much more the more Noble and Eminent Ones I Pray God keep your Grace and all the Noble Patrons of our Church and Kingdom from such danger But chiefly I pray God so keep you with his Grace that you may be always ready for our Blessed Saviour and that with such an heart as dreading no danger you may be most apt and able to put forth your self so as to go unto him with submission according to his own way what ever it be It hath pleased God to do for your Grace very great things and to lengthen the Line of your Family from a very Ancient Remembrance to be the Seven and Twentieth Noble Person descended in a direct Male Line from Dukes and Earls beyond the Conquest And to Preserve your whole Genealogy down unto your most Noble Self untainted in your true Allegiance And to make your Grace the Head of the greatest Tribe of one Bloud that any Noble Person in either of these three Kingdoms can shew again of which Famous Tree your unworthy Remembrancer hath the Honour to be an humble Sprig with Branches And now with Gods Blessing it 's to be hoped this tall Tree out of your Loyns is putting forth a fresh as if it will not cease it's growth but be spreading on still more and more even until Doomsday You are God be praised at this day in good health and strength and that unto admiration your great Age considered I Pray God of his Mercy continue it unto you unto your utmost time and to strengthen your Inner Man with all heavenly Graces equalling and exceeding those of your Outer Man So Prays My Lord Your Graces most humble Servant J. Butler A SERMON Preached on the 30th of January 1683. LUKE 21. Verse 25 26. And there shall be Signs in the Sun and in the Moon and in the Stars And upon the Earth Distress of Nations with Perplexitie the Sea and the Waves Roaring Mens Hearts failing them for Fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the Earth For the Powers of Heaven shall be shaken THere is Prophetick mention of two Fatal Times as they are fore shewn by the Prophet Daniel and by our Saviour Jesus Christ Dan. 12.1 There shall be saith Daniel a time of Trouble such as never was since there was a Nation even to that same time and at that time thy People shall be deliverd And this seems to be the very time my Saviour Fore-Bodes by the Signs in my Text mentioned For if we observe He adds saying then as much as to say when you see those Signs shall they see the Son of Man coming in a Cloud Luke 21.27 28 29 30 31. with Power and great Glory And when these things begin to come to pass then look up and lift up your Hands for your Redemption draweth nigh And as sure as the Sprouting Fig-tree is a Prodromer that Summer is at Hand even so when ye see these things that is the Signs in my Text c. Then know ye that the Kingdom of God is nigh at hand By the Son of Man spoken off by Christ seems to be understood the same Person who by Daniel is Stiled Michael the cheif Prince Of whom as 't is said here that He shall come so it is spoken there saying he shall stand up And both these seem to speak of the coming of Christ to Reign but that not Personally as some imagine but by his Vicegerent as saith the Prophet Isaiah Isa 49.22 23. Dan. 10.21 Kings shall be thy Nursing Fathers when I set up my Standard to the People and they shall bring thy Sons in their Arms c. And thus Michael the Son of Man or the Cheif Prince shall stand up and come to deliver the Ancient Jews and Israelites his People out of Captivity by the Hands of Christian Kings his Earthly Angels and Ministers or Vicegerents The Total Sum of all which things Amounts thus far That the Jews and Israelites shall be converted to the Christian Faith and then shall be delivered out of Captivity by the mighty Power of God and be restored unto their own Ancient Country and Land called Palestina but immediately before those Days shall be great Tribulation Mat. 24.21 such as was not since the beginning of the World to this time no nor ever shall be But now withal we are to understand that this time of Trouble or Tribulation is to be twice repeated whereof once as has been afore shewed and another time before that when the Abomination of Desolation shall be set up in the holy Place Dan. 9.26 27. Luke 21.32 And when Michael is also called Messiah all come in Person and shall be cut off but not for himself in the midst of the Week there shall be and follow the first Tribulation which was to be fulfilled before that Generation wherein our Saviour lived was quite passed over And this has already been fulfilled once or acted repeated over the first time And is to be expected to be acted over a second time and that second time is justly supputed to be near at hand Now to Calculate these things Regularly and Exactly according to what is expressed by that Holy Prophet and confirmed by our Saviour The ground Plot of all those things is the coming and standing up of Michaelâ— who is the Messiah our Chirst our Saviour who came first personally in order to Suffer that we may be Redeemed At this time He came unto his own Joh. 11.11 Acts 2.23 Mat. 27.25 and his own received him not but took and Crucified slew him and called down the Vengeance of his Bloud upon their own Heads and upon the Heads of their Children And hence followed the first Direful Tribulation the like whereof was never known before It was in the Thirty Third Year of our Saviours Incarnation upon Friday the Third of April at a little after Three a Clock in the Afternoon Joh. 19 30. at what time hanging upon the the Cross He bowed down his Head and Died. And on the Thirty Seventh Year after on the Fourteenth of April Titus with the Romans at a Pascal time Joseph of the Wars shut in the Jews into the City of Jerusalem by a close Siege at what time it was infinitely throng'd with People who from all parts had come thither to the Passover On the Third of May he took one Wall by Assault and on the Eighth of May another Wall On the Fourteenth of July the dayly Sacrifice ceased for want of Victims On the Twenty-Fourth of July the Castle called Antonia was taken by the Romans and the same day the Northern Porch of the Semple was burnt and on the Twenty-Seventh Day the Western Porch was burnt by the Jews themselves On the Eighth Day of August the Romans entred the Temple and on the Tenth Day it began to burn with Violent Flame Then did the Romans kill the Preists and prophaned the Alter and the Bloud ran
waite a time of Trouble and Tribulation such as never was since there vvas a Nation even unto that same time saving that trouble of the Jews long since acted vvhereof this of yours is but a second part of the same once more repeated over again according to the Nature of your Crime in Comparison of theirs these hastening to be as those vvith them once vvere Luke 21.22 Dayes of Vengeance that all things which are written may be fulfilled And novv as there have been are and are further Expected Signs in the Sun and in the Moon and in the Stars and upon the Earth distress of Nations with perplexity the Sea and Waves Roaring Mens Hearts failing them for Fear and for looking after those things which are comming on the Earth for the Powers of Heaven shall be shaken These vvords are foreboding marks of those Days of Tribulation I have mentioned before and a discription of the State of that Tribulation and the ground Plot of both 1. The Marks foreboding are called Signs and are Described by their Scituation either in the Sun or Moon or Stars or on the Earth Signs in the Sun and Moon are all extraordinary and unusual Eclipses as when Total and the Stars appear by Day or is accompanyed with strange Meteors or Constellations Unusual and Stange Colour such as black or bloudy or pale and dark for any long time Unusual shapes such as extraordinary big or small or when Crosses or other Signs appear in the Bodys of either Signs in the Stars are when new Stars Comets or unusual Meteors do appear and that of horrible Colours shapes quantity and bigness and do last long or do mischeif Great Conjunctions and Constellations and Crouds of Planets in mutual Opposition or Conjunction or shews in the Heavens of Armies or Monsters c. Signs upon Earth are Monstrous Births Apparitions of Ghosts strange Thunders Hail-Storms Frosts Earthquakes moving of Mountains Trees Houses or Towns prodigious Winds c. Strange Voices heard and not known whence they come Raining of Bloud Wool Wheat Stones or such like Breaking forth of new Wells Rivers and such like Now these things are wont to be aboundantly more plenteous in Pagan Countrys then in Christian because where God teacheth by his word there is the less need of the warning by strange Prodigies And 2ly because where we know to despise Signs and Wonders they pass over the less noted or headed but where Men do most admire Sathan makes shew oftentimes of greater wonders then really they are and counterfeit strange Signs Before the destruction of Jerusalem was seen a Flaming Comet in form of a Sword which hung over Jerusalem a whole Year Armies were seen Fighting in the Air A Voice was heard in the Temple saying Let us go hence The great Gate that Twelve Men were usually aiding to open and shut in the Night time opened of its own accord And what was most of all one Jesus Son of Ananel for four Years together went about the City continually pronouncing Woes against the City Country and Temple and no Whipping or Punishment would make him cease Now never were more greivous Calamities then befel that place at that time And yet we Read of greater and more grievous Signes before the Falling down of the Northern Inundations about the Year of 400 vvhen the Goths Vandals Hunns and such like barbarous People over ran the Roman Empire And far vvorse before the Massacre of Romans in Britain in Neroes Time And the Massacre of Romans by Mithridates and the taking of Rome by the Gaules And yet before the Fearful Massacre at Paris in 72 vve Read of very mean Prodigies boding thereof The truth is there Lurks much of Learning in the Case Prodigies and strange Signs are Significant but they require an Interpretor there is a curiosity in the Signification more then every body knovvs only thus far vve knovv that such things are Direful vvhere-ever the danger Lights and in common Threatnings all Men are to bevvare Now to take a view of the prodigies of our own Age at present depending with their Woes looking in our Faces are first a prodigious Hailstorm in London and Ten Miles round on the 18th of May 1680. The like whereof has not been known of many Ages in Novemb. and December of the same Year followed the prodigious Comet in form of a Spit of great length which coming out of the South appeared for Twelve Months and made abode with us in our Northern Latitude for some Months February 11th 1681. Was a total Eclipse of the Moon Fatal and Bloody in 4º of Virgo August 1682. Was another Comet in the Northern Hemisphere which shone sometime and moved Southwards In October came up the great Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter which yet Reigns in the Second Decanate of Leo and on December the 5th a fearful Torch appeared double which coming from North-East and South-West met in Mid-Heaven and dashing at each other vanished with a great blaze of Light And lastly on Jan. 17. vvas a visible Eclipse of the Sun in the 8th of Aquarius almost Total in the Western Horison And besides these are talkt of several Visions seen in the Ayr and noyse of Drums beating heard no Man knovvs from vvhence and strange Prophesies of Destruction and much Mischief attending us and great Rumours of Wars every vvhere But the Pulpit is no place to tell strange stories in I shall omit therefore the crovvd of Heresays of Mock Suns and Moons and several Vapours besides relations of nevv Springs and Rivers broken out vvhich never vvere vvont to shevv themselves but against times of extremity And novv vvhat these things signifie belong not unto this place to decide but do rather lead me to give vvarning that in such cases every body do fear the vvorst and the best vvill mend it self That is God sends these vvarnings that vve may repent of our sins and in expectation of danger to stick the closer unto our God in all holiness of Conversation And this the rather because in the next place vve are forevvarned that after these Signs shall follovv Distress of Nations with Perplexity the Sea and the Waves roaring Mens Hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the Earth Here in this Prophesie have vve first described the thing forevvarned Distress of Nations Intimating that after the Signs aforesaid not all the vvhole World but yet Nations several Nations vvhomsoever it may concern shall be greatly distressed that is they shall suffer great Assaults and shall be much Tottered and Shaken or Overturned and shall have no Supporters or Assisters to preserve from a fall or to raise up being down Or in short They shall have so great troubles that they will not know which way to turn them in order to deliverance 2. Is described the height of this distress that is with Perplexity Intimating that their Calamities shall be like unto a Line intangled and knit into
so many knots that it cannot be undone They feeling themselves lock't up and fenced about with abundance of Dangers threatning and yet so puzled with Mischief upon Mischief as if the untying of one knot were the making of three 3. Is set forth the Form and Shape of the Distress as being like the hideous Waves of the Sea Roaring Raging and Threatning and Foming with Salt Froth as if they would Swallow and Devour all before them For as the Sea in rough Water is fearful to behold and dangerous to be trusted such are the dreadful approaching Calamities 4. Is shewed the Effects of this Distress 1. In Mens Hearts which shall fail for fear And 2ly In their Eyes which shall increase the fears of the Heart by seeing and beholding the Miseries as they approach nearer and nearer and the great Mischief which they do The Spirit of a Man saith Solomon will bear its Infirmities Pro 18.14 but a wounded Spirit who can bear The Heart is the support of a Mans Spirit and so long as the Heart holds up stout and confident it carries him off through many temptations but if a Mans Heart fail him then all his Spirits break and evaporate into meer Air and Emptiness And the Heart failing Man lifts up his Eyes as if they should help him and yet they by seeing and beholding the great Clouds of approaching Evils do rather increase and heighten the Sorrow while they have no tydings to tell but of grievous Mischief and Miseries continually threatning and yet can they not chuse but look up still though they can behold no Comfort After this rate was the Church of Judah found when the Lord beheld the State thereof Jer. 30.5 6 7. as of People that hear nothing but Voices of trembling where is nothing but fear without hopes of Peace Wherefore saith the Lord do I see every Man with his hands on his Loyns as a Woman in Travail as if Man also should Travail with Child and all Faces are turned into paleness Alas for that day is great so that none is like it It is the time of Jacobs trouble This was when the Caldeans oppressed and over-ran the whole Kingdom of Judea but at that time they were delivered Even such are the Calamities that are now approaching upon the World and some Nations perhaps may escape with small harms and others may be safe enough But some where and on some certain Nations these great Tribulations the like whereof were never before knovvn are novv like to happen in a short space For now the Powers of Heaven are shaken as our Saviour saith in my Text For the Powers of Heaven shall be shaken And this is the third thing the Cause and Groundvvork both of the Signs and the Miserie 's forevvarned The Povvers of Heaven are either Efficiently or Instrumentally so Efficiently and Principally are God himself and after him his Holy Angels the Povvers of Heaven Instrumentally the Sun Moon and Stars and all the Hosts of Heaven are the Povvers and Strength of Heaven by vvhich according to Nature God Acts upon Earth Novv God and his Angels are too high to be shaken but their Instruments may be shaken and that either vvhen God shall shake them as a Man shakes his Weapon when he brandisheth his Sword to strike therewith And thus God shakes the Powers of Heaven when the Sun Moon and Stars seeming to dash one against another either by Body or Aspect do make even the Earth and all its Inhabitants to shake and tremble at their Motions And here also the Potentates on Earth in a sense called the Powers of Heaven because the God of Heavens Agents are also shaken by the greater Powers of Heaven above And thus the late gaeat Comet and the great Eclipses and the great Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter now in being are the shaking of Heaven our Saviour speaks of And after these it s to be feared many Prodigies and Signs will still appear more and more both in Heaven and Earth until the forewarned Distress of Nations doth come upon them Now what these Comets Eclipses and Conjunctions do signifie belongs not to this place or time to be Treated on nor yet do I think my self concerned to say how near or how far off those threatened Calamities are unto the Nations Only supposing the worst give me leave by help of the context to describe them so far as Gods Word gives us warning and so I shall come to Application Now to this purpose we are to note that at this time of my Text our Saviour is upon Answer to three Questions As 1. When shall these things be meaning the Destruction of Jerusalem vvhich a little afore Christ had been Treating upon Mal. 24.3 2. What shall be the Sign of Christs coming that is by his Vicegerent to deliver the Jews out of Captivity And 3. What shall be the Signs of the end of the World Unto all vvhich our Saviour ansvvers comprehensively as if vvhat is the Sign of the one shall be the same of all three And look hovv it is like to be in that day vvhen the vvhole World of Heaven and Earth are to Perish by Fire and be Destroyed even so after the same rate shall it happen vvhen Jerusalem is to be Destroyed and when the Gentile Nations are many or most of them to be distressed For at each of all these three times shall be great Tribulation such as the like was never known before besides or since excepting the very Paralels Of these the Destruction of Jerusalem is past the Calamity of the Gentile Nations even now waits them And the end of the World shall come in its time But will some say in what particular manner shall these things be to which I answer in a three Fold respect 1. In respect of the Cause moving to bring on such Calamities upon the Nations Luke 21.22 with Gods Vengeance for Great and Crying Sins For Says our Saviour These be the Days of Vengeance that all things that are written may be fulfilled Before Jerusalems and the Jews fall Jesus the Christ was most wickedly murdered by his own People at whose hands he had most singularly and incomparably well deserved And for Vengeance because of that Death came up the Fatal Tribulation of those Days And now is expected that the Times of the Gentiles be fulfilled That is till They or some of them shall prevail and accomplish to scatter the Power of the holy People v. 24. then shall their Vengeance come The Turks are at this time and for many Years have been Lords of the Holy Land and do Tread Jerusalem under Foot and do keep it away that the Jews the Right Owners cannot possess it at this Day they are a Barbarous sort of People that have neither Law nor Gospel nor any thing of good Education to help their Government and therefore it Pleases God to bear with their Rude Manners so much the more But yet having
Kings of the Earth and the great Men and the Rich Men and the cheif Captains and the mighty Men and every Bondman and every Freeman Rev. 6.15 16. shall hide themselves in the Dens and in the Rocks of the Mountains and shall for great fear and anguish of Spirit beg of the Rocks and Mountains to fall on them and to hide them from the Pursuing VVrath Oh that such might call to mind the Nobles of Jerusalem in the Siege of that Famous City who when the Temple was on Fire and they standing on the VValls had fair means to escape and yet desperately possest with bitter angush of Spirit and confounded in the perplexity of their woful State threw themselves headlong into the Burning Flames of the Rubbish of the Holy Temple rather then make escape to lengthen their desperat Lives Joseph of the Wars Lastly VVo VVo to the whole Crowd of the Prophane VVorld because in those Days all their whole Hopes shall at once expire and turn to Dust Oh how unspeakably Lamentable was that Agony of all People at once in the Holy Land at what time the Flame of the Temple like the blaze of a mighty Bonfire ascended with violence up to Heaven then was there an Universal Shriek all over the City and on the Mountains all about far and wide every where within Sight of the Fire the doleful Noises answered with Mutual Outcrys and most bitter Moan And as if it had been their only remaining pleasure to bewail there was no end of their Lamentation For on the Temple of the Lord as they called it having fondly set their Hearts when they saw it on a Light Flame it represented in their Phantasies as if the Body it self had been an Hell-Fire where remained no more Hopes but that the Soul also must needs Perish Now in our Days we have no such Temple to Lament but yet every Man has his Diana which is as great in his Imagination as was Diana with the People of Ephesus which when it happens to be destroyed our whole hopes do fail therewith and when a Mans Heart fails it is as when the Foundation of an House gives way at what time besure the whole Building is to Perish therewith while the Spirit bears up it bears all Calamities but when the Spirit is once wounded then a Mans burthen immediately becomes insupportable Pro. 18.14 For in such a case dispair approaches and like a Storm oppresseth the Mind and Imagination after which follows such a Confusion in all Thoughts that a Man is no longer able to Govern himself by Council but Rashly exposes himself unto the Mercy of every Eminent Danger as the Jewish Nobles when they threw themselves head-long into the Fire or as Judas when he Hang'd himself And such is the like to be the Torment of the ensuing Threatning Times So much therefore may serve for this three-fold Description I come next unto Application If things stand thus as we have the warranty of Christ and of Daniel for it Then what kind of Persons ought we to be and that in all admonition of solid Reason as well as in Obedience to the Dictates of Conscience and Duty The answer is obvious For there is but one Path to follow that bespeaks safety all others being visibly defeated and that is to pursue the Peace of God which consisteth in these few Rules Col. 3.2 1st Set your Affections upon things above and not on things here below there is a necessity in the case this whole world is like to Perish Psal 46.1 2 3 the Heavens will be melted down and the Earth burnt to Ashes but the word of the Lord abideth for ever God is a present help in time of trouble therefore saith the Psalmist we will not fear though the Earth be removed and the Mountains carryed into the midst of the Sea though the Waters thereof Roar and be troubled and the Mountains shake with the swelling thereof In God is safety and no where else Necessity therefore requires it Col. 3.2 that we set our affections on things above and not on things here below For when such Tribulations come the like whereof were never known Riches Honours and Pleasures are but Bul-works of Straw that can make no kind of Fence no not at all or like Plaisters wrong applyed which vex the Wound but heal it not while the greater a Man is in Wealth and Honour Joh. 16.33 he is but as it were the greater bait allowing to be the sooner devoured But in Christ there is Peace and in a good Conscience is true safety Object Now here will some say it may be so but the Virtues of Gods Peace and the Glory of things above are matters above us hard to be attained And though the things of this Life are failable yet the others not appearing unto our Eye we must lean unto what we can reach and let them go as far as they can and the rest we must adventure An. The truth is The Natural Man perceiveth not the things the good and great and glorious things of God 1 Cor. 2.14 15. because they are only spiritually discerned and he has not the Faculty of spiritual discerning But yet 1st He may perceive that there be some that have that Faculty and by Vertue thereof do despise the World in Comparison of those things of Heaven which by Faith they do discern And 2dly If others have it Joh. 16.7 13. Ch. 3.3 5. Ex. 36.26 why may not we also gain such a Faculty seeing Christ has promised to give us also of his Spirit whch shall teach us all things both by Enlightning our Minds and changing our Hearts And 3dly If so what great incouragement have we to try and improve our Faith that by using the means such as Reading Hearing and Prayer we may at last see how good the Lord is and so attain for our selves an Assurance of Safety beyond the Weak and Treacherous supports of Worldly Pomps and Vanities The importunity therefore of Eminent Dangerous Times Pregnantly requires and Commands as we hope to be saved and do render our own welfare both here and for ever to take and follow such an Effectual Course as may serve us come the worst come that can come Object But here again will some say and confess that it may be good Council perhaps that is given to look towards Heaven but that the setting of the Affection that way which is altogether superna-natural is matter of so great difficulty that we have no hopes to compass it and besides the Afflictions by the way thereto are so Sharp and Severe that without some incouragement from the things of the Flesh which naturally we understand there is no Subsisting An. 2. La. 21.19 In answer to this by our Saviour is proposed saying In your Patience possess ye your Souls Intimating that Patience is a Remedy sufficient to support us under all Afflictions and Temtations and however