Shaking Dispensations, Considered.
BOSTON-Lecture. 13 d. VIII m. 1715.
Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the Heavens, and the Earth, —
And I will shake all Nations, —
IT is a Passage Occurring in very Ancient Records; Psal. LXXIV. 14. Thou brakest the Heads of Leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat unto the People inhabiting the Wilderness. When the People of God Enjoy'd the Satisfaction of seeing a Pharaoh taken out of the World, then was that Word accomplished.
[Page 2] The Man to whom Statues were Erected, with the Title of, The Immortal Man, upon their Pedestal, is by the stroke of Death now laid in the Grave.
The King who suffered himself to be blasphemously called, The Almighty, is crushed like a Worm under the foot of the Lord God Omnipotent.
The Tyrant, who about Thirty Years ago boasted on his Medals, [ O Mighty Man, boasting in Mischief!] That he had brought about the Conversion of Twenty Hundred Thousand, whom he called Hereticks; You know by what Unparallel'd Barbarities; You know to what Abominable Idolatries; — He is now buried under that Epitaph; The Man of the Earth shall Oppress no more.
Certainly all the Servants of God in the World, will on this Occasion adore the Hand of the Glorious GOD, breaking in pieces the Head of a Leviathan.
Sure I am, If after the Setting up of Popery in the Plantations, had been Engaged unto him, when we had a Popish King upon the [Page 3]Throne, (as has been since discovered,) a most Seasonable Revolution had not prevented [...]is taking Possession of this Country, we had found him a Leviathan. The Jawes of the fiercest Crocodile would have been full of Tender Mercies, in Comparison of his Merciless Cruelties.
An Entertainment for the People Inhabiting the Wilderness, is to be Considered on this Occasion. Our God provides an Entertainment for us. And what can more agreeably, or more deliciously Entertain us, than a View of the Wonderful Shakes, which the Great God is upon giving to the Nations, yea, to all Nations, upon such a Dispensation!
Our Prophet Haggai under the Inspirations of God, animated a discouraged and a dilatory People, to go on with rebuilding the Temple at Jerusalem. To this Purpose, a Greater Glory is promised for the Second, than had been Enjoy'd by the Former Temple. A Greater Glory! Not in regard of a Pompous and Splendid Appearance. Nor do I take the Story that Josephus gives us, [Page 4]of what was done by Herod the Great, unto it, for to be much better than a Romance, of Incredible & Ill-designed Exaggerations. But the Greater Glory, was to be in the Coming of the Messiah thither; in the Presence and Preaching of the Son of God Incarnate there.
Concerning this Coming of our Saviour, we have here Two Things remarked.
First; It was to be in a little while. T'was indeed Five hundred Years off. But then, three thousand and five hundred Years had passed since the First Promise of it. What remained, was but a little while, to what had already passed. It is but a little while unto Him, with whom a Thousand Years is but as One Day.
Secondly; All Nations were to be Shaken, to prepare them for such a Blessing. The Fulfilment of the Promise was to be brought on with very Shaking Dispensations. The Shake upon all Nations, is here Metaphorically described, and perhaps also distinguished, by a Shake upon the Heavens, or the Upper World; and upon the Earth; [Page 5]both the Sea and the Dry Land, which belongs unto the Earth; or the Lower World.
This is what we are now to pay Regard unto.
There are Times, wherein the Glorious Lord of Heaven and Earth, will Shake the Nations of the World; yea, Shake both Heaven and Earth in the disturbed Nations.
My Text shall be a little more particularly Explained, before my Doctrine be prosecuted.
A King of Persia comes out against the Greeians, with the biggest Army that ever was heard of: But besides his Army at Land, his Navy at Sea, was horribly defeated. So did the Lord shake the Earth & the Sea! After this, Alexander the King of Greein, does annoy and destroy the Persians; and by his Victorious Arms, he made all the Nations to Shake. The Successors of that Emperour, dividing the Empire, fell out among themselves; Especially the Kings of the North and of the South; of Syria, that is, and of Egypt; who made the Nations to [Page 6]Shake still by their Bloody Wars. After this, the Romans Invaded and Conquered Grecia: And at [...]ngth Civil Wars fell out among the Romans themselves; in which Wars there were some terrible Sea-fights. Thus the Lord made the Sea, and the Dryland, and all Nations to Shake. Finally, the Romans brought a Desolation upon the whole Jewish State, both Civil and Sacred; wherein the Lord Shook, not the Earth only, but the Heavens also.
Our First Enquiry now shall be,
HOW 'tis that our Glorious LORD, will Shake the Nations, yea, Shake both Heaven & Earth about them?
First. There are Times wherein Shakes are given to the Corporeal World; Heaven and Earth Literally taken, are wonderfully Shaken, and unto the Terror of the Nations.
The God that formed all things, has put all Things into an incomparable Order. But sometimes the World may be put somewhat out of the Order wherein tis ordinarily carried on. When the course of the World is altered, by any Extraordinary work or [Page 7]change upon it, then does the Great God give a Shake unto it.
Can Heaven be shaken? Yes. Prodigious Thunderings and Lightnings in Heaven, are some shaking of Heaven. Thus the Lord shook Heaven, at the giving of the Law, when the Thunders & Lightenings were such as to make Moses himself cry out, I exceedingly fear & quake. Of this we read; Psal. LXVIII. 8. The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of the Lord. And so, when the Stars in their Courses fight against the Enemies of God, by raising any Destructive Tempest upon them; Heaven is then shaken in it and for it. There is also a shaking of Heaven, when any real Prodigies do there show themselves: for so we may suppose there sometimes do, without our falling into the whimsies of a fanciful and credulous Livy about them. The Learned Man, who wrote against the Regard of all such Things, afterwards owned unto one to whom I have the Honour to be related, That he had overdone. Those Things that are called, Fearful sights and [Page 8]great signs from Heaven; There is a shaking of Heaven in them. We read, Mat. XXIV. 29. Stars shall fall from Heaven, & the Powers of the Heavens shall be shaken. When Blazing Stars, do in their Elliptic Motions make their Descents towards us, & threaten a Mischievous Brush unto us, then do Stars fall from Heaven. But then, most properly, then most awfully, are the Powers of the Heavens shaken; when the Angels of the Heavens are put upon doing unusual Things among us. The Heavenly Powers may go so far out of the common Road, as to break in upon us, and Visibly, or Audibly, and Sensibly do Strange Things among the Children of Men; There is a wonderful shaking of Heaven in such Things. It shakes Heaven, when the Angels do come out of Heaven, with Apparitions, or with Operations, whereat Flesh and Blood falls into a consternation. Heaven is then shaken; when the Heavenly Host is upon such Motions as cause just Amazement; and perhaps the Tongues of Men become the Tongues of Angels. — It becomes me to stop here; and Step into Lower Regions.
[Page 9] The Earth is to be Shaken too. 'Tis very particularly so, when what we call an Earth quake happens. Our Lord shakes the Earth, when He causes the Upper layes thereof to Quake, by the Subterraneous Fires getting Head beneath 'em. In an Earthquake there comes to pass that, whereof we read; Job IX. 6 He shakes the earth out of her place, & the pillars thereof do tremble.
Thus again the Lord shook the Earth at the Giving of the Law; when the whole Mountain Quaked greatly. The Songs among the People of God many Ages after, celebrated that Earth-quake; They Sang, O God, The Earth trembled & shook. Of all the Plagues inflicted by God upon a Polluted World, that of an Earth-quake is the most formidable. It may seem admirable, that it is not Enumerated among the Plagues in Deuteronomy. Some think, 'Tis because the Lord has more peculiarly reserved this transcendent Judgment for the Times and the Crimes under the New Testament. And yet in the Old Testament also we find it Exemplified. Very singularly notable was that [Page 10]whereof the Prophet Jeremiah, [I say, the Prophet Jeremiah, because I take the Six last Chapters of what we have in the Book of Zechariahs Prophecies, to have been indeed Jeremiahs:] takes notice, in Zech. XIV. 5. Ye fled from before the Earth-quake, in the Dayes of Uzziah, King of Judah. The Jewish Historian relates, That this roaring Earth quake tore down an High Hill, which rolling for diverse furlongs did no little Damage to the Kings Palace and Garden, and the roof of the Temple Split open so that the Sun shone into it. Be sure; The Earth-quakes which accompanied the Crucifixion and the Resurrection of our Blessed JESUS, deserve an Eternal Commemoration: The Modern Travellers, who are far from Fancies and Whimsies, and at the same time of the most unspotted Veracity, do on the Split Rocks thereabouts at this very day, find a very probable Commemoration of it. 'Tis notorious, That the Sea, as well as the Dry Land, bears a Part when an Earth-quake is in its Agitations. A Troubled Sea is then perceived at a distance from the Shore; and [Page 11]near the Shore the Sea so retires, that the Channels of the waters are seen, and what no Eye ever saw before, is discovered. When God shakes the Sea & the dry Land, the Sea withdrawes, and the Dry Land, which it once covered, is for a while Exposed. Every body knows these Things, I shall say no more about them.
Secondly. The Political World; there are Times wherein Shakes are given to That also; The terrified Nations feel Heaven and Earth if you take them Figuratively, most wonderfully Shaking about them. God shakes all Nations; and He shakes Heaven and Earth in doing so. According to the Language of the Orient, by Heaven and Earth, are meant Superiors and Inferiors among the People.
The Shaking of Heaven, What is this? Truly, Any Great Alteration in a Government may be counted so. Kings are called Suns. Rulers under them are called Stars. When Suns or Stars are Extinguished, and put out and pull'd down, and laid in the Dust; when God Covers the Sun with [Page 12]Blackness, & makes the Stars dark, & brings darkness upon the Land, as it was denounced of old unto the Land of Egypt; Surely, Heaven cannot but be shaken in it. Especially, when such surprizing Mutations fall out, that Men who are the most Faithful Witnesses of our Saviour, shall hear a great Voice from Heaven, Come up hither; and shall put off their Sackcloth, and be advanced into Authority, and have power over the Nations; the Heaven of those Nations must be shaken with a Witness, in those Works of God. Astonishing Mutations came upon the Roman Empire, when a New Set of Men, and a Good Set, had the management of it thrown into their Hands; And it is thus painted out; Rev. VI. 12, 13. Lo, There was a Great Earth- [...]ake; and the Stars of Heaven fell [...] the Earth, and the Heaven departed as a scroll, when it is rolled together.
But the Church-State of any Nations, or People, is peculiarly the Heaven of that People. A Settling of Churches is called, a Planting of Heavens. The Pastors of Churches are called, The Stars of them. [Page 13]When Faithful Ministers are silenced, it is expressed so; Dan. VIII. 10. A casting down of the Stars from the Host of Heaven, and a stamping on them. The Changing of a Church-state, is a shaking of Heaven. When the Religion of a People is assaulted, their Heaven is then shaken: And if it be the Religion of God, in that shaking of Heaven, there are Dragons who try with their Stings, to annoy the Stars of Heaven. Or, Suppose it a False Religion; The Abolition of Judaism, of Paganism, of Popery, has always been with a Mighty shake of Heaven, in the Country, where the False Religion has been abolished. Verily, To dissolve a Church-state, and bring a New Face upon a Church by Law Established, or to lay aside Constitutions of Consequence to a Church-state; This is to shake Heaven over the Heads of the People concerned in it. The Gospel, is Eminently the Firmament of Heaven spread over the Church of God. Where the Gospel comes to be brought in, and set up, and spread out, as the Rule of all Administrations in the Church; Tis done with a [Page 14] shaking of Heaven over the Heads of the People there.
And may not the Earth be shaken too! It may be so. Then is the Earth shaken, when there are great Stirs among the Common People. Sore Distresses among a People have this Description given of them; Isa. XXIV. 19, 20. The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly; The earth reels to & fro like a Drunkard, & is removed like a Cottage. Tumults, & Ferments and Uproars among a People, are a Shaking of the Earth, as well as the Roaring of the Sea, in the Prophetic Schemes of speaking. We Read of such Things as those; Luk. XXI. 25. Upon the earth distress of Nations, with perplexity, the Sea and the Waves roaring. Sometimes, there are violent Commotions among the People. There are Tendencies to quite another Condition of Things; It may be said, The Nations are Angry; The Factions, the Clashes, the Clamours, are full of Menaces. Now the Waters roar and are troubled, & the Mountains do shake (the [Page 15]Great Ministers are frighted) with the swelling thereof. So does God shake the Earth; and the Sea, as well as the Dry Land, has a deep share in the Convulsions upon the Nations.
Thirdly. Deaths and Wars are Two very considerable Strokes, whereby the Great God gives very considerable Shakes unto the Nations.
The Deaths of Chief Men give a Shake to the State which those Great Men Supported. The Fall of Pillars makes the House to shake, at the Supports leaving of it. And no Pillars do stand so firm, that the Mighty One, before whom every Sampson is less than a Moth, cannot throw them down. The World Shakes, when He throws them down. When a King died, and it was cryed out, How is the Mighty fallen? It was then said, Psal. LX. 2. Thou haft made the Earth to tremble. Sometimes One Life has upon it, Inexpressible Dependencies! The frail Thread of One Life, the Affairs of whole Nations, depend upon it. The Prince Dies; His Breath goes forth; [Page 16]he returns to his Earth; In that very day his thoughts perish: And in that very Day, what a Shake is given to many Nations! — O Memorable Month of ANGUST, How marvellous thy Demonstrations of it! How marvellous thy Demonstrations of it!
But, if Wars arise, — then the Nations are yet more dreadfully Shaken, and in the Shaking they are dashed One against another. It shakes the World, when Things are at that sad pass: Mat. XXIV. 6, 7. Ye shall hear of Wars, & Rumours of Wars, Nation shall rise against Nation, and Kingdom against Kingdom. It is very suitably added, There shall be Earthquakes in divers places. Especially, If Civil Wars arise among a People, and God sets Aegyptians against Aegyptians, and they fight every one against his Brother and against his Neighbour, such a People is horribly shaken in their Divisions. It is foretold; Hag. II. 21, 22. I will shake the Heavens and the Earth; and I will overthrow the Throne of Kingdoms, and they shall come down every one by the Sword of his Brother. When there were diverse Competitors [Page 17]for the Crown of Israel, we read; The Earth trembled. Such Competitions bring on Shakes, the Issues whereof are such as no Man alive could have imagined. But indeed all Wars are a Shaking and Sifting sort of Things, unto the Nations that are involved in them. Nations are Shaken, when Swards are Furbished, when Swards are Brandished; They are a Troubled Sea, when there is no Peace unto them.
Fourthly. The Angels of our Glorious LORD, even His Mighty Angels, are considerable, tho' invisible Instruments, in the Mighty Shakes which He gives unto the Nations. The Shakes that are given to the World, are so many Turns, given to the Wheels, that carry on what is a doing in the World. We are hastening to a Kingdom that cannot be moved; But as yet we are in a World, in all Parts whereof, [all the Four Parts!] The Wheels are moving and shaking perpetually. And we find; Ezek. X. 9. The Wheels are by the Cherubims. One says well, The Angels are capacious Wheels, that move in the great Clock of the World. The Wheels [Page 18]of Providence, that Shake the World, and Change it Marvellously are very much managed by the Ministry of the Angels, whom God hath made Ministring Spirits, to wait about the Throne of our Lord JESUS CHRIST. When a Great King, the Ravager on the Liberties of the World, was Dethroned, it gave a Great Shake unto the World. But how was it brought about? We read; Dan. IV. 23. A Watcher, and an Holy One, comes down from Heaven, and sayes, Hew the Tree down, and destroy it. Was it not the Angel Gabriel, that help'd Alexander in Shaking the World, until it was turn'd upside down! I am sure, he said, He would, no less than Two Hundred Years before it was done. The Descent of Angels, uses to make all Tremble where they come. The Trembling of the World is very much owing to this; The Angels Descend; and they Shake Nations, and Shake Kingdoms, and Shake Empires, and set all a-shaking before the Lord.
It is by a Secret Work of the Glorious LORD on the Spirits of Men, that shakes are [Page 19]given, and wondrous Turns brought upon the World. Our LORD secretly disposes the Spirits of Men, to push on Amazing Changes in the Nations. Nations are strongly and strangely Spirited, sometimes one way, sometimes another. The Spirit of a Nation is an Irresistible Thing. It will shake down Thrones, that seem to stand upon Rocks. It will shake a Nation out of a Slavery, as well as into it. It will shake Idolatry into a Nation or out of it. It will bring back abdicated Superstitions, or it will drive them out again. When the Spirit of a Nation shall be set that way, [...]n Establishment that said, Who shall bring me down to the Ground? Shall see Obadiahs Prophecies Fulfilled upon it. But now the ANGELS of the Glorious LORD; these have an unknown Instrumentality, in Raising or in Laying the Spirits of Nations. In such Things, The Heavens do Rule; that is to say, The Angels of the Heavenly World. O Bless the Lord, ye his Angels, for the use he makes of you, in his Kingdom which Ruleth over all!
But our Next Enquiry must be, [Page 22]to the Nations. By their Prayers, they do, as it were, Jog that Almighty Arm, that sets all a-shaking. As we read, Act. IV. 31. When they had Prayed, the place was shaken: So when the People of God in a Place, have been a Praying, it falls to Shaking thereupon. When the Prayers of the Saints have been Offered, with the Incense of our Saviour at the Golden Altar, the Next News is, There are Thunderings and Lightni [...] and an Earthquake; The Great G [...] shakes Heaven and Earth, with Horrend [...] Concussions upon it. Yea, sometimes a few Praying Servants of God; it may be One Isaias; by lifting up Fervent Prayers; Yea, and in secret Places too;—may obtain shakes upon whole Nations, for whom they are the Remembrancers of the Lord. A Moses distressed for the Congregation of God, may give this Account; In my Distress, I called upon the Lord, & I cried unto my God. What follows? Then the Earth shook & trembled; the Foundations also of the Hills moved and were shaken.
But especially, When the People of God, [Page 23]are under grievous Oppression; and they sigh by reason of Bondage, & they cry, & their cry comes up to God by reason of the Bondage [...] Anon, at the Cry of the Oppressed, God so Shakes the Nations, that at length His People have just Liberties granted unto them. Nations are often set against the Allowance of Just Liberties, unto the more pure Worshippers of God, and Practisers of Genuine and Primitive Christianity. But God by shaking the Nations does perplex and confound their Interests, and bring such Necessities upon them, that He Forces them to let His People go & Serve Him, and not far [...] the worse for doing so.
Yea, sometimes the Nations must be shaken, to prevent their Combinations to destroy the People of God. Were the Tranquillity of the Nations uninterruped, they wou'd combine and unite, for the Extirpation of what they call by the Name of Heresy. What would become of the Northern Heresy? Lord, They have taken crafty counsel against thy People, & consulted against thy Hidden Ones; They have said, come, let us cut them off; Their [Page 24]Name shall be no more in Remembran [...] God finds them something else to [...] shaking of them: He Rocques & Sh [...] Nations, and keeps His People Q [...] doing so. [See, Jer. L. 33, 34.]
Thirdly. Our Glorious Lord sh World, that He may advance His ow [...] dom in the World. The Kingdom [...] our Saviour, lies at the Bottom of th [...] which the World is overturn'd wit [...]
Sometimes a Reformation is to be [...] in a Nation; But no Reformation [...] wrought in the Nation without for [...] rough Shaking of it. When there [...] of Antichrist rivetted into a Cons [...] there must be a deal of dreadful to pull it out. There may be Ho [...] have got the Antichristian Leprosy s [...] rooted in them, that they must [...] shaken down before it can be gotte [...]
When the Walls of Jericho are [...] there must be an Earthquake to tumb [...] down, and swallow them up. A [...] pass on, O People of God, unto that remains for the People of God. [Page 25]corrupt Hierarchy of the Jewish Na [...]ere fond of their Ceremonies, where [...] Growth of Christianity suffered a wo [...] struction. For that very cause our [...]r said; I will shake not the Earth only, [...] Heaven. It was that nothing but [...]itutions of our Saviour might come in [...]om of what He would have to come [...]n Abrogation.
[...]re may be much of Chaff in the [...]h of our Lord JESUS CHRIST. [...]tis prophecied; Matth. III. 12. He, [...]Fan is in His Hand, will thereughly His Floor. But verily, it must be with [...]han a little shaking, that the Fanning will be carried on.
[...]at I am going to Speak, I would ask [...]e Attention unto it. Were I in a [...] full of Kings, I would Speak what I [...]th a Demand of a Just Attention to it. could the Speaker, find a Voice that [...] reach as far as the Last Trumpet, This [...]t it would require a Great Attention to. [...]en the Glorious LORD shakes not the only, but also Heaven, 'tis [Heb. XII. 27.] [Page 26] That those things which cannot be shaken may remain. There are some Excellent Things, which cannot be shaken, but the more they are Studied, and the Wiser and the Better they are who Study them, the more they will be approved of. And what are those Excellent Things? They are, The MAXIMS of the EVERLASTING GOSPEL.
There are certain MAXIMS directly calculated for the Grand Intentions of, Glory to God in the Highest, and, Peace on Earth from Good-will among men. Those MAXIMS,— to dig them out from that Mountain of God, our Sacred Scriptures, and run the Oar into Wedges of Gold; a more comprehensive Service to the Church, and the whole World, cannot at this Day be thought upon. They, and those that adhere to them, shall one Day, become a Great Mountain, which the whole Earth shall be fill'd withal.
MAXIMS there are, wherein all the Children of God are United, whatever Different Perswasions in other matters may alienate them from One another. MAXIMS they are, wherein all that are Cordially United, [Page 27]and Live accordingly, are to be Esteemed the Children of God. All the People of God, must come to an Explicit Union in these MAXIMS; and know no other Terms of Communion, than these Terms of Salvation; and the Privileges, the Emoluments, all the Expressions of Brotherly Charity, which of Right belong to all Good Men, as well in the Church as in the State, are to be granted unto all that Embrace these Glorious MAXIMS. A Church built upon any other Foundation than these undoubted Sayings of our Saviour, is not well-founded; No, It shall first or last, be wonderfully Shaken, and Great will be the fall thereof! GOD will one day bring His People to Embrace One another upon these Generous MAXIMS; and to keep the Lesser Points in a due Subordination to them; and manage their controversy on the Lesser Points with another Spirit, than what has been too frequent among the Disputers of this World. And all Invasions upon the Throne of the Great GOD in the Conscience of Man, will be abominated.
The World will not presently come to [Page 28] This; One Year won't bring them to it. But it may be infallibly foretold unto you, God will go on to Shake all Nations until they come to This. GOD will Overturn, Overturn! And, O Unrighteous Nations, O Foolish People & Unwise; You shall never see Rest until you come to This.
There shall be Men Qualified like, and Influenced by, the Angels of God; These Boanerges and Sons of Commotion, shall fly thro' the midst of Heaven, having this EVERLASTING GOSPEL, to Preach unto the Inhabitants of the Earth. And our Glorious LORD will shake Heaven, and shake the Earth, and shake all Nations, till this Gospel be complyed withal. That Glorious Cry, Babylon is fallen, will ensue upon it!
APPLICATION.
And now, O Christians, what should be our Behaviour at the Times, wherein we see our Glorious LORD so Shaking of the Nations?
I need not call upon you to look for Shaking [Page 29]Times: We see them, we feel them, we are in the midst of them; we shall shortly be more than ever so. The Things that cannot be shaken, but must be introduced, cannot be otherwise introduced.
Earthquakes without a Metaphor will be Multiplied; More horrid than any of the past Sicilian or Italian ones. Even Geneva too has been very lately approached with them, and a whole Village newly Swallowed up. Ominous Things they'l be! Statequakes will become yet more Universal.
When our Lord was Leading forth His People from their Egyptian Captivities and Idolatries, there seems to have been an Earthquake assisting their Passage tho' the Divided Waters. We read, Psal. LXXVII. 18, 19. As if the Earth trembled & shook, when the Way of God was in the Sea, and His Path in the great Waters. My Friends, Our Lord will certainly and speedily lead forth His People, from the midst of their worse than Aegyptian Entanglements. Pardon me, that I tell you; I am verily perswaded, we are now at last entring into [Page 30]an Earth quake that will give Assistance unto it.
This I am certain of, we are bidden to look for such a Thing as that; Rev. XVI. 18. A great Earthquake, such as has not been since men were upon the earth, so mighty an Earthquake, and so great an one.
Well, but the Enquiry must be made; In such Times, how are we to behave our selves?
First. Let us make sure of having the Great GOD our Saviour, even our Lord JESUS CHRIST, for our Friend; under every Shaking His Friendship will be our Safety. In Shaking Times, Luther would say, Let us go Sing the Forty-sixth Psalm. If we are in the Favour of our Saviour, we may Sing that Psalm, Oh! How Comfortably, Oh! How Triumphantly! What tho' the Earth be removed? We have the Lord of Heaven for our Friend, and we have Heaven to retreat unto. What tho' the Mountains fall? We have Him for our Friend, unto whom the Biggest Mountains are no more than the smallest Atoms; and [Page 31]we shall our selves be like Mount Zion, that cannot be moved. What tho' the Sea roar, and swell, and rise, till it strike the very welkin? The Lord on High, is Mightier than the Noise of many Waters, than the Mighty waves of the Sea,
Our Lord JESUS CHRIST is the Rock of Ages. There is no Shaking of that Eternal Rock. Oh! Run to the Rock: Fly to the Rock! Become United unto our Saviour with a Lively Faith in him; and we are in a Felicity that Never, Never, Never can be shaken. He sayes to us, My Brethren, as David said unto Abiathar, With me thou shalt be in safety.
Let us be strong Believers on. High Admirers of, our Lord JESUS CHRIST. The Men that are so, are the Favourites of the Lord: His Mark shall be on these His Favourites; No Shake of the World shall hurt those, that have that Mark upon them.
Secondly. Why should not Shaking Times be Praying Times? Prayer has before now made an Earthquake. We read, Act. XVI. 25, 26. At midnight Paul & Silas prayed: [Page 32]And suddenly there was a great Earthquake, so that the Foundations of the Prison were shaken. Who knows, but that the true Disciples of our Lord may now see that Great Earthquake, which will Shake the very Foundations of all the Confinements unjustly put upon them: and ere long the Doors will be opened, and Every ones Bonds be loosed? Certainly in such an Earthquake, and when whole Nations are shaking, then Prayer will be a singular preservative. Prayer! Ah, why so much Slumber, and so little Prayer, when we have the World so shaking about us!
I have read of a Town in Switzer-land, once utterly ruined in an Earthquake, All except one piece of an House, in which a devout Man happened then to be at Prayer with his Family. The Decree of the Infinite GOD seems to be this; Yet once more, I will shake not the Earth only, but also Heaven. At such a Time there is that Voice from Heaven to the Earth; Zeph. II. 2, 3. Before the Decree bring forth; — Seek ye the Lord, all ye Meek of the Earth.
Thirdly. When all Things are Shaking, [Page 33]Let it be our Consolation, that it is our Glorious LORD, who does all that is done, and has all at His Dispose.
Who was it that said, I will shake the Heavens & the Earth, & all Nations? Our Apostle has expressly told us, It was the Lord JESUS CHRIST; Heb. XII. 26. Whose Voice shook the Earth, at Mount Sinai; but now He hath promised,—as you have heard.
When 'tis a Time for Heaven and Earth, and all Nations, to be so shaken, that Heaven & Earth shall come together; Now, Let the Children of Zion be Joyful in their King! O Zion, Thy King, even the Glorious Head of the Church, and He that will not give Zion cause to say, My Lord has forgotten me: — 'Tis He that has the Ordering of all that comes to pass; And all shall be well-ordered. He will do all things well, — You may depend upon it! The Sentence which the Emperour Maximilian wrote upon his Table; You may take it, and make it your Comfort, and Feed and Live upon it; If God be for us, who can be against us?
[Page 34] What shall we say? O Lord, we know, that thou canst do every thing. The People of God, may need some Shakes to be given unto the World, for their Advantage; And such as can be given by none but an Arm that can do every thing. But such a Mighty Arm has our Saviour. You read, His Voice shook the Earth. It is the Voice of our Lord JESUS CHRIST, whom we are to see this Day upon a Threne High & Lifted up,— His Voice that Shakes the World. If He do but Utter His Voice, or if He do but Speak the Word, there shall every thing be done, that His People can wish for. We read, The Kingdoms are moved, when He Utters His Voice, and the Earth Melts before it.
A Powerful Nimrod, that has made Nations to shake with the Terror of his Arms: Our Lord JESUS CHRIST can easily shake such an one down into his Grave.
HE has newly done so. And I must conclude, with bespeaking of your due Respect unto HIS Hand, in what has been done.
[Page 35] ¶ What has been spoken may be enough, to Introduce the REMARKS, which it may be our Duty and Wisdom to make, on the Mighty shake of the Nations, which is to be Observed, and Expected from the Fall of one, who has been as great a Troubler of the Nations, as ever was in the World.— How art thou cut down to the Ground, which d [...]ast weaken the Nations!—
When the Grand Monarch of Babylon came to his end, the Spirit of God instructed his People, to make their Acclamations upon it; How has the Oppressor ceased! The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked. Hell from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee at thy coming: — Thy Pomp is brought down to the Grave. Thou saiast in thy Heart, I will exalt my Throne above the Stars of God; I will sit in the sides of the North; I will be like the most High: yet thou shalt be brought down to the sides of the Pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, & consider thee, saying, Is this the man, that made the Earth to tremble, & did shake the Kingdoms!
We ha [...] [...]hen the Direction of Heaven, [Page 36]as narrowly to look upon the fall of that Grand Monarch, who valued himself upon being the Eldest Son of the Romish Babylon; and consider what our Glorious God would have us to learn, or to hope, upon [...] Occasion so great, and so greatly longed for.
Far, far would we be from any indecent Insulting the Ashes of the Dead; tho' we may let fall some Terms of Justice to a Memory, which the Word of God has in Express Terms damned unto a Putrefaction. The Tyrant, who took delight in offering inhumane Abuses unto the Dead Bodies of the Children of God, as well as to the Sepulchres of Princes, when, like those at Heidelbergh, they came in his way, shall be treated by us with more of Decency, than he has any claim unto.
Decency! — But not such as will carry in it a Trespass on the Rules of Piety. It will be a Trespass upon them, to forbear calling him, A very wicked man, who was a thousand Times worse than him, whom the Prophet Ezekiel called, A prefane & wicked Prince of Israel.
[Page 37] There are Men and Things, which all, that would pay a due Homage to Virtue, ought never to mention without some Expressions of Dissatisfaction at them. And the Historians, who relate the Actions of such Satanick Wretches, as, for instance, the two Founders of the Graecian, & Roman Empires, as if they were the Exploits of Heroes worthy the Illustrious Title of Conquerors, and not rather as the Crimes of Ambitious, Rapacious, Infamous Murderers; These pay a respect unto Vice, which ought not to be forgiven in them.
Louis the XIV. stands the very first in the List of the Men, whose Actions will not have a just Account given of them in Histery, until the Day, wherein the Hay, and Stubble shall be consumed.
Nor shall I now make an Essay of a Satyr upon one, who has outdone all the Subjects of it, that ever were in the World; Yet allow me to say, With what Eyes do you think, the Holy Angels have look'd upon such a Man! Yet Allow me to say, What is it, that the Call, Rejoyce, O ye Heaven's, was made upon!
[Page 38] All that I Essay to do, is to employ the few Minutes, that are now left unto me in a few Glances on some Things, which we ought not to let the Hand of God, that has at length shaken down, a Tree of longer standing, and more baneful Influences, than that in the Visions of the Chaldean Emperor, to pass, without our taking some Usefull Notice of them.
Instructions of a Relish beyond the Honey of Canaan are to be found in the Carcase of the Lyon, that is now torn to pieces by a Stronger than he!
Behold, O Sinful Nations, Behold, what a Scourge your Sins have brought upon you. If it be enquired, as it was of old, Why one so unworthy of it, was placed upon such a Throne? As it was then, so it must now be answered, The Sins of the World made them worthy of such an one. Your Sins produced him, your Sins prospered him; your Sins kept him alive; and not the Prayers of Popish Idolaters for his Life; your Sins, which drowned the Voice of all the Prayers, which the best of Men sent up to Heaven against him. [Page 39]The great God points you to him, with such an Int [...]mation as that — O Ass [...]tan, the red of my Anger, the stuff of my Indignation; against the People of my Wrath have I given a charge to take the sports, & to take the prey, and to tread them down as the Mire in the Streets! Reform your Sins, O Scourgea Nations, left others be raised up to carry on the Work of inflicting the Divine Vengeance upon you. Be more willing to take the casy Take of your great Redeemer upon you, and submit unto the Seepter of his Righteousness, left he deliver you up unto the Lust of hideous Tyrants; lest that curse come still upon you, Set a wicked man over them; lest Kings, whose Title may truly run, By the Wrath of God, may long Reign over you.
In the Conduct of the most Ungratefull among Men, there is a loud Voice from God unto the Protestant World; Cease ye from Man; and, Put not your trust in Princes! On the Birth of Louis XIV, the Protestants slattered themselves, that an Adeonatus, a gracious, and a wondrous Gift of Goa was [...] unto them: they foolishly boasted, [Page 40]that their Prayers had obtained the Gift. Ah! Poor People! How terribly have you been convinced of your Delusion! From this Time, Away with your Vain Thoughts; and look for less from Vain Men, than you use to do!
The Pratestants were they, that set, and kept the Crown on the Head of this their Monarch; Notwithstanding this; yea, for this very Reason, [so Reason goes with such!] he set himself to destroy the Protestants. Never had the Protestants an Enemy, and a Destroyer like unto him! He was the first born of those Kings, who make the Times Perillous, because Men shall be Unthankfull, and set themselves to persecute, and extirpate, and overwhelm the People, to whom they are most of all endebted for the Thrones, which they are an eternal Disgrace unto. Do you not overhear your Inthroned Saviour calling to you; Your faithful Adherence to me would not be requited so!
To secure a King on their side, as a Dead Weight against the Roman Catholicks, the Protestants fell into rank Torism, and made [Page 41]their Monarch Absolute, with a Present of their All unto his Arbitrary dispasal, and a Promise of Obedience without Raserve; only reserving their Consciences unto God. The Tyrant accepted their Offer; but added, he would have the Command of their Consciences too. And, Thank themselves, they could not then Help themselves. God from Heaven in this Thing plainly calls unto you, O [...] People, beware of Sinfull Compliances! And methinks, We have also a sufficient Warning against all Tory-Principles.
How much Hurt one Man may do! How much Good one Sinner destroy! It will be found, there was very little of this whole World, but what one Way or other fared the worse for that One Man, who is now Dead, & all his Malice dead with him.— Mortui non Mordent. They that have made their calculations upon, The Desolation of France demonstrated, or have seen something of the Miseries in which Life is endured, by the Subjects there; know a little what his own Kingdom suffered from him. A Reflection might be made upon it, How much Good one Man may do!
[Page 42] A Constantine; a — A Day will come, when Mankind will be blessed with as General Benefactors. Roll on apace, O Golden Age; Why tarry the Wheels of thy Chariots!
In the mean Time, O Christianity, How shamefully hast thou seen thy Name dishonoured! The style of, Most Christian, arrogated by the Greatest Adversary of a Glorious Christ, and of real Christianity, that ever was in the World! One, whose Debaucheries have been in the most Publick Manner avowed by him; and yet, Most Christian! One, who broke his Faith in more frequent and flagrant Instances, than ever any Prince among the worst of Infidels; and yet, Most Christian! One, who had the Guilt of more Blood lying upon him, than ever any Man, that breathed upon the Face of the Earth; and yet, Most Christian! Most Christian, and yet invade, and ravage with Fire and Sword, the Christian Provinces in his Neighbourhood; and in his Declaration of War against those Provinces, have the ridiculous Vanity to say, That his Glory [Page 43]was the Cause, for which be made the War.
Such a Murderer not only to be called, Most Christian, but also to accept the Title of, The King of Glory! when it was with a most shocking Blasphemy given unto him.
When shall we see the Rescue of that Worthy Name from such gross Misapplications! It must be asserted, and there will be a Time, when the Assertion shall be executed; No Impious Man is to be accounted A Christian: The Practice of Imprety, will forfeit the Name of a Christian.
To see such a Man descend, Sicca Morte! — A Man of such Inhumanities, and of so Vicious a Character, yet shining to a great Old Age, in all the Grandeurs of Empire! A Man of such Treacheries, and such Cruelties, and such Matchless Outrages against Heaven, and Pillages upon Mankind, go on prosperously to a great Old Age! Such an one sit upon a Throne longer than any one, that our common Records have ever mentioned! This Man brought by long Wars to the very Point of an astonishing Revolution; and yet by the Ministry of that very [Page 44]Nation, which had most humbled him, suddenly restored into a condition to give Law unto the whole World, and put into the Possession of a greater Empire, & Revenue, than ever the Old Assyrian pretended unto! By'nd by to die quietly in his Bed: not expire with the Horrors, and Outcries of a Dying Maximinus. One cannot but with some concern make Job's Enquiry; Wherefore does the wicked live, become old, yea, mighty in Power; their seed established in their sight with them! [On the Throne of Spain it is so!]
These Things would be Inexplicable, if there were not Another World; and a Day to come, wherein God will Judge the World. This Thought sets all to Rights. In the Circumstances of the French King the Glorious God invites us unto this Thought; compells us unto it. It is come to this, If there be a just God, there must be another World! A Voice goes forth from Varsailles, and, Lo a Mighty Voice, that reaches to the Ends of the Earth; Children of Men, There is another World; and a Judgment to come, which is to be trembled at!
[Page 45] But what is now to be looked for! Upon the Demise of the old Babylonian Monarch, the next Thing was, The whole Earth is at Rest, & is quiet; they break forth into Singing. But it must not yet come to that, God will yet shake all Nations before it comes to that! However a Mighty Turn to the Disadvantage of the Antichristian Interest is now to be looked for.
The Greatest Persecuter, that ever the Church of God had in the World, is now called away by the Almighty JESUS, whom he has Persecuted. All the Teu Primitive Persecutious have been outdone by that, which the French Molech has carried on; out done in the vast Numbers; and in the horrible Successes; and in the barbarous Cruelties, of the Executions. It may be hoped, that the Miserable People, who are to this Day languishing under these unparallell'd Persecutions, may see some Relaxations of them. He that Opened not the House of his Prisoners, is dragg'd into his Prison. We that have sent up thousands of ardent Prayers to Heaven for it, cannot but be [Page 46]filled with the Praises of our God, when we shall hear proclaim'd Liberty to the Captives, & the Opening of the Prison to them that are bound. Yea, the Persecuted Religion of our Saviour shall e'er long revive, and expand, and flourish; and they that have ragear against it shall find, that they have Imagined a vain thing. —
This I am sure of; There is a Day coming, when the Spirit of Persecution shall be shaken out of the Church; and all Parties of Christians, even the Uppermost, as well as the rest every where, shall be ashamed of it: Persecuting Laws, and Persecuting Tests, will be no more known in the World.
Such Flourishes as those with which the Great Austin, (for a Disposition to Oppress, will make a Wise Man talk and act like a Mad Man,) did in a contradiction to his Former and Wiser Sentiments, defend the Persecution of the Donatists; the Reading whereof was that which [horrible to be Spoken!] brought over the French Tyrant unto that infandous Persecution, which yet, we may hope, will issue no worse than Di [...] clestans! [Page 47]— I say, such fallacious Colours and such bewitching ones, will ere long lose their efficacy, and the Party that shall be Uppermost, will no more be under the power of the strong Delusion.
It has been Frequently, and very Publickly, & with great Assurance foretold unto you, That all the Attempts from the House of Bourbou, as well as those from the House of Austria, in grasping after the Universal Monareby of Europe, shall come to nothing; A Blast from God upon them shall defeat them, shall confound them wonderfully. The boundless Ambition of France made very strong Efforts towards that Universal Monarchy; but how remarkably have they been blasted of God? Several Times the late King has had an Opportunity in his hands to have seized upon it. But by an Amazing Infatuation from God upon him, he slipt his Opportunity. And now his Mortality, and God beginning the Vintage of his Vengeance on the Antichristian Interest, with cutting off the Spirits of the Princes in his Family, gives a Mortal Blew to all such Expectations.
[Page 48] Instead thereof, it has been long since foretold, that there shall be a Great Earthquake, wherein the Tenth Part of the Papacy shall fall; and the Tremendous, and Stupendous Earthquake shall issue in wondrous Glory to the God of Heaven. France was in time the Tenth, & Last of those Ten Kingdoms, which have composed the Great City of the Mystical Babylon. Who can tell but now may be the time for that Great Earthquake, which will be followed with the Changes, that are to be hastned upon all the Ten Kingdoms; and the Vials of the Wrath of the Almighty to be poured out upon all the Antichristian Interest! God grant it may be so!
The Deliverances of the British Nation, and of the whole Protestant Interest, and, O New-England, thy Deliverances too, how much are they the Immediate Work of God! — Brought about by the Immediate Hand of God!—Brought about in the most Critical Moments, that could have been imagined — The Enemy said, my Lust shall be satisfied upon them O our God, Thou didst then stretch out Thy Right Hand; the Earth swallowed them!
[Page 49] The vast Things done for Unworthy Nations, & for out selves of all the most Unworthy, in what has now fallen out, Sirs, We know not now, but we shall know hereaster.
This I will say unto you; Doubtless there has now been seen the Kingdom of Darkness in the most horrid Exhibition of it, that ever was in the World; because the most Glorious Reverse of it is going e'er long to be Exhibited But how Long, O Lord, Holy & True!—
However I hope no Wise, & Good Man will count it Ill Manners in us, to fulfil that Word this Day, Prov. XI. 10. When the Wicked perish there is a shouting upon it. Certainly, when the People of God were Singing the Praises of God, because a Bloody Pharoah was dashed in pieces by the right Hand of the Lord, he would have been thought an odd sort of an Israelite, who should have remonstrated upon it; Since Pharoah is dead, you ought not to blacken the Memory of so great a Man! If he did in any thing the part of a Bad Man, there have been worse than he. And I know not, why we should be so tender to the Memory of his Antitype, as to [Page 50]distinguish our solves into a suspicious Cha [...]er, by Fuvenrable Expressions of a Vile [...] or to forbear saying on the present Occasion, O Lord, Thou art Glorious in Holi [...] & Fearful in Praises!
The very First Time that an Hallelujah occurs in the Bible, it is upon [...], — Let the Sinners be consumed out of the Earth, and let the Wicked be no more. Among all the Depredators upon Mankind, I suppose, they that wish well to the Throne of King GEORGE, Our most Rightful & Lawful King, Whom GOD Long Preserve, and unto the whole Protestant Interest in the World, can hatdly call to mind any One whose Departure did more deserve to be Celebrated with an Hallelujah.