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
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
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
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
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
that gives Repentance to Israel and Forgiveness of Sins And blessed you For ever Blessed are they whose sins are forgiven and whose Iniquities are pardoned here are the Rivers of the Waters of Life the Tree in the midst of the Paradice of God Jesus Christ thus Revealed and thus received and heartily embraced will put an end to all differencies debates and controversies He that hath this Anointing from above this well of Life springing up in him unto Everlasting Life will not Bless himself in an Idol nor be pleased with any pompous Worship knowing the King's Daughter is all glorious within and Circumcision is that of the Heart he knows not nor acknowledges any as Lords over God's Heritage but is assured That the Son of Man came not to be Minister'd to but to Minister The things contained herein are the true sayings of God according to the Holy Scriptures making the man of God perfect throughly furnished to every good work Did all men that have the worthy Name of Christian profess and practise what is herein pressed to and called for we should see Jerusalem a quiet Habitation a sure Dwelling Place for none shall then indeed harm us if we are followers of that which is good Here are plain Gospel Truths that whosoever stumbles thereat it is because Christ is to him a stumbling stone and rock of offence and yet misterious and deep that one can never find the bottom a River that men may swim in O Christian whenever thou art so conversant in these things let thy profiting appear to all men let the Dead bury the Dead but go thou and follow Christ as soon as ever he calls thee Never go to thy Father's House and bid them there farewel go to Christ whensoever in the Gospel he calls thee or speaks to thee by any private whispering Go in all thy rags say with the Prodigal Tho I have spent all upon Harlots and am Starving having fed upon Husks I know in my Father's House there is Bread enough and to spare and here I perish with hunger I will arise and go to my Father and will say unto him Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee yet Take me into thy Family tho I be but as one of thy Hired Servants To whom the Father will say Don't stand Doubting come in come in to my House bring forth the best Robe and put it on him c. I think nothing too good for thee my Son now thou art returned not a word what thou hast been now thou art returned I will receive thee tho thou hast not a penny in thy Purse nor any good quality in thee but this thy coming back to me Thou must starve if thou keep wandring from thy Father's House If I don't feed thee thou perishest thou hast be-thought thy self at last and art come home stand not at the door any longer starving in the cold and for hunger Away Away with thy provious Dispositions and good qualifications before coming Welcome Welcome come in come in do not stand at the door I am glad thou art come Who ever thought to have seen thee returning again Bring hither the Fatted Calf kill it and eat and be merry How merry sinner canst thou be And they now begin to be merry yea and all the Angels stand by and rejoyce O! here is a Feast indeed But this makes the Elder Brother the proud Pharisee to stand off powting and grumbling And he will never more come into his Father's House For he was never so kindly dealt with yet never Trasgressed at any time he was qualified and deserved Entertainment he had done many a good Work he had bore the Burthen and Heat of the Day and therefore expected to have received more than they that came at the Eleventh Houre to whom God will say Is thine Eye evil because mine is good Let us then all be deligent to lay up for our selves a Treasure in Heaven we see or may see All things here Perish with the using This is a shaking time God is now shaking all Nations and it is that the desire of all Nations may come He that Epistolizes this is a Friend to the Author and well acquainted with his endeavours to press after and Witnessing for him as well skilled in the truth and the inside of Religion That he is a man taught of God and wishing well to all that are gone beyond him and hoping the Lord will not despise the day of small things knowing the humble he will teach his way and the meek he will guide in Judgment I have pressed the Author to permit these things to come to light which at last is condescended to If God bless it to they Edification Conversion Reformation say It is not in him that willeth nor in him that runneth but in God that shews mercy for neither is he that planteth any thing nor he that watereth Any thing but God that giveth the Increase to him be glory and praise for ever and ever Amen To the most Reverend THE EPISCOPACY OF THE Church of ENGLAND I Do not arrogate to my self Most Reverend in our Lord in Presenting to your Hands this following Discourse to offer you any thing but what you have before receiv'd from the most Excellent Master and Teacher the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures and Word of God Given by the Great High Priest and Apostle of our Profession that One Shepherd the Chief Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls Christ Jesus and what you your selves have often I have greatest Reason to hope and believe Discours'd with clearest Evidence to the Understandings and Convictions upon the Consciences of them that heard you This notwithstanding I have very great Reasons for making this Humblest Offerture to you 1. That by discoursing and arguing a point so acknowledgly Great so Fundamental and Essential not only to Christianity but to Natural Religion and all Morality If it shall be acceptable to you as I cannot but trust it will because it is so agreeable to Scripture I may reconcile my self to your more not only Favourable but Deep Consideration in so great Points of the sure Word of Prophecy as I have heretofore presented to you and have made some Reference unto in this very Doctrine of Repentance as most Connatural to it For though I know there is a Difference between such a plain and uncontestable Truth of Scripture as Repentance is and what lies in the darker Folds and Plaits of Scripture in the Hieroglyphick Figures and Prophetical Numbers of it and it may seem therefore impossible or highly improbable that I especially should attain the Certainty of the Words of Truth to answer and apologize the Words of Truth in the great dependencies of Prophecy to them that send to me for them But as it is well urged against the enemies of the Natural Religion as well as Revealed that though there cannot be Mathematical Demonstration of those Great Truths as of Euclid's Propositions yet there may
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
and Applying as they find just occasion all the Promises to the True and sincere Repenters and the Denunciations and threatnings to the Obdurate Obstinate and Impenitent Sinners and on Insincere Repentance and if they do this Errante Clave not according to the Truth of the Gospel it neither Binds on Earth nor in Heaven else the Power of the Church or the Ministers were Despotic and Lordly they would Exercise Authority to purpose which Christ says They shall not nor be accounted Evergetae Indulgers of a Repentance however but Counterfeit or Insincere or on the other side Dominate over true Repentanc Luke 22.25 They have no Dominion over their Faith no more have they over their Repentance but are helpers of their Joy or Godly sorrow and the Publishers of the Wrath to come on all obstinate Sinners or Hypocritical Repenters 2 Cor. 1.24 c. 10.6 Answ 3. Although it is indeed the Duty of a sincere Penitent to Ask Forgiveness of those whom they have offended either by Injury or Scandal and to make all the Spiritual Reparations they can in case of Scandal and in and by this Worlds goods as they are able in case of that Kind of Injuries Yet it is also the Duty of those who are or have been so Trespass'd upon either way to Forgive and under that highest Obligation that except they so forgive as They are Commanded their Heavenly Father will not forgive them their Trespasses But whether they do according to their Duty or do not God retains those supreme Keys of Pardon of sin and Absolution of the Penitent in his own Hand and he hath the right and just Title so to do For he is the not only Law-Giver Paramount and if there be no Law of his broken there is no Transgression but if he Pardons and Justifies none can condemn Transgression is Cover'd and taken away whether men forgive or not else they could not be Blessed to whom he imputes not sin if men had power still to Impute it And lastly he is the Sovereign Proprietor the Offender and the Offended are alike his They are both not only his Vassals but have Forfeited themselves and their All to his Justice upon all these Accounts David said against thee Psal 51.4 thee only have I sinned and not against Vriah but in such an Inferiority as that my offence against him is Bound or Loosed as thou Pardonest so then if God Pardons though Vriah's Family or Posterity or himself if he could have surviv'd had not Pardon'd yet God would be Justified in Speaking or declaring David a Pardon'd Sinner and clear in Judging him so in so taking away his Iniquity that he should not Dye for it And this is the true sense of that great Penetential acknowledgment of David and not any intention of setting himself up in his Royal Dignity as above the general and ordinary Rank of Sinners or Offenders He had something else to do when he was thus humbling himself before God and beseeching mercy than to Magnify himself above his fellow Creatures He was laying fast hold of Infinite Power and Grace and Pardon and from which there was no Appeal For unto thee Lord belongs Mercy uncontrollable who hast the Ultimate Judicature of Rendring to the Trespassor and Trespassed according to their Works Now Seeing the generality of Christians trust to Death-Bed-Repentance I should give a Resolution to that great and concernful Question whether there be a possibility of a Sinner and saving Death-Bed-Repentance But in answer to that there is added unto this Treatise of Repentance a Discourse Printed several years ago of the same sense and Spirit with this Doctrine of Repentance and is therefore under review and as in second Edition presented with it I will therefore conclude this with some few and short Practical Inferences the whole being compos'd to Use and Practise Infer 1. How admirably Wise and Holy is God in his Grace Mercy and Pardoning Goodness He is not Loose or Prodigal in his Forgiveness but hath provided this Admirable Grace and Duty of Repentance to shew that as he does not cut off Awes of him and Reverential Returns to him by offering no Mercy but giving up to Despair so he does not turn Wild the Hearts and Consciences of them whom he Pardons by Licentious Forgiveness but so stated and bounded that his Grace may not be turn'd to Wantonness And this is the Name of God in the Redeemer he is a Holy and wise Redeemer he does not Redeem without Repentance he hath upon him the Spirit of Wisdom and Vnderstanding and of the Fear of the Lord he is quick of Vnderstanding in the Fear of the Lord he does not judg after the sight of the Eyes nor Reprove after the hearing of the Ears But righteousness is the girdle of his Loyns and Faithfulness the girdle of his Reines Esay 11.2 Let us then aright understanding this Wise Grace of the Gospel as not take Sacriregiously out of it these Richest Jewels of its Wisdom and Holyness denying Repentance in either our Doctrine and Principles or in our Lives and Practise Infer 2. Seeing God hath not only in his Gospel but by the very Law and as I may call it Gospel of Natural Conscience Commanded all Men every where to Repent and Because that is not full enough clear enough to lead to true saving Repentance he hath therefore written it to us with the Sun-beam of his Gospel let us therefore think If it be Intollerable for Tyre and Sidon for Pagans and Indians in the Day of Judgment How much more will it be for us in that day For if they are Condemned who have not Comported with so clear so absolutely necessary so Wise so Holy so every way Rational Gracious Inviting Doctrine made known to be so by a much dimmer Light what will be done to us who have not been drawn and led to it by so Glorious Rayes of the Sun of Righteousness whom such Riches of Goodness have not led to Repentance Infer 3. How Adorable is the Grace of God in Jesus Christ who hath not only given us the Doctrine of Repentance but by his Spirit gives the very Grace it self He hath put no Trust in our own Powers of Vnderstanding Will Affections Natural Conscience Reason or Morality but only in his own Spirit and Grace in his Son nor doth he Accept our Repentance upon its worth valew perfection but wraps it up in the rich Robes of the Righteousness of Jesus Christ and so it is pleasing in his sight so he does not lessen nor derogate from the graciousness of his Gospel by Imposing such a Duty But he magnifies it by giving so high and admirable a Grace and Divine Power within us Infer 4. Seeing Repentance is a Grace of such truly Evangelical Excellencies so agreeable to the Infinite Wisdom and Holiness as well as Mercy and Compassion of the Redeemer let us trie this Gold in the Fire of severest search and examination by the Gospel Light
that we may not be pleased and contented with a Counterfeit with any other Repentance than that unto Salvation not to be Repented of Least we for ever Repent of our Repentance in Hell where there is no place of Evangelical saving Repentance but of that only which is a barren Fiery Horror and Despaire scorching the Conscience for ever and not allaying it with a Drop of Water to Cooll outragious Tongue Luke 16.24 Blaspheming at the same time God and Christ and our impenitent selves who would not Repent while we had space and place for our Repentance Infer 5. Let us by all the most moving Considerations of the Evil of sin the hatefulness and unreasonableness of it the sense of the Goodness and Grace of God in Christ all his Judgments all his Mercies the sense of an Eternal Misery and Punnishment from his Presence be strongly mov'd excited stirr'd and led to Repentance Infer 6. Let us rejoyce in the sweet Reposes of Conscience when we have truly Repented in the infinite Power Authority and Supreme right of God to Pardon upon Repentance not dependent upon Man nor upon the Will of Man Who is a God like unto him who Pardons Iniquity Transgression and Sin and casts it into the depth of the Sea who makes by his Pardon sins as Scarlet and Crimson to be White as Snow and Wooll that blots out Iniquity as a Cloud and a thick Cloud with the same Potency and Ease that the Sun does off a Cloud and with infinitely greater Let us Rejoyce in the great Efficacies of the Redeemer Pardoning sin upon Earth as the great High Priest of our Profession and the Bishop of our Souls Absolving truly Repenting Sinners by the Witness of his Blood sprinkling the Heart from an evil Conscience and speaking better things than the Blood of Abel The Blood as of a Lamb without spot Offer'd by the Eternal Spirit Purging the Conscience from dead works together with and even as the Author and Finisher of faith and repentance from dead works to serve the Living God Heb. 9. c. 10. c. 12. Let us rejoyce in the Witness of the Divine Spirit Sealing and Witnessing to us by Repentance washing the Body the whole Conversation as with pure water Let us rejoyce in all the Blessed Promises and Assurances of the Word of God made by it to sincere Penitents which are yea and Amen in Christ For all these are of far greater Authority Truth Certainty than All Bindings or Loosings on Earth whether by the Ecclesiastical as we call it Administration of the Keyes or by Men forgiving one Another however necessary these may be in their place Infer 7th Seeing the Kingdom of God and of Heaven is the great Motive to Repentance as hath been before on great Reason made out The high Reason we have to believe that by the Apostles calling it the Last time the last hour the ends of the World so many Hundreds of Years ago we must needs be now upon the very last issue and determination of that Time when the Kingdom shall appear in Glory and all other kind of Time shall be no more How great a Cloud does therefore Encompass us that we should by no means be willing or able to Rend to Engage us to run with Patience the Race of Repentance set before us Heb. 12.1 and to that End to lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Repentance that it may be to Salvation and never to be Repented of Hearing him who in the days of his Flesh because the offers and first appearances and First Fruits of his Kingdom were then begun Preach'd saying Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand so the full Harvest of that Kingdom being now ready to appear he does by the Voices of all his Prophets in the Old and New Testament instantly Preach to us Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand And of how strong and close Connexion the Kingdom of God and of Christ and Repentance are I shall more fully and largely at this time Represent as a most solemn Conclusion of this Discourse There is a fixed space given and a peculiar Interval Appointed Lying between the time of the Apostacy call'd the Time Times and Half Time or the 1260 Days and the Time of the Vials And it is 30 years making the 1260 1290 Years Dan. 12.11 even as the 45 Years of the Vials to the Absolutely blessed state of the Kingdom of Christ in Glory when the Saints shall all stand in their Lots fill up to that very Fulness of Times Now at this space of the Thirty Years the Spirit shall be powred out from on High The Song of the Lamb which hath been so long out of use that it becomes as it were a new Song and can be at first learnt only by the 144000 shall be Taught by them immediately and the Everlasting Gospel shall be without delay upon it Preach'd to every Nation Tongue and People under Heaven and then there shall be as in preparation to the Glory of the Kingdom of Christ but under the Influence of that Kingdom in Succession a mighty Spirit of Godly Sorrow working Repentance to Salvation never then indeed to be Repented of pour'd out upon all Flesh Now because this is a point of great moment to the Doctrine of Repentance and sets forth much of the Excellency of Repentance I shall give very great Scriptures and argue upon them for the truth of ir Scripture 1. The first Scripture I would insist upon shall be from a consideration of that great Ordinance of God concerning the Day of Attonement among the Children of Israel This Ordinance We find Levit. 23.27 In the tenth day of the seventh the Sabbattical Month there shall be a day of attonement It shall be an Holy Convocation to you and you shall afflict your Souls And you shall do no work in that same day For it is a day of Attonement to make Attonement for you before the Lord your God for whatsoever Soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same Day he shall be cut off from among his People And whatsoever Soul it be that doth any work in that same day the same Soul will I destroy from among his People It shall be a statute for ever throughout your Generations in all your Dwellings It shall be to you a Sabbath of Rest and you shall Afflict your Souls And on that day there were the great rites of Sacrifice the Bullock the sin Offering the Blood of which was carried into the Holy of Holies to make an attonement for the Vncleannesses of the Priests and People and to reconcile the Holy of Holies and the Mercy Seat and the Tahernacle of the Congregation and the Goat that was to be Kill'ed in the same Manner and the scape-Goat throughout c 16. Now that which I lay in the Foundation is That God never appointed
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
more and they shall know that his Name is Jehovah that he is the true God and all other Gods shall perish from the Earth and from under these Heavens Jerem. 10.11 c. 16.19 20 21. Thus as at the first preaching of the Gospel there were so great Conversions prickings in the heart and Repentances Acts 2 c. Because that was the fullness of time So there shall be much greater when the fullness of times eveâ— of All Time shall be For whatever was done by way of Inchoation and Beginning in the fullness of time shall be much more done at the fullness of times or of all time For That Gospel that was alway the everlasting Gospel shall then appear in that stile and be known by it The everlasting Gospel and therefore its Force Effect and Success shall be much greater than ever And it immediately follows upon this Preaching the Everlasting Gospel another Angel proclaim'd with a loud Voice Babilon is fallen is fallen before this it could not be done The Church of â—ergamus was blam'd for having them that held the Doctrine of Balam and who taught to eat things Sacrificed to Idols and Thyatyra for suffering them They had not Mourned that they might be cast out as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 5.2 and therefore they were Commanded to Repent and draw to Repentance all such among them that belonged to the Election of Grace Rev. c. 2. and here is that great Repentance by which Babylon is utterly cast out and fallen as it follows in the next Thunder or Voice from Heaven to that of the everlasting Gospel And then as it was in that Apostolic time they brought out their Books of curious arts and burnt them publickly even to the value of 50000 Peices of Silver so shall the curious arts of Idolatry Sorcery and Impurity be expos'd and for ever devoted at that time to the Flames Acts 19.19 Now how does this Recommend to us the Doctrine of Repentance throughout all our Generations and through the whole course of our Lives seeing the World of the Sav'd shall be thus Baptised with the Baptism of Repentance for the Remission of Sins just before Salvation And into this Treasury all ages of Saints in the World before this time have cast by Mourning Godly Sorrow and Repentance For have not their Tears been put into God's Bottle and are they not in his Books And at what time are they more likely to be Produced to their Etternal Account and Advantage than in such a day of Attonement and Reconciliation When the days of Refreshing that Blessed and Happy Age shall come forth from the presence of the Lord his immediate Appearance even the same Appearance that shall utterly abolish the man of sin 2 Thes 2.8 and revive and re-enliven the Saints that have Dyed and Slept in Jesus into the First Resurrection upon whom Blessedness is then Proclaim'd when all sins shall be perfectly blotted out and their holy Works alone shall follow them among which Repentance is one of the Principal in the Day of the Restitution of all things in the day of Salvation when it shall appear true Evangelical Repentance is never to be Repented of Acts 3.19 21. Rev. 14.13 And to move us therefore all and to provoke us to either the first Repentance if we have not yet Repented or to Renewed and advanced Repentance Rom. 13.12 let us consider how far the Night of the Apostasy is pass'd and the Day of Salvation is at hand How very near it grows How much more we see the Day approaching Heb. 10.24.25 For we are now in the 1255th day of the Witnesses 1260 days of Years of their Mourning and Sackcloth and upon the 25th day of the Last Month of the 42 Moons of Apostacy and when they end the Kingdom of Christ shall be immediately Proclaim'd How near then is the Kingdom of Heaven at Hand Infer 8. Because I know there is so great an unwillingness to believe such an Approach of the Kingdom of Christ Let us take as we stand in the National Community whereof we are this great Doctrine of Repentance into deepest and closest consideration For we find Scripture whenever it speaks to a Community as to the Kingdom of Judah and Israel in the Prophets it still speaks to them as such Communities as in the Language and Doctrine of Repentance and when it speaks to the Churches as in the second and third Chapters of the Revelation it speaks to them as such Communities and commands them to Repent as was before observ'd How necessary therefore to the National Body is the Doctrine of Repentance taken as relating to a Community How necessary must it needs be to every one of us not only as for our own Immortal Souls but as Parts and Members of the National Community and to the Church or Churches of this Nation that of the Church of England or the National Church as so many love to speak or to the Churches that are in England or Churches of England as others agreeably enough with Scripture speak as of the Churches of Judea of Galatia and thus undoubtedly there is a truth in both ways of speaking For when God hath given a Nation an universal consent in the Profession of the Name of God of Christ and of the Gospel they do in many great Regards and Accounts of Scripture come under such an Obligatory representation as a National Church as Judah and Israel in the times of the Old Testament came under And all particular Churches wherein so ever they differ in many particulars and make distinct Associations of themselves may be look'd upon as particular Churches and so Scripture vouches for them because they do in a Particular Union give themselves to the Lord and to one another yet notwithstanding they cannot what ever they may think put off their Relation to the whole Nation whereto they are United as parts nor to it as United with them in the substantial Essential Points of Christianity not so Adulterated but that such Church is look'd upon as a true Church by God and by Christ Nor can the more general or National Church Dis-interest it self in any of the more particular and Dissenting Churches seeing in God's account they are within it even those that are purest and have most of the Spirit and Power of Christianity and truly Purer than it self as in the general as the more general Church of Sardis had within it self the few purer Names that had not Defiled their Garments Rev. 3.1 c. This is when a more general Church is pure in substantials of Doctrine Worship and Laws of Holy Conversation it is otherwise when what is call'd a Church is Antichristian and Idolatrous in its substantials as in those of the Papacy and have no more Right to the Name of a Church than that Idolatrous assembly that cried up Diana of the Ephesians Acts 19. though it be there call'd by the same Name of a Church or Ecclesia
and Zeal not only ought but must be reduc'd and redress'd in Towns and Cities and in all our Villages and most particularly in our Camps and Navies where they more than any where else if possible abound and where there ought to be greater Guard and Watch against them than any where else according to that Great Precept Deut. 23.14 2. If this be not done It cannot be except God hath left the Earth more than ever yet he hath done and forsaken it and walks in the Galleries of Heaven without Regarding but that there must be a Visiting for these things and that his Soul must be avenged of such a Nation as this Jer. 5.9 whether by Plague or Famine or War or evil and noisome Beasts or by a Complication of these Four yea though it be by a Fire yet unblown that is ready to flame out or by an Army of Wounded Men that our Destruction must come and much the more because the Light of his Truth is so open and clear among us because his Mercies and Deliverances have been so-Great and the Methods of his Providence so unusual in his unhinging for us the General Laws of Nature in Dethroning and setting on the Throne for our preservation Now if These his Great Acts and Wonderful Doings do not work to Reformation They certainly shall justifie God in our Destruction And yet we daily see our sins and Transgressions Growing up to the very Heavens so that that our Destruction cannot but be speedy 3. Except the Kingdom of Christ be as I have declared very near us And that we are not yet under some most dreadful Judgments it is an argument to me it is certainly so that the Kingdom of Christ is very near us when he will take to himself his own great Power and Reign and Reform by a through Purging his Floor either by pouring out his Spirit and perswading by his everlasting Gospel Malach. 4.1 and sitting as by a Refiners Fire and Fullers Soap throughly to purifie that Baptism with Fire or by the Day that shall burn as an Oven and consume the Wicked Root and Branch and because of this notwithstanding our great Transgressions and mighty provocations even though he hath lifted up his hand that he would destroy us yet he hath wrought for his Great Names sake that is his Kingdom 's sake and hath done nothing yet so remarkable against us Let us then that fear the Lord speak often one to another that a Book of Remembrance may be writ for us as for them that have feared the Lord and thought on his Name and that we may be spared in the day when he makes up his Jewels and gather'd as Wheat into his Garner when he shall burn up the Chaff with fire unquenchable Mal. 3.16 Matth. 3.12 Infer 9. Seeing Nations and Persons are under so strict Commands to Repent with that Repentance to Salvation the contrary whereof is expressed by Death There is therefore in the Kingdom of Christ a City of Life and under it a City of Death a City of Salvation whose Walls and Bullwarks are Salvation and a City of Destruction distinct from it and opposite to it Esay 19.18 c. 26.1 The one is the Residence of those who have Repented with that Repentance to Salvation not to be Repented of The other is the dark and dismal Receptacle of those who have either been wholly dissolved into the worldly Laughter and Mirth or been Sorrowers only after the worldly Sorrow that worketh Death The New Jerusalem is the City of Life and Salvation the City that hath the Tree of Life and the River of the Water of Life and the Nations of the Saved walk in the Light of it and are healed from any possibility of Dying by the Leaves of the Tree of Life and the Living are written in it Whatever liveth in it shall live even for perpetuity The Second Death hath no power over them Esay 4.3 Revel c. 20.6 c. 21.24 c. 22.1 2. On the other side there is the City of Destruction Esay 19.18 when Five Cities shall speak the Language of Canaan being of the Nations of the Saved There is one City that shall be called the City of Destruction the contrary to Salvation being of those appointed to Death This is the Congregation of the Dead Prov. 21.16 This is the City of Gog that is of the dead slain with the sword of Christ's mouth who hath a place of Graves the Valley of Hamon Gog of the Multitude of Gog. Ezek. 39.11 c. These though they are the dead that is slain with the sword of Christ's mouth yet they are as in a Community in a Polity for though they are condemn'd by the Word and Sentence of Christ they are yet the Wicked rais'd to Condemnation and so are in the State of Living but of a Living Death Therefore these dead have a City and the Name of it is Hammonah as the Name of the New Jerusalem is Jehovah-Shammah the Lord is there so the Name of this City is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 its multitude or a multitude is there For broad is the way and wide is the Gate that leadeth to this City of Heres to destruction and many there be which go in thereat Matth. 7.13 These are the multitudes that are gathered together to the Battel of Armageddon the Day of God Almighty shaded by a Battel the multitudes in the Valley of Jehoshaphat the Valley of the Judgment of Jehovah the Valley of Decision of the Doom and Sentence of Christ as the Sword of his Mouth and the Valley of Excision of Destruction Joel 3.74 Revel c. 16.14 16. Now these dead in their City of the dead lye dead during the Thousand Years bound Hand and Foot for that space The Rest of the Dead slain with the Sword of Christ's mouth But when the Thousand Years are expired they are let loose into the Appearance of Life Motion and Action They whose multitude are as the Sand of the Sea under their Name Gog Magog come up against the Beloved City and the Camp or Tower and Castle of the Saints and cover the breadth of it shewing themselves the same Impenitents they were and had been before the Thousand Years began the Never-Repenting Enemies of God and of Christ and of his Kingdom So they are finally judg'd Ezek. 39.11 c. Rev. 19.21 c. 20.5 to the end cast with Sathan who had alway deceived them with Death and Hell into the Lake This is the second Death Thus in the opening this dark Scripture Behold in these two Cities the Repentance to Life and Salvation never to be repented of the Impenitency to Death and Destruction never also to be repented of that we may chuse the first perswaded by Eternal Grace and Love and abhor the other as the Black Mark of being the Esau hated by God who found no place for Repentance as the Vessels of his Wrath the Border of Wickedness against whom he hath Indignation for ever
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
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
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
to make so cheap of that infinitely precious Goodness that whoever aright considers the Case must needs infinitely abhor the thoughts Yet this is the necessity of such Mens Condition that they must either think themselves worthy thus to becken the Grace of God or they must perish for ever They enter then a contest of Precedency and Superiority with this Grace and decide against it That it is fit for that to stoop and humble yea to prostitute it self rather than they should be for ever Miserable yea rather than they should have been obliged to a Holy Life 2. It is for a Man to desire God to Mis-time his Grace for the Season of it is the present offer in the Gospel Now is the time accepted 2 Cor. 2.9 now is the day of Salvation It is to desire God to give him a Spring in Autumn or Winter when the time of the Patience of God is over to expect the Salvation of God now God who hath with infinite Wisdom and Equality weighed out Times and Seasons Eccles 3.11 and 9.12 Luke 19.42 and made every thing beautiful in its time doth not reverse his own Appointments to serve the Folly of Man who have not known their times and the things of their peace in their day For can it seem reasonable that Mountains should remove out of their places and Rocks wander from their Situation That Man more unintelligent than the Swallow and Crane that observe their appointed times Jer. 8.7 might not be insnared by the evil times that fall suddenly upon them Eccles 9.12 He that trusts then to such a Repentance doth as it were resolve to be saved by Miracle or else perish 3. Men do not consider the Jealousie of God nor are afraid of his Oath against them that harden their Hearts and do not hear his voice to day so that some Heb. 3.9 10 11. who have trifled with the Grace of God seek him early and do not find him The Israelites that said Whither shall we go up when they were commanded to go up and possess the land Deut. 1.28 when they would have gone up afterwards and fought for it were rejected by God So in Zechary God gives account of that great Judgment of their Captivity concerning which though Moses Samuel and Job had interceded he would not have heard As when I cried they would not hear so it came to pass that they cried and I would not hear Zech. 7.13 Many fail of the Grace of God that prophanely sell their Birth-right for a transitory Satisfaction and find no place for their Repentance Heb. 12.16 17. or of Gods Repentance in favour towards them though they seek it carefully and with Tears While Men are busie in fulfilling the corrupt Desires of their sinful Flesh and make slight of the Mercy that so freely presents their Souls a silent Decree passes against them that though it makes no noise in their Ears yet seals them in blindness and hardness so that their Souls are for ever closed therein For who can open what is shut by so powerful and awful a Hand 4. It is impossible to a Man to die with good composure of Mind that trusts to a Dying Repentance for let the Case be thus stated That Repentance which will not inable a Man to a holy Life is not saving suppose a Man then in a Dying Sickness making great acknowledgment of Sin full of Resolutions of leaving Sin and this Man recovering and peforming nothing but sliding back into the former Wretchedness of Life this Repentance however serious and earnest it seemed would not have saved him if he had died he had perished in his Sins and his false Repentance together For that his Repentance was truly inferior to his Sins appears in that as soon as ever that is over which gave it a seeming Advantage his Sins throw off that Repentance Rev. 2.7 c. but true Repentance always overcomes that Repentance therefore could not be true And if Repentance be false and counterfeit there is no amendment of it in Eternity when once the Master of the House is risen up and hath shut to the Door Luke 13.25 there is no entrance While the foolish Virgins too late understanding the Error of Oyl in their Lamps only and not in their Vessels Mat. 25.3 c. went to correct it by buying Oyl They were shut out and no knocking powerful enough for their Admission Yea though a Man may seem to be well quieted and comforted and to have the Testimony of the Spirit of God yet all this may be but a Delusion and Satan in an Angel of light for though they that have truly this Testimony may be supposed to know it is that true Spirit yet they that have it not 2 Cor. 11.14 may have something they so strongely imagine to be it that thereby they may be deceived This Testimony therefore must be proportionable to the assurance this Dying Man had from Christ else even a Man that dies safe must die in such an unexpressible Torment of Mind that it had been much better he had enjoyed no such seasons of Sin than only endure that And who can presume so upon God as to promise himself such a train of Miracles to carry him not only to Heaven but without those Agonies of Horror that are like Hell after so long Impenitency Thus on all sides it is most necessary for every one to Repent while he may behold the Truth of his Repentance in the ordinary Fruits of a holy Life and see himself in all the Circumstances of Temptation change of Condition Varieties which Life and the Course of it carry along with it For that is often by length of time cast up and appears upon the Surface that lay concealed at the bottom till such a Concurrence of things gives it the advantage to rise I understand nothing that can be objected to this last Argument I have used to disable the Confidence of such a Repentance except this It may be supposed the Repentance that is full of passionate and affectionate Motions towards God though amidst the fears of Death may be good till it be blotted out by returns to Sin and therefore if it be taken in the just time while it is good that is if a Man dies before it be reversed it may serve the great purpose of Eternity This Supposition I must confess hath a seeming Countenance from that particular place Ezek. 33.12 The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression as for the wickedness of the wicked he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness But if the scope of Scripture-Discourse in general or the very sense of Morality be taken in the Case no Man may trust so great a weight here For Christ looks upon the stony ground with the same Eye while it receives the word with joy Mat. 1.3.20 21. as when