Almighty God that he of his great Goodness and for the sake of our dear Lord and Saviour would be pleased freely to pardon and forgive us our great Wickedness that makes such a great separation and distance between us and our God That we may call for and seek to procure a supernatural Assistance from above to keep us from being born away with such a black Stream and Tide of Wickedness as is now ready to break in upon us That we may all be awakened out of our carnal and vain Security and prepare for such an extraordinary coming of Almighty God among us That every one may make clean his own Door against this signal Approach that no Wickedness which is so loathsom to God may be found thereat That Warning may be given and such a Preparation made do I purpose by God's help to say something upon these words of the Prophet wherein this Warning was to be given to the Jews of the Day of the Lord being at hand to them Blow ye the Trumpet in Zion and sound an Alarm in my holy Mountain Let all the Inhabitants of the Land Tremble for the Day of the Lord cometh for it is nigh at hand In these words we may observe these three Particulars First That the Trumpet was to be blown and an Alarm to be sounded in God's Church and among his People Blow ye the Trumpet in Zion and sound an Alarm in my holy Mountain Secondly That all were to hearken to and regard the sound thereof and to be moved to fear and trembling upon it Let all the Inhabitants of the Land Tremble And Thirdly The Reason of it because a great Visit and Judgment of God upon them was then at hand for the Day of the Lord cometh for it is nigh at hand I purpose to say something to every one of these Particulars but to begin with the last first I. For the Day of the Lord cometh for it is nigh at hand I intend not to trouble my self nor you with any deep Inquiry what Day of the Lord this was which the Prophet here declared to be coming and nigh at hand The Day of the Lord as it is a day and season of Terror and to be prepared for doth signifie several Days and Times 1. The Day of the Lord doth point at the great and final Day of Judgment when our Lord and Saviour shall come in a most glorious manner to judge the whole World and to reward every one according to his works when the Heavens shall be dissolved and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat when the Earth and the Works that are therein shall be burnt up as St. Peter saith 2 Pet. 3.10 And when all sinners that repent not of their wickedness shall be given up to that everlasting Fire that was prepared for the Devil and his Angels Matt. 25.41 This is the most eminent and dreadful Day of the Lord of all 2. The Day of the Lord in the Scriptures doth often respect some Temporal Judgment and Calamity that God doth bring or is bringing upon a Land or Nation for the great sin and wickedness thereof And such doth this Day of the Lord here seem to be 3. The Day of the Lord may be referred to particular Men tho' the Scripture doth not seem often to use the Day of the Lord with respect to single Persons only When God doth send some great Judgment and Calamity upon single Persons it may be looked upon as a Day of the Lord's wrath to them And the day of their Death may well be accounted as such And indeed a terrible day of the wrath of God will it be to them if they be surprised and snatch'd away in their sins without Repentance We may see what a miserable case the Fool in the Parable was in who was snatch'd away in the midst of his Jollity when he was singing Requiems to his Soul and promising himself great joy and happiness to come Luke 12.20 But God said unto him Thou fool this night thy Soul shall be required of thee then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided Like a Dream and a Vapor will all such Worldly confidence and trust leave Men and into this Fool 's Paradise will such be brought The things wherein they trust like the Morning Cloud will soon vanish away and they from their high confidence will drop into the Pit of Destruction We read of the Rich Man Luke 16.22 That he died and was buried and immediately after it follows That in Hell he lift up his eyes being in Torments We may see that the day of Death especially to sinners that die without Repentance may well be looked upon as a day of the Lord and a dreadful one too to them But here the words of the Prophet do seem to respect some temporal and publick Judgment and Calamity of God upon the Jewish Land and Nation and are to be ranked in the second place But what kind of Judgment and Calamity this was which the Prophet here gives this Warning of is not agreed Some do conceive that this day of the Lord here in the Text was a sore and grievous Famine and Calamity brought upon the Jews by Locusts Catterpillers and the like Creatures And some places in this Prophecy of Joel do seem to give testimony this way Joel 1.4 saith the Prophet That which the Palmer-worm hath left hath the Locust eaten and that which the Locust hath left hath the Canker-worm eaten and that which the Canker-worm hath left hath the Catterpiller eaten And v. 18. How do the Beasts groan The Herds of Cattel are perplexed because they have no Pasture And Joel 2.25 And I will restore to you the years that the Locust hath eaten the Canker-worm and the Catterpiller and the Palmer-worm my great Army which I sent among you These and such places do give countenance to this Interpretation that this day of the Lord was a sore judgment of Famine upon the Land of the Jews occasioned by Locusts Catterpillers and such Creatures and that by Famine and other ways they were sorely afflicted by them And we may see in the Book of Exodus chap. 10. That Locusts were one of the great Plagues and Judgments that God sent upon the Egyptians And with a plague of Locusts doth God threaten to scourge his People the Jews if they should revolt and fall from him to Idolatry Deut. 28.38 42. Again some do conceive that this day of the Lord might be some great Destruction and Waste that was to be brought upon them by the Armies of the Assyrians and Chaldeans c. that they were to be plagued and scourged by them And some places in this Prophecy do agree herewith Joel 1.6 For a Nation is come up upon my land strong and without number whose teeth are as the teeth of a lion and he hath the cheek-teeth of a great lion And Joel 2.2 A great people and a strong there hath not been ever the like
hath said that Vengeance belongeth unto him and that he will recompence Heb. 10.30 And this the Prophet sheweth Amos 3.6 Shall a trumpet be blown in the city and the people not be afraid shall there be evil in a city and the Lord hath not done it And saith God to Solomon 1 Kings 9.8 9. And at this house which is high every one that passeth by it shall be astonished and shall hiss and they shall say why hath the Lord done thus unto this land and to this house And they shall answer Because they forsook the Lord their God who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt and have taken hold upon other Gods and have worshipped them and served them therefore hath the Lord brought upon them all this evil And saith our Lord Luke 13.2 Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things I tell you nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish And saith he by S. John Rev. 2.5 to the Church of Ephesus Remember therefore from whence thou art saln and repent and do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou repent By these and other places we may see that such Judgments and Miseries do not arise meerly after a casual manner but are really Judgments and Decrees in the Grand Court above and are over-ruled and ordered by a divine Hand and do not depend meerly upon the Will and pleasure of Men even when they are the chief Actors in them But farther that we may be the more awaked out of our carnal Security and vain Confidence we may see that the judgments of God and these plagues that are threatned are very terrible and dreadful and that such Days of Vengeance will come upon men especially the Wicked among them when they think little of them and in an astonishing manner will surprize them 1. We may see that the judgments and plagues that are threatned for Sin and Wickedness are set out in a very dreadful manner so as to move us to fear and to give us just cause to tremble at the apprehension of them Moses telleth the Jews that they should be reduced to so great Want and oppressed with so sore a Famine by their Enemies that they should eat the Fruit of their own Bodies even their own Children Deut. 28.53 And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters which the Lord thy God hath given thee in the siege and in the straitness wherewith thine Enemies shall distress thee So that the man that is tender among you and very delicate his eye shall be evil towards his brother and toward the wife of his bosom and toward the remnant of his children which he shall leave So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat because he hath nothing left him in the siege With this miserable and terrible Famine by their Enemies doth he threaten them And he sheweth what dismal Fear and Trembling God would send upon them v. 65 But the Lord shall give thee a trembling heart and failing of eyes and sorrow of mind And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee and thou shalt fear day and night and shalt have none assurance of thy life In the morning thou shalt say would God it were even and at even thou shalt say would God it were morning for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see In this sad and perplexed Condition and in this shadow of Death were they to abide expecting every hour that their Life would be taken from them And saith the Prophet Isaiah 13.9 Behold the Day of the Lord cometh cruel both with wrath and fierce anger to lay the Land desolate and he shall destroy the Sinners thereof out of it For the Stars of Heaven and the Constellations thereof shall not give their light The Sun shall be darkned in his going forth and the Moon shall not cause her light to shine And I will punish the World for their Evil and the Wicked for their Iniquity And v. 13. Therefore I will shake the Heavens and the Earth shall remove out of her place in the warth of the Lord of Hosts in the day of his fierce anger In this dreadful Equipage is the day of the Lord's Anger set forth as if all the works of Nature should be disordered thereat as if the Heavens and the Earth should be shaken and quake and tremble thereat and all the glorious Lights above should be put out and extinguished And the Prophet Joel here doth shew that this was to be a very frightful and terrible Day of the Lord. Joel 2.2 3. For the Day of the Lord cometh A day of darkness and of gloominess a day of clouds and of thick darkness as the Morning spread upon the Mountains A great People and a strong there hath not been ever the like neither shall be any more after it even to the years of many generations A fire devoureth before them and behind them a flame burneth the Land is as the Garden of Eden before them and behind them a desolate Wilderness yea and nothing shall escape them Such a black and dismal Day was this to be and such wast and destruction were these Armies of the Lord of Hosts to make That the Land which they found fruitful like the Garden of Eden and filled with all plenty and store they would make and leave like a barren and desolate Wilderness spoiling and consuming all before them And v. 5 6. Like the noise of Chariots on the tops of Mountains shall they leap like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble as a strong People set in Battel aray Before their face the People shall be much pained all faces shall gather blackness And v. 10 11. The Earth shall quake before them the Heavens shall tremble the Sun and the Moon shall be dark and the Stars shall withdraw their shining And the Lord shall utter his voice before his Army for his Camp is very great for he is strong that executeth his word for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible and who can abide it Thus dreadful and astonishing doth the Prophet shew this day of the Lord here to be And saith the Prophet Amos 5.18 Wo unto you that desire the day of the Lord to what end is it for you The day of the Lord is darkness and not light As if a man did flee from a Lion and a Bear met him or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall and a Serpent bit him Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness and not light even very dark and no brightness in it Wo and sorrow is like to be to such as would have such
Reason offereth and make Men's hearts to fail them and recoil back upon them and turn all into confusion and disorder without and within too These fill Men's minds full of horror and amazement and make their Faces to gather blackness and set their Limbs a tottering and quaking And this farther shews how dreadful and astonishing these Judgments of God will be when they surprize Men in this manner when they are careless and secure and do not prepare themselves against them by clearing their hands of all wickedness and by calling upon God for pardon and mercy and help Secondly We may see as for matter of Fact that God hath often sent great and dreadful Judgments upon the Inhabitants of the World for their great Sin and Wickedness when they have been ripe for Judgment We may see that God hath often brought the days of Vengeance upon them when they have in a manner totally revolted from him and become rebellious against the Light And we may see that the Wicked and Unrighteous have been surprized with such Judgments when they thought not of them or believed them not and have been swept away with the Beesom of Destruction when they expected it not For the great wickedness thereof did God destroy the old World and swept them away with a prodigious Flood of Water Gen. 6.5 And God saw that the wickedness of Man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually And it repented the Lord that he had made Man on the earth and it grieved him at his heart And the Lord said I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth And Gen. 7.21 And all flesh died that moved upon the earth both of fowl and of cattel and of beast and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth and every man This heavy judgment did God send upon them for their Wickedness when they were so wholly given up to it and made this total riddance of all Mankind but Noah and his Family And with this Deluge of Water were they all surprized when they expected it not as our Lord sheweth Matt. 24.37 But as the days of Noe were so shall also the coming of the Son of man be For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noe entered into the ark and knew not until the flood came and took them all away so shall also the coming of the Son of man be In this unexpected manner were they all wrapt up in destruction before they were well sensible of it In a prodigious manner with Fire and Brimstone from Heaven did God destroy the Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for the grievous Sin and Wickedness of them Gen. 28.20 And the Lord said because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great and because their sin is very grievous And Gen. 19.13 For we will destroy this place because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it And v. 24 25. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven And he overthrew those cities and all the plain and all the inhabitants of the cities and that which grew upon the ground In this astonishing manner did God destroy these Cities for their egregious Wickedness and consume them with the Fire of his Wrath And the very Ground where these Cities stood is turned into that Lake which is called the Dead-Sea or the Sea of the Plain And in this terrible Destruction were all these Sinners surprized and thought not of it till the Flame was all about them and had seized upon them Luke 17.28 29. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot they did eat they drank they bought they sold they planted they builded But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all Here our Lord doth shew how they were surprized with this Fire from Heaven when they thought not of such a thing but were busie in pursuing their Sins and worldly Concerns For their wickedness did God send sundry Judgments and Plagues upon the Egyptians as we may see in the Book of Exodus And at the last in a surprising manner overwhelmed them in the Red Sea Exod. 14.23 And the Egyptians pursued and went in after them to the midst of the Red Sea even all Pharaoh 's Horses and his Chariots and his Horsemen And v. 27. And Moses stretched forth his hand over the Sea and the Sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared and the Egyptians fled against it and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the Sea This surprising destruction swallowed them up at the last For the great wickedness and high provocations of the Inhabitants of the Land of Canaan did God bring a heavy Judgment upon them to destroy and root them out of their own Land by the Children of Israel God delivered the Kingdoms of Sihon and Og to Moses and he Destroyed the Inhabitants thereof Numb 21. And Joshua destroyed 31 Kings on the other side Jordan Joshua 6 And we may see that this heavy judgment of the Sword came upon them to their utter ruin for their great wickedness and abominations Gen. 15.16 saith God to Abraham concerning his Posterity But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full Hereby intimating that when their Iniquity was full ripe for Judgment they were to but cut off for it And saith Moses Deut. 18.12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee It is clear that they were driven out and destroyed for their great wickedness and abominable practices And we may see that God's own People the Jews were often scourged by other Nations and sold into their hands for their own wickedness and for revolting from God Judges 2.13 14. And they forsook the Lord and served Baal and Ashtaroth And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them and he sold them into the hands of their Enemis round about so that they could not any longer stand before their Enemies And we may read that God did often punish and afflict them with the neighbouring Nations for their wickedness towards him With the Mesópotamians and Moabites and others Judges 3. with the Canaanites Judg. 4. with the Midianites and others Judg. 6. with the Philistines and Ammonites Judg. 10. With these and others did God often scourge them and afterwards let the Assyrians and Chaldeans carry them away Captive out of their own Land for their Rebellion towards God and backsliding from him and one part of them returned