian Churches then Their Arms were no other but approving themselves to Men's Consciences by manifestation of the Truth What Arms had Luther and Melancton or Wickliffe or Hâ—sse A coming out of Babylon needs Divine Power as well as coming out of Egypt In the very next Parish where I was born 500 were converted at once Several of themselves have given me an Account of it There was Power to smite the Earth 4. Remarkable Judgments that had a Visible Finger of God in them destroying the Adversaries of the Gospel and Persecutors of it's Witnesses as we may read in Three King Henries of France and most of the Ring-leaders of the French and Irish Massacres and Netherland Persecutions besides Instances at home V. A great Decay in Religion Conviction and Conversion more rare than formerly Ministers go forth to their Work as Samson when his Hair was cut Prayer less powerful and less delighted in strictness in Holiness and Conscientiousness out of Fashion Christian Conferences forgotten Popish Doctrines and Formal Superstition thought more tolerable There is a great Degeneracy and backsliding from the Steps of our Fathers Pride Luxury Vanity and Formality prevail too much VI. Hence the Beast has prevailed in War God has been chastizing us with inward Desertion Leanness to our Souls Sackcloth on our Loyns though we endeavour to cover our Shame with outward Fig-leaves and outward Providential withdrawing from protecting and prospering us formerly Our Glory is gone our Ark taken our Arm feeble against the Philistins VII There remains then but one Step more to the Earthquake and we hope also that the three days and an half is nigh an end Fourthly The most terrible Judgements even Earthquakes have glorious issues The rest give Glory to God I shall only discourse on the first Doctrine under these Three Heads 1. In Explication of the Nature of an Earthquake and of a Prodigy 2. In proving that an Earthquake is a Prodigy 3. In Improvement of it according to our old customary Method of preaching The First Head has two Members to be spoken to apart The Nature of the Earthquake And the Nature of a Prodigy The First whereof is the Nature of an Earthquake which I sind as well explained in 2 Sam. 22.8 and Psal 18.8 as in either new or late Philosophers Then the Earth shook and trembled the Foundations of Heaven moved and shook because he was wroth there went up a Smoak out of his Nostrils and sire out of his mouth devoured Goals were kindled by it In which Description there is First It 's Protcus or manifold Form and Appearance 1. It shook 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 twice Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either by a vibration or trembling or an oblique declining which Seneca says of all others is most dangerous For if the Inclination should continue one Minute all Hills Mountains Cities Castles must necessarily be tumbled down And such was that with us without any Overthrow by reason of the sudden recovery from the Inclination Philosophers call them Epiclintas and Brastas c. Secondly And trembled Thâ—…â—ord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a Bellowing or a Noise and Bruit as it is translated sometimes These are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A roaring and bellâ—…g of Wind under ground it 's Passage being strait and variousâ—… 〈◊〉 Thirdly Mov'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or remov'd from one place to another as the Hill in Queen Elizabeth's time here in England So Josephus gives an Account of another next to Jerusalem remov'd into another place And Amberbachius tells of another in Helvetia 1561. Or divides chasmatically the Earth as when it swallowed up Corah c. Numb 16.31 And a greater shall be at the Great Day Zach. 14.4 when the Mount of Olives shall cleaveâ— towards East and West Secondly The Subject of this Concussion and Commotion the Earth called also the Foundation of the Heavens it appearing to us the Center of the whole Heavens every thing tending to the Center of it or from it according to their Weight or Levity And some say it is not only the Pillar and Atlas of the Heavens by it's Solidity but the furnish'd Table and Store house whence all it's Luminaries are nourish'd God lays the Beams of his Chambers in the Water this renders it so wonderful that the solid Earth whose Foundations God lays that it should not be removed for ever Psal 104. should shake and tremble It is the Weight of Sin doth it God would never have altered or suffered to be altered any of his Foundations to
the worse if Man had not altered his Allegiance That a most solid Body 7000 Miles thick should be shaken like a Rod and shattered like a tottering Fence is a prodigious Work of God Thirdly There is the supreme and principal Cause GOD he was angry his Nostrils his Mouth the very Pagans own this who ascrib'd sometimes to one God sometimes to another Hence Neptune is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when they think the Water is the Mean of it They who ascribe it to the Fire call all second Causes Vuldan's Tools Ferrum exercebant vasto Cyalopes in Antro Brontesque Steropesque nudils membra Pyrachmon They who ascribe it to the Wind call Aeolus it's Author Aeolus hic Clauso ventorum carcere regnat It is a great Argument against Seneca's Christianity and true Piety too that discoursing of Earthquakes he says Illud quoque proderit presumere animo nihil horum Deos facere nec ira numinum aut Coelum aut Terram concuti It will be our certain Advantage to take it for granted that God is neither Author of Thunder nor Earthquakes But we have a more sure Word of Prophesie that saith God is he who removeth the Mountains and they know not who overturneth them in his Anger who shaketh the Earth out of her place and the Pillans thereof tremble Job 9.6 Also Nahum 1.5 The Mountains quake at him and the Hills melt and the Rocks are thrown down by him So Psal 97.3 c. Reason also assents and says Amen to Scripture 1. From it 's own Weariedness in the greatest Philosphers in it's searching after another Cause The usual Return is Non est inventus We do not know after all Seneca's great Search in his Old Age and second Attempt upon the Earthquake in Campania He brings forth Six May Be 's at a Breath 2. From the greatness of the Effect A moving of that which has the whole Heavens pressing it down and 3000 Miles of Foundation solid as Marble to support it and the greatness of God's Concern in the various Effects of its 3. From the Irregularness as to Time Place Manner or Mean We must either put it under the Conduct of Divine Wisdom or set up Fortune or Chance for another God A gradual Preparation of the very Entrails of the Earth for the Conflagration of the Earth at the great Day does not prove the Orderliness of the Progress For when the Caverns are widened by Earthquake it 's done violently and not gradually So when burning Mountains Sulphureous Lakes Oleous Springs take their Rise it is not by little and little but a powerful Violence 4. It is such an immediate and extraordinary Judgement or Mercy that Reason presently attributes it to the Sovereign Distributer of Rewards and Punishments Hence he sets forth himself in his Word as an immediate Disposer of all those Meteors wherein the Comfort or Ruine of our Life very immediately does consist He is the Father of the Rain and he begets the Drops of Dew The Clouds are his Bottles at his Voice they are open He has Treasures for Snow and Hail he parts the Light and scatters the Wind Job 38. Psal 147. He has his Coals and Furnaces in the Earth Psal 18.8 3ly The Means by which he does it Smoak Fire and Coals If according to our new Philosophers Scripture speaks in things Natural according to the commonly received Opinion of that Time it was wrote in they lose the Honour of New Invention who say the Cause is an Exhalation or a Wind in some Cavern of the Earth penn'd up and rarify'd by the heat of some Sulphureous or combustible matter kindled by accidental Motion which they illustrate by their Copper Globe for this is very Old Philosophy But no doubt the Second Causes or Means are as various as the Forms or Effects though the Variety of the one does not always flow from the Variety of the other 1. Some as Thales think the Earth a great Ship sailing in a vast unknown Ocean either meeting with a cross Wave is disturb'd in it's easie Motion or by it's Weight so presses down the Water that it pierceth through it's Chinks and Crevices and disturbs the Burden or Loading of the Vessel yea breaks forth into great Rivers from the very tops of Mountains 2. Others impute it only to that last Branch viz. The Rivers and Lakes within the Body of the Earth from whence our Rivers above Ground rise These Rivers sometimes leaving their sormer Channel or over-swell'd with Water break down their Banks which produces a Motion in the Earth above them 3. Some Copernicans and others also think the Earth a great Animal and that an Earthquake is a Fever or a Fit of Vapours by which it is distemper'd which may be allow'd metaphorically Rom. 8.22 The whole Creation roaneth and travaileth in pain waiting for the Manifestation of the Sons of God So it is like a Pang of a Travailing Woman in order to the Birth of a New Earth 2 Pet. 3.4 Straton and his Followers call it a Fight between Cold and Heat Hence they are frequent in Spring and Autumn at which time these Particles pass by one another on the outward Crust of the Earth 5. Very many call it a Wind penn'd up And Histories record Wind to have blown out of it's Eruptions and Gulphs that it has made for several Days as it did at Chalcis according to Seneca out of Asclepeadotus and also at Herculea in Pontus Moreover great Winds are frequent after though we know not their Passage and a Calmness usually precedes them Which is a very plausible Account adding Heat to rarifie the Vapour Psal 135.7 He causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the Earth he maketh Lightnings for the Rain he bringeth the Wind out of his Treasuries And this he doth in the Seas and all deep places Job 38.24 By what way is the Light parted which scattereth the East Wind upon the Earth 6. Some impute it to Old Age Terra superna tremit magnis concussa rui nis Subter ubî ingentes speluncas subruit Aetas As in old Buildings when there is more Weight above than Strength in the Pillars below occasions either a rebounding Fall from some Rock or some surrounding trembling from a Lake 7. Some to a great Mass of Chymical Spirits fetter'd in some mashy matter like the Distillers Tunn or in some close Cave where the Pores are too narrow for the Particles 8. Vanhelmont refers it to an Eccentration of the Earth but then all Earthquakes should be universal which is both contrary to Scripture and Experience The Effect is solvable by most of these as Means by none as total Cause especially universal ones For if the Caverns be but half a Mile or a Mile deep an Earthquake of an Hundred Miles is impossible without vast Eruptions 2. The removing of Mountains leisurely for two or three Miles space The contemplative Poieret says the Study
of Natural Causes without their relations to to their Creator 1st As their Author 2ly As their Pattern 3ly As their Governour makes but half Philosphers And we find the end of Scripture treating of these is to make us see a God in them and from them Psal 29.6 He maketh Lebanon and Syrion to skip as a young Vnicorn And Job 37. speaking of the Fiery Meteors says They are turned round about by his Councils that they may do what soever he commandeth them upon the Face of the World or in the Earth He causeth it to come whether for Correction or for Mercy c. 4ly The moving Cause which supposes the demeriting because he was wroth who can be angry at nothing but Sin Isa 13.13 I will shake the Heavens and the Earth shall remove out of it's place in the Wrath of the Lord of Hosts and in the day of his fierce Anger and it shall be as the chased Roc. Our Sin and God's Anger for it is a Burden the Earth cannot bear Hence are it's Groans and Travailings in Pam Man is punished in the Earth as a King in his Subjects or a rich Man in his Poslessions Three remarkable Degrees of Punishment the Earth undergoes for Man's Sin 1. The Curse in Adam's time Gen. 3.17 Cursed is the ground for thy sake which we may compare with the 7th Verse The Natively consequential Punishment on Man's Body they both were naked The nearness of the Union and Relation between his Soul and his Body brought the Curse there before the other and without a positive Infliction There was a capacity of ever-living from that harmonious Constitution in his Body but his Constitution is now mortal not only a Disease as Physicians say but Mortality it self is a preternatural state For Perpetuity is a Print or a stroak of Divine Image that became him to put on the Substance of every Creature he made For he cannot deny himself in his Works or in his Word All he does must have a fittedness to represent him and what became him to make became him to continue And Aeviternity of Creatures is the Image of the Eternity of God Death was a conditional Threathing Life was an absolute natural Promise Man had nothing to do but to continue yielding himself to that Inclination that was from the Image of God in him without attempting to do any thing of himself by which he might be something by himself Self denyal which is a Negative Term was the principal Duty 2. There could not but arise from this Immortal Constitution an unspeakable Beauty The most fresh healthy young and vigorous Constitution is like wrinkled old Age in comparison of an Immortal one Old and Young Sickness and Health in a Mortal differs but in Degree but that is a natural capacity of ever living Mortality and Immortality differ like Sin and Holiness Death and Life So much must the greatest Beauty of Mortals sall short of Eve's Secondly If we take measures of this Beauty from what the meanest Man shall be when sinless and the Beauty was a Glory for our very Bodies shall be fashioned like to his Glorious Body and the very reason of it flows from it's incorruptibleness 1 Cor. 15.32 The first Property being always the eminent and emanent Cause of the rest Adam's Immortality was a proper Incorruptibility Thirdly If we compare this Beauty with the remaining Relicts in Plants and Fowls for we cannot suppose the Curse to sall so heavy or to last so long upon any body as the Body of Man for their union with the Soul is nighest and the Property and Dominion greatest it is a kind of Covering for such are their Feathers and Flowers that excells all the Glorious Ornaments that a Solomon could array himself with by reason of their Nativeness flowing from the Constitution of the Creature it adorns Matth. 6.28 29 30. The Privation of this Covering that did consist of Glory or radiant Beams of Light was literally Adam's and Eve's Nakedness which did flow from the Souls Nakedness of the Objective Image of God and the inherent qualitative Image that did flow from it For Man in Regeneration is in part restored to what he was when sinless and this is a changing into a glorious Image by beholding the glorious Image of the Lord in the Glass of our Souls formed there by the Spirit of the Lord. The Curse of Barrenness upon the Earth must be some way proportioned unto this An inward change of the Contexture and Particles at least of the Surface and Crust of the Earth above the great Deep which would necessarily cause an Alteration in the Air the Constitution thereof being ruled by the Vapours and Exhalations of the Earth if it reach'd no higher We may see this from the vast difference of Soils their Barrenness or Fertility ariseth from the Disposition of the Earth and Position of the Sun The Second Degree of Punishment was in Noah's time by the great Deluge where there was made not only a Change of Particles or composure of the Earth but the whole uppermost Sphere or Crust broke in pieces and laid like an Heap of Rubbish or Shipwrack and from this Constitution of it ariseth it's fitness for Conflagration it 's Liableness to Earthquakes Thunder and Lightning Storms and Tempests So that Philosophers ought not only to study it's relation to God but it 's relation to Sin and Punishment it 's constant or natural Constitution is preternatural like a crazy Person Hectick and Consumptive The Third Punishment is yet to come when it shall be wholly burnt up by Fire 2 Pet. 3. And if we may take Measures of what it was before Sin from what it will be after it must certainly have been a glorious Globe When the most solid Gold shall be transparent and the whole new Earth the Foundation of the New Jerusalem more precious and Diaphanous than the most precious Stones some Rudera of this appears in the Chrystalline Stones and other things under Ground and that vast Fire in which all will be burnt up hath an evident Vertue to render it vitrial So much for the Nature of an Earthquake The Second thing to be explained is the Nature of a Prodigy which is superiour to a Sign and is a Miracles Fellow These three explain one another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sign 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Prodigy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Miracle Heb. 2.4 Signs Wonders and divers Miracles 1. Signs are Naral as Gen. 1.14 We know how long to Night or Darkness by the place we see the Sun in or to Morning by other Stars So when Spring and Harvest c. When an Eclipse when the Tydes when seasonable to Sail to Fish to Plow to Sow c. The Lights of Heaven are given for Signs of these things So Mat. 16.2 A red Sky is a sign of fair Weather because the Sun shining through it demonstrates it to be thin but if the Clouds in our Horizon be black
When the devouring Fire burns up Cities we can leave our Houses to the Flame but here is neither time for Flight nor place for Safety The greatest of Moralists have made it their business to look out for some Comfort against this Evil that admits of no Remedy but all the Light of Nature in it's highest Improvement hath found none They tell us Since we must die it 's great to die by a great Cause Si cadendum est mihi Coelo cecidisse velim They tell us it 's great to die reveng'd of our Adversaries since the Earth destroys us the Earth perisheth with us They tell us We ought not fear where there can be no help that is we should despair that we may not fear They tell us Why should we fear that so much since far less things may destroy us But what Comfort is there in hearing of the Encrease of our Enemies All the Fruit of their Consolations is to drive us into Despair or to harden us but neither of these can save us Si fractus illabatur orbis impavidum ferient ruinae The Secure is as soon destroyed as the Fearful This discovers the Terribleness of this Prodigy that nothing can comfort under it or support against it but what is able to support against the Gates of Hell There is no remedy to the Men of the Earth when the Earth fails Heaven is only a place of Refuge when the Earth shakes That is the only City whose Foundations never move The Gospel that brought to light a Saviour from Sin hath brought to light Salvation from an Earthquake This is sufficient Evidence that the Earthquake is a Prodigy since it is an incomparable one What are Visions in the Air or Spectrums on the Earth What are monstrous Births or fortuitous Omens What are Blazing Stars or Bearded Comets Nay Thunder and Lightning are nothing to this The very Judgements other Prodigies prognosticate are not so bad as this Prodigy Some Men have hardned themselves or have been hearteâ—… against the worst of others but the Prince and the Peasant the Young and the Old the Man and the Beast the Atheist and the Christian all are afraid of this even a Moses did exceedingly fear and shake How can an earthy Man but tremble when his Earth shakes 2 Argument Is from the Multitude Variety and Dreadfulness of it's Effects It was one of these Prodigies by which the Apostles were confirmed in their Work and Office Acts 4.31 and by which others were perswaded of the Divineness of their Call and Doctrine Acts 16.26 To these the Apostle appeals to 2 Cor. 12.12 2ly The Destruction of Men and Beasts Villages Cities Countries which is attested by all Historians Herodotus Thucydides Livius each asserting none so terrible as that they described 3ly Islands turned into Sea and Sea into Islands as Greenland Sicily some say America and Britain too Seneca mentions Tharsia or Thea which in his Day the Mariners saw rise out of the Sea And several Historians mention Islands we cannot now find 4ly Burning Mountains as Aetna Strumbolo and many others Vesuvius is sufficiently attested by Historians to have risen by an Earthquake in Titus's Time after the Destruction of Jerusalem 5ly The Convulsion Collision and Transportation of Mountains in 1584. in the Dominion of Bernat there was a Mountain removed over several other Mountains and covered a whole Village of 90 Families excepting the half of one House where the Master of the Family Wife and Children were at Prayers Pliny 2d reports in the last Year of Nero two Mountains to have rushed so against one another with such great Noise and Force that they tore in pieces all the Villages between them 6ly Famins Pestilences and other Diseases the Springs and Airs being infected with its Exhalations 7ly The change of the Channels of Rivers the turning the Sea into Land and Land into Sea as was by the dreadful Earthquake under Valence by which the Plow'd Land became Navigable and the Ships were found on dry Land Lastly It was the great second Cause by which Korah Dathan and Abiram were swallowed up by which the Mountain of Sinai did shake by which the great Deep was broke up at the Deluge and by which the Earth shall be torn in pieces at the Day of Judgment Zech. 14.4 The Third Argument is from Scripture that testifies Earthquakes to be one of the greatest Prodigies that ever was or shall be in the World whether it discourses of it Historically Prophetically or Doctrinally 1. The great Deluge was by an Earthquake dividing and breaking asunder the upper Sphere of the Earth above the Deep Gen. 7.11 2. That extraordinary Visitation of Corah Dathan and Abiram when the Earth opened her Mouth and swallowed them their Houses their Goods and all that appertained to them Numb 16.31 it was done by some Sulphureous Fire under Ground where God hath his Furnaces as well as his Treasures Ver. 35. And that is the very Cause of an Earthquake Psal 18.8 The Earth shook and trembled by devouring Fire and Fire was made by God's kindling the Coals in his Anger 3. An Earthquake bore no small share of that dreadful and prodigious Appearance on Mount Sinai at the giving of the Law the Smoak thereof ascended as the Smoak of a Furnace and the whole Mount quaked greatly 4. It was none of the least of the Miracles that was wrought in that miraculous Period of Moses Psal 1 14 4. The Mountains skip like Rams and the little Hills like Lambs Tremble thou Earth at the Presence of the Lord. Psal 78.15 He clave the Rocks in the Wilderness 5. The great Revolutions in David's time had Earthquakes as their Signals and as their Causes Psal 18.8 My Cry came before him then the Earth shock 6. In the days of Vzziah there was so famous an one that gave Birth to a Period Amos 1.2 and was a joynt Prophet with Amos of the Judgment persuing those Eight Neighbouring Nations as â—…e metaphorical Phrases of his Prophecy witness I will smite the great House with Breaches and the little House with Clefts God called to contend by Fire and it devoured the great Deep and did eat up a part He calls for the waters of the Sea and poureth them out on the Face of the Earth It 's Terribleness we read in Zech. 14.5 As you fled before the Earthquake in the Days of Vzziah 7. Before Christ's Birth in Herod's Reign Zonar gives you an Account of an Earthquake in Judea wherein Thirty Thousand Men perished But we have aninfallible Historian giving an Account of two one at his Death Matth. 27.51 28.2 another at his Resurrection To which also Phlegon gives his Testimony referring it to the same Year in which the universal Eclipse of the Sun was And Didymus with Twenty Four Greek Doctors after him on the 9th of Job relates that Earthquake to have been Universal Mei autem Christi tempore non privatus fuit aliquis terrae-motus sed tota
ipsa terra conquassata est centro convulsa This Didymus lived about 380. Phlegon relates it 's Extension to reach Bythinia where many Houses were shaken with it 8. It is prophesied of in Scripture as a Signal of Jerusalem's Destruction Matth. 24. and also of the universal Destruction of the World Luke 21.26 Rev. 16.18 There was a great Earthquake such as was not since Men were upon the Earth so myhty an Earthquake and so great This being the last of the last Plagues must be the Day of Judgment There are other Prophetical Periods as the Sixth Seal Rev. 6. The Beginning of the Trumpets Rev. 8. The opening of the Temple Rev. 11.18 And this in the Text The Rise of two Witnesses that have Earthquakes for their Fore-runners The Fourth Argument is from History wherein sometimes the Terribleness of the Relation renders the Relators Testimony doubtful At Venice in 1342. there was a very dreadful Earthquake after which followed such a Plague that scarce one of an Hanored who fell sick escaped Death The Venetians published an Edict That whosoever would come and live there with Wife and Children for two Years should receive the Priviledge of a Citizen In 1348. Aventinus a faithful and diligent Historian singular for Piety and Learning born in 1466. relates this most dismal Story of an Earthquake whose extent reached from Constantinople to Hungary and Italy and it's time endured for Forty Days 26 Cities were overthrown by it Men and Beasts Walls Temples Castles Towns were swallowed down at one Mouthful the Mountains were torn up by the Roots and thrown on the tops of Cities or â—…thing against one another were broken in pieces Fifty Men with Women and Beasts by that strange Exhalation were congealed and turned into Statues of Salt Conrades of Maâ—denburgh a famous Philosopher and the Chancellor of Austria attest they have seen them In the year 1300 which bagan the Turkish Empire or the Ottoman Aera and as interpreters â—…y the 6th Trumpet â—…na in the Life of Boniface the Eighth relates such an Earthquake at Rome as the like never was before besides the Appearance of a Comet both Presages of a future Calamity In Constantine the Great 's Time when the great Revolution was of a Pagan Empire into a Christian commonly interpreted the Sixth Vial great Erthquakes did proceed by one whereof 13 Cities in Campania were overthrown About 450 under Valentinian the Third when the Empire put on it's last and Ten Horned Form which is by some interpreted the beginning of the Trumpets Prodigies of Comets Eclipses Fiery Visions in the Air were frequent among which Earthquakes were numerous For Dyrrachim in Dalmatia perished by one Neocaesaria was swallowed up the Island Rhodes dreadfully shaken Twelve Cities in Campania overthrown Rome trembled three days About the beginning of the Reformation there were very many Prodigies Yea in that very Year the Name Protestant or Witness was assumed by the Reformers both Sabbelicus and Jovius relate a most dreadful Earthquake in Portugal wherein Lisbon was terribly shaken 1500 Houses ruined all the Temples turned into Rubbish the Ships swallowed up in the Ocean the River thrown out of his Channel and the very same Earthquake brought no less Destruction to the Netherlands causing great Inundations of the Sea It lasted about 7 or 8 Days usually returning about 7 or 8 times in a Day And the Year before 1569. there was one not much less in Ferraria that had been lately given to the Pope wherein there was vast loss of Land Men and Goods it returned 140 times in 40 hours and was again repeated after two Months Providence is the Pagan's Bible A great Divine calls it The first Edition of the Covenant of Grace But it is surely not to be neglected by us He that studies not the Text well can never be a great Divine by reading Commentaries and Systems The Works of God are our Text he is an Atheist that doth not regard the Operation of his Hand the Word of God is a Commentary on it Whether we read it or Pagans own Opinions over it we shall still conclude an Earthquake a Prodigy Petrusloycks relates one in the Ninth Year of Constantine Copronymus by which in Syria some Cities were exterminated others much damaged others carried 6 or 7 Miles safe from the Mountains to the Plains with their Walls Houses and Inhabitants entire Can we impute this to Fortune or Chance or disown such a distinguishing Providence in the Destruction or Safety of Men In 1509. there was one at Constantinople wherein 13000 Men perished Many of the Turkish Moschets fell to the Ground but the Christian Temple stood firm Was there no Evidence given to God's Care of and Love to the Christian Religion by this Had it not a speaking Voice that Christ not Mahomet was Governour of the World and could save or destroy The last propos'd Head of this Discourse was the Improvement of it Which may be 1. For Information about the Being Nature and Government of God For an Earthquake is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a proper Work of God's He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the only Author of Prodigies There are three ways to know the Being of a God beside Tradition or Universal Testimony 1st From the Being of Creatures and the orderly Course of Providence and disposal of them This is a very solid way but it requires a very solid Mind and very accurate in pursuing the Current of Thoughts the Connexion and Chain of Truths and but very few that have given up themselves to Study and Ratiocination have obtained a demonstrative Satisfaction in it 2ly By Grace which is the most comfortable way When God draws his own Image on the Glass of the Soul by the immediate Finger of his own Spirit that immediately at once both gains our Assent to his Being and our Consent to his Government But this is not the common way of Perswasion The 3d way is by some extraordinary Providence that strikes the very Senses of the poor Sensitive Creature throws down all the Batteries that the Atheist by pains of corrupt Reasoning or more corrupt Living hath built against the Faith and the Fear of a God Such means God useth with a poor rude unthinking stupid People to keep alive the Acknowledgment of himself in their Minds and to defend that universal Light that shines in the Principles of Natural Religion from being quite extinct by the Subtilty of Satan and poysonous Exhalations from our earthly Minds How visible is this in Persons of whom it may be too truly said God is not in all their Thoughts their Soul like the Serpent living upon the Dust of the Earth Some carnal Profit or Pleasure perpetually possessing their Thoughts all of a suddain when Thunder from above or Earthquakes from below shakes the Foundation of their Hopes and Joys they cry out Lord have mercy upon us will the Earth swallow us up I am unfit to die Doth the Judge of the World
the work of the Lord nor the Operations of his Hands he shall destroy them and not build them up Psal 28.5 Job 9.4 Who hath hardened himself against him and prospered who removeth the Mountains c. No Sinner can have any thing to plead against the prodigiousnsss of that which was here excepting what was from the mixture of Mercy with it for it's Extent was extraordinary 2ly There was not one but divers another being in Italy and a third in Amerîca 3ly The manner or kind was most dangerous For Houses are able to bear a direct Motion upward or downward to a much higher Degree than they can in an Oblique declining 4ly We have Scripture prophecying of such kind of Signals about this time 5ly The universal Voice of Providence is a Call to Repentance Rom. 2.4 Despisest thou his Goodness and Forbearance not knowing that they should lead to Repentance but after thy impenitent Heart treasurest up Wrath against the day of Wrath Now such extraordinary Providences are like Majusculis Literis in the Book of Creation There is nothing can be said against it's being a Prodigy but that we are not destroyed by it and then it had not been the Signal but the Judgment For it is a thing rare with us the Constitution of this Island whether as to Air or Land is not lyable to it We may say of it as Herodotus said of the Scythians Thunder in Winter and Earthquakes at any time are Prodigies among them 4th Vse May be of Exhortation to all the Duties we know our selves tardy in An Earthquake is a Mophath a Perswasory not a Directory not so much to give Light about what we know not as to awaken us to what we know 2 Pet. 3.11 Seeing then that these things shall be dissolv'd what manner of Persons ought ye to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness It says to the covetous Earthworm Put not thy Trust in uncertain Riches lay up a good Foundation for time to come for this Foundation is to be dissolv'd which shakes already Stultum è spem firmam in re tremulâ ponere It says to the backsliding Apostate Why dost thou leave the Foundations of the Apostles and Prophets and Jesus Christ that precious and Corner-stone who is a tryed Stone by Heaven and Hell who has born the Weight of Sin and Punishment and has neither shrunk nor been shaken who has neither split nor given way but has been found a sure Foundation to all that worship him But read thy own Lot with these splinting Reeds thou leanest on Rev. 14.10 If any man receive the mark of the Beast he shall drink of the Wine of the Wrath of God which is pour'd out without mixture into the Cup of Indignation It is a Threatning against them that persevere in Popish Doctrines after the Light of everlasting Gospel has shin'd in a Work of Reformation but especially against Backsliders The first Vial or Cup of that Indignation brings a Pestilential Vapour out of the Earth upon those that receive the Mark of the Beast Rev. 16.2 It says to the prophane Person The Earth is utterly broken down the Earth is clean dissolv'd the Earth is mov'd exceedingly the Earth reels to and fro because the transgression of Man is very heavy upon it The treacherous Dealers have dealt treacherously they have transgressed the Laws chang'd the Ordinances and broken the everlasting Covenant Isa 24. It is a Midnight Cry to the sleepy Virgins and a Reproof to the Madness of the poor empty and vain Heart that is set upon the Toys and Shadows of earthly Things when the Earth it sell is not a solid Bottom for our Hopes It is a great Motive to Humility if we cannot understand the Thunder of his Power how much less the Power that is exerted in shaking of such a solid Body as the Earth What little Ants on our dusty Molehill are we in comparison of him If we improve it aright it will be a Spur to duty a Wall of Brass against Temptations Who would not fear him that shakes Heaven and Earth and a strong Battery against our Lusts We ought to inculcate it more because it is of so hardening a Nature Pharaoh's Mistake of Divine Prodigies for Natural Effects made him a Pattern of Hard-heartedness 2ly It speaks our Case yet hopeful when God gives us any Means especially when he falls upon a new Method It speaks our Case yet hopeful because it is a Threatning in it's Nature not a Punishment it is a Threatntng not of the Nature of a Promise that binds and obliges the Person to fulfill We ought the more to hearken to it because it is a God that speaks and speaks with so loud a Voice that implies a dulness of hearing already begun We ought to yield to it because it is always the last Mean and Motive God makes use of Lastly Because we are sure to gain the End that God designs by it if we receive it as a Word of Exhortation for Amendment If it have the same Influence that Jonah's Prophecy had on Nineveh we may be as sure of London's Safety 5th Vse May be a Doxology We ought in every thing to give Thanks because there is Mercy in every Dispensation that befalls us in this Life our Diseases are Medicines our Poverty enricheth our Disappointments six our Expectations on a sure Bottom and all our Evils work for good There are a great many Ingredients of Gratitude in this Dispensation 1. That God should use extraordinary means to reclaim us from Formality and Security when an ordinary method proves unsuccessful 2. That it was a meer Signal Prodigy when we deserved it should be a Penal one too What was our City better than others that have been either in half or in whole devoured by such a Judgment 3. That God hath given us a more sure Foundation than this Earth to trust on that we have the Everlasting Gospel built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles by which we have a Discovery of a City that hath Foundations and a Kingdom that cannot be moved For want of this Knowledge the greatest Pagan Philosophers or Moralists that ever were were not able to fortifie their own Minds or the Peoples against the Terror of an Earthquake or quiet them under it 4. That God gives any glorious Discovery of himself to rejoyce the Hearts of his Children that can say of Thunder This is the Voice of my Father And of an Earthquake This is the Tread of his Foot that he refutes Atheists who say All things continue as they were and frights the Earthworm into Religion that scoff'd at those who look for solider Comforts than it affords 5. That our Lot is fallen so late in the World that Earthquakes beget rather a prospect of Good than of Hurt to the Church they make us look out for the Rise of the Witnesses the opening of the Temple and the Second Coming of our Lord. 6th and Last Vse Is
of serious Prayer and Supplication We ought to be anxions and careful about nothing but in every thing to make our Requests known unto him Nothing is more apt to fill us with anxious careful and dreadful Thoughts than an Earthquake therefore it is a fit Season for Prayer 1 That God would save us We need not doubt he can after such great Demonstrations of his Power We need not doubt his Will after the saving of us out of such a dismal Judgement It should then make us approach a God able and willing to save us He has told us in his Word That he wills all Men to be saved and we will not believe him now he gives a Miracle to confirm our Faith 2 Let us come earnestly beseeching him to be reconciled with us for we see there are no Hopes of succeeding in Enmity and War against such a mighty Power We see it is an unspeakable Happiness to have such a Power on our side We must always overcome and triumph in War when Allied to such a Lord of Hosts He has made a Covenant of Reconciliation with Sinners through a Mediator let us make use of such an Opportunity while our Spirits are under the Sense of the Danger and Evil of an unreconciled Estate to lay hold on his Peace-bearing Offers 3 Let us come begging powerful and effectual Grace to change our Hearts and Spirits into a submissive and obedient Temper The Reason we are not in Friendship with God is from a defect on our side not on God's We do not love him while he shews daily Love to us we prefer carnal earthly things to him we make Mammon our God our Belly our God our Fancy and Imagination our God Let us pray for a Christ being formed in us for such a discovery of his Likeness that may sully win our Love and then we are sure Peace will not only soon be made but is made already 4 Let us come praying for the remission of our Sins owning and acknowledging our Guilt We first fell out with God therefore we ought to own a Fault God sends no Judgments on his side until Sin begins on ours therefore let us own it as becomes disobedient Children as becomes rebellious Subjects as becomes betraying Friends as becomes an Adulterous Wife all manner of Relations has a Sinner violated who hath broken the Law of his God 5 That God would prepare us for the great Day of Judgment for we see this Earth daily waxing old and dissolving For these Earthquakes have a gradual Tendency to dispose it for the Flames But it is all one to us whether it or we be dissolved first we are sure our little pieces of Earth cannot stick long together but either must be deluged with a Dropsie burnt up with a Fever choak'd with Vapours or torn in pieces by a Paroxism And when we are once dissolved the Earth is dissolved to us and there is no entring Heaven while one spot of Sin cleaves to us 6 To pray that God would hasten the Rise of the Witnesses with all the Blessings to his Church that do accompany it and that our Kingdom and our King may still shine more visibly and prosperously as the chief among the Kindreds Tongues and Nations that befriend the Witnesses dead Cause and never suffer it to be buried untill the Spirit of Life from God enter into them and then they shall never die more 7 That God may grant our Hopes that are fixed on his Mercy and prevent our Fears of any greater future Death yet to come upon the Witnesses This is the greatest that ever yet has been but a greater may be This is universal through the Streets that are under the Popes actual Jurisdiction and Possession But some fear that a Death must extend wherever his Jurisdiction has been For when Rome shall be destroyed she says in her Heart She is no Widow But from whence then shall come the Kindreds Tongues and Nations to help In such a Case therefore let us praise his Word hope in his Mercy and still beg the Glorious Days of the Church may commence in our Day Hence we may see these bright Dawnings of the Son of Man and depart like a dying Simeon with a Christ in our Arms. But let us do all this submissively saying Fac Deus in nobis quid velis esse ratum FINIS