and its Camp and the full Accounts of that Desolation in Jamaica and Port-Royal were so just upon the Finishing the foregoing Discourse of Repentance as to give leave to take a very short notice in the Introduction Printed last and no more But it is of so great Concern and Interest to a National and Personal Repentance and Reformation that it could not in such a Discourse be passed over without a great disregard to the Works of the Lord and to the Operation of his hands which is so branded an Evil in Scripture-Account Psal 28.5 Esay 5.12 that an Appendix concerning it was even demanded And lastly because Earthquakes the Shaking Trembling and Moving the Earth is us'd as so constant a Symbol or Emblem of the Kingdom of God and Christ Bowing the Heavens Coming down and making a change in the Heaven and Earth that now are and in their whole State and Administration as appears by this Context I have therefore chosen to discourse upon And seeing as I have all manner of ways endeavoured to demonstrate and do not doubt I have by divine Assistance according to Scripture attain'd to do it that that Kingdom of Christ by Computation upon Times given by the most Sure Word of Prophecy is nigh at hand These Motions of the Earth in any parts of the World and more particularly relating to our selves and in this City where such a Symptom so generally observ'd as to be uncontestable is very rare ought to be taken notice of as calling aloud to us to Repent because the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand and a Forerunner of the change that Kingdom is to make That therefore which I design in this Discourse upon this Text is to shew That the great Symbol or Representation of the Kingdom of Christ in this so great Text of the Kingdom is the Universal Shake Concussion and Convulsion of Heaven and Earth and that therefore all the Shakes of this Earth ought to be taken notice of as parcels and pieces of that Greatest and Last Shake and as Pledges and Assurances of it and especially when by the Sure Word of Prophecy and the concurrent Judgment of most sober thinking Men concerning this matter who will not yet pitch upon the Time it is concluded it cannot be far off It is known that the Kingdom of Christ is so near I will therefore endeavour to comprise this short Discourse in these Heads 1. To observe how throughout this Text the Kingdom of Christ is shaded by the shaking Heaven and Earth once for all 2. From thence to make Remarks upon the nature of such Motions or Trembles of the Earth and their fitness to be such a Shade of the Kingdom of Christ and wherein they are so according to the Light of Scripture concerning these things 3. To observe the holy use that is to be made upon such Motions of the Earth in general and particularly in these propos'd to our Observation now and that with relation to Christ's Kingdom To begin with the first The occasion of this Context is thus The Apostle having given the Description of the New or Heavenly Jerusalem-state in the former Verses You are come to Mount Zion c. ver 22. c. he makes that great practical Application See that ye refuse not him that speaketh in order to the setting up a Kingdom for so by what follows must needs be intended that the Speaking is in order to the setting up a Kingdom For if they escaped not who refused the same great Prince when he would form a Kingdom on Earth among the People of Israel to be a Type of much a greater Kingdom How shall we escape who refuse him who now spoke from Heaven in the Effusion of his Spirit as a First-Fruits of his Kingdom and who is to be the Great Prince and who will appear in the Glory of his Kingdom the Lord from Heaven as he is called 1 Cor. 15. and then will set up a Kingdom in the New Heaven and the New Earth in a far greater Glory For though Christ came in great State then the Chariots of God were then twenty thousand c. As great Princes come with mighty Retinue of Horses and Chariots so did Christ on Mount Sinai yet that was but Christ as on Earth this from Heaven Psal 68. For his even the same Lord 's Voice shook the Earth Mount Sinai and the Parts about it did exceedingly shake But now as he is setting up a Kingdom both in the New Heaven and the New Earth so he hath promis'd I shake not only the Earth but the Heaven also It may seem strange an Earthquake should be given in promise it is rather a Threatning and Denunciation but because it is a close Forerunner of the Redemption of the Servants of Christ and even of the whole Creation therefore it is given in promise And because so blessed a State is not in present and immediately but to come therefore also it is promised as a thing future and to come I will shake And because this whole frame of Nature is defiled with Sin and Apostasie up to the very Heaven of God and his Saints therefore Christ promises to shake not only the Earth but the Heaven For there are spiritual Wickednesses in High Places or Heavenlies Sathan and his Host who are the Princes under him of the Power of the Air as well as the Rulers of the Darkness of this World and so the Heavenlies or Heavenly Places are more defiled than all the wicked Men on Earth can defile the Earth though they defile it so much but then Sathan shall fall as Lightning from Heaven All must be dislodged and dismounted For that Heaven shall be the Residence and Palace of Christ and his Saints and shall shine down into the new Earth beneath purified by Fire from the Defilements of Men so Heaven and Earth must both be shaken And therefore the shaking of Heaven and Earth may well be by promise since a new Heaven and Earth rise from hence by promise And Because all this is fulfilling of Promise therefore the Servants of Christ at so great a shake of the Powers of Heaven and Earth shall be less afraid than they are of a small Earthquake now they shall receive it with Triumph and rejoycing they shall say Oh blessed Day Oh blessed Appearance They shall lift up their Heads with joy because their Redemption draweth nigh Let us not therefore say That Day will be so terrible how shall we endure it It shall be given us in that Day to Rejoice who are his Redeemed And this Christ will do once more even at his Kingdom as if he should say I have shaken or permitted or ordered the shaking of the Earth many Times in various Places and on sundry Accounts I have shaken Nations and Kingdoms but now saith he I 'll do it once more and once for all And we may be sure this shaking hath never been yet for there hath not yet been
a shaking so universal and things have never yet been so shaken but they have gotten again into their old posture state and as we say wont so as to need to be shaken again But this once is like the Expression Jerem. 16.21 Behold I will for this once I will cause them to know my might I will do it so at the Great Conversion of the Gentiles then spoken of It shall never need to be done any more They shall know by that once for ever Even as it shall be known to my People Israel Amos 4.13 For in this Kingdom that Name is known indeed which was known but in Type Exod. 6.3 that my name is Jehovah God hath done these things in a Degree and in some measure a Hundred and a Hundred Times But now they shall be done once for all I am fully assured we shall All be at this shaking of the Earth You may think you may be in your Graves but you shall certainly be brought forth to see and feel God's doing this thing once The Earth shall cast out it 's Dead by the beginnings of it that all may see it in its Fulness Now this Doing the Thing shall make a great Change a Transpose of the Things that are or have been made or done The Word Metathesis signifies a Dispose of Things out of the Places where they had been into Places where they had not been before or into a different Order or State And it is of very great importance because it may be a Transpose for the better or for the worse Enoch was thus Transpos'd the same Word is us'd several times concerning him Heb. 11.5 and it was highly for the better he was Translated to Heaven without Dying So Transpos'd It is used for the Galatians being Removed to another Gospel and that was for the worse Gal. 1.5 This shake of the Earth shall make a great Transpose of Things Many poor Persons that have feared God and yet embrac'd Dunghils who have been forc'd to lye on the Earth in the Dust and in the filth of Things shall be Transpos'd for they shall Inherit the Throne of Glory 1 Sam. ch 2. The Bodies of Saints that lye in the Earth or wherever in the Dark the Dust of Death shall be Transpos'd they shall shine above But on the other side the Great the Rich and the Brave and the Honorable that have been High and Honorable they will be wofully Transpos'd they shall be turned down into a State of Everlasting Contempt And so there shall be a Translation a Transpose of the very Creation out of this Earth as under the Curse and Defilement into a new Earth and of the Heaven into a new Heaven not where Spiritual Wickednesses but Christ and his Saints shall inhabit Things shall not cease to be but shall be changed and removed some for the better some for the worse as to themselves But all Things of this World shall then be chang'd and remov'd All the Things that have been made or done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There are great Things in the World of all kinds made or done Great Palaces great Cities great Temples or as we call them Churches Great Castles Fortifications Navies There are other great Things made and done There are the several Laws and Constitutions of Government great Volumes of Books great Furniture of Palaces and Houses Bravery of Equipage and Apparel exquisite Engines and curious Pictures all these are Things that have been made or done There are the heaps of Gold and Silver so impressed so minted so coined All these and an unexpressible variety more shall be Transpos'd for the Day of the Lord shall be upon them all Esay chap. 2. It shall be upon the High and Lofty every one that is lifted up shall be brought low It shall be upon all the Cedars of Lebanon and upon all the Oaks of Bashan both in a natural and figurative Sense and upon all the High Mountains the mountainous Towers and Piles of Building upon all great Ships those floating Palaces the Loftiness of Men shall be brought low and the Haughtiness of Men shall be humbled and the High Looks shall be bowed down And they shall cast their Images of Gold and Silver he means not only their Idolatrous Images but their minted Gold and Silver bearing the Images of Princes which Gold and Silver they commit Idolatry with also to the Bats and the Moles to go into the Caves and the Rocks and the Tops of the rugged Rocks for fear of the Lord and for the glory of his Majesty and all this in the Day when he rises to shake terribly once for all the Earth Oh how great will this Transpose then be And then all the Religion that Men have made shall become a perfect Transpose into a Nullity and indeed there is not a greater Poema or more made thing than False Religion and particularly the Religion of Popery it is a strange kind of Fabrick a strange kind of Frame so indeed is Mahometanism and so was Paganism heretofore but none like that of Popery But yet whatever hath been of the Substance of either true Natural or Revealed Religion in any False Religion adulterating it shall be then Transpos'd back into Truth and all else shall be abolished And lastly That Heaven and Earth that are now viz. since the Flood to which Flood this once more may refer shall be changed and transposed by Fire all shall be removed by Fire as I remember that most Learned and Ingenious and Christian Philosopher Dr. Burnet of the Charterhouse shews Theory of the Earth 1st and 2d Parts How much the State of our Heaven and Earth as before the Flood was chang'd and Transpos'd by the force of Water the Water of the Flood for the worse But they shall by the force of Fire be Purified and Renewed and Rescituated for Beauty and Glory as he also asserts All shall be Transpos'd All shall come under a new Make It is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Work of God it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What hath been already made It shall be chang'd by him that will say from the Throne upon which he sits Behold I make all new Rev. 21.5 They had been made before but saith he Now I come to make All over anew I will bring them to that Excellent State wherein they shall continue till God be All in All. For only the Things that cannot be shaken shall Remain Now what are those Things that cannot be shaken They are the Blood Sacrifice and Redemption of Christ his Redemption and Intercession these are for ever They remain in his Priesthood for ever after the Order of Melchisedech after the Power of an Endless Life The Spirit of God in his Grace upon his Servants in Conversion Faith Repentance Holiness shall remain as in the Glory and Salvation they are unto This is an incorruptible Seed from the Word and Truth of God that abideth for ever He that
Malach. 1 4. Infer 10. Upon all this I conclude with that great Scripture Hosea 10.12 Sow we to our selves in Righteousness the Righteousness of Repentance springing from Faith in the Blood of Jesus Let us break up all our Fallow Grounds For the Just and proper time is near for an universal seeking God till he come and rain Righteousness upon us upon all the Earth This is indeed prepar'd peculiarly for Israel the Ten Tribes at their Conversion after the so long Captivity shadowed under riding ploughing breaking the Clods till the sowing in righteuusness at their restoration It is now near that they who have been so long lost that it shall be said of them These where have they been shall with the whole Gentile World seek the Lord. Let us count which way we can the time must be near exceeding near Whoso is wise and he shall understand the Scripture concerning these things prudent and he shall know them For the ways of the Lord are all righteous and true concerning them Vpright men shall know how to walk in them while transgressors fall most dishonourably and finally therein And when this is there shall be a great Rain a Rain of Righteousness that shall come down upon the World This shall make a mighty Change as the Earth is changed by a mighty coming down a pouring down of Rain after a long Drought so this Rain shall refresh the Inheritance of God that hath been so long weary Righteousness shall come down as showers upon the Grass and as the soft Rain upon the mow'n Grass as the former and latter Rain in their seasons It is prophesied of Jesus Christ coming in his Kingdom he shall come down so Psal 72.6 c. So that in his days Righteousness For the Righteous shall flourish and abundance of peace so long as the Moon endureth and then as Psal 85.9 10 11. His salvation shall be nigh all them that fear him that Glory may dwell in all the Earth Mercy and Truth shall meet together Righteousness and Peace shall kiss each other Righteousness shall look down from heaven or as the Rain from heaven shone upon with the healing wings of the Sun of Righteousness It shall represent the bow of the Covenant in the Clouds in the Day of this Rain Ezek. 1.28 Rev. 10.1 and Truth shall then spring out of the Earth in abundance This State shall be as irresistable as the Rain against which tho Princes Powers Councils and all their Armies should conspire they cannot help it yea the Heavens themselves commanded by God cannot withhold or restrain their showers any more than they can give them till the time appointed by God So it shall bring into the ways of Righteousness when Righteousness shall come down thus from Heaven All the prophaness and wickedness that is at this time shall not be able to hinder it any more than we can hinder the Rain It will not stay nor tarry for the children of men All the Promises and Prophecies shall come to pass at this time that God hath appointed and shall tarry no longer the windows of heaven shall be opened the waters above the Firmament shall come down the deep shall be broken up And whatever shall not then be rained upon shall be given to salt for ever And This shall be sudden as Elijah's Rain sudden and at an Instant beginning in a Cloud about as big as a man's hand and so covering the whole heaven But it cannot be till after the Apostacy till the droughty Moons of the Gentiles and of the Beast are expir'd It cannot be while the Days of the VVitnesses Sackcloth Prophecy last For they have power to shut heaven that it rain not in the days of their Prophesie That is it is determined by God It shall not rain in those Days Rev. 11.6 There was some of this Rain in the very beginning of the Reformation when the Thunders uttered their Voices But it stopped at their sealing yet the Effects remain to this Day in so much enjoyment of the Gospel as we have The heavens opened so far because it was the Morning of half time It stopp'd because it was but half time begun and not râ—n out At the end of half time or 1697. there shall be a full and effective Thunder and a much greater Rain of Righteousness even preparing for the Harvest Then he who sits upon the white shining Cloud shall bring forth even the harvest it self in the Glory of his Kingdom when he will weary as the Expression is in Job c. 37.11 the thick Cloud of Righteousness by so abundant a watering the Earth and scatter the bright Cloud by dispersing Righteousness in so great an abundance And it shall be turned about by his Counsel to do whatsoever he commandeth upon the face of the world in the Earth He causeth it to come whether for correction or for his Land Judgment upon his Enemies Mercy for his Kingdom Hearken unto this Oh whoever we are that profess the Name of Christ Stand still and consider these wondrous works of God as held out to us in the Prophecies of Scripture And then shall be held that great Feast of the Thousand Years to the Lord in which all the Feasts of the Lord that were the Types shall concur meet and unite the Feast of Weeks or Harvest the Feast of Passover the Day of Trumpets and Attonement the great Feast of Tabernacles Brief Considerations OF THE Late Trepidation of the Earth so sensible in this City and other Parts of this Nation and beyond the Sea particularly in the Kings Camp TOGETHER With that Tremendous Judgment on our English Plantation in Jamaica and so as upon our Selves by an Earthquake as both an earnest Persuasive to Repentance and Prognostick of the Kingdom of Christ. UPON Hebr. xii 25 c. See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh c. Whose Voice then shook the Earth but now he hath promis'd Yet once more I shake not only the Earth but Heaven also c. I Hope it will not be thought impertinent if I take advantage of the fresh Providences that have given an Alarm to this Nation by the late Concussion of the Earth most gently and by way of Admonition in this Chief City the Royal Camp and with so much dread and terror in that Colony of it self Wherein 2000 perished according to the most perfect Account Printed by Mr. Miller at the Gilded Acron in St. Paul's Church Yard Price 2 d. in Jamaica Because the Things are very great as they reveal from Heaven either the Power and Wrath of God in the Desolation he made by the last mentioned and of his Power and Goodness in the first mentioned within our selves immediately that he did so much and no more and so both ways move to Repentance and to Serve him with more Heed-taking of him with Reverence and Godly Fear as being a consuming Fire And also because this Warning God hath hereby given in this Nation
doeth the Will of God abideth for ever No Saint shall be Transposed out of his Saintship He that is Righteous let him be Righteous still He that is Holy let him be Holy still These Things are Asaluta not to be shaken And then on the other part it must be sadly said that Wickedness shall not be Transpos'd in regard of its Guilt in regard of its Filth If not removed in this World by Faith and Repentance not in the World to come Wickedness shall be Wickedness still it shall have a House builded it shall be established Zech. 5.11 and it shall be setled on its own Base and wicked Men shall be wicked Men still When once it is come to that Time there shall be no Transposal He that is Vnrighteous let him be Vnrighteous still He that is Filthy let him be Filthy still Rev. 21.11 Now seeing all this great Doctrine of the Apostle is conveyed to us under this Symbol or Representation of an Earthquake or the Shaking of the Earth and not only of the Earth but of the Heaven also let us enquire into the Scripture-Accounts of an Earthquake and apply it to the present Occasion that it may bring us to a serious holy sense and that what we have seen in a hand breadth may move us to consider what we shall see and feel as in the whole Heaven and Earth in large and in full For if what we have been sensible of as in a Glance or in Passage hath affected any with Fear especially what was done in a part of our Nation beyond the Sea which is but a very little Thing yea a Nothing in comparison of what shall be in its own Times in its proper Times How much more ought we to be affected with the Assurances God hath given us of a Change so much greater For as it may be said to us If we have run with the Foot-men and they have wearied us How shall we contend with Horses If in the present State which is as a Land of Peace and wherein we trust we have been so affrighted What shall we do in the swelling of Jordan I come therefore to the second Head viz. To make Remarks upon the nature of such Motions and Trembles of the Earth and their Fitness to be a Shade of the Kingdom of Christ and wherein they are so And herein I propose three things 1. To consider the strict nature of Earthquakes according to the Scripture-Foundations of Discourse concerning them 2. To enquire into the Causes why God is pleas'd to make such Concussions and Convulsions in Nature 3. To observe upon the great Metaphorical or Figurative Earthquakes that is Changes in the present State of the World that have been since the Death and Resurrection of our Lord and how the Observation of them may be made subservient to the due Improvement of our Thoughts in regard to the late Earthquakes we have heard of or been at all sensible of more of late I begin then with the first Head in Four Points Point I. The Scripture teacheth us This great Globe of Earth and Water is hung by the mighty Wisdom Skill and Power of the great Geometer of Heaven and Earth The Earth being Round is on every side encompassed with Air and Skie as they who sail it round find as well as by Reason it is demonstrated as a Ball in the Air So we read Job 26.7 He stretcheth out the North over the empty Place for so to our eye and motion the meer Air seems to be and he hangeth the Earth upon nothing I know this is a Point proper to Philosophical Discussion that it may go as far as it can upon But those Questions God asked Job 38.4 c. would pose the wisest of the World Declare if thou hast understanding Who hath laid the Measures of the Earth If thou knowest who hath stretched the Line upon it so that it is in just number weight and measure Whereupon are the Foundations thereof fastned or who laid the Corner-stone thereof There may be handsome and plausible solving the Phenomenae as they speak before Men who know as little the best of them one as another but before God all is but darkning Counsel by Words without Knowledge Now when it is so that the Earth hangs thus How must it needs be that God as he pleases may shake the Earth out of its place with a touch of his hand and all the Inhabitants thereof and his Enemies particularly be shaken out of it or off from it or whither or how he pleases For if that bold Man of Mathematicks durst say Give me where to set my foot and I will remove the Earth what can infinite Understanding and Power do or if he does but slacken his hand from holding the Ballance even keeping the Scales of Earth and Air just or if there be such a one as with great Reason hath been thought the Poize of the Central Fire Even all would be in immediate Confusion On this Consideration then any kind of Earthquakes is no wonder the wonder is they are not every day and not to the utmost The only security is the unchangeableness of Divine Ordination for such a time as he hath decreed since the Flood wherein in all appearance of Reason as well as Scripture there was even in this regard a Jog as one may say of it 2. The Ballance is in this regard yet so Even and just that nothing we account most surely founded stands so fast so firm and secure as the Earth that it cannot be moved So that allowing it to have a Diurnal or every days Revolution from East to West yet it is with such equality that it disturbs all upon it no more than a Fly sitting it self fast on a Globe is unsettled by its being turn'd round Notwithstanding this motion the Earth is founded on the Seas and Established on the Floods that is the Waters are so every way compacted under and about and over it that it is as it were founded upon it as on Pillars of Marble which may have been understood first according to the excellent forementioned Theory of the Earth 2. As the Cement and Fixation of the upper Parts of the Earth is the moisture it receives from the Waters 3. As the ambient or round-about Air hath a more immediate force upon the Waters to crowd and keep them close to the Earth than the Air it self could have upon the Earth the Water being a middle Body between Air and Earth even as the Air is between that subtile Matter we call Ether and Air. So that the Earth hath Foundations Pillars Corner-stone in Scripture-Language And this is indeed absolutely necessary for such kind of Bodies and Works as are to move and rest upon this Earth which is as a Sea in regard of the variety of Creatures in it wherein are Things creeping innumerable and both great and small Beasts and Man the highest Order of Animals Now these require such a
solid Floor and Pavement to move upon such a Bed to rest upon Upon this Earth is the whole Vegetative Nature both nourished and supported as in a Nursery even from the Cedar in Lebanon to the Hysop that grows in the Wall Hereon have all the Great Buildings the Palaces Castles Towers multiplied into Cities and Towns their Foundations Now seeing all these have their Order their Quiet their Safety by the steddiness of the Earth whenever it is moved there is an immediate Shatter Confusion Disorder Desolation an Amaze a Horror upon all Creatures of Sense and especially of Reason an Affrightment and Terror upon Nature it self because hereby the great Laws and Sanctions of Creation and Providence are violated For concerning the Earth God spake and it was done he commanded and it stood fast Psal 33.9 3. The Earth is stuff'd with variety of Matter Humours and Vapors in its Bowels Fire Water Vapor Air Minerals Sulphur Piceous Matter Now it self is so made as to lye close and to lye still every clod of Earth compacts it self and would lye in as little room as it can It is heavy and sluggish and unapt to move whereas all the rest of its Inmates are for Motion and Action some of them of very earnest and vigorous Motion and for Propagation and Enlargement of themselves The Earth will not move but on some great violence and force so when those working and active Parts find they are fettered and imprisoned and cramp'd they grow furious and outragious and rend and tear every thing to make and force their way and all on the sudden and at once very often for being either gather'd together in great Caverns and Hollows of the Earth their Room grows too strait and little and so they are forc'd to transplant themselves or having as one may say very often a Spirit of Contradiction one to another they fall into Feuds and Wars one with another and they that are overcome and fall under the Mastery of others are forc'd and driven and made to fly out with great violence and the very same thing may fall out in divers lesser Veins and Tubular Passages or Pipes in the Earth where though the Stores of these Vapors or Mineral Spirits are lesser yet if it be in many of them together the Contest may be very great and the Fury very discomposing to the Earth Thus there are within the Earth those Bombs and Mortars those Cannon and Ordnance those Battering Rams and Engines those Mines oft sprung and natural Gun-powder and fiery Bullets those lesser Screwed Guns all which are the Ammunition of Nature or rather of the God of Nature Thus when they are discharg'd and let off it is with great Noise Dread and Astonishment and oftentimes Destruction to the Inhabitants of the Earth Who almost hath not heard of Aetna and Vesuvius and other the Mountains spouting Fire in several Parts of the World And as there are such constant known and open Eruptions in Nature so are there secret sudden and extemporary ones And thus in the Heavens over us there are like Contests and Collisions falling and clapping of Clouds Thunders Lightnings fiery Meteors and flaming Balls and these often corresponding and as it were holding Intelligence with the same in Earth And these are certainly often Causes one of another by the Tone or Link of Air being broken and the Elastic Force or Spring of it flying this way and that way as lately in Jamaica according to the most prudent Accounts from thence Every thing then must needs be torn and havock'd as those Motions hurry this way or that way Persons Animal Creatures and Things at such times And as these are in the World of Nature so are they in the Political World when Nations or People are too full for their Place and transplant themselves by forcing into other Nations when Wars those great Disputes of Nations arise when People or Armies fall into Mutiny these are Political Earthquakes and when Men are oppressed in Religion by domineering Superstition and Laws of Vniformity and imposing on the Consciences and Faith of Men There are Religious Earthquakes The Psalmist puts them altogether Psal 65.7 8. Which setteth fast the Mountains being girded with Power which stillest the noise of the Seas the noise of their Waves and the multitude of the People This God does in Mercy when he keeps all quiet but there are Times when all these being in Hubbub and Mutiny the Mountains shake and roar together with the Seas and Waves and the Multitude of People in their Strivings who are therein emphatically called the Mobile that They that dwell in the uttermost Parts are afraid of these Tokens thus from one end of Nations or even of the World to another there arise dreadful Fears at the Tokens of God unhinging the World called therefore Prodigies and Portents For what Interest God hath in these shall be spoken in the next Particular I only observe further There are in the Little World by the wrestling of contrary Humours in the Bodies of Men such Spoutings of Fire as in Fevers such Deluges of Water as in Dropsies such Earthquakes in violent Diseases such sulphureous Vapors in horrid Melancholies or Fits or in the Arteries and Sinews as in Gouts and Rheumatisms in those Arthritical Pains in the strait and close Tubes of the Body such Swimmings of the Head as resemble what hath been spoken of in the outer World but above all in Consciences 4. Let all these things be trac'd as much as they can to their natural Causes yet Scripture ascribes all to God Psal 148.8 Fire Hail Snow Vapor all fulfil his Word He worketh his Signs and Wonders among the Armies of Heaven and the Inhabitants of the Earth and none can stay his hand for all the Inhabitants of the Earth are reputed as nothing in such a Case Dan. 4.35 except he pleases to stay it himself or can say to him What dost thou As if they should say What dost thou mean who hast made Heaven and Earth and preservest it to put it into these Disorders But he gives no Account of his matters in these Things And seeing he holds all natural Causes in his hand and ballances them every moment what is it to say All these Things have their proper Causes but to say in true sense that God does all These for all Nature is indeed Miracle constant and as we say in ordinary But God indeed does in more lofty Style and Elegancies and Eloquences of Language assume to himself the Government of these affrightful Motions in Heaven or Earth Thunders Lightnings Earthquakes throughout Scripture as if they were immediately done by his own hand as if he took this Globe of Earth and Sea which he hath Hung upon nothing and shook it out of its place or as if he immediately shot off his great Pieces either in the Bowels of the Earth or in the Skies or sprung a Mine in the Earth And it must needs be so if
of deep Tribulation and Temptation such as none ever was before to All but the Servants of God and Christ Dan. 12.1 Mat. 24.21 Rev. 3.10 c. 7.14 Now therefore It becomes him by whom are All things and for whom are All Things seeing he hath determined so great an Earthquake at last to give such Terellaes of it such little Parts Pieces and Models of it that might Inlighten Awaken and Assure the World concerning it and to have set up such a Pyramid of it by the Flood in general to all the World and to Sodom and the Cities about it in more particular in the Beginning of the World and to speak in the Eloquence of what he will do on every occasion of a greater Judgment on any Nation or People and to ioyn with it the Thunder and Lightnings of his Power and Voice that are as the Shakings of Heaven and generally fall in with the Shaking of the Earth And thus we find all along the Scripture and with great Relation to this very Earthquake ushering in the Kingdom of Christ and the Destruction of Babylon the great Symbol of his Enemies so Psal 18.7 Esay 13.13 with very many Pieces more And this is to make the Thoughts of it familiar to Men and to acquaint them throughly with God's great purpose herein for hereby a short Work will God make on Earth yet every Man Woman and Child shall be rais'd on purpose to see this great Sight and to feel it The Earth shall cast out her dead for it and no more cover them This is that Earthquake in which God arises to shake terribly the Earth Esay 2. wherein it shall be indeed as a chaâ—ed Roe and as a Sheep no man cares to take up tho now they are so greedy of it Then the Lord will make it empty and under the great Desolation overthrowing and turning upside down Persons and Things and all distinction of Servants Masters and Mistresses Purchasers Sellers Lenders Borrowers as is describ'd Esay 24. which shall end in the Sun 's being confounded the Moon asham'd when God comes to Reign before his Ancients in Glory And in the New Testament we find at the Death of our Lord Jesus Christ Mat. 27.50 when he gave up that mighty Breath and with that loud Voice commended that immortally blessed Spirit into the Hand of God There was a Great Earthquake and the Rocks rent and the Graves opened and after his Resurrection many Bodies of Saints came forth and appeared to many in the Holy City a most admirable Type of the Last Great Earthquake At the Resurrection of Christ there was again an Earthquake Matth. 28.2 At the Pouring out of the Spirit Acts 2.1 There was from Heaven a mighty rushing Wind that fill'd the House and so must needs shake it and as the Appearance of Fiery Tongues when the Apostles Pray'd after that solemn Conference with the Elders of the Jews the House shook c. 4. When Paul and Silas had praised God in Prison there was an Earthquake and the Foundations of the Prison were shaken the Doors opened and the Chains of every one were loosed Acts 16.25 All these were real Historical Earthquakes or Matters of Fact and they are also great Types and Emblems with Relation to what shall be at the Kingdom of Christ and even Predictions and lively Assurances thereof In the Revelation that most August Prophecy of the Kingdom of Christ we read of Four great Earthquakes that were so many Advances of the Kingdom of Christ 1. That grand Deturbation of or dismounting Paganism or the casting down the Dragon or Devil inhabiting it from Heaven who was worshipped in Paganism as a God and all his Host in the Fourth or Roman Empire were cast down with him when that Empire in Constantine became Christian And this was celebrated by those lofty Expressions concerning it as a great Shaking even of Heaven and Earth Rev. 6.12 c. 12.5 as shall be at the Kingdom of Christ. 2. The final Extirpation of Paganism or Rooting it out though with that unhappy Revolution of Antichristianism ready to come in with the Barbarous Nations into that Empire and so undermining the Kingdom of Christ. This was at the famous Victory of Theodosius And this was as Church Historians tell us with a very great Tempest of Thundring and Lightning and motion of the Earth in the Letter as well as the Prophetic Representation of the Thunder Lightnings Voices and Earthquake the great Emblems of the Kingdom of Christ 3. The Earthquake that shall be at the Rising of the Witnesses when that Great City whose Emblem is Ten or Tenth in regard of the Ten Kings who give their Kingdom to the Beast that carries it shall fall Rev. 11. cap. 17. 4. The whole Time of the Seventh Trumpet shall in regard of the mighty Effects and Events be a continual Earthquake even till the great and real Shake of Heaven and Earth the once more in the Text that what cannot be shaken may remain as hath been explained Rev. 16.18.20 compared with c. 11. Now that Earthquake nam'd last but this last viz. the Fall of the great Antichristian State I affirm to be so near as 1697. approaching wherein the Kingdom of Christ shall be in its Succession Now what arises from all this Inference but that it may both urge the Necessity and give all Invitations and Incitements to Repentance which cannot be higher express'd than in the Apostle's own Words as 't is us'd in this Context Let us have Grace or rather Take Hold lay earnest Hold of Divine Grace and Power in Christ that we may serve him with Reverence or all Holy Awes of Modesty and Shamefacedness as the Angels that cover Faces and Feet lest we give distaste and with good Heed-taking as the Israelites that kept within bounds lest God should have broken out And this Service of God with holy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Modesty and shame of our own Unworthiness and horrid Nakedness This Good Heed-taking not to run into God as a Consuming Fire is most shewn exercis'd and practis'd in timely Repentance For all at that Day of Earthquake Thunders and Lightnings once for All All must be near for God will come near to them as a swift Witness and to All not Repenting and Reconcil'd in Christ he will be a Consuming Fire Mal. 3.5 With this Heb. 12. And to this purpose Let these very late Motions of the Earth be consider'd in all the foregoing Discourse for I cannot but be perswaded they are Pledges of that great Change that shall suddenly be in the World in the Fall of the whole Papal and Antichristian State besides their general strong Motive to Repentance as they speak God both in his Divine Power and Ability to execute Wrath as also in his Goodness Long-suffering and Patience leading to Repentance and how much more if the Approach of his Kingdom it self the greatest Motive to Repentance be by it declar'd so near That I may therefore
improve so remarkable a Providence upon the English Plantation in Jamaica which is therefore to be reputed a part of England it self and the so gentle and tender Admonition of that Motion of the Earth among our Selves as also on other Parts I would discourse them first as an Argument to Repentance and then that they are a Prediction of a great Change on the World 1. I first consider that of Jamaica which we must needs acknowledge a part of our Selves and therefore it is to be looked upon as England though beyond the Sea and so we are all equally therein concerned particularly that many of us had Interests and Relations that suffered in it we are therefore nearly concern'd and so are strongly called upon to Repentance by it and the more that it fell so particularly upon that Town or Port that bore the Ensigns of Sovereignty and Government called Port Royal that was the Key of the Island and Plantation the Port and Harbor the Seat of the Kings House and of the Houses of the most considerable Merchants and Traders and of the Defence and Strength of the Place by its Bastions and Fortifications 2. I consider that the Judgment bears a very great Resemblance to the Judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah For the Thunder and Lightning and Balls of Fire that came down from Heaven according to the most credible Accounts of Eye-witnesses though the Town was not that I have heard touched by the Fire carry the Signatures of Sodom's Judgment after a serene Rising of the Sun which must be by an Earthquake and Inundation for the Earthquake and Inundation was in the Suddenness and dreadful Desolation and Destruction that it made How like to that which turn'd Sodom into a Lake or Dead Sea to this day And herein what was short of Sodom's Judgment in the Fire was made up in the Dread of the Earthquake and so many about 2000 Persons perished as by that newly sober published Account before nam'd appears A Shade of the Place and of the Parts on which the Earthquake had greatest Power is given in it From hence then I argue 1. That it is not to be ascrib'd to natural Causes any other way than as the supreme Counsel and Being hath all Causes in his Hand and at his Dispose If it had been only an Earthquake and Inundation there had appeared less of God and of his Supream Dominion But when there was a Correspondence and as it were Intelligence between Heaven and Earth and Sea above and below It leads us to consider Him Who does whatever he pleases in Heaven and in Earth and in all Deep Places He causeth the Vapors to ascend from the Earth He maketh Lightnings for the Rain He bringeth the Wind out of his Treasures Psal 135.6 7. Were not Men resolved as Pharaoh to stand up like Rock against God they must needs acknowledge Him in this The Works of God his Judgment on Sodom of old is an Ensample to all After Ages How much more This so upon our own Times on whom the Ends of the World are come though we had no share in it but it was upon another People How much more when so upon our Selves though in another Climate 2. I consider as a further Argument to Repentance herein that great Scripture Amos 4.6 That it comes upon this Nation in a Train and Connexion of Judgments all within less than half the Age of a Man at Moses's Computation Or 70 Years Psal 90.10 The Pestilence and Dreadful Plague in the Year 1665. The Fire on this City in 1666. The several Intestine Commotions and Wars abroad And now it is come to this Judgment though but on some of us yet it was but so upon Israel v. 11. I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah And this is the last till God come to a Judgment so great he would not name Therefore will I do Thus or this unto thee Therefore prepare to meet thy God Oh Israel in his severest Judgment if thou return not And so according to the general course of the Word and Dealings of God especially with a People under such a clearness of Divine Revelation as we are It must needs be whether Men will Hear or Forbear It must end in utter Destruction if upon this we do not Return to God according I say to the General Rules and Standards of his Word 3. That great Admonition of our Saviour's is an utter Prohibition of our sheltring our selves under such an Imagination that they were greater Sinners than we are for he hath solemnly denounced That whoever does not Repent shall not only Perish but shall Perish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in like manner with those who have Perish'd by extraordinary and most eminent and remarkable Judgments Luc. 13.3 5. So that without Repentance we are always under the Impendency the hanging over of so great Judgments upon us as came indeed upon the Jews in the Roman Desolations soon after and must upon this Nation according to ordinary Rules and Standards of the Word and Providence of God as I have said But if not seeing that Word of Christ shall be true that we shall likewise perish if we do not Repent We must be raised to that Greatest Earthquake Thunder and Lightning and the Dreadful Tempest the Snares Fire and Brimstone God will then Rain and the Horrible Tempest that shall be the Portion of every wicked and impenitent Person 's Cup Psal 11.6 at that Time that Day that shall burn as an Oven and consume the Wicked Root and Branch at that Battel of the Great Day of God Almighty in the Valley of Jehosaphat and Armageddon when he will go through and burn up all together What Cause have we therefore to look diligently we may be found of him in Peace at that Day and not in a State of War of that War that is a War in Righteousness or a War of Just and Righteous Judgment in the Day of Judgment 4. I observe from so many Persons taken away so suddenly in Jamaica How great an Argument it makes against Trust to a Death-Bed-Repentance when the very Possibilities of a Death-Bed to Repent upon may be so snatch'd from us and therefore with how great Force and Evidence and with what a just Timousness the Observations on these Providences There and Here are to be adjusted to these Discourses on the general necessity of Repentance and the great Hazard of committing our selves to the Adventure of a Death-Bed-Repentance when so suddenly Providence that is as in a Course of Earthquakes and hath given us such Warnings may take us away living and if we Repent not in his Wrath. 5. As between those two Dispensations of Providence the Dreadful Earthquake in Jamaica and that here I consider with what a Goodness and yet with a Faithfulness to move to Repentance God hath shewn us both the Tenderness and the Skill of his Hand in the Motion of the Earth we were
sensible of For as in the most admirable Knowledge of his Almighty Hand he took up our Earth and poiz'd it and in the Doing of it did as it were say How shall I give thee up London How shall I make thee as Admah and Zeboim the Cities the Lord overthrew as Jamaica or Port-Royal My Heart is turned within me my Repentings are kindled together I will not execute the fierceness of my Wrath I am God and not Man I will not enter into this City Hosea 11.8 9. as into Jamaica Behold then on Them Severity to Us Goodness if we Turn to him in his Goodness and so abide in it or else according to ordinary Rules we must be cut off also And there is indeed most of the Power and Wisdom of God in doing so much and no more For a rude and unskilful Hand can Throw Down Spoil and Destroy but only an Understanding and Almighty Hand could weigh the Earth as in Scales and as in a Ballance lift up and set down in the very same place and state And how much more of Love and Grace to melt and soften us as if he had said Behold what I am able to do to Ruin you in a moment But I will only shew what I can Do and I will Do you no hurt Oh that this Riches of Goodness Long suffering and Patience might lead us to Repentance who himself staid his own Hand and said to Himself What am I doing when none else could and He did it not I come now to the Second Head I propos'd for the Improvement of our Thoughts on these Earthquakes in general but particularly of that but just a Motion of the Earth in this City and the Royal Camp and other parts beyond the Sea That it is predictive and foretelling of a great Change in the World And of this I give these following Arguments 1. It is beyond all denial most evident that Scripture makes use of Earthquakes as the Conveyance of its Description of the great Works and Changes God will make for the Kingdom of Christ till it appears That course of Earthquakes Providence hath been in of late years is surely a Declaration of those great Changes he is about to make first by the Succession of that Kingdom and then by its own Appearance For if first Christ convey his Kingdom by Earthquakes as Types and Pledges it is but reasonable to expect when he alarms the World with Earthquakes he has something to do more than ordinary in the Advancement of it else his so great use of them in his Word would be but as the sounding of the Mountains and Amuse in vain By the so often use of Earthquakes he teaches us to expect by them Seeing as on one side he uses Earthquakes in his Word to express great Things for his Kingdom by so on the other side he uses Earthquakes that are so in Fact to and in his Providence to foretell some Changes for his Kingdom following them according to his Word 2. The Nations and Places where this Motion of the Earth came are such as are closely concerned in the Change that God is about to make being either of the Protestant Profession or of the Ten Kings that yet give their Kingdom to the Beast That God was pleas'd therefore to guide the Motion of unquiet Vapors over so many Countries and Cities it was like the sending the Cup and Yoke in Jeremy to so many Nations on whom he would execute his Displeasure by Nebuchadnezzar Jerem. c. 25. c. 27. so now he hath sent by this Earthquake as it were by a Messenger to make known to the Nations his Kingdom so near For so mild and gentle a Motion that had nothing of Wrath and execution of Vengeance in its Commission seems entrusted only with so great a Notice And I cannot but hope and am even assured That this City is to bear so happy a Part in the Kingdom of Christ that it shall be preserved for his Servant David 's sake and that God in Christ is the Holy one in the midst of it 3. That which above all assures me so is That Sure Word of Prophecy that Time is so near for the Succession of the Kingdom of Christ which is by Prophecy describ'd by a great Earthquake that I can understand nothing by this Move but that Introducing or Bringing it in with the Call of the Witnesses and the Fall of the Tenth of the Great City For I cannot understand that there is Space or Room for any other Change but of That to the Kingdom of Christ entring into its Succession wherein all shall have the Advantages of Repentance and Reformation by the pouring out of the Spirit and the Preaching of the everlasting Gospel even to all the World and the Converts of that Time shall be as the Drops of Dew from the Womb of the Morning A Change of so great advantages to the World that none have any reason to be offended or to complain of the Tydings except They who hate to be Reform'd I desire no other Beauty of Feet or Face than to bring and pubâ—ish it It is all holy pure spiritual benign and beneficent to those who have but any Desires after God Christ and Goodness both in inward and outward Bounties There is greatest reason it should be daiâ—y prayed for and daily it is to be praised Verily It may be said Many Kings Prophets and Righteous Men have desired to see the Things that shall then be seen and have not seen them and to hear the Things that shall then be heard and have not heard them Oh therefore that this may be what this gracious Heave of the Earth does presage as I have great Assurance it does That there is no more danger by it than this That we should take notice This Earth with great Sedateness gave a Motion with joy as John Baptist in the Womb to foretell It is with all its Kingâ—oms soon to become the Kingdom of the Lord and of his Christ wherein Righteousness shall dwell That soon after upon a Purification from all Defilements the Heavens over it and it self may become a New Heaven and a New Earth and the Will of God done as in parallel as in that Heaven and upon Earth But though I have endeavoured to make good my way all along yet I would in the Conclusion give a more solemn Answer to the chief Objections I have taken notice of Objct. 1. Some of the sagacious Observers of Nature have so trac'd extraordinary Events to their Causes that they have foretold particularly Earthquakes by observing the Ripeness of natural Causes for them Answ 1. Whatever Observations the wisest of Mankind have made they are not able so far to penetrate the Screws of Natural Causes fitted to the necessitating one another to such Effects but that supernatural Agents may give a Lift to the Wheels of Second Causes that usually move but on Earth viz. in a natural way to move much above Earth that
there might have been more reason to hope well of Last-Breath-Penitencies if there had not been a Pattern of such a one in all Points as much above the imitiation of those of our days as the Heaven is above the Earth It is such a one as if God had said of it if I accept a Dying Repentance behold this consider it every way and take notice by it Ante mihi fidem latronis ostende tunc tibi latronis beatitudinem policere August what a one I will have it God putting the Case and resolving it thus hath given a much more positive Determination concerning it than if the Case had never been put The End therefore I aim at is to make it evident upon general Reasons and particularly from this Instance That a Death-bed Repentance is a hazard so unspeakably great that no Man can without Folly extreamly prodigious commit to so much adventure an affair of so great importance to an eternal condition Hereunto I will raise this Treaty by these degrees 1. By observing the Judgment of Divines concerning this Case and balancing the most favourable with the more severe 2. By detecting the Follies that have given a Reputation to a Death-Bed Repentance 3. By examining the most hopeful Appearances of this kind of Repentance and shewing there are plain Causes of them very much below the Nature of true Repentance wherewith I will compare them 4. By observing the Extraordinaries of which the Repentance of this Dying Malefactor was composed because of which it can hardly be drawn into a Precedent To all these I will subjoin pressing Considerations on every side that Men should not delay their return to God to the latter Times of Life For the First the Judgment of Divines in the Point I begin with that severer one Dr. Taylor 's Invalidity of a late Repentance yet built upon great Piety and Reason that asserts it a plainly impossible thing a Man on his Death-Bed should Repent with that Repentance the Scripture so oft Discourses of and promises Pardon to and threatens the neglect of with Perishing and therefore concludes a Dying Man that hath not already repented must needs fall not into the Sin of Despair For who is bound to hope that hath not the reasons of his hope given him by God but into the Misery of Despair For how miserable is he whom God hath left to the boiling Sea of his own Horrors and thrown him out no Anchor of Hope However this Sentence seem rigorous yet when we consider the ponderous Arguments it uses it may rather amaze us than provoke our Censure For First it is very irreconcileable with the Glory of God that Men who have had the knowledge of God and been called upon all their Lives to give up themselves to him should be accepted when they pour out to him the Lees and Dregs of Life instead of the generous Spirits of it That he that hath had in his Flock a Male should vow and Sacrifice to the Lord a corrupt Thing and yet escape the Curse of the Deceiver The Expressions of Scripture are innumerable in which God Disavows such Prostitutions of his Grace as is hereafter to be urged but seals such e're they are aware under Hardness of Heart and a Reprobate Sense to Destruction 2. It appears impossible there should be a discharge of the Duties of Repentance when Men are a Dying that they should draw within the hollow of that little Span that is also otherwise incumbred the vastness of that Action that is necessary to take off the Brawn of a long Impenitency That a Man should live the life of Holiness that is just a Dying that the Tree that hath been always barren should bring forth good Fruit now it is a hewing down These things are very contradictious how can Repentance plant it self in the Soul and settle gracious habits there in so short a space Or in an instant by Mortification root out those Lusts and sinful Affections that have been many years eating into the Heart Repentance must have a time for Fruits and those Fruits for Ripening and Concoction which a Death-Bed will not afford So that it cannot be that Repentance of the Gospel but at the best only some first strokes of it 3. There must be a living to God before a Man dyes to God It is the Supream Law every one must glorifie him here on Earth and finish the work he hath given them to do in the World They must work the works of him that sent them while it is day before the night cometh in which no Man can work After this Men are received into the glory of God 4. In Repentance we must be in the same Circumstances of Temptation we were in in the time of Sinning But it will be hard to find in what the state of a Dying Man differs from that of him that is already dead as to this business of Repentance but that he may as well be allowed to Repent that is entred into Eternity as he that stands on the very brink of it This Censure cannot be injurious to Men living and in their full Opportunity suppose in Speculation it stretches Principles of great weight and truth too far yet it recompenses for it self by the wholesomness of it to practice for who can suffer by being necessitated to an early Repentance so much his Duty so much his Safety Further it is most Prophetick most undoubtedly true of most Mens late Repentance That it is too sudden too Mushrom a Birth to have any worthiness in it This Repentance almost universally withers afore it grows up and proves an Abortion whether it comes to the tryal of a longer Life wherein it vanishes as a Cloud and former Impiety returns or whether it pass immediately into Eternity where it sinks down into Misery for attempting the Regions of Life and wanting the Purity that rises thither it is beaten back with all its Pretensions as a Foggy Exhalation that would climb to Heaven but is forced down and made to rest below so that for the Universality of Death-Bed Repentances this Judgment is truly calculated If it should seem too Cruel to the dying Condition to smother Men alive with the second Death as Hazael spread upon the dying King a thick Cloath dipped in Water to stifle and benum at once all motions towards God let us consider what advice it offers against the Stupidities of Despair When we are fallen into so unhappy a Condition that the whole weight of Eternity depends upon a very little Moment it perswades Men would do all they can in return to God though that all must be trusted with the Prerogative of Mercy for that Mercy which is stated in the Promises of the Gospel and is in ordinary cannot help them in the great point of Salvation however it may alleviate their Condemnation and lessen their Torment I mad add if that which appears a Messenger of Death should have secret reprieve in
so many Discourses that the Kingdom of Heaven is nigh at Hand that upon that very Consideration you may be most Zealous in it So I earnestly Pray you may be Blessed in your Lord finding you so doing Verily I say unto you he shall make you greater Rulers in a truly Evangelical Sense than now you are And as to the black and dark side I make no mention of it because I am perswaded better things of you and such as Accompany the Salvation and Glory of that Kingdom Herein I am Your most Humble and Affectionate Orator T. BEVERLEY A Discourse upon Evangelical Repentance to Salvation not to be Repented of and the Godly Sorrow working it 2 Cor. 7.10 For Godly Sorrow worketh Repentance to Salvation not to be Repented of but the Sorrow of the World worketh Death THERE is no more Universal Notion in the Soul of Man in those Things wherein he hath to do with God or even with Man or with Himself then to Repent that is to be sorry for what he hath done Amiss and wherein he hath Offended and to Resolve and Promise to Amend and to do the Evil he hath done no more It is fitted as a great Instrument of Reconciliation and a second state of Innocency a Reserve after the Ruin and Shipwrack of our First Innocency a Remedy a Reparation after the first Advantages of doing well are lost And it is the infinite Grace of God in a Mediator that there is such a Notion in the World It preserves it from being a Hell in regard either of the extremity and utmost Rages of Wickedness or of the Horrors and Fury of Despair It is the infinite Grace of God in a Redeemer That there is a Place of Repentance as the Apostle calls it Heb. 12. that is place and room for it in mans Heart and that there is place for it in the Acceptance of God that God does not scorn and utterly reject it against him that hath once sinned That he is not inexorable and not to be intreated concerning it For how woful and even Hellishly Miserable would man be without it That the Nature of Man is inclin'd to offer and accept such Repentance one towards another and so that there are mutual Forgivenesses among men and not unappeasable hatreds and that there is in a mans own Conscience a preparedness to acquiesce to be satisfied to Rest and to be Appeased upon finding in the Soul and Action a sorrow for sin and Reformation from it All this keeps the World from being absolutely Hell For Sorrow Dislike Trouble Remorse for what a Man hath done evil move a man to review to acknowledgment to bewailing to confession to change and reformation to a new course of Life and Action Seeing then Man is such a fallen such a Peccant and offending Nature it is infinite grace in God that there is such a Notion such Action in mans Soul as Repentance and that there is not an utter irreconcilableness an unpardonableness after Offense committed neither in Heaven nor on Earth not in the Court of Heaven nor in the Court of Human Nature one towards another nor in the Court of a mans Conscience within himself If it were not so every sin would be like the Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit Matt. 12. Unpardonable and because Unpardonable Impenitable or not to be Repented of and that not only in this World but in that which is to come the World would become a Theater of sin and damnation even a Hell without any Chancery any Appeal to Grace to Mercy or Relenting of Repentance from the hopes of Mercy the reverence and awes of Goodness and Forgiveness Now that which lies loose and scattered or disseminated sown through the whole human Creation That the word of God especially in the Gospel in the New Testament that the Spirit of God hath collected into a more full and solemn Doctrine and open'd the Foundation and laid bare and in view the root or the great place of it How it hath room and reception what are the Sources springs of Efficacy from which it Rises even in the Sacrifice Blood and Redemption of Christ and the mighly Efficacy and Grace of the Divine Spirit what is that godly sorrow which is given by God as the Elaboratory or the Instrument of God for the Operation of it what are the Laws and Rules of it the true form and constitution of it what are the motives and inward considerations mooving to it what are the signs and evidences of its Truth what is the proper time and space for it It resolves the Scruples or Cases of Conscience that may arise in the Soul of Man concerning it it shews the great Fruit certain Benefit and Advantage of it And all these are either most innately residing or some way reducible to this great and excellent Context of the Apostle in which regard I have chosen it and shall endeavour to bring Light accordingly to it and according to these heads I will by the grace of God endeavour to Discourse it 1. In regard it is Repentance to Salvation and that Salvation is no other but in Christ alone Acts 4.12 it plainly shews That the whole Redemption and Salvation of Christ is the proper Basis and Foundation of it the whole Area Court Space and most proper place of it and that the whole Notion and Spirit of it as any way Commensurate to or extended upon the whole human Nature hath its Rise and Original flows from some Communication to the human Nature from Jesus Christ the Redeemer and that yet the word of God and his Gospel only Reveals it fully and genuinely and his spirit is the supreme Operator of it 2. Here is plainly laid down to us the Elaboratory or Instrument God hath prepared in infinite Wisdom and Grace and inlay'd the Soul with in order to Repentance First as it is a Natural Affection subservient to it and then as it is Sanctified by God to so great an end Godly sorrow or sorrow after and according to God worketh down Repentance or brings it forth a sorrow opposed to the sorrow of the World that worketh Death 3. In that it is 1. Repentance to Salvation effectual to it 2. Repentance not to be Repented of 1. Not as a false counterfeit Repentance to be Repented of 2. Always to be carried on and promoted and not recall'â— repeal'd or revers'd but confirm'd by progressive repeated Acts and renewed after Falls 3. In that it is to or lays hold of Salvaetion 4. In that it rises not from an earthly spring or any sorrow not after God In all these Regards it yeilds just reason to Discourse the true Laws and Rules the Frame and true constitution the motives means and considerations for the signs and evidences of sincere Repentance 4. The admirable Fruit and Benefit of it is most visibly and illustriously set forth before us in those words It is Repentance to Salvation not to be repented of 1. It is
this thing in the Gospel let us therefore by Repentance press home and return to God in Christ 2. Again Repentance is the gift of God a Grace given by him If God peradventure will give Repentance and then hath God granted unto the Gentiles Repentance unto Life Christ is a Prince and Saviour raised up by God to give Repentance 2 Tim. 2.25 Acts 5.31 and Remission of Sins So Repentance is a Gift or a Grace It cannot be Educed it cannot be drawn out by anâ— Powers of Nature It is not of Man or of the Will of Man It is not of Bloods It is not by Derivation or Descent from Adam It does not run in the Channel of Human Blood God therefore does not give such Grace in Vain but when he hath settled a Fund of Pardon Reconcilement and Salvation He first settled that else Repentance had been in Vain as the Eye would have been if God had not first made Light Light is alone in Christ He does not give Grace that shall be to no purpose he gives no man the Repentance he will not Accept and Pardon upon He does not expose his own Grace to Damnation or to the Flames of Hell nor does he give any Grace but in the Mediator in the Redeemer So the Redemption of Christ must needs be the Foundation of Repentance there had never been else the Notion the possibility of Repentance there had never been the sound or report of it heard in the World This then being the Foundation let us take the true degrees of the state of Repentance in two Positions Posit 1. God hath wriâ—ten in the very Heart of Man the excellency of this Grace â—nd Duty of Repentance thaâ— it is not far from him that he should go up into Heaven Rom. 10. or down into the Deep or beyond the Sea for it It is in his Heart So the Knowledg of it is very near him God hath also put a Tenderness towards it a Flexibleness he hath made the Soul of Man the Conscience and Affections plyable to it And this we shall see is from the Mediator I confess this may seem hard to be understood seeing Repentance is fitted and prepared for a sinful fallen Creature Now in that man was at first Created upright and perfect and good and what was written in mans Heart was written there in his Creation what place could there be for Repentance Adam was so righteous a person he could need no Repentance why then should repentance be written in his Heart And yet notwithstanding we find by experience and universal Observation It is a notion very intimate to every mans Soul and even indear'd to his Thoughts Every man seems to be glad there is such a notion such an Idea in his Soul and they that hear of it and know it from Scripture acknowledg immediately the goodness and reasonableness of it and rejoyce in it And tho a man do not fall down right upon the Practise of it yet he is pleased with the promise to himself he will at some time repent and reform and grow better and there is proportionably a general Faith Repentance will be accepted and the repenting Offender Pardoned If men are told they must of necessity change repent and reform from their sinful courses If they are perswaded to become other men they are not so apt to be Angry but rather say Acts 24.25 They will take a convenient time for it tho Temptation carry them away yet they heartily Embrace the thing it self as to the assent and submission and acknowledgment that it ought to be so Men are convinc'd that while they defer to enter into the Practise that yet they ought to repent This I assert is through the Grace of the Redeemer I would therefore endeavour to find out how this notion of repentance comes to be so very intimate and connatural to mans Soul and with such a Engraven Engrafted Hope and belief of Pardon upon it How it comes to pass that the demands of Natural Conscience do so wonderfully lead to Repentance and are like those of Natural Justice and common Honesty of Soberness and Temperance of Truth Mercy and Compassion or whatever is accepted in the World as morally good and excellent and even as the deep impressions of natural Religion sense of God and obedience to him All these give an honour â—o Repentance exert and urge the Soul to it By the same sentiments of Soul we allow the one we allow the other also If the remains of natural Conscience call a man out to the one they summon him to the other also And yet all this I affirm is from the Grace of the Redeemer And this I would make out by two things 1. The Lord Jesus Christ the one Mediator between the one God and man who is the Light that Lighteth every Man that commeth into the World 1 Tim. 2.5 John 1 9. Heb. 1.3 hath natural Conscience under his hand and upholdeth all things â—ven as Redeemer by the word of his Power He thâ—n bears up that Law of Holiness engraven on mans Heart in Creation he holds up that rational Moral Frame he keeps that Light that Candle or Taper of God in mans Spirit that it may not be a Lamp put out in obscure Darkness Through him therefore there are remains of that excellent Image wherein Man was first Created even in that Knowledg Righteousness and true Holiness so that Man does not sink either into that blackness of darkness an utter Ignorance of God and insensibleness of him or into an extreme hatred and enmity to God and all Goodness as damned Spirits do Here is the great Efficacy of the Mediator that he shores up and staies this Law of Original Goodness and Holiness in Mans Heart that it does not slide utterly away nor sink 2. Through the Redeemer there is yet so gracious an Administration of the Government of the World the Vengeance of God his just Indignation and Fury against a sinful World and against particular Sinners is restrained God Refrains himself in and through Christ and does not speedily execute Judgment He Exercises an admirable Patience and long Suffering Jere. 9.24 and loving Kindness in the Earth The Earth is full of his Goodness in the midst of much Provocation Lamen 3.22 Malac. 3.6 It is of his tender Mercy we are not Consumed and because his Compassions fail not I am the Lord I change not therefore you the Children of Men are not Consumed The Lord is gracious merciful long-suffering slow to wrath Exod. 34.6 and of great mercy And all this is very Visible every Man may see it Job 36.25 Man may behold it afar off The Heaven and the Earth the Sun and the Moon and the Stars Proclaim it every motion of Nature within and without us Psal 136. tell us that his mercy endureth for ever Now these two laid together explain to us how Repentance is through the Grace of the
is as it were taking the stone out of the Flesh and giving a Heart of Flesh It is that Spirit of Grace of Ingenuous sense of our Ingratitude and unworthy carriage towards God mentioned before out of Zech. 12. and Ezek. 36. Hereupon the Apostle James presses to a great Mourning after God or exercise of Godly sorrow James 4.8 Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you cleanse your hands you sinners purify your hearts you double minded How should this great Self-Purification be Effected By being Afflicted by mourning and weeping by having the Laughter turned to Mourning and the Joy to Heaviness This Godly Sorrow like washing and rubbing the Hands with Water and the close Application of it softens and loosens the Filth that cleaves so close adheres and sticks so fast to the Hands And it arises from that Love and Compassion that is seated towards our selves in our own Natures which when it is by the Hand of Grace pointed aright It is made a mighty Instrument a mighty Efficacy for Conversion and Repentance because when our great Disgust our Sorrow and Self-Affliction is pitch'd upon sin we cast it off as that which is the reason of our sorrow and that stands in our Eye as hateful loathsome filth and impurity that we can by no means endure and therefore we say to it get ye hence Oh! you Foul and abominable Lusts what have I any more to do with you But more particularly two ways this Godly sorrow works to Conversion Repentance Self-Purification 1. By being so prevailing upon the Soul as to drink up all the impure and unholy Affections in our Hearts God giving it therefore by that his Spirit of Grace and ingenuous sense an ascendency a superiority over all other Affections in the Heart at this time he is working Repentance it drinks up all the pleasurable sensual Affections in a Man when a man is in bitterness as one is in bitterness for his first Born and for an only Begotten Child He hath no more Appetite nor Emotion of his Spirits to Lust and Sensuality and sinful Pleasures than such a one hath to do the usual Entertainments and Pleasures of Life when God therefore calls for this sorrow he looks upon it as a great Offence when there is slaying of Oxen and drinking of Wine Esay 22.13 Amos 6.3 c. lying upon beds of Ivory Chaunting to the sound of Viols Inventing Instruments of Musick like David when there is putting on Apparel and the Furniture of Pride For then he commands us as he did the Children of Israel after the sin of the Golden Calf to put off their Ornaments Exod. 33.5 that he might know what to do to them whether theâ— should as true Penitents be spar'd or destroyed in their Impenitency And indeed when any are under the power of this Godly Sorrow in such a posture to Repentance all such Ornaments are nothing All such pleasures are quite out of Tast The Soul hath no relish of them 2 Godly sorrow thus made an Instrument in the Hâ—nd of Grace for working Repentance hath by that its ascendency and superiority an engagement upon all the other Affections with it self to the working Repentance also this the Apostle shews in the very next words to these we are Discoursing upon 2 Cor. 7.11 For this very self same thing that ye sorrowed after a Godly sort what carefulness it wrought in you how great is the care and sollicitude it works in all that so sorrow to get out of their Sins and to return home to God What Apology for Holyness for God and against Sin what Judgment against sin What Fear and Awe of God striking to the very Heart of sin what vehement desire after God after true Grace and perfect Reformation and this boyling up to Zeal or the heigth of Desire that Powerful Religious Affection under the Operation of which a Man cannot bear Evil no not for a moment And lastly there is an holy Revenge upon sin Sathan lust even a man's sinful self by which the Irreconcilable Hatred to every sin is Discovered and a Monument of that Hatred set up in the Soul Thus works godly sorrow to Repentance but the forrow of the World having nothing to do with God with sense of his Displeasure for sin with sin as so great a reason of sorrow and trouble the Spirit remains in all its former Frame of union to the world and to sin and so with the whole state of sin and of the World and of sorrow it sinks down to the center to the place of sorrow for ever For when sorrow that is the Instrument of God in working Repentance does not prevail to that God's end it more certainly sinks down to its Center and that with great Violence as we see in those fore-nam'd Examples of Cain Esau Saul Akitophel Judas who not sorrowing to Repentance went down with greater violence to the Chambers of Death and Sorrow even everlasting sorrow 5. The efficacy of godly sorrow to Repnntance is that it makes the Soul very humble before God the natural effect of sorrow is to meeken and bow the Spirit heaviness in the Heart of Man makes it stoop Prov. 12.25 the guise and mein or Posture of sorrow is to bow down the head like a Bull-rush The Hipocritical mourner does so to imitate true sorrow Esay 58.5 Now this indeed except it turn to God and have Relation to him is the meanness and pusilanimity of a Man but it is the true greatness of Mind to lye down before God and Tremble in his Presence as the melted Metal trembles and quivers before the Founder This dissolving melting Efficacy of godly sorrow is that which turning to God makes the Heart submit it self as the Apostle James speaks in the same Context c. 4.10 Vnder the mighty hand of God Acts c. 9.6 c. 16.30 that he may lift it up it says to God Lord what wilt thou have me to do It says what shall I do to be sav'd What shall I do what shall I do in obedience to God It treads softly before God as if it said to him Lord which way wilt thou have me to go Which Ahab doing tho not with a perfect Heart receiv'd some degree of Favour by 1 Kings 21.27 29. Now this Humility how acceptable is it to God! How yeilding to his Command God gives grace to it Esay 66.2 c. 57.15 God looks off from Heaven and Earth to look to that man that is of a contrite Spirit and trembles at his word He that is the high and lofty one that dwells in the high and holy Place and Inhabits Eternity will Dwell also with the humble spirit to revive the Spirit of the Humble Job 33.17 This sorrow hides Pride from man as the expression is in Job and so fits it to all holy returns to God by Repentance It withdraws man from his purpose It changes the purpose of Man Acts 11.13 that which was
any of these great Rites but they had a Solemn signification a signification as sollemn as the Type was So that there must be some great sense of this day of attonement I know it had a great fulfilling in Christ and in him as an Offering once for all that immediately Entred into the Holy of Holies with his own Blood to appear in Heaven for us It had very great parts of its accomplishment But there are other great Parts that are to be fulfill'd in his Saints and for them as in themselves And especially in this solemn Affliction So that as if any did not afflict their Souls they were to be cut off so now And in these things this day had many very remarkable Lines of the sollemn affliction and attonement that shall be in the very last parts of Time and near the state of the Kingdom of Christ 1. It was an Ordinance throughout the Generations of both Natural and Adopted Israel A Statute for ever that is until the very Kingdom of Christ. 2. It was in all parts of it Sabbattical prepar'd for the great Sabbatism of the Kingdom of Christ. 3. It was when the Holiest of all and the Tabernacle of the Congregation and even the Mercy seat and Altar were Purified and Reconcil'd not in themselves for they were separate and pure especially the Holy of Holies much more the Heavenly Antitypes But in regard of the Vncleanness of the Children of Israel For with relation to all the Saints and Servants of Christ even to the very last of them in this corrupt World of the First Adam they must be Purified and Reconciled that so God and the Lamb coming down with the Holy of Holies and Tabernacle to be with Men and to dwell among them may appear in visible Glory 4. That peculiar Sacrifical Rite of the Scape Goat on this day sent away into the Wilderness was a most lively signification of the final act of Oblivion and act of Amnesty upon all sin and the Curse for it born away into the Land of Forgetfulness and so perfect attonement made and all former Evils of the Curse Forgotten Esay 65.16 17. 5. It was followed immediately by the Feast of Tahernacles So great a Type of the Kingdom of Christ in the Trees of Paradise and the Paradisiac Branches when the Tabernacle of God is with Men as before When thus the Glory of the Attonement and Redemption of Christ shall come into open View and the Holy State fully purified from all Vncleannesses of the Saints and perfectly reconcil'd above manifest and reveal it self Before that there shall be a general Afflicting the Soul the most solemn Penitential that ever was in the world Script 2. The Second Scripture I urge to this purpose is Psalm 84.6 Who passing through the Valley of Baca or weeping make it a Well The Rain also filleth the Pools They go from strength to strength every one of them in Zion appeareth before God So Jerem. 50.4 5. In those Days saith the Lord the Children of Israel shall come they and the Children of Israel together Going and Weeping they shall go and seek the Lord their God they shall ask the way to Zion with their Faces thitherward This speaks a solemn weeping and mourning immediately before the going up to Zion as if the Rivers overflowed in this Day of Mourning with the Tears of the Servants of God as after some great slaughter with Blood or as the Blood at the Battel of Armageddon shall come up to the Horse-Bridles of Christ and of his Saints upon their VVhite Horses of Triumph So before this the Pools and Wells shall be fill'd with the Tears of Saints in their Day of Great Mourning and Repentance Script 3. A Third Great Scripture I insist upon is Zech. 12 12. In that Day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddo And the Land shall mourn every Family apart and the Families that remain apart This Prophecy is most apparently by all that went before and follows after a Prophecy of the Kingdom of Christ and for that Kingdom of Christ there is so great a mourning as in preparation to it There shall be a Spirit of Grace and Supplication an admirable universal Grace of Repenting in all parts of Repentance poured out upon the Israel of God in Jerusalem looking on him whom they have peirc'd and so long Rejected and a joynt mourning of Convert Gentiles represented by the Mourning of Hadad-Rimmon or of the very glory of Assyria known by the name of their God Rimmon and their Dedication to his Glory this Mourning of the Gentiles shall be in Megiddo as in Israel for all their Idolatries and Crucifying of Christ in his Witnesses slain in Spiritual Egypt of which that excellent Prince Josiah slain in the Cause of Assyria by Pharoah King of Egypt was a Type and so lamented by both Israel and Assyria Israelites by Nature and Adoptive Israel in that great day shall mourn and it shall be so deep and sincere that all Families shall Mourn not only together but apart They shall not Mourn for shew form and Company or need that Natural Excitation of Mourning the seeing one another Mourn but they shall Mourn apart The Royal Family signified by the House of David the Prophetick Families signified by the House of Nathan the Priestly Family signified by the House of Levi and Scribal Families signified by the House of Shimei and the converted Gentiles signified by the Families that remain the usual Character for the Heathen Nations Because Israel in God's account is the principal The Remnant whom the Lord our God shall call Joel c. 2.31 and the Residue of Men even all the Gentiles as the Apostle James Acts 15.17 interprets Amos 9.11 Now in this Day of the great mourning and afflicting the Soul this Day of attonement there shall be an opening the Fountain for Sin and for Vncleanness for the washing of the Robes of all Saints and making them white in the Blood of the Lamb that as it is granted to them they may be arrayed in Linen white and clean which is the Righteousness of the Saints Rev. 7.14 c. 19.8 4. The last Scripture wherein I will draw up and sum this Point is Revelations 14.6 I saw another Angel fly in the midst of heaven having the everlasting Gospel to preach to all c. saying Fear God and give glooy to him by Confession Humiliation and Repentance At which time the Gentiles shall come from the ends of the Earth and say Our Fathers have inherited Lies and things wherein there is no profit Shall a man make himself Gods of them who are no Gods who have not made the Heavens nor the Earth the Sea nor the Fountains of Water This shall be when God this once that once when he is just ready to shake Heaven and Earth and this once signifies the doing it so that it shall never need to be done any
all natural voluntary and fortuitous as we Poreblind think them Causes work in and out of his hand For if in the Killing King Ahab a man drew a Bow at a venture or as in the Margin out of the Hebrew In his Simplicity without Design without Aim and yet it was directed to Ahab as by God's immediate Hand to fulfil his Word upon him How much more are all natural Causes directed by him 1 Kings 22.34 And those Things which he knows will with such extraordinary Amazes change the World he ascribes them more emphatically to Himself His Thunder his Lightnings I shake Heaven and Earth Let us then consider Why God does thus disorder Nature And I shall instance in these following Reasons 1. That when we see these Contests and Jars in Nature we may adore and praise the infinite Wisdom Power and Goodness of God who keeps All so much in Peace and Quiet For as great Engines or Machines that have various and cross Wheels and curious Works in them it requires as great Art to harmonize them at first so great care to keep them in order and as vast Armies call for the highest Spirit Wisdom and Conduct of the Generalissimo as Men speak to inspire them with Order Peace Regular Action in their several Stations so it is said of God Job 25.2 Dominion and Fear are with him He maketh Peace in his high and in his Deep Places also Is there any number of his Armies All which he yet keeps in Peace as he pleases Oh therefore that as in that Song of Praise Psal 107. Men considering All these Things well would make it ‖ Glory to God the Foot of every Thing Oh that Men would praise the Lord for his wonderful Works to the Children of Men For we see by a little what great Things he can do Whoso therefore is wise and will observe these Things even he shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord. For indeed That on which the Pride and Prophaneness and Insolency of Men is grounded is That God will still from Time to Time keep Things in the Quiet and Peace he generally does And if he does not they fall down into Death and Ruine immediately in his doing otherwise He therefore shews sometimes by such Disorders what he always does how he exercises Long-suffering Loving kindness in the Earth for if he did otherwise Nature would be always cracking in pieces and if it were so What could the greatest Monarchs say to it Would they stay his hand or would they render him a Recompence for not doing as they think he should and ought to do Their Recompence he would speedily return upon their own heads God therefore shews How all the World is bound and beholden to him by shewing at such Times what he can do without any Controul and yet does not and what he does in maintaining Order and Peace when none can compell him to it if He did not please to do so 2. Men loath what they have constantly as if it were no Argument for fear of God as if God were tied to do so but think at least such Wonders of extraordinary Power which they do not see every day would like one from the Dead move to Repentance But even this depends on Grace That he may give Witnesses and Demonstrations of his Wrath Justice and Power to either as he pleases punish and execute Judgment from Heaven or move to Repentance For as he gives Fruitful Times and Seasons that he might not leave himself without witness of his Goodness leading to Repentance so of his Wrath and Justice to necessitate Men that way For all these Things Preach Repentance and Reformation aloud and for that End I have thus superadded to the Discourse of Repentance 3. That God may give notice of any great Changes he will make in the World that are near at hand and which within any little Time he will make in it he gives Warning by Earthquakes and other unusual Things For so in spight of all that can be said to the contrary God hath generally usher'd in any great Changes he hath made in the World by such Signs and Wonders in Heaven and Shakings of the Earth beneath and therefore with great Right he cloaths his Denunciations and Threats of such great Judgments in such Language of Thunder and Lightnings and Earthquakes A very remarkable Instance we have of this in the Prophet Amos. When God was about as it were to Ride a Circuit in Judgment upon the Nations for Three Transgressions and for Four even upon each single Nation or People Amos dates his Prophecy two Years before the Earthquake in the Days of Uzziah Amos 1.1 How general that was is not known to us But there is plain importance God first began to give notice of his Judgments by Amos his Prophecy in his two first Chapters That not prevailing to Repentance he gave a loud Alarm by the Earthquake which it is most probable was as general as those Nations threatned by Amos. Then follows the Judgment it self on the several People nam'd and executed by the Assyrian and Babylonian Conquests And why was there a mention of the Earthquake two Years after if God had not pleased to give that Intimation that an Earthquake was a fit Forerunner of that Judiciary Progress that follows in those two Chapters of Amos so our Lord Matt. 24. makes Earthquakes in Divers Places the certain Forerunners of the Desolations of Jerusalem 4. The Lord Jehovah is pleased to suffer Earthquakes because he hath determined upon this one Earthquake wherein he will shake not only the Earth but the Heaven also a great Earthquake such as hath not been since men were upon earth so mighty an Earthquake and so great wherein every Island shall flee away and the Mountains shall not be found Revel 16.18.20 And of this God foretold Hagg. 2.6 Yet once I will shake Heaven and Earth c. And in this Text Yet once more I shake not only the Earth but the Heaven also Where though the Apostle opposes the once more to the shaking of the Earth at Mount Sinai because that was to his present purpose yet it leaves room for that most sagacious Interpretation of Dr. Burnet in the forenamed Discourses That it is oppos'd to the shaking not only the Earth but the Heaven also in and by the Flood for in that he says once more it supposes that not only the Earth but the Heaven had been shaken before And when could that be but in the Flood the on purpose-Type of this as appears by what that excellent Person hath said on 2 Pet. 3. Although This shall be greater and to far greater purpose in the new Heaven and the new Earth to perfection Whereas That Flood brought forth a Heaven and Earth for the worse and Men grew as and more wicked but here Righteousness shall dwell and This shall be the greatest since Man was on Earth This is the Time of Trouble
is Supernaturally and in the same manner to set Bars to or hinder their Motions Ezek. 1.19.20 Now that there are such Supernatural Agents the very Evidences of rational and even sensible Experiments compel the stoutest Gainsayers to confess but as they bid defiance to all Things for the sake of their Atheistic Sentiments Answ 2. He that Knows all his Works from the very Foundation of the World and foresees All Causes and Effects could with the same Ease ballance them for their just Time both as to particular Persons and Nations with their Sins filling up their measure and so that All should roll down to their highest Effects at that time when he will once more shake not only Earth but Heaven also even at that Time of Trouble and Day of Battel and War as it is most Prophetically call'd Job 38.22.23 compar'd with Dan. 12.1 Mat. 24.21 and Revel 16.14 the same Spirit that dictated All Fitting the very Words one to another in these Scriptures Object 2. But still If this be allowed that such natural Causes and Effects are adjusted for the Purposes of Divine Judgment and even for that Dissolution of this present Frame Why at this Time Answ 1. Such a Time according to all Scripture and Reason must be at some Time and why may it not be now so near Answ 2. The very Time since the Coming of Christ first in the Flesh being almost 1700 Years ago was call'd the Fulness of Time what then can be after it but the Ends of the World the Last Day the Last Hour running apace to the Fulness of all Times Gal. 4.4 and Ephes 1.10 Answ 3. Mens Heats in all the Business of this World Buying Selling Planting Building the Little Faith on Earth it is near are no Arguments it is not near for these are foretold to be even at the nearest Approaches of that Day Answ 4. But in sum The Sure Word of Prophecy and Line of Time according to Scripture in full Agreement with History as I have so often affirm'd is my Grand Assurance Object 3. But those Words of our Lord's Marc. 13.32 Of that Day and Hour knoweth none c. contradict any such Calculation making known that Time Answ I affirm upon greatest Evidences of Scripture Reason The Son having all Judgment committed to him and the Spirit resting upon him without measure did know of that Day and of that Hour but in that Parâ—bolical Speech Christ acknowledges the Supreme Dominion of the Divine Being which is so often said to have the Panto-Cratorate the Almighty Ordination of that Day and the so unfathomable stupendious Process of it As the Revelation or Bringing All Things to pass in order to it is said to be given by God to Jesus Christ to shew to his Servants and the Conduct of them originally in God is given to him even so the Knowledge of the Time and the Administration of that Day Object 5. But the contrary Prevalencies of that French Prince the so great Enemy of the Witnesses who keeps them now from Rising shews That Time is not so near Answ As God gives in all Ages such Dominion and Greatness to some Princes that no Confederacies can withstand it as to Nebuchadnezzar Alexander Caesar Mahomet so hath he given much Greatness to that Monarch but when such Time of those Princes came and so of this Prince that they must have End At that very Time as they so he must end and none shall help it nor any precedent Greatness stay him up Answ 2. An Universal Monarchy is Embarrassed to him He shall never be more than one of the Ten Kings till he or his Successors with the Rest shall hate the Whore As Prophecy so Providence hath Embarrassed him as with a Band of Iron and so far the Confederacy or some other certain Interposal shall prevail till then Answ 3. We are not earnest enough in Prayer we curtail the Time of Humiliation and seeking God especially in that strongest Argument of his Kingdom Oh that this Counsel might be acceptable to the King and to the Counsels of the Nation and the Ministry of all Names that we might by earnestest and loudest Prayers of a Winters Humiliation and seeking him by Fasting and Supplication prepare for a Summers Action and not grutch God the Time Answ 4. He hath had the usual Space allowed to such notorious Enemies of the People of God And give me leave to use it as an Emblem tho not as a Forebode As Divine Providence commanded so great a Leviathan or Whale which he calls King over the Children of Pride from Playing in the Ocean where he had room enough in the pursuit of his Prey to come and strand himself and dye on the Shore of Scotâ—and the Twin Island of our Great Britain even so he will shortly work his Signs and Wonders in Heaven and Earth that he may abase such Tyrannick Leviathans walking in Pride For the Time is near and All however it seems otherwise shall be ready A King shall Reign in Righteousness and Persons compar'd to the Basest Vilest shall no more be called Most Christian most Serene Magnificent Beneficent But there shall be a Breaking out of the Glory of the Gospel The Tongue of the Stammerers shall speak plain The Lame shall leap as an Hart. The Ears of the Deaf shall hear The Esay 29. c. 32 c. 35. Eyes of the Blind shall see out of obscurity The very Ears of the Deaf shall hear the Words of that Book of Prophocy which the Learned will not now meddle with because say they It is Sealed nor the Vnlearned because they are not Learned Abundance of Converts shall be brought in Foolish Virgins shall be made Wise and not Err in the way called the way of Holiness and no ravenous Beast shall be there any more for ever Let us then to sum up all Seek him who made the Seven Stars and Orion Amos 5.8 who makes the Day dark with Night and yet turns the shadow of Death into Morning who calls for the Waters of the Sea commands them out and pours them on the face of the Earth who rends the Rocks with his mighty Winds and shakes the Earth out of its place 1 Sam. chap. 2. and Thunders down with his Fire upon the wicked 1 Kings 19.11 and comes himself in the Still Voice of his Kingdom And hereof he hath given notice as he saw good with dread of Wrath on Jamaica as an Emblem of the Day of Judgment on the World of Vngodly which as it should stir up the Remnant that are there escaped even as our Selves to deep Repentance so it should excite us to all Acts of Mercy to them and Prayers for them To us he hath sent as it were the Still Voice to let us know he is coming himself to which the Earth mov'd it self in token of Obeisance FINIS THE GENERAL INEFFICACY AND INSINCERITY Of a Late Or Death-Bed Repentance WITH Earnestest Dissuasives from committing our
Eternal Condition to that Unspeakable Hazard AND A full Resolution of the Case how far a Death-Bed Repentance is possible to be Sincere and Effectual By T. Beverley 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To Day whilst it is called to Day Lest any one be hardned through the Deceitfulness of Sin Heb. 3.7 13. LONDON Printed by R. Smith for William Miller at the Gilded Acorn in St. Paul's Church-yard where Gentlemen and others may be furnished with Acts of Parliament Speeches and other sorts of Discourses and State-Matters as also Books of Divinity Church-Government Humanity Sermons on most Occasions c. MDCXCII THE PREFACE TO THE READER IT may seem unseasonable and morose to deny the value of any kind of Repentance in such an Age as this wherein there is a Generation arisen Oh how lofty are their Eyes and their Eye-lids lifted up with Scorn and Disdain of all Religion An Age so irreligious that it seems necessary to gather up all the Fragments tho but of a seeming Piety and make the most of them rather than to call things to so strict a Ballance A thinner and more dilute Repentance than would formerly have admitted a Man into a visible Church may at such a time as this hope for Heaven To all this I must answer First The Looseness of an Age does not slacken or dissolve Eternal Laws Wisdom abates nothing of its price of that timely and early search after it whether Men think good to give it or whether they will forbear It hath no meaner Esteem of it self because Folly that is simple and knoweth nothing sitteth upon the high places of the City full of Noise and Clamor and entices to its Entertainments the Multitude and Grandeur of the World All the Severities of Scripture that make the way to Heaven narrow and the Gate strait stand like a Rock from Generation to Generation alike in all times Nothing that is prodigally loosed on Earth in compliance with a licentious Age will be therefore loosed in Heaven The goodly price of a Death-Bed Repentance at which God is priz'd by Men even then when Religion is at the lowest is rejected oftest with Indignation and the everlasting State purchased by it may be sadly called an Aceldama a Field of Blood If this Severity of Divine Truth offend any one The Resolution is that of our Saviour †Mat. 15.17 Every Plant whether Person or Thing that our Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up 2. It is no improbable way of Contesting against Atheism and general Irreligion by the strict Doctrins of Christianity as well as by Arguments of Reason Nay Authoritative Applications of the Truth of God often strike the Conscience within the Reason sooner and quicker than industrious Attempts upon the Reason as Lightning melts the Steel and neglects the Scabbard Pressings of Faith Repentance Holiness Eternal Judgment make Men even Vnbelievers fall down upon their faces when the Secrets of their Hearts are discovered and confess God is there For the Soul of Man is more easily wrought upon by those domestick Rebukes God gives it by his Word than by more solemn Treaties Especially corrupted Reason takes upon it self to be a lawful Authority when an honourable War is commenced against it by the better Reason on the other side It contemns Laws of Discourse as precarious and makes account it gives Reason for Reason But the Rod of God shaken over it makes it tremble and confess it self a Slave Thus the Slaves in the Story were more easily reduced by the servile Chastisements they were acquainted with than by the force of Armies Atheism grows the prouder generally for being reasoned with It does but dissemble while it pretends its disease to be in the Head which it knows indeed to be in the sensual Heart And therefore is pleased to be struck in the Head but cannot endure to be wounded in the Heart which the Word of God especially aims at Not but that it is indeed a most generous and honourable Atchievement to shew Religion to be the highest Reason and to detect those pretending Sons of Reason of the greatest Irrationality But it is still to be acknowledged the plain preaching of the Gospel which the Apostle calls the Foolishness and Weakness of God is alone wiser and stronger than Men The Reason of that couched under an Heavenly Authority of Truth carries those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those mighty Weapons whereby every high Imagination and Reasoning is to be subdued that lifts up it self against God Vpon this occasion I cannot but bewail those unhappy Divisions that have separated the Preachers of the Gospel one from another and thereby opened a Lane for that Black Troop to advance in and made the Trumpet of the Gospel to sound so incertainly that it hath rather scattered Men than prepared them to the Battel Our Saviour foreseeing the Consequences hereof according to that great Maxim of his ‖ Mat. 12.25 Every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to Desolation did so earnestly command Vnity and Love of one another to his Disciples in general and more particularly to the Ministers of his Word as the most effectual Demonstration †Joh. 17.21 He was sent from God and his Doctrin from Heaven From whence it follows where ever this Vnion is broken Christianity is liable to the Imputations of being a great Cheat and Fraud Vpon which advantage loathsome Irreligion enters and spreads it self in those empty spaces begotten by our Distances and removes from one another All divisions in Christianity are Scandals to it and weaken it This we see verified in our days the differences in Religion and the prophane scorn or stupid neglect of it being alike visible and notorious throughout the Nation Yet upon just Accounts the Irreligion consequent upon Divisions in Religion turns to the advantage of Christianity that thus it must be else how should the Scriptures be fulfilled But this abates nothing of the Sinfulness and Vnhappiness or Necessity of Amendment To guide us then into that It is very observable the venom of this Distemper falls not so much upon the several Parties in Religion as upon Religion it self while we wound one another Religion is the Martyr lies a bleeding and even dying And while good Men lament it the Enemies of it make merry and send †Rev. 11.10 gifts one to another in token of Triumph The method of Cure therefore is not for every Party to weigh up it self and press down others but to buoy up Religion it self and that is best done by Preaching and living the very Thing without distinction of Names If we did but yield it its own Integrity and Vniversal Goodness it would soon rise into that Honour it hath lost by being captivated to Opinions For as our human Nature would be much more beautiful and happy if cemented by that Philanthropy or general love of Mankind so indearingly charged upon us by our Saviour who demonstrated that he embraced within
by and by it is offended and it was therefore truly no better at first than at last Mat. 7.26 The House that is not founded upon the Rock is as ill founded in the Calm as in the Storm only the Storm discovers what it was Morality it self requires a better rooting of virtuous Habits than that they should be set only in loose Ground thrown up by Extremity of Condition and not in the Soil it self That Repentance which will not bear the trial of time will much less sustain the Test of Eternity wherein every thing that stands must be solid and substantial Things that suffer the loss of themselves when they are tried by mans day will suddenly be consumed by the hotter Beams of God 1 Cor. 4.3 That hath need of good Founding that must undergo an Eternity and have all advantage of Concoction that must be laid up for ever which the short Moments of a Death-Bed without a miraculous Assistance will not allow The Fruit of it generally like that Hasty-ripe perishes while it is in the Hand Isai 28.4 This Repentance gives up the Ghost as soon as it is born Now as for that place in Ezekiel so much vexed with Controversie I do not think it convenient for me to intangle a Discourse intended wholly for practice with the Perplexities of it Only I am concerned to shew that it doth not afford the favour supposed to this kind of Repentance For first We must not mistake the day it speaks of as if it signified so strait a compass of Time as a Day but that Season wherein either the righteous Man wasts and destroys his Righteousness or a Sinner over comes his Vitious Customs and Inclinations neither of which are usually done on the sudden Secondly The turning from Wickedness intended is certainly a sincere and impartial one and not such as we have rendred this Dying Repentance suspicious to be Thirdly It must be justified by a walking in the Statutes and Judgments of God and doing that is right that is by a continued Reformation which will least agree to this Repentance and therefore this place of Scripture will not protect this Supposition but rather damns it Having now in the foregoing Discourse in a practical and perswasive way endeavoured to engage Men to a timely Repentance by setting out the hazard of a late one I have thought it necessary to make the state of the whole Doctrin as exact as I can by considering whatever might with fair appearance of Scripture-Reason call into question and scruple what I have grounded my Perswasions upon I will therefore as a Supplement to all I have said First recollect what I have intended all along And then cast all I can possibly suppose against it into Objections and Answers that by closer atention to the Case it self every one that will be at the cost to consider it may be convinced to the main End viz. A present Religious Life 1. First then I make it not the question Whether a true Repentance how late soever be a Repentance to Salvation 2. Nor Secondly Whether God hath reserved it to the Prerogative of his Grace to give a true Repentance at last 3. Nor Thirdly Whether a Repentance that is true and sincere though but in the Seeds being surprized with a Death-Bed may not then break out and shew it self more fully 4. Nor Lastly Whether a Man that hath the light of the Gospel brought to him but just before his Dying Condition may not expect the Grace of God working with it then even as in the freer times of Life All these I do with great Confidence acknowledge The Substance of what I have said against a Death-Bed Repentance will be comprised in these following Assertions which I restrain wholly to Men that have lived under the Light and Exhortations and Applications of the Word of God with all usual Freedom and yet have not begun sincerely to Repent till they come to die The First is That a Death-Bed Repentance how fair soever it may appear hath yet the greatest Doubt imaginable upon it whether it be true The Second There is greatest Reason of Fear God will not give his Grace to such a Dying Man to Repent The Third That a Repentance at Death is not that general Repentance the Scripture Discourses of makes promises of Pardon upon offers the Assistances of the Spirit to enjoins the Duty of with so many pressing commands For that Repentance immediately to be begun is supposed to govern a following Life It must therefore be an extraordinary and miraculous Repentance if true Lastly That it is therefore against all rules of Piety and Prudence by mispending Life to cast our selves upon the necessity of Repentance at Death This I say is the Substance of what I have designed all along and which I would now further clear and vindicate from these following Objections Objection 1. Doth not the Parable of calling some Labourers into the Vineyard at the Eleventh Hour imply That God doth in ordinary Convert some at the last Hour as well as sooner Mat. 20. v. 1. c. Answer The main scope of Parables is only argumentative and so far as the scope of that Parable relates to this Case It is no more than what I acknowledge That God gives Eternal Life to true Repentance if true at last even as to the first and earliest Repentance The reward being to all of Grace and not of Debt It is also to be considered there remained an Hour of working representing rather old Age than a Death-Bed if the colours of a Parable prove any thing and so are rather against this Repentance than for it In the Second Objection I suppose Men taking Sanctuary at infinite Mercy and Power in this manner Although no thought of Man can reach the Mercy that accepts or gives Repentance at the last yet Mercy being as much above our Thoughts as the Heaven above the Earth what can we define concerning it And though there are so many Circumstances of Impossibility according to our measure of things Yet the things that are impossible with Men with God are possible for with God all things are possible How can we then determine in this Case Can we by searching find out the Almighty in his Mercy and Power Can we find him out to perfection It is high as Heaven what can we do It is deeper than Hell what can we know The measure thereof is longer than the Earth and broader than the Sea Answer Now because in this Objection the sinews of all Hope and Expectation from this late Repentance meet I will endeavour to give the most punctual Answer to it And though I know after all that is or can be said Men will not quit it Yet I shall rest upon this Answer as my last Resolution of this Case and by it raise the disswasions from a trust in such a Repentance to the height the greatness of the hazard appearing most fully from it In general