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
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
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
doeth the Will of God abideth for ever No Saint shall be Transposed out of his Saintship He that is Righteous let him be Righteous still He that is Holy let him be Holy still These Things are Asaluta not to be shaken And then on the other part it must be sadly said that Wickedness shall not be Transpos'd in regard of its Guilt in regard of its Filth If not removed in this World by Faith and Repentance not in the World to come Wickedness shall be Wickedness still it shall have a House builded it shall be established Zech. 5.11 and it shall be setled on its own Base and wicked Men shall be wicked Men still When once it is come to that Time there shall be no Transposal He that is Vnrighteous let him be Vnrighteous still He that is Filthy let him be Filthy still Rev. 21.11 Now seeing all this great Doctrine of the Apostle is conveyed to us under this Symbol or Representation of an Earthquake or the Shaking of the Earth and not only of the Earth but of the Heaven also let us enquire into the Scripture-Accounts of an Earthquake and apply it to the present Occasion that it may bring us to a serious holy sense and that what we have seen in a hand breadth may move us to consider what we shall see and feel as in the whole Heaven and Earth in large and in full For if what we have been sensible of as in a Glance or in Passage hath affected any with Fear especially what was done in a part of our Nation beyond the Sea which is but a very little Thing yea a Nothing in comparison of what shall be in its own Times in its proper Times How much more ought we to be affected with the Assurances God hath given us of a Change so much greater For as it may be said to us If we have run with the Foot-men and they have wearied us How shall we contend with Horses If in the present State which is as a Land of Peace and wherein we trust we have been so affrighted What shall we do in the swelling of Jordan I come therefore to the second Head viz. To make Remarks upon the nature of such Motions and Trembles of the Earth and their Fitness to be a Shade of the Kingdom of Christ and wherein they are so And herein I propose three things 1. To consider the strict nature of Earthquakes according to the Scripture-Foundations of Discourse concerning them 2. To enquire into the Causes why God is pleas'd to make such Concussions and Convulsions in Nature 3. To observe upon the great Metaphorical or Figurative Earthquakes that is Changes in the present State of the World that have been since the Death and Resurrection of our Lord and how the Observation of them may be made subservient to the due Improvement of our Thoughts in regard to the late Earthquakes we have heard of or been at all sensible of more of late I begin then with the first Head in Four Points Point I. The Scripture teacheth us This great Globe of Earth and Water is hung by the mighty Wisdom Skill and Power of the great Geometer of Heaven and Earth The Earth being Round is on every side encompassed with Air and Skie as they who sail it round find as well as by Reason it is demonstrated as a Ball in the Air So we read Job 26.7 He stretcheth out the North over the empty Place for so to our eye and motion the meer Air seems to be and he hangeth the Earth upon nothing I know this is a Point proper to Philosophical Discussion that it may go as far as it can upon But those Questions God asked Job 38.4 c. would pose the wisest of the World Declare if thou hast understanding Who hath laid the Measures of the Earth If thou knowest who hath stretched the Line upon it so that it is in just number weight and measure Whereupon are the Foundations thereof fastned or who laid the Corner-stone thereof There may be handsome and plausible solving the Phenomenae as they speak before Men who know as little the best of them one as another but before God all is but darkning Counsel by Words without Knowledge Now when it is so that the Earth hangs thus How must it needs be that God as he pleases may shake the Earth out of its place with a touch of his hand and all the Inhabitants thereof and his Enemies particularly be shaken out of it or off from it or whither or how he pleases For if that bold Man of Mathematicks durst say Give me where to set my foot and I will remove the Earth what can infinite Understanding and Power do or if he does but slacken his hand from holding the Ballance even keeping the Scales of Earth and Air just or if there be such a one as with great Reason hath been thought the Poize of the Central Fire Even all would be in immediate Confusion On this Consideration then any kind of Earthquakes is no wonder the wonder is they are not every day and not to the utmost The only security is the unchangeableness of Divine Ordination for such a time as he hath decreed since the Flood wherein in all appearance of Reason as well as Scripture there was even in this regard a Jog as one may say of it 2. The Ballance is in this regard yet so Even and just that nothing we account most surely founded stands so fast so firm and secure as the Earth that it cannot be moved So that allowing it to have a Diurnal or every days Revolution from East to West yet it is with such equality that it disturbs all upon it no more than a Fly sitting it self fast on a Globe is unsettled by its being turn'd round Notwithstanding this motion the Earth is founded on the Seas and Established on the Floods that is the Waters are so every way compacted under and about and over it that it is as it were founded upon it as on Pillars of Marble which may have been understood first according to the excellent forementioned Theory of the Earth 2. As the Cement and Fixation of the upper Parts of the Earth is the moisture it receives from the Waters 3. As the ambient or round-about Air hath a more immediate force upon the Waters to crowd and keep them close to the Earth than the Air it self could have upon the Earth the Water being a middle Body between Air and Earth even as the Air is between that subtile Matter we call Ether and Air. So that the Earth hath Foundations Pillars Corner-stone in Scripture-Language And this is indeed absolutely necessary for such kind of Bodies and Works as are to move and rest upon this Earth which is as a Sea in regard of the variety of Creatures in it wherein are Things creeping innumerable and both great and small Beasts and Man the highest Order of Animals Now these require such a
solid Floor and Pavement to move upon such a Bed to rest upon Upon this Earth is the whole Vegetative Nature both nourished and supported as in a Nursery even from the Cedar in Lebanon to the Hysop that grows in the Wall Hereon have all the Great Buildings the Palaces Castles Towers multiplied into Cities and Towns their Foundations Now seeing all these have their Order their Quiet their Safety by the steddiness of the Earth whenever it is moved there is an immediate Shatter Confusion Disorder Desolation an Amaze a Horror upon all Creatures of Sense and especially of Reason an Affrightment and Terror upon Nature it self because hereby the great Laws and Sanctions of Creation and Providence are violated For concerning the Earth God spake and it was done he commanded and it stood fast Psal 33.9 3. The Earth is stuff'd with variety of Matter Humours and Vapors in its Bowels Fire Water Vapor Air Minerals Sulphur Piceous Matter Now it self is so made as to lye close and to lye still every clod of Earth compacts it self and would lye in as little room as it can It is heavy and sluggish and unapt to move whereas all the rest of its Inmates are for Motion and Action some of them of very earnest and vigorous Motion and for Propagation and Enlargement of themselves The Earth will not move but on some great violence and force so when those working and active Parts find they are fettered and imprisoned and cramp'd they grow furious and outragious and rend and tear every thing to make and force their way and all on the sudden and at once very often for being either gather'd together in great Caverns and Hollows of the Earth their Room grows too strait and little and so they are forc'd to transplant themselves or having as one may say very often a Spirit of Contradiction one to another they fall into Feuds and Wars one with another and they that are overcome and fall under the Mastery of others are forc'd and driven and made to fly out with great violence and the very same thing may fall out in divers lesser Veins and Tubular Passages or Pipes in the Earth where though the Stores of these Vapors or Mineral Spirits are lesser yet if it be in many of them together the Contest may be very great and the Fury very discomposing to the Earth Thus there are within the Earth those Bombs and Mortars those Cannon and Ordnance those Battering Rams and Engines those Mines oft sprung and natural Gun-powder and fiery Bullets those lesser Screwed Guns all which are the Ammunition of Nature or rather of the God of Nature Thus when they are discharg'd and let off it is with great Noise Dread and Astonishment and oftentimes Destruction to the Inhabitants of the Earth Who almost hath not heard of Aetna and Vesuvius and other the Mountains spouting Fire in several Parts of the World And as there are such constant known and open Eruptions in Nature so are there secret sudden and extemporary ones And thus in the Heavens over us there are like Contests and Collisions falling and clapping of Clouds Thunders Lightnings fiery Meteors and flaming Balls and these often corresponding and as it were holding Intelligence with the same in Earth And these are certainly often Causes one of another by the Tone or Link of Air being broken and the Elastic Force or Spring of it flying this way and that way as lately in Jamaica according to the most prudent Accounts from thence Every thing then must needs be torn and havock'd as those Motions hurry this way or that way Persons Animal Creatures and Things at such times And as these are in the World of Nature so are they in the Political World when Nations or People are too full for their Place and transplant themselves by forcing into other Nations when Wars those great Disputes of Nations arise when People or Armies fall into Mutiny these are Political Earthquakes and when Men are oppressed in Religion by domineering Superstition and Laws of Vniformity and imposing on the Consciences and Faith of Men There are Religious Earthquakes The Psalmist puts them altogether Psal 65.7 8. Which setteth fast the Mountains being girded with Power which stillest the noise of the Seas the noise of their Waves and the multitude of the People This God does in Mercy when he keeps all quiet but there are Times when all these being in Hubbub and Mutiny the Mountains shake and roar together with the Seas and Waves and the Multitude of People in their Strivings who are therein emphatically called the Mobile that They that dwell in the uttermost Parts are afraid of these Tokens thus from one end of Nations or even of the World to another there arise dreadful Fears at the Tokens of God unhinging the World called therefore Prodigies and Portents For what Interest God hath in these shall be spoken in the next Particular I only observe further There are in the Little World by the wrestling of contrary Humours in the Bodies of Men such Spoutings of Fire as in Fevers such Deluges of Water as in Dropsies such Earthquakes in violent Diseases such sulphureous Vapors in horrid Melancholies or Fits or in the Arteries and Sinews as in Gouts and Rheumatisms in those Arthritical Pains in the strait and close Tubes of the Body such Swimmings of the Head as resemble what hath been spoken of in the outer World but above all in Consciences 4. Let all these things be trac'd as much as they can to their natural Causes yet Scripture ascribes all to God Psal 148.8 Fire Hail Snow Vapor all fulfil his Word He worketh his Signs and Wonders among the Armies of Heaven and the Inhabitants of the Earth and none can stay his hand for all the Inhabitants of the Earth are reputed as nothing in such a Case Dan. 4.35 except he pleases to stay it himself or can say to him What dost thou As if they should say What dost thou mean who hast made Heaven and Earth and preservest it to put it into these Disorders But he gives no Account of his matters in these Things And seeing he holds all natural Causes in his hand and ballances them every moment what is it to say All these Things have their proper Causes but to say in true sense that God does all These for all Nature is indeed Miracle constant and as we say in ordinary But God indeed does in more lofty Style and Elegancies and Eloquences of Language assume to himself the Government of these affrightful Motions in Heaven or Earth Thunders Lightnings Earthquakes throughout Scripture as if they were immediately done by his own hand as if he took this Globe of Earth and Sea which he hath Hung upon nothing and shook it out of its place or as if he immediately shot off his great Pieces either in the Bowels of the Earth or in the Skies or sprung a Mine in the Earth And it must needs be so if