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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	great_a	judgement_n	sin_n	3,123	5	4.8089	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76372	Jesus Christ the mysticall or Gospell sun, sometimes seemingly eclipsed, yet never going down from his people: or, Eclipses spiritualized. Opened in a sermon at Paul's before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, aldermen, &c. March 28. 1652. The day before the late solar eclipse. By Fulk Bellers, Master of Arts, and preacher of the Gospel in the city of London.	Bellers, Fulk, b. 1605 or 6.	1652 (1652)	Wing B1827; Thomason E665_15; ESTC R206852	31,076	41

at night yet joy will come in the morning Yet 2 They are seldome prodigious I have read indeed that Solar eclipses have had sometimes judgements seemingly to bring up the rear of them and hence some have not stuck to father them upon the eclipses Groundlesly as 1 Famine as that foretold by n Acts 11. Agabus is pretended by some to be ushered in with an horrible eclipse if we believe Historians Dion which famine continued for five years and the prices of all things came to be increased eight times more then ordinarily 2 Captivity Alsted Chron. pag. 54. as that into Babylon And some deem the ruine of the Jews was portended by that horrid miraculous eclipse at the death of Jesus Christ 3 Pestilence as that great eclipse in the first Peloponessian warre when as the whole body of the Sun was almost darkned so that many stars by day were seen of divers and which is reputed by some to have ushered in that grievous Attique plague whereof scarce the like whereby Athens was almost quite destroyed Thucid. lib. 2. pag. 117. 127. c. and that great pestilence which did miserably afflict all Germany and France in the year 1093. 4 Earthquakes As that horrid Eclipse in anno mundi 3733. When the earth was shook 57 times in one year after such a prodigious defect of the Sun And that in Gordian's time Julius Capitolinus in vita Gordiani tertit pag. 161. anno Christi 237. wherein many cities were ruined and many men lost their lives when day was turned into night and men could not see any thing without candle-light 5 Persecutions as that stirred up by Antiochus Epiphanes and that by Antichrist against John Husse and Jerom. of Prague when the Papists did confirme that hellish doctrine that Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks Alsted Chron. pag. 61. And when the darknesse was so horrid that the birds fell down dead upon the ground 6 Yea abundance of errours and blasphemies as Arianisme in Constantius's time abounding after that eclipse and that sad controversie about image-worship between the Eastern and Western Churches was fained by some to have been ushered in by an eclipse of the Sun Eginhard in vitâ Caroli magni Apparuit per septem dies macula nigri coloris c. And all that darkning of Gospel light under all those successive Popes seemed to some ushered in by that great eclipse preceding the death of Charles the Great after which the Sun seemingly wore a black patch seven dayes successively if we may credit it 7 Wars which sometimes have proved very bloudy as that of Darius when routed by Miltiades and after by Alexander where he lost 90000 of his men in one pitched battle and that of Xerxes in two remarkable battels also It cannot be denied but these have been the fore-runners sometimes yet we cannot justly stile them the causes of these great judgements But 1 When such like judgements at any time befall us Christians they are more to be imputed to the conjunction of our sins then to the conjunction of the Planets And one discriminating difference of Christians from heathens is to look to the procuring cause of all viz. sin rather then to these supposed discoveries of the wrath of God 2. I observe upon a just compute Nam experientia testatur visis eclipsibus saepe fertilissimos saluberrimos exoptatissimos subsequutos fuisse annos Al●ted Encyclopaed Vranoscop par 2. cap. 12. Reg. 10. bottomed upon the experience of a learned man sometimes after eclipses there have the most fruitfull healthfull and most desirable times followed And yet I take not upon me to determine what is in the womb of providence 3 The world hath had as grievous famines captivities pestilences earthquakes persecutions errours wars without them as ever it had with them how then can they truely be fathered on them 4 I have read that Hannibal had the beginning of his victories ushered in by one eclipse and his totall and finall ruine by another so that nothing certaine can bee concluded 5 The face of the heavens was never the same exactly ten dayes no not two dayes together since the Creation and how can there be any x Cum experientia sit saepe expertorum caedem constellationes revolutiones nunquam bis revertuntur nedum saepiùs ut oportuit si certè inde regulae colligendae essent ●icus Mirandula contra Astrologos experimentall knowledge by this 6 Most of the former judgements cannot with the least colour of probability be imputed to those eclipses For that famine whereof Agabus prophesied began before the eclipse though it continued after And the captivity of Judah did betide them seven years after that eclipse which which was fore-told by Thales Misesius And the ruine of the Jewes if at all was portended not by a naturall but a miraculous eclipse as formerly I made out for their ruine befell them above five and thirty years after the horrid eclipse in Christ's time which is far beyond the modern account of our star-gazers b Lilly Annus Tenebrosus who confine the operating of any Solar eclipse to so many years as the hours are in which it is eclipsed which cannot naturally exceed three at most And for wars how many eclipses did betide c this Land from the yeare one thousand five hundred and sixty unto the year one thousand six hundred and twenty and yet how few were our wars in those times 7 To intaile any of those former judgements upon eclipses is meerly heathenish or to look upon them as any way ominous or prodigious a Jerem. 10.2 It being only the way of the heathen and therefore not to be appoved of by any Christian As when that b Cleombrotus Generall saw the c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herodor lib. 9. pag. 516. Sun eclipsed being at sacrifice he presently draweth off all his forces and would engage himselfe no further The like might be instanced in many others But so the doubt formerly urged 2 However things may succeed after naturall and firmamentary eclipses cannot be determined by man yet we have cause to look upon the malignity * Suppositio nihil ponit if there be any of all eclipses to be from the malignity of our sins when any bad consequences follow if that the passion of the Microcosme succeedeth the passion of the Macro-cosme not because of the malignant aspect of the stars but because of the malignant nature of our iniquities This I must needs assert that as after the darkest night followeth commonly the clearest day so after the eclipsings of Gods countenance for a moment commonly follow the influences of greatest mercies Saints I am sure have found it so by experience after all these hidings of God b Psal 30.5 It is for a moment that his wrath continueth but with everlasting mercies that he doth frequently break in upon his people Eclipses Solar

shall he not do it Hath he spoken it and shall he not bring it to passe These and many other promises that lie scattered up and down throughout the Book of God are far more unalterable then the Lawes of the Medes and Persians upon which we may safely rest for our eternal security that Christ will not go down from us in regard of his special presence And for the presence of all his graces that are absolutely necessary unto salvation However they may come into an eclipse * Isa 53.10 11. yet Christ will never finally take them from us because the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance Psal 125.2 That gift of God whereby he hath set us apart in his own counsell is unalterable and unchangeable as being bottomed upon his eternall grace love and mercy Numb 13.19 Heaven and earth may change but our God never changeth upon point of affection toward his people Besides the purchase of Jesus Christ whereby he hath bought us to be to himselfe a peculiar people that stands still in force and shall never be made void being founded upon that unalterable * Isa 53.10 11 transaction with his Father in the behalfe of us But I must wave the inlarging of all these Now for the improvement of all These points may be improved Vse 1 1 By way of discovery of which before pag. 17. Vse 2 2 By way of comfort to every one of you to whom this sun hath arisen and the day-star hath appeared in your hearts To you I mean that can make it out by former discoveries even to as many as z Hos 3.5 fear his name fearing him and his goodnesse or because he hath been good and gracious unto you Thou that fearest to offend or provoke him as a dutifull child a loving Father because he hath been bountifull to thee which makes thee to cry out being solicited to sin as Joseph did a Gen. 39.9 How shall I do this great wickednesse and so sin against God If Christ this true mysticall Sun bee arisen in thine heart he will never set in regard of those radicall graces at least conferred upon thee Obj. 1 But you say that Christ will never go down when once he doth arise to us but alas we find the contrary If Christ be in us whence then are all these evils upon us how cometh it to passe that all our comforts are departed and the love of Jesus Christ seemeth to be gone from our souls Sol. For answer hereof note That Christ may be present though his comforts be absent The Sun is in the firmament though he be eclipsed Comforts are ecilpsed upon a double ground 1. Sometimes in a Prerogative way when Christ doth with-draw himself from comforting of us and this eclipse is not much unlike that at the passion of Jesus Christ an eclipse not naturall but b Aquin. 3ª q. 44.2 2da. miraculous Whither you respect 1. The durance for three whole hours which no naturall eclipse doth last because of the greatnesse of the Sun and the smaleness of the Moon and the quickness of her motion 2. The time Aug. lib. 3. de civ Dei cap. 15 in the full of the Moon because it was then the Jewish Passeover and Solar eclipses are alwayes confined to the c Melancthon in John 19. milli pag. 867. parte tertii new of the Moon naturally which made that d Dionysius Areopagita Philosopher to crie out that either nature or the God of nature did suffer at the sight of that eclipse Though I cannot approve of his observing of the Moons getting between us and the Sun 3. The universality It was generall not only in Judea but in all the world as is e Gerbard probably conjectured Whereas no Solar eclipse can be universall in all the world though it may be totall in one part The Eclipse at the suffering of Jesus Christ was by the inhibition of the beams of it by the God of nature who Aquinas in Catanâ as he can withhold the fire from burning the water from drowning so the Sun from shining for a time f Videtur mihi clarissimum mundi lumen retraxisse radios suos ne aut pendentem videret Dominum impii blasphemantes luce suâ fruerentur Hieronym lib. 4o. in Matthaeum Hee puts out seemingly the eye of the world as being unwilling to behold the wickednesse then committing g Dionys Arecpag Some have fancied that God fetched back the Moon at the passion of Christ in a retrograde way as he did do the Sun upon the diall of Ahaz but that seems improbable for then that eclipse had been naturall in respect of the Sun not supernatural I rather look upon it as an eclipse in a way of meer prerogative or h Melancthon miracle and so Christ may withhold all his own rayes and beams of comfort that none shal look down upon us for the exercise of the graces which he hath already conferred upon us 2. Sometimes eclipses spring from naturall causes as the interposition of the body of the earth when the Sun and Moon stand diametrally oposite and the shade of the earth is darted up to her this causeth the Lunar eclipse And so when the dense body of the Moon interposeth it selfe between us and the Sun it causeth a Solar eclipse These are the naturall causes of them And so it is in regard of our spirituall eclipses when as the condensated clouds of our sins ascend over our heads and stand as the Moon between us and Christ presently we come into an eclipse in regard of our comfort Your iniquities as the Prophet saith i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seperate between you and your God and your sins k 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isai 59.2 hide away his face from you The Prophet seemeth to make use of eclipticall expressions for so it is that our sins make our God to l Lam. 4.44 hide himselfe under a cloud that our prayers cannot come at him See therefore the cause of the eclipse of thy comforts it may be some sin will be found that doth interpose it selfe between thee and the Sun of all thy comforts If thou findest sin in the wind remove it away by repentance that thy comforts may flow down again upon thee Obj. 2 But the Eclipses of my comforts are very terrible and dreadfull and it may prove prodigious too Sol. I deny not but it is in spirituall eclipses as in the eclipses of the Sun They are 1. Very dreadfull in themselves when totall though our God would not have his people dismayed at them m Jerem. 10.2 Learn ye not the way of the heathen neither be ye dismayed at the signes of heaven for the heathen are dismayed at them If God doth eclipse our comforts he would not have us to sorrow as men without hope he biddeth us to have patience and telleth us though heavinesse cometh

do never exceed three hours and the eclipses of the countenance of Jesus Christ do seldome continue so long in the totall darknesse of them but some promises as so many stars will appear unto them Obj. 3 But my infirmities do most of all discover themselves when Jesus Christ doth eclipse himselfe from me Sol. What I now speak I shall not speak to palliat any mans sin Yet we know that the spots of the Moon do never so much appear as in her eclipses Then all may see that her parts are not equally condensated yet in this case my advise is to humble thy selfe for these infirmities and if thou be in Christ thou mayest be then confident that thou hast Jesus Christ with the Father to be an Advocate for thee if thou be a penitent believer And c Psal 37.24 that though thou fall by infirmities thou shalt not utterly be cast down Vide Mollerum For the Lord will uphold thee with his hand which may be expounded not onely of falling into afflictions but infirmities Object 4 But this troubleth me never did any meet with such eclipsing of comforts as I meet withall Sol. But how canst thou tell that A man may know the continuance of his owne hardly of anothers paine I conceive † Alsted Encyclo lib. 11. Vranoscop par 2. cap. 12. reg 4. there have been as many eclipses in former ages as in these later times though they never were recorded or so much observed And Saints doubtlesse in former times did some of them meet with the same even as thou meetest withall this day It is an observation by some that the same eclipses do never return again and that because the face of the heavens altereth daily Coeli motus inter se sunt incommensurabiles Nec unquam Phaenomena eodem prorsus modo recurrere possunt Alst lib. cap. quo supra reg 7. Which however it may hold true in naturals yet it holdeth not true in spirituals because we know the same afflictions that we meet withall our brethren that have been in the world have met withall d 1 Pet. 5.9 Nothing hath happened to thee but hath happened to others thy fellow-members before thee The same Sun eclipsed in one way to some in one time hath been eclipsed often in regard of other places How often are men in India and Africa robbed of the light of the Sun by eclipses when we our selves in England do enjoy the full benefit of it And on the contrary Thou art not therefore able to judge what others have met withall Obj. 5 But the eclipses of my comforts are very long and frequent Sol. The eclipses of the Sun are longer while the Moon standeth longer directly between us and it And the shorter the sooner the Moone is removed from between us and it The longer sin continueth unrepented of after commission the eclipse is like to be longer and the sooner repentantance followeth to remove sin the shorter time in all probability it will continue And for the frequency of thine eclipses Some take upon them to determine how often eclipses may happen to these two great Luminaries in a years space viz. that there may be five or thereabout and not above six Alsted Encyclopaed lib 11. Vranoscop part 2. reg 6. And they observe also that there is no year that hath not some eclipses albeit they do not appear to us Spirituall eclipses may return often and yet no oftener then they have to others before us But for thee that art subject to these spirituall eclipses I would offer these few things by way of direction and so conclude Vse 3 Of direction to thee in this estate 1. See what it is that doth interpose it selfe between thee and Jesus Christ In all probability some sin or other When Joseph's brethren had sold him God at the last drawes a cloud between him and them eclipseth his favour startling their consciences and then they conclude We are verily guilty concerning our brother Gen. 41.11 in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us and we would not hear therefore is this distresse come upon us Or as Reuben saith plainely unto them Therefore Gen. 41.22 behold also his blood is required When conscience is awakened then will the cloud appear more thick unto thee 2. Take notice of the magnitude of thy sin by the greatnesse of thy eclipse They are the eclipses of the Sunne and Moone that shew both their greatnesse and the greatnesse of the earth also When David was under the eclipse how doth he then bewaile the magnitude of his sin as the procuring cause of it My sin is ever before mee And Against thee Psal 51.3 4 5. thee onely have I sinned thus hainously And hee runs back to Originall sinne to see if that had not contributed something to that grand eclipse that was upon him Behold Psal 51.6 I was shapen in iniquity and in sinne did my Mother conceive mee Men knowing that it is the greatnesse of the plaister that may shew the greatnesse of the wound and the greatnesse of the eclipsings of God's favour may shew thee the greatnesse of the sin that is upon thee 3. Let the Sight of thy Sin and it's magnitude drive thee unto repentance which is the readiest way to bring thee out of thine eclipsed estate and condition Job 42.6 When Job was brought penitentially to abhorre himself in dust and ashes how quickly did hee finde the flowings downe of love upon him And was it not so with David How quickly did hee heare of joy and gladnesse so that the bones that God had broken doe begin to rejoyce after such time as he seriously repented 4. Give thy selfe wholly to prayer Prayer will not draw the firmamentary Sun out of the eclipse one moment the sooner no more then the Romans beating of brasse pans and lifting up their lighted torches towards the Moone Plutarch in Aemilio would draw her any whit the speedier out of the eclipse Yet it may draw this super-coelestiall Sun much sooner out of it When it came to that Lord in trouble they have visited thee they have poured out a prayer while thy chastisement was upon them Jonah 2.2 4.4 how quickly then doth this mysticall Sunne shine in upon them And then they conclude Thy dead men shall live c. Isai 50.10 When Jonah was in the belly of the Whale hee looketh unto the Lord and his prayer cometh to his holy Temple How quickly then doth mercy come in to him The penitent soule that goeth to God in the name of Jesus Christ with a Bee not farre from mee for trouble is near or upon mee may confidently expect that comfort will not be long in coming 5. Waite still on God Sweet is the counsell of God himself and exceeding cordiall Who is among you that feareth the Lord that walketh in darknesse i. e. Isai 30.18 19. that hath his Sun eclipsed and hath no light Let him trust in the Name of the Lord and stay upon his God Paralell is that declaration Our God waiteth to bee gracious unto his A grand condescention for the Creatour to wait upon the creature And he will bee gracious to thee when he hears thy cry He can cause light to rise out of most obscure darknesse Psal 112.4 Gen. 15.17 When the Sun went down in Abraham's time wee read expresly once there was a great darknesse and a smoaking furnace and yet then God came in with a burning lamp among the pieces i. e. emblematically his people God hath limited our eclipses not onely firmamentary but spirituall not onely for hours but for moments And he waiteth still to be gracious to them that humbly wait upon him their God 6. Keep out of the ecliptick line when once thou art come out of it Providentiall motions bring on Solar and Lunar Eclipses but selfe-sinfull motions bring on our spirituall Eclipses If after thou are eluctated out of one thou fallest into another again Conscience will twit thee Jer. 2.17 Hast not thou procured this to thy selfe But if thou carefully wait upon God and keep thy self from sin thou shalt always find this text to be verified That Christ this Sun of Righteousnesse will never go down to thee He will never remove out of the Horizon of thy soule Though in a prerogative way he may eclipse himselfe yet thou shalt find that thy Sun will not any more go down from thee FINIS ERRATA Pag. 23. line 1. for Apostolicall read Apostatical p. 30. l. 32. for so r. to