no humane help nor Arm of Flesh imployed in their Resurrection this shall be wrought only by the Spirit of Life from God entring into them Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord. If any liberty should be procured by force which ought not to be it will not prosper nor will any attempts that way The Resurrection of the Witnesses shall be like a Resurrection wrought only by the omnipotent hand of Heaven even by him in whose power alone it is to raise the dead and to call things that are not as though they were It is true indeed when the Earthquake cometh which followeth soon after the Ascension of the Witnesses there will be great Concussions in that Country whatever it is where the Witnesses must be slain but who shall be the Authors of them and Actors in them I do not know but as for the Resurrection it self it shall be effected immediately by the Spirit of Life from God who will certainly blast all humane attempts by Conspiracies and Insurrections in order or rather disorder to the Resurrection of the Witnesses Men were as good go about the raising of the dead out of their Graves as to raise the slain Witnesses by humane endeavours When the Israelites were e'en upon the point of their Resurrection out of Egypt which was not complete till they arose out of the Red Sea Ex. 15. compared with Rev. 15.2 3. what saith Moses to them * Exod. 14.13 14. Fear not stand still and see the salvation of God The Lord shall fight for you and ye shall hold your peace And yet the Israelites at that time were †Exod. 13.18 harnessed marshalled and prepared with Arms and they used them not long after this their Resurrection * Exod. 17.9.13 against the Amalekites at Rephidim but at their Resurrection there must not be a Sword drawn nor a stroke struck but as Jahaziel said to Jehosaphat and the men of Judah * 2 Chr. 20.17 Ye shall not need to fight in this Battel set your selves stand ye still and see the salvation of the Lord with you Thus should I live to the Time and in the Street of the Resurrection of the Witnesses would I say and as Moses also said to the Israelites who would needs go up uncalled and fight against the Canaanites * Numb 14.41 Wherefore now do ye transgress the Commandment of the Lord But it shall not prosper Go not up for the Lord is not among you that ye be not smitten before your enemies Yet they would presume and go up but the Amalekites and Canaanites smote them and discomfited them even unto Hormah * Ex. 17. When they had a call to fight against the Amalekites they conquered them but when they will fight with them uncalled they are smitten by them Quest II. VVhat if we should see such a Slaughter as symbolizeth much with that here ver 7 8 c. And yet when the three years and half are ended there appeareth little or nothing in view agreeable to such a Resurrection as the Text here holdeth forth ver 11 12 Answ HEre lyeth the difficulty that as I said in answer to the former Question the last time I dare not be positive in determining whether the Witnesses are slain or not only I laid before you what the Scripture saith concerning their slaughter and left it to you to consider And the same course I shall take at present in answer to this Question But before I come to the Answer I shall premise a Position or two 1. That there must not only be a Resurrection of the slain Witnesses but such a Resurrection alâ—o as is here described for the Scripture cannot be broken It is not enough that there is an answerableness of things in the death of the Witnesses to prove their Slaughter but there must be the like in their Resurrection also or we can conclude nothing Every Slaughter hath not been the Sâ—â—nghtâ—r and so every Resurrection is not that Resurrection And to hold forth that which is like the death of the Witnesses but to fall in the Resurrection will not amount to satisfaction 2. This Resurrection of the Withesses must be homogeneal and of the same kind with the Slaughter 〈◊〉 If the slaughter be partly civil and partly spiritual so must also the Resurrection be and not proper and literal for those Bodies can never rise from a natural death which were never deprived of their natural lives These Positions premised I proceed to the Answer 1. Negatively I shall not answer as some have done who say that after three days and 〈◊〉 the witnesses shall arise but how soon after it is not said 〈…〉 not answer thus for this were ponere Resurrectionem 〈…〉 smite Resurrection without an determination of time and â—o to what purpose would the Text in hand â—â—rve Or what comfort thould we have from it more than this that there shall come a time when the witnesses shall arise For as Martha said to Christ of her dead Brother 〈◊〉 I know that he shall arise again iâ— the Resurrection at the last day all her doubt was whether Christ would raise him then John 11.24 Even â—o might we say of the slain Witnesses if their Resurrection here had 〈◊〉 been mentioned at all We know that they shall rise againâ— yea but when shall they arise After three days and aâ— half saith the Text therefore the time is determined For in these words there is the Epâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 Oâ—â—â—inal or beginning of time from whence the Reâ—urrection doth commerce and proceed i. 〈◊〉 presently after the expiration of the said 〈◊〉 of their death For the time of their Witnessing had 1. It s Epoâ—â—â—â— though 〈◊〉 dark and difficult to discover it 2. It s Continuance 〈…〉 like manner the time of their slaughter hath 1. 〈…〉 and â—egiâ—ning and term from whence to reckon and 2. It s 〈…〉 câ—â—â—â—ance vâ—z three years and an half And shall not 〈…〉 â—â—ction also have a certain fixed beginning God is very punâ—â—â—◠〈…〉 as to his times and seasons though our darkness knows not how to discern it as you may see Exod. 12.40 41 42. It came to pass at the end of the 430 years even the self same day it came to pass that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the Land of Egypt It is a night to be much observed c. it is doubled and trebled to shew us Gods exactness in keeping time 2. I shall not answer according to that Notion of some others concerning three years and half i. e. three years say they and half three years for the words in the Original are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. say they after three days and half leaving out the word an so that they reckon the time to be three years and half three years i. e. four years and an half But this answer will not hold For 1. There are three notable Numbers in
A DISCOURSE CONCERNING The Witnesses Relating to the TIME PLACE and MANNER of their being Slain BY WILLIAM HOOKE late Preacher of the Gospel LONDON Printed by J. Astwood for Thomas Cockeril at the Three Legs in the Poultrey over against the Stocks-Market 1681. Quest I. Whether the Witnesses are Slain I Dare not be definitive and peremptory in making answer hereunto being conscious to much darkness in my self about the understanding and unfolding matters Apocalyptical and knowing also that there are many difficulties attending the Answer of this Question I shall therefore humbly lay before you what the Scripture speaketh and leave it to you to consider and conclude as the Lord shall help you And in order to what I shall say there is something that I would premise and it is this That in the slaughter of the Witnesses there is that which carrieth a great analogy and proportion to the death of Christ the consideration whereof will much help us in the Answer of the Question but I mean not a complete and adequate proportion but as to many remarkable Particulars The sufferings of the Church are a great part of the subject matter of this Book of the Revelations especially under the Seals and Trumpers till you come to the last Wo which is objectated chiefly on Antichrist And these Sufferings were partly under the Pagan Roman Empire partly under Rome Antichristian and the sufferings of the Saints under both are the sufferings of Christ mystical and are so expressed as bearing a great proportion and likeness with the sufferings of Christ personal The first of these sufferings of Christ mystical we find Rev. 12.1 2 3. c. where it is said The Woman being with Child cryed travelling in Birth and pained to be delivered The Woman here is the Church and the Child that she travelleth with is her Seed which is Christ mystical whose Sufferings by the great Red Dragon i. e. the Devil in the Roman Pagan Empire do in many things * Mr. Dâ—â—â— on Rev. 1â— as a Learned Interpreter hath observed allude to the sufferings of Christ personal when he was born 1. In that Christ was a Child born of a Woman under many outward wants so as the condition of the Church is commonly 2. In that Herod did watch to destroy Christ so loon as he was born and as Paraoh several times called a Dragon sought to destroy the Jews Male-Children as soon as they came into the world 3. As Christ when he was born was soon put to flee into Aegypt with his Mother so it is here with the Church and her seed they flee into the Wilderness 4. The foresaid Author affirmeth that the time of Christs being in Aegypt was three years and an half which in the mistery is the time of the Church her Wilderness condition For Christ as my Author affirmeth was born in the thirtieth year of Herods Reign but he fled not presently but was first circumcised and his Mother purified after which also Herod sought to destroy the young Children in and about Bethlehem This took up some part of Herods thirty first year and Christ returned out of Aegpyt immediately after Herods death who reigned thirty four years 5. As Herod vented his malice upon the Bethlehemitish Infants after the flight of Christ so doth the Devil here vent his malice upon the Church her seed after her deliverance and flight 6. As Christ was still preserved till he had finished the work committed to him notwithstanding all the opposition he met with but after that he suffered and was slain even so it happeneth to the seed of the Church Thus you see how the sufferings of Christ mystical under Rome Pagan do in many things answer to the sufferings of Christ personal Secondly Let us consider the other part of the sufferings of Christ Mystical under Rome Antichristian and we shall see their conformity to the sufferings of Christ Personal especially in and about his death It is said you know * Rev. 11.8 that the doad Bodies of the Witnesses shall lye in the Street of the great City which is spiritually called Sodom and Aegypt where also our Lord was crucified Which last words are added not only to discover under what power the Witnesses should be slain viz. that of Rome spiritually called Sodom and Aegypt but also to shew us the conformity that should be between the slaughter of Christ and his Witnesses And yet we must not expect a complete analogy and proportion between them for in some Circumstances they differ but in several material ones they do agree 1. Christ preacheth forty two Months literally taken the witnesses prophesie as long taking forty two months * Numb 14.34 Ezek. 4.6 prophetically and mystically 2. Christ is slain when he had finished his Testimony and could not by any means be slain before so it is with the Witnesses Rev. 11.7 3. Christ is slain by the * Rev. 11.8 with Luk. 18.32 33. Gentiles grammatically and properly so taken and the Witnesses are slain by the * Rev. 11.2 7. Gentiles metaphorically so taken 4. Christ arose after three days figuratively taken i. e. part being put for the whole His Witnesses arise after three days and an half prophetically taken i. e. three years and an half 5. Christ's Sepulchre was guarded to keep him down in his Grave and hinder his Resurrection * Mat. 27.64 which his enemies could not bear the thoughts of In like manner the enemies of the Witnesses endeavour to keep them down by power and so to bury them but that they are hindered that they might never rise again 6. When Christ was crucified presently beginneth the Jews Passeover where his Enemies rejoyced together and made merry because Christ who had tormented them was crucified * Rev. 11.10 Even thus deal the Enemies of the Witnesses when they are slain 7. Christ arose notwithstanding the Soldiers who guarded his Sepulchre and when he arose they were wofully skared at the sight of him * Rev. 11.11 Even so it is at the Resurrection of his Witnesses 8. When Christ arose there was a great Earthquake properly so called So not long after the Resurrection of the Witnesses there is * Rev. 11.13 a great Earthquake mystically and metaphorically so called This Analogy thus premised I shall express to you what the Scripture saith concerning the slaughter of the Witnesses that you may make your Collections from it as the Lord shall help you 1. The * Rev. 2â— 8 9. Text seemeth to hold forth such a slaughter of the Witnesses as is partly civil and partly spiritual For were the slaughter literal and proper the enemies of the Witnesses would not have endured their dead Bodies to have lyen so long unburied in the Street because of the noisomness thereof nor would Kindreds and Tongues and Nations have hindered their burial from the Principle of mere Humanity And therefore this their death must be of another kind and that
and dreadful a thing it is not to do as Jâ—holadâ— did after the death of that wicked woman Athaliah * 〈◊〉 Kings 11.18 for he caused the people to break the Altars and Images of Baal in picces thorowly But to return the Witnesses you see must be slain not in the Streets but Street i. e. in some one remarkable Country under the power of the Beast and which hath not cast off his Government though yet there must be so much of Protestancy and Testimony against Papal Usurpations and Impositions and for the Kingly Power of Christ in and over his Churches as will be a fit object for Persecution even unto the slaughter of the Witnesses I know there are such as like not to have this slaughter so narrowly confined whereas the Text is express for some particular Street And there seemeth to me to be reason for it why it should be thus limited 1. Because if the slaughter should be in all the Streets of the great City i. e. in all the Countries under the power of the Beast there would be a very large Testimony and the Witnesses would be numerous who in respect of their paucity * Rev. 11.3 are here said to be two For the Testimony must be but little and narrow when the Witnesses are slain as it was never very large before 2. If they were to be slain in all Countries where the Beast hath to do where should we find those Kindreds Tongues and Nations that must hinder their Burial For as concerning these hinderers they seem to be a middle sort of people such as neither like the slaughter of the Witnesses nor yet are full for the Testimony of the slain but are of a mungrel kind and stirr'd up by a worldly interest to hinder the Burial of the Witnesses They aim not herein at Reformation nor at the exalting of the Kingly Government of Christ in the Churches according to the rule of the everlasting Gospel but are wholly swayed herein by Principles of State Now I say if the Witnesses were to be slain in all places under the Beasts Dominion where should we find out so many Kindreds Tongues and Nations so and so qualified as might suffice to hinder the Buryal of the Witnesses Again That it is not to be a general slaughter in all Countries but only in some one particular here called the Street I shall demonstrate by a further Argument In order hereunto we must know that this Street is that which in Rev. 11.13 is called the tenth part of the City for that Verse is coupled with the precedent as belonging to the same Story of the Death Resurrection and Ascension of the Witnesses and as * Vindicta divina dâ—testium inimiâ—is Pisc in Rev. 11.13 Piscator observeth there is expressed in it the revenge of God upon the enemies of the Witnesses and I cannot â—ee how it should be otherwise understood Hence then I thusargue 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 inflicted only upon the tenth part of the City for the staying of the Witnesses therefore in that tenth part only are they slain For the God of Revenges in the execution of Judgment for such and such sins doth not exceed the limits of the Place and Persons offending he will not punish the Innocent for the sins of the Delinquent nor one Place for the iniquity of another And yet I cannot but say that the whole City is vertually guilty of this slaughter as being not only guilty of the like but also as approving of this But God hath * Rev. 16.18 another guess Earthquake in store for the whole City i. e. the whole Papal Dominion which shall destroy it all totally and for ever This Earthquake Rev. 11.13 reacheth only the tenth part I might further enlarge upon this point which is of great moment as to the purpose in hand by pasing through the several Streets of the great City and rationally considering which of them is most likely to commit this Martyricide as I may call it especially weighing withal what the Testimony must be upon which the Witnesses must be slain viz. Such as asserteth and exalteth the Kingly Power of Christ in his Churches as you heard but now in the second particular Now this being granted that the Witnesses must be slain in some one particular and eminent Street and not in all the whole Dition and Dominion of the Beast it will follow that the former slaughters which have been committed in many Countries and near about the same time are not the slaughters that we are here enquiâ—ing into For I have read of many hundred of thousands slain in several Countries for the Testimony of Jeâ—us about the year 1540. and afterward for some years but 1. They were slain in a proper sence 2. Not upon the point of the Kingly Power of Christ and therefore the Testimony was not finished when they were slain 3. Their dead Bodies were buried nor did any hinder it 4. They have lyen dead above an hundred years and are not like to rise again till the Resurrection at Christs coming whereas if the death of the Witnesses is proper so must also their Resurrection be 6. When the Witnesses are slain they must be looked upon by their enemies as it were naturally dead so dead in law as if they were also dead in body This may be gathered from Rev. 11.8 9 10. For the Kindreds Tongues and Nations could not so look upon them if their enemies did not so behold them nor could their dead Bodies lye dead in the Street and their enemies there living not look upon them nor would the dwellers upon earth rejoyce and make merry at their death did they not account them so dead as that they would never rise again for did they but fear their Resurrection it would marr their mirth as the Hand Writing on the Wall did Belshazzar's because if the Witnesses did torment them before they were slain O how would they excruciate them to the very death should they but rise again And hence it is that their enemies will not be contented with the death of the Witnesses except also they be buried and therefore they attempt their interment but that they are therein hindred so that this attempt to bury them is not out of any love to them but merely out of hatred fearing lest they should rise from the dead for they will never think them dead enough To this end they will make one Law after another and throw upon the slain Witnesses one Edict after another as they do upon dead Bodies when they throw one shovel-full of earth after another saying Earth to Earth Ashes to Ashes c. only not in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection of the Witnesses to life again And this multiplying of Laws upon them is interpretatively their attempt to bury them 7. There shall be
the Revelations relating to the sufferings of the Church viz. 1260 days and 42 months and time times and half a time i. e. three years and an half For so many days are so many months and so many months are so many years a day being put for a year so that there is a singular answerableness in these numbers and therefore if we extend the three days and an half i. e. three years and an half to four years and an half we break the proportion and correspondence that is between these three numbers 2. How will this notion hold if at the end of four years and an half there should be no more shew of a Resurrection than there was at the end of three years and an half I come therefore to an Affirmative Answer First There are several Resurrections mentioned in the Scriptures 1. The Resurrection of the Soul from the death of Sin to the life of Grace 〈◊〉 5.25 Eph. 2.1 2. The Resurrection of the Body at the coming of Christ 1 Thess 4.16 And theâ—e two Resurrections are in instanti or in a very short and quick time as it is said of that great change 1 Cor. 15.52 In thâ—â—twinkling of 〈◊〉 3. There is the Resurrection of the Jews at their Conversion â—for so it is calied Ezâ—k 37.12 13 14. Rom. 11.15 4. The Resurrection of the Witnesses in my Text. And these two last are not so peedy as the two former but have their gradual Process and â—eâ—â—ral â—ucceeding steps For as touching that of the Calling or Resurrection of the Jâ—ws 1. There is a noise 2. A shaking Ezek. 37 7.-11 3. A coming together of Bone to Bone 4. Sinews and Flesh coming upon them and skin â—â—veâ—ing them 5. The breath of Life coming into them 6. Their 〈◊〉 upon their feet as an exceeding great Army So for the raiting of the 〈…〉 1. The Spirit of Life from God entreth into them 2. They fraud upon their feet 3. They hear a great voice from Heave saying Come up hither Secondly I answer that the Resurrection of the Witnesses seems to answer to the coming of the Children of Israel our of Egypt for spiritual Babylon is called spiritual Egypt ver 8. Which Deliverance was a kind of Resurrection as appears from the resemblance there made to Abraham in a vision Gen. 15.9 10 11. Now the Children of Israel arose our of their bondage by degrees for their Resurrection was not complete till they rose out of the Red Sea and sang the song of Moses Ex. 15. For till then they were not quite free from the â—â—yptians They made several steps out of Egypt to the other side of the Red Sea viz. from Rameses to Succoth from Succoth to Etham from Etham to Pihahireth from Pâ—hahiroth to the red Sea Numb 33 5-9 And therefore that remarkable day spoken of Exod. 12.40 41 42. is not to be understood of Israels complete Resurrection but that day was remarkable for the beginning of it 3ly There is a great Analogy between literal and spiritual Babylon and the coming of Gods people out of that and of the rising of the Witnesses and their deliverance from this Now the people of God arose gradually out of literal Babylon For 1. When the seventy years of their captivity were fulfilled Jer. 29 10.-15 the Text tells us that they must call upon the Lord and go and pray to him and seek him and search for him with all their hearts and then he would be found of them then they should do it i. e. at the end of the 70 years This then was their first motion in their Resurrection they must first of all rise upon their knees And Daniel did his part in this Calling Praying Seeking Searching And when did he do it In the second year of Darius the Son of Ahasuerus of the seed of the Medes in which he was made King over the Realm of the Chaldeans Dan. 9.1 This then was after the accomplishment of the 70 years because the Kingdom of the Chaldeans was now at an end For note what Jeremy saith It shall come to pass when 70 years are accomplished that I will punish the King of Babylon and that Nation saith the Lord for their iniquity c. Jer. 25.12 It is apparent therefore that the 70 years were now ended and that the time of the Jews deliverance was come and yet you see after that very time did Daniel thus call pray seek and search This I say is remarkable as also that after this time it was that our Lord Jesus Christ the Angel of the Covenant made intercession for the deliverance of his people Zach. 1.12 Saith he O Lord of hosts how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the Cities of Judah against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years God therefore seemed to delay a while some may say after the 70 years were ended that our Lord Jesus saith How long when the years were expired Yea but God did not delay one moment Hab. 2.3 for the Jews Resurrection was now begun for they were upon their knees and Christ was interceding for them and in them The Spirit of Life from God acted this way in them in their first motion their rising was somewhat like as when a man riseth out of his bed and falls down upon his knees by his Bed-side and prayeth If any man now should enquire and say is such a man risen it might truly be affirmed that he is so though he be down upon his knees at present Isa 26 1â—9 It was prophesyed of the coming of the Jews out of Babylon that their dew should be as the dew of the herbs and that the earth should cast forth her dead Their Resurrection out of Babylon should be like the Resurrection of Herbs in Spring which arise out of the earth by degrees And also when they did come out of Babylon they came not out all at once but at several times some of them in the first year of King Cyrus upon the Proclamation which he made Ezr. 1. Others in the Reign of Artaxerxes came out with Ezra the Scribe Neh. 2. 7.7 which was 13 years after Ezra's coming forth Neh. 2.1 with Ezr. 7.7 8. Ezr. 7.1 Others with Nehemiah in whose days also the bondage was not quite ended Neh. 9.36 37. So that it was upon that account also a kind of gradual Resurrection or coming forth It is true there was liberty of returning granted by Proclamation in the first year of King Cyrus but there fell in certain impediments that hindred both the speedy progress of their coming forth and also of their carrying on of Religion when they were come unto Jerusalem for fear was upon them Ezr. 3.3 and much opposition they met with for some years for the people of the Land weakned the hands of the people of Judah and troubled them in building and hired Councellors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days
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