and plucking them as a brand out of the burning Lam. 3.22 4. They glorifie his Justice and righteous dealings with the bloody Street saying Thou art righteous O Lord because thou hast judged thus for they have shed the blood of Saints and Prophets and of thy Witnesses and thou hast given them blood to drink for they are worthy Even so Lord God Almighty true and righteous are thy judgments And this glory is given to the God of Heaven as in my Text i. e. to the true God for as Cyrus saith in his Proclamation of liberty to the Jews The God of Heaven he is the God Ezra 1.2 3. The Remnant is now convinced of their former Atheisms Superstitions and Idolatries and give glory to the God of Heaven But is this Acknowledgment extorted from them Quest or is it freely given by them as by such whose hearts are now unfeignedly turned to the Lord It is apprehended by some Answ that it is done by the power only of a strong Conviction in the time of this great Judgment and Vengeance of God upon his Adversaries but not done by such whose hearts are now truly turned to the Lord For the Judgments of God do sometimes wring such acknowledgments from wicked men as when Pharaoh could say after the plague of the Hail I have sinned this time the Lord is righteous Exod. 9.27 and I and my people are wicked And as Joshua said to Achan My son Josh 7.19 20. give I pray thee glory to the Lord God of Israel and make confession unto him And Achan said Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel and thus and thus have I done See also Judg. 1.7 and 2 Chron. 12.6 and 1 Sam. 6.5 But others do apprehend that this Remnant here were effectually wrought upon by this terrible hand of God and gave glory to him in sincerity But I find no reasons given for either opinion yet I incline to this second If indeed this Remnant were such as had been totally immerst and drenched in Popery I should have been of the first opinion for the Jurats and sworn Creatures of the Man of sin cannot repent to give glory to God whatever judgments are inflicted on them as you may clearly see Rev. 9.20 21. and 16.9 10 11 21. The Spirit of Popery is a Spirit of dedolence and impenitency because the complete Worshippers of the Beast are noted as obstinate Reprobates Rev. 13.8 and 14.9 10. This Remnant therefore were only sprinkled and dipt a little into Popery and such may and often do repent of their Idolatries and Superstitions And by this you see that there is a possibility that this remnant may truly repent and give Glory to the God of Heaven Yea and it is probable that they do effectually repent in giving Glory unto God For it is here said that a tenth part of the City fell by this Earth-quake now How did it fall Two wayes as hath been said 1. A part therereof fell by being Slain as a just recompence for Slaying the Witnesses upon whose ascension it immediately followeth 2. The remnant also of the tenth part fell but how By falling away from the Power and Dominion of the Beast For if they had still persisted in their former courses and adhered to the Bestian Interest the tenth part of the City had not fallen by falling away because a remnant had still stood their ground And this kind of falling by falling off was also a Righteous Judgment of God upon the Beast whose Power is hereby diminished for the Remnant throws off the Papal Hierarchy never to be reassumed more by them and God is pleased to preserve them as with submission I conceive to make use of them for future against the Beast and his Interest Perhaps it is the first of the ten horns which shall hate the Whore and make her Desolate and Naked c. Surely this remnant is reserved for for some singular purpose seeing they are snatcht thus out of this dreadfull ruine for they related unto them that were Slain in that they are called their Remnant It seemeth therefore as if God intended to turn them into an Horn wherewith to goar and wound the Beast This Street then is from the time of this Earthquake and so forward for ever cut off from the great City and being now purged partly by Divine Vengeance on the bloody men of Names and partly by the repentance of the Remnant it is thenceforth consecrated unto the Government of Jesus Christ This Remnant then is reserved 1. As a Trophy of Victory and Triumph 2. For some signal Service to be performed afterward by them under the seventh Trumpet which followeth quickly upon the back of this Earthquake as you may see v. 14. And thus I have opened as God hath holpen this passage of the Earthquake and the several effects of it But now it may be inquired Quest what may be the cause of this great Earthquake As the Psalmist saith What ailed ye O Mountains that ye skiped like Rams and ye little Hills like Lambs You know what follows in answer hereunto Answ Tremble thou Earth at the Presence of the Lord at the Presence of the God of Jacob. It comes to pass therefore from the Presence of God among his People coming down to visit the Street where his Witnesses were Slain Deut. 21.15 When under the Law a man was found slain in the Field and it was not known who slew him the City that lay next unto the slain Man was to purge it self from that blood and the Elders thereof were to come and wash their hands over a slain Heifer and to say Our hands have not shed this blood neither have our eyes seen it c. God is tender of the Lives of men especially of the lives and blood of his Saints which is precious in his sight and he will certainly make inquisition for it in due time Ps 9.12 And when he goes about this act of Justice what will he do to that City or to that Street where his Witnesses are found slain not slain I say in a Field by unknown hands but in the open Street yea and by them that dwell therein and who cannot thus wash their hands He will call them to a severe account For there is a cry in the Ears of God for Vengeance 1. In the general There is a cry of many and great sins in the Streets for where such a sin is committed as Witness-slaughter surely there are many other crying sins Now the sins of a land may lye so heavy upon it that they may make it to shake and even to reel and rent again like as a Cart may be so heavy loaden that it may make the very Axle-tree to crack and quite overturn all Isa 24.19 20. The Earth saith the Prophet is utterly broken down the earth is clean dissolved the earth is moved exceedingly the earth shall reel to and fro like a drunken
man and shall be removed like a Cottage Why what is that which presseth it down so greatly It followeth And the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it and it shall fall and not rise again It must needs be a marvellous weight that makes the Earth thus to move yet such is the weight of sin 2. More particularly there is the cry of blood in the Street as I have said and it is the cry of the blood of the Witnesses For though they are not literally slain i. e. not as men but as Witnesses yet the Lord calls it and accounts it a slaughter yea and their very enemies account them as naturally dead and they are greatly Oppressed Vexed and Silenced Imprisoned Impoverished and cruelly handled and so that it hasteneth also the Death of some of them Jer. 2.34 and reacheth also to the blood as I may say of many thousands of Souls who depended upon their Ministry and such blood hath a loud cry in the ears of God and such a cry will shake the Earth wherever the sin is committed and remains unpurged You know how the Martyrs under the fifth Seal cryed with a loud voice Rev. 6.10 12. saying How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not Judge and Avenge our blood on them that dwell on the Earth What then followeth And I beheld when he had opened the sixth Seal and lo there was a great Earthquake c. You have heard before of the greatness of that Earthquake and how it shook and quite overthrew the whole Roman Pagan Empire 2 King 24.4 You know also that the blood shed by Menasseh could not be expiated by the greatest reformation that was ever wrought but the whole Land of Judah was at last shaken to pieces for it That land is extreamly deplored that lyeth under the guilt of blood especially of slaying Christ's Witnesses See 2 Chro. 36.15 16. It layed Jerusalems house i. e. the Temple desolate Matth. 23.37 38. And when the Jews killed the Lord Jesus 1 Thess 2.15 16. and the Prophets and persecuted the Apostles forbiding them to Preach to the Gentiles that they might be saved they filled up their sins and the Wrath of God came upon them to the uttermost This is a filling and a finishing sin even Reformation it self were it equal to Josiah's cannot save that land from a great Earthquake and from such Vengeance as will make the ears of them who hear it to tingle What saith the Prophet The City sheddeth blood in the midst of it that her time may come thou art become guilty in thy blood and hast caused thy dayes to draw near and art come even to thine years Ezek. 22.3 4. 3. There is yet another cry and that is from the Prayers of God's people especially from under their Affliction No doubt but the cries and sighs and groans of the Children of Israel in Egypt were accompanied with many Prayers and it brought such vengeance upon Egypt as you have scarce read the like God never forgets the cry of the humble Ps 9.12 Exod. 22.23 If but a poor Widdow or Fatherless child be afflicted and they cry at all unto me I will surely hear their cry saith the Lord. And know thus much that the Prayers of one distressed Child of God may be such that they may shake the very Earth it self What saith David In my distress I called upon the Lord Psal 18.6 7. and cryed unto my God He heard my voice out of his Temple and my cry came before him even into his ears Then the Earth shook and trembled the Foundations also of the Hills moved and were shaken because he was wroth c. The Prayers of David in his distress shook Heaven Earth and Sea And wherefore is it that God saith I will shake the Heavens and the Earth and the Sea and the dry land and I will shake all Nations and the desire of all Nations shall come I say wherefore is this and whence proceedeth this great concussion Even from the desire of all the Saints that live among the Nations in the world They are oppressed and persecuted in the world and they cannot be quiet upon this they cry out and utter their desires O that Jesus Christ would come and deliver us and plead our cause and relieve us in our distresses and call the world to a reckoning Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly I tell you This will cost the world a sound shaking Little do people imagine what the force of God's peoples prayers is they have an Earth-shaking power in them The praying Saints are a thundering Legion Samuel no sooner cryeth to the Lord 1 Sam. 7.10 but he heareth him and answereth him with a dreadful discomfiting thunder upon the Philistines And when the Saints fall to prayer at the close of the seventh Seal Rev. 8.3.5 presently follow Voices and Thunderings and Lightnings and an Earthquake Act. 4.31 When Peter and John were returned from their persecutors to their own company Act. 15.25 they betake themselves to prayer which was no sooner ended but the place was shaken where they were assembled together And when Paul and Silas prayed and sung praises to God in the prison and in the stocks suddenly saith the Text there was a great Earthquake and the foundations of the prison were shaken and immediately all the doors were opened and every ones bonds were loosed and the Keeper of the prison drew his Sword and would have killed himself And do we think now that all the prayers that have been made within these few years by the Saints in the world will not end in a dreadful Earthquake God hath already answered his people and will again answer them by terrible things in righteousness Thus you have seen the procuring causes of this Earthquake I shall conclude with some Consectaries Informations and Exhortations flowing from what hath been opened to us 1. By what we have heard in the Explication of this thirteenth verse we have a further proof of what sometime I said That the Witnesses are slain not in all parts of the great City but in some one eminent Street thereof that hath not quitted and cast off the power of the Beast wherefore I thus argue Where the revenge of God is inflicted for the slaying of the Witnesses there and there only are the Witnesses slain But the revenge of God is not inflicted upon the whole City for the slaying of the Witnesses but only on a tenth part thereof Therefore in that tenth part thereof and there only are the Witnesses slain For God proportioneth his Revenge unto the place of the slaughter making it commensurate and adequate thereunto and doth not exceed the bounds thereof 2. In this dispensation we may see the singular patience of God towards the Enemies of his Witnesses in that he doth not presently bring this great Earthquake upon them they may meet with many a sore concussion during the time of
set on by their Kings and great men and rich men and chief Captains and mighty men That is the Informers and Catch-poles and Jaylors and poor Souldiers were but as a company of boudmen to the Kings great men and men of Names and they must do what the Powers will command them but you see that will not excuse them when the Earthquake cometh but yet the Grandees are the men in the Van that are most eminently shaken and thrown down thereby they shall pay for it to the purpose 8. We may here behold the riches of God's grace that he not only spareth a Remnant of his and his Witnesses Enemies that they are not slain with the rest in the Earthquake but he giveth to them also the grace of repentance They might have drunk of the same Cup with those men of renown as being a Remnant of them especially as to their enmity but God lets them live to repent and give him glory I suppose these to be such as were persecutors as well as those others but they did it ignorantly in unbelief and therefore they obtain this mercy peradventure the other at least many of them are such as transgress of malicious wickedness and rebell against the light which is a very high provocation They are nothing like so ignorant as malicious and despighthful being desperate sworn enemies to Jesus Christ his People Cause and Interest Yet even the spared Remnant are bad enough as known and professed enemies to the God of Heaven to whom now they give glory whose glory and honour they never cared for before O the riches of the glorious grace of God that he should save such as these not only from the destruction of the Earthquake but of Hell it self Let us exalt this inestimable grace and believe love and praise and give glory to the God of Heaven for their so doing and in the mean while let none despair when such men as these repent 9. They that are the People of God and dwell in that bloody Street may have hopes that God will not utterly destroy it seeing there is a Remnant that will be spared which shall be as the shaking of an Olive-tree and the gleaning of Grapes after the vintage is ended You know what devastation God maketh by his four sore Judgments Ezek. 14.22 And yet saith the Lord A remnant shall be left and they shall come forth unto you and ye shall see their way and their doings and ye shall be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought upon you Isa 6. ult God will not u utterly forsake that Street but yet in it shall be a tenth and it shall return and shall be eaten as a Teyl-tree and as an Oak whose substance is in them when they cast their leaves for so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof God will as it were tithe this tenth part and consecrate it and the land unto himself for some signal and singular service to his Name And as God will destroy the Microcosm and little world in that land by this Earthquake viz. the Sun Moon Stars and Heavens and Earth thereof so he will create new Heavens as I may say and a new Earth therein and the former shall be remembred no more Lastly We see what a shaking world we live in Let our hearts therefore hang loose to the things of this world to which they are so apt to adhere How soon God may shake us we know not and shaking especially of the earth is in order to the removing of the things that are shaken Hebr. 12.26 27. And when men are sorely shaken they had not need to take hold on things that shake and which are ready to remove away from under them they have need to lay hold on stable and abiding things that will stand fast and not forsake them If any should say This shaking may be far enough off from us Let no man think so For admit that this be not the time nor place spoken of in Rev. 11.7 8. Yet where there is any thing like it there will be that also which is as like unto this Earthquake Ezek. â—3 10 13. What saith the Lord to Ezekiel If a righteous man beget a son that is a robber a shedder of blood and that doth the like to any one of these things viz. there spoken of he shall not live he shall surely dye his blood shall be upon him That doth the like c. He doth not say That doth the very same If an Hue and Cry pursue after a shedder of blood and find a man that is very like him and apprehend him upon suspition and it falleth out upon examination that the person apprehended hath also shed blood in like manner though he is not the person that shed the blood inquired after yet he shall not live he shall surely dye his blood shall be upon him Even so c. God will never put up the slaying of his Witnesses though perhaps it may not be that slaying here spoken of but only the like unto it There is no satisfaction to be taken for the life of a murtherer nor is there any City of Refuge appointed in the law for him Numb 35.31 Deut. 21 1.-10 he must be taken away from God's altar or slain at it as Joab was otherwise the whole land lyeth under the guilt of blood You know what Hanun did to David's Embassadors who were sent to him in meer love and good will He did not slay them but shamefully abused them 2 Sam. 12.30 31. O how was the land of the children of Ammon shaken for this abuse The Kings crown was taken from his head and set on David's the Ammonites slain Rabbah sacked and plundered and the people of the Land put under sawes and harrows and axes of iron and made to pass thorow the brick-kiln And yet what is this abuse of David's Embassadors to that of Christ's which we have lived to see And what will the Lord then do how dreadfully will he avenge the high and horrible contempt of his Messengers Prepare therefore for times of great concussions perhaps they may prevent some of your deaths if not prove also the cause of them Hang loose I say to the world and be in the number of the ascenders get up above the Earth and approach nearer unto Christ in Reformation and Holiness and then if the worst should come you may sing Luther's Psalm Ps 46. And be not so sollicitous about the Earthquake as about the Ascension that immediately precedeth it for the Earthquake must come but wo be to them when it comes who are not got above the Earth It is the great mercy of God to defer the Earthquake till after the Ascension for the greater safety to his people which I conceive to be a special reason why it is deferred till then though another may be That a foundation may be layd for the carrying on the work of Reformation the better when the Earthquake is at an end And it promiseth well to the Street that God will not utterly destroy it nor take away his Gospel from it 1. In that he still continueth his Witnesses in it 2. Because Reformation and Holiness are ascending when the Earthquake cometh Now therefore let it be the care and endeavour of the People of God 1. To rise 2. To ascend 1. To rise what is that To hold forth the Spirit of Life from God They must walk in opposition to their slain condition now they were slain by the loss of spiritual life courage and activity therefore they must rise by a contrary Spirit 2. Let it be their endeavour also to ascend i. e. to reform viz Churches Families Hearts and Lives And if we must thus ascend then it will follow that we must not stay at that pitch of Reformation to which we have already attained but must yet get up higher there is a great deal more yet to be done For perhaps some may say Are we not ascended already No we are not yet come to the utmost of our Resurrection which as we have heard is gradual True there hath been a kind of rising and ascending of late years for wherefore are the Witnesses slain but for their climbing up so high in their Seperations and Professions And yet you see they must ascend up higher For we are not risen up so high above former times as we must yet rise up higher above our present selves God will not be satisfied with our Resurrection when it is come to its utmost degree but then he requireth also an Ascension which will be gradual likewise unto the time of the pouring out of the seventh Vial. FINIS