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
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
Scriptures that treat most professedly of Repentance always insist upon it as a reformed course of Life to be undertaken even now while the Proposals of Grace and Reconciliation are made to us and only by very silent Intimations the track of which is hardly discerned leave it possible that God should by miracle save some very few out of the Fire and pull them as Brands out of the Burning by giving them Repentance at the last Whereas this is now become the only Repentance in use and hath devoured the other as if to press Men upon it were to torment them before their time and to lessen the Validity of this were to take away the Mercy of God and deny the Grace that is so free and universal Let us search therefore how this sort of Repentance hath come into such Repute And if we observe we shall find it first rising from the intimate Sense the Conscience hath of the necessity of Repentance For were it not so clear and evident a Duty a Death-Bed Repentance had never been heard of most would choose to go out of the World as they have lived in it not suffering any degree of the trouble of Conscience or vexing themselves with Reflections upon an unholy and ill-spent Life As Men have chose to live freely and uninterruptedly in forgetfulness of God and an Eternal Condition days without number Jer. 2.32 so would they choose to die were there not a Law within that however it hath lain covered with the Dust of Sensuality yet is now restored to its Authority and urges the Soul with the Terror of Punishment for so long Disobedience And secondly this necessity of Repentance though secretly understood yet was not sufficiently considered in the time of Health for had it been equally regarded it had not been now to begin He that had rightly measured it would not for a thousand Worlds so have adjourned it These two things then meeting so oft together viz. The necessity of Repentance and the neglect of it all along our Life the necessity it should be performed some time ere Men go out of the World and the neglect of it in the freer Opportunities of Life These I say bring forth hasty motions of it at last For it losing nothing of its necessity by its delay it must be done as well as it may be at that time even as the last Moments wherein Businesses of great Consequence are to be dispatched press for Expedition the more earnestly because they must be done then or never though it often falls out the time is so far past they suffer not only much disadvantage but even defeat by the delay The Notion of a Death-Bed Repentance then we may perceive rising from the great Indisposition to Repent while the Pleasures of Sin are in their Season and flourish and Men in Health and Strength to enjoy them and from the necessities of Repentance falling upon them at the last and wringing from them sometimes very high Acknowledgments of God and an Eternal Condition passionate Expressions of the folly evil and vanity of former Life desires of Mercy Professions of strong Resolvedness to serve God and if they had many Lives to give God they would give them all All which being so unusual to hear formerly out of such Mouths and coming from Dying Men for whose Sayings we have a natural regard Charity towards them and willingness to hope well of them gives these Semblances the Reputation of Repentance To which may be added That those who are Guides and Seers in Religion too often errante Clave by too Liberal an Absolution open the Kingdom of Heaven to such and taking the Instruments of a foolish Shepherd to themselves heal the hurt of their Souls slightly so that their Repentance is saincted here and though it miscarry in the other World yet the miscarriage is hid also in that other World From all this hath arisen a down-right Opinion of this kind of Repentance as the only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Prudent Expedient that compounds two so different Interests first that of a worldly Conversation to which it gives no hinderance then that of Eternal Life in appearance because it assumes the Promises of Mercy to it self especially those gracious Assurances in Ezek. 18. Chap. 33. it reckons as made on purpose for it All which argues a very vile Sense both of the Justice and Mercy of God of his Justice as if it had no authority of his Mercy as if it had no sense of Honour And lastly it is grown into a general Expectation rhat however ill and carelesly of God Men have lived here yet they should go out of the World with good words of him and Religious Professions as an Inbalm to their Memory and a Dirge to their Souls into the Happiness of an Everlasting Condition Thus they call Repentance and Heaven after their own name This their way is their folly Psal 49.11.13 14 c. yet their Posterity men of like Inclinations approve their sayings because such Men as they speak go away like Lambs but as the Scripture says like sensless Sheep are laid in the Grave and Death feeding upon them the Error is not discovered till the morning when the upright have dominion over them that is infinitely excel them and their counterfeit Repentance which cannot stand in judgment nor they in the congregation of sincere Penitents Psal 1. vers 5. Now this account I have given of a Death-Bed Repentance obtaining among us is too comprehensive yet I must acknowledge that there are many whose Judgments are more enlightned and the Sentiments of their Consciences quicker than to be satisfied at so easie a rate who yet fall into the common unhappiness of not having repented till they come to die I will therefore enquire further why many who are able to feel before-hand the necessities of a speedy Repentance and also to draw their Death so near them as to die daily in the sense of Death and thereby further perceive those Necessities do not yet Repent daily but betray themselves to an Evening or Twilight Repentance The Resolution of this lies not only in the immoderate love of Sin and its Pleasures and the too low apprehension of God and Eternal Things though these are always present in the case but chiefly it lies in the great Confidence such Men have in the present time not sensible of the continual waste of it Under the favour of which they put away the evil day far from them and stretch themselves upon this moment Amos 6.3 c. that they may take their full Ease and Satisfaction In the mean while stifling the Thoughts of Dying and Judgment Were it not for this no other Reason would encourage them to delay their Repentance for when this Fails all others generally fail also and therefore none are so passionately moved as such when they come to die This Cloud that is but as big as a Man's hand our days are as an hands breadth
Hickeringalls Hesketh Hughes Dean Hardys Henderson Herle Horton Bishop of Hereford Joynes Jackson Jessop Jenkins Jacombs Johnson Jeanes Knell King Kentish Kidder Love Lawrence Laud Loyd Littleton Lincoln Locker Lyford Bishop of London Lightfoot Marshall Mede Maynard Mocket Maine Meriton Mason Moore Meggott Newcomen Nevill Owen Preston Palmer Pierce Poole Patrick Reynolds Reading Ramsey Richardson Randol Rutherford Sutton Stoughton Sterry Scott Spurslow Bishop Stillingfleet Strong Smith Sibbs Bishop Sheldons Sermons for Fire and Ninth of September Slator Staunton Seaman Taylor Temple Turner A. Bishop Tillotson Bishop Usher Valentine Vinnes Vennings Visitation Wheatley Whitaker Watson Wilkinson Woodcocks Walker Warren Ward White 5693. Humanity of Several Sorts as Husbandry Histories Law Lilly L'Estrang Physick and Surgery Playes Poetry Popery for and against Prophesies Schools Sea Trade Usury and Witchcraft Books c. 158. Catechisms of several Sorts Octavo Large and Small ARcana of Astrology Archer's every Man his own Doct A New Light to Alchymy Ball 's Catechism Burrough's Spots of the Godly and Wicked Bernard's Seven Golden Candlesticks Boteler's Art of War Bagshaw's Rights of the Crown Bunworth of the French Disease Bradley's Grounds of Christian Religion Bramhall's Loyal Prophet Buscon's Life Basire of Sacrilege Baxter's Cain and Abel Betto de Ortu Natura Sanguinis Beverly's Great Soul of Man Countess of Arundel's Secrets Childrens Dictionary Latin and English Continuation of Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia Cotton on the Covenant Bishop Downam's Abstract on Command Drake Revived Dent on the Revelations of Repentance Drake's Bar to Sacrament Daphnis and Chloe a Romance Emblems Divine Moral Natural and Historical Enchiridion of Fortification Epicurus's Morals Elborow on the Common-Prayer Ferne on the Romans Ferrarius's Epistles Fort Royal of the Scriptures Franclin's Orthologia Grace leading to Glory Gouge's Word to Sinners and to Saints Catechism Gundebert a Poem Government of the Tongue How 's Delighting in God Blessedness of the Righteous Marks of Salvation Hopton's Concordance of Years Holyday's Satyr on Juvenal Hooper on the Commandments Heywood's Dialogues and Dreams Hill's Cateches or Principles of Religion History of the Great Mogul Hippocrates Aphorisms Herbert's Child-bearing Women Hume's Stedfast Christian Being a Perswasive to Constancy in the True Protestant Religion against all Objections Temptations Oppositions and Sollicitations to the contrary Harrington's Art of Law-giving Heath's King Charles the Second's Glory Loyal English Martyrs History of Daphnis and Chloe Thorny Juan de Luan Spanish and English Grammar Justini Historia Jewel's Golden Cabinet of Treasure Idol of the Clowns Or Wat the Tyler Janua Linguarum Reserata Knolly's Rudiment of the Hebrew Grammar Parable of the Kingdom of Heaven Kerhuel Eloque Rhetorick Lower de Corde Latin Apprentice made Free-man Loves Dominion Lucius Florus in English Lespines Three Treatises of Comfort to the Sick against the Fears of Death of the Resurrection Ladies Calling Merry Drollery Compleat Or a Collection of Jovial Poems Merry Songs and Witty Drolleries Monarchy Asserted in a Conference at White-hall with Oliver late Lord Protector and a Committe of Parliament Moral Philosophy Morison's Everlasting Gospel Matthews's Missia Magnified Nomenclatura Grammar Lat. and Engl. Natural and Artificial Conclusions Nasmith's Divine Poem Ovidii Epistolae Lat. Art of Love English De Tristibus English Ramsey of Poyson Ransom of Time being Captive Roxana Tragaedia Solomon's Proverbs Latin and English Scudder's Christians daily Walk in Holy Security and Peace Smith's David's Blessed Man David's Repentance School of Vertue Shakespeer's Rape of Lucrece Shepheard's Office of Constable Sharp's Art of Midwisery Shelton's Tachygraphy Latin Syntaxis Erasmiana Touch-stone of Truth Tallei Rhetorick Times Silver Watch-Bell Timme's Description of Jerusalem Templum Musicum Or the Musical Synopsis Ward of Wit Wisdorn and Folly describing the Nature Use and Abuse of the Tongue and Speech Twelves Large and Small ARistotle's Art of Rhetorick Bishop Andrews's Pattern of Catechistica Doctrin Abbot's Young Mans Warning-piece Ars Aulica or Courtiers Art Amesius de Conscientia Coronis Medulla Theologia Bellarmine's Enervatus Abernethie's Dignity and Duty of a Christian Bolton's Prayers Helps to Humiliation Bradshaw and Hildersham on the Sacrament Barclaei Poemata Euphorm Argems Brinsley's Rule of Life St. Bernard's Meditations Lord Bacon of Life and Death Corbet's Self Imployment Corbyn's Call to the Unconverted Bishop Cooper's Two Treatises Dialogues between the Lord and the Soul Carpenter's Wicked Politician Cotton's None but Christ Capel of Temptations Coral and Steel their Vertue Cato Major of Old Age. Clark's Looking-glass for Persecutors Duty of every one that intends to be Saved Comfort Life of Mrs. Clark Phrases Formulae Oratoriae Combachii Metaphysicorum Dent's Path-way to Heaven Doctrin of the Bible English and French Cook Compleat Dictionary Father's Blessing Legacy Fettiplace's Christian Monitor His holy Exercises of Heavenly Graces Sinners Tears Fuller's good Thoughts in bad Times Granada of Prayer and Meditation Golden Mean Garden of Spiritual Meditations or Flowers Garbutt on the Resurrection Help to Prayer Hinshaw's Meditations Holy Sinner History of the Bible Heavenly Academy Herl's Wisdom's Tripos Help to Prayer T. V. History of Thieves Instructions for Noblemen Jefferies New-Years Gift Ignoramus Countess of Kent's Manual King's Works in French Leach's Grammar Question Grain of Salt Lucius Servius's Serious Pastime Lucius Florii Stadii Lessius's Right preserving Life and Health to Old Age. Martial's Epigrams Busbey Mothers Blessing Legacy Midnight's Trance Moral Practice of the Jesuits Meditations Divine and Moral Tuck Norden's Poorman's Rest Pensive Mans Practice Oxford Jests Owen's Epigrams Practice of the Faithful Parr's Abba Father Practice of Piety Pink's Tryal of a Christian Growth Preston on the Sacrament Doctrin of Saints Infirmity Pacii Logica Rudimenta Pelham's Meditations Petter's Legacy to his Daughter The Tryal of Sheriff Cornish in Folio 18936. Broad Sheets RIch's Pen's Dexterity in Short hand Divine Examples of God's Severe Judgments upon Sabbath-Breakers in their Unlawful Sports Collected out of several Divine Subjects viz. H.B. Mr. Beard and the Practice of Piety A fit Monument for our present Times A Brief Remembrancer Or The right Improvement of Câ—â—ist's Birth-day A Second Sheet of Old Mr. Dodd's Sayings Or Another Posie gather'd out of Mr. Dodd's Garden Hunting for Money the First Part. Match For Money The Second Part. Vennings Allarm to Unconverted Sinners Muse's Fire-works upon the Fifth of November Or The Protestant Remembrance Perkins's Whole Duty of Man Mr. Richard Baxter's Serious Sayings concerning the great duty of Charity Bishop Hall's Sayings concerning Travellers to prevent Popish and Debauched Principles Bacchanalia Coelesta A Poem in praise of Punch 21459. Other Broad Sheets and Sheets on several Subjects 12796 As also in Half sheets FINIS
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