a day of the Lord hasten'd for such days are like to be surrounded with darkness and will look dismal every way and the flying from one danger and mischief will be the making haste to another as the Prophet here sheweth The Prophet Zephaniah also sheweth how terrible such a day of the Lord's Anger is like to be in what he saith of such a day Zeph. 1.15 That day is a day of wrath a day of trouble and distress and a day of wastness and desolation a day of darkness and gloominess a day of clouds and thick darkness a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced Cities and against the high Towers And I will bring distress upon men that they shall walk like blind men because they have sinned against the Lord and their blood shall be poured out as dust and their flesh as the dung Such a terrible day were they threatned with for their sin against Almighty God And saith the Prophet Malachy concerning the day that he warned them of Mal. 4.1 For behold the day cometh that shall burn as an Oven and all the proud yea and all that do wickedly shall be stubble and the day that cometh shall burn them up saith the Lord of Hosts that it shall leave them neither root nor branch By these and such like places we may see how dreadful and terrible such days of Vengeance are like to be when God comes in wrath to visit the Earth or any part thereof for the great iniquity of it that we may be the more sensible before-hand of the Terror of such a day when we apprehend it to be coming upon us and may take the greater care for our own security at such a time And in such days of Vengeance and publick Judgments the Rich are like to be equally involved in misery and destruction with the Poor and Needy and their Wealth will then stand them in no stead but rather add to their Misery For Riches profit not in the day of wrath as Solomon saith Prov. 11.4 And so saith the Prophet Zephaniah 1.18 Neither their Silver nor their Gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath but the whole Land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousie for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the Land And saith the Prophet Ezekiel 7.19 They shall cast their Silver in the streets and their Gold shall be removed their Silver and their Gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord The Riches of the Rich will not then be able to ward off the direful Blow when God comes to strike in anger And the great and mighty Men cannot escape the lash of his Rod. The great and mighty Man will then find no more protection and security than the mean Man but the mighty Man shall then cry bitterly as saith the Prophet Zeph. 1.14 There is nothing but Righteousness that will deliver Men. Again 2. We may see that such days of Vengeance will take Men unawares and surprise them when they think themselves secure and are not apprehensive of them if they do not watch and prepare for them but proceed on in a sinful course of life Our blessed Saviour tells the Jews that his coming should be like the Lightning Matth 24.27 For as the lightning cometh out of the East and shineth even unto the West so shall the coming of the Son of Man be This may have some respect to the last day of Judgment but our Saviour hath also confined it to his coming to revenge himself upon the obstinate Jews and his crucifiers Ver. 34. Verily I say unto you this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled That generation to wit some of them were to see these things fulfilled and St. John as is related did out-live this destruction of the Jewish Nation and so it is probable did many others Christ's coming in Vengeance upon them we may see was to be surprizing like Lightning And v. 42 saith he Watch therefore for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come And v. 44. Therefore be ye also ready for in such an hour as you think not the Son of man cometh And v. 48. But and if that evil Servant shall say in his heart my Lord delayeth his coming And shall begin to smite his fellow-servants and to eat and drink with the drunken The Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him and in an hour that he is not aware of And shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth In this unexpected manner are Men especially the Wicked like to be surprised whensoever the Lord shall come to visit the Inhabitants of the Earth in an extraordinary manner with some Judgment for their Wickedness And more places we may see to this purpose Matth. 25.13 saith our Saviour Watch therefore for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh And to this purpose in several other places And saith St. Paul 1 Thess 5.2 3. For your selves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night For when they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child and they shall not escape And saith our Lord by St. John Rev. 3.3 to the Church in Sardis Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and repent If therefore thou shalt not watch I will come on thee as a thief and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee In this surprising manner like a Thief in the Night doth our Lord threaten to take such as do not repent and mind the works of righteousness when he comes to visit the Inhabitants of the World with his Judgments And by these and such places we may see that God's Judgments and Plagues that he brings upon Men for their great wickedness will strangely surprize them in a vain security when they think not of such but fansie that they are out of Harm's way and safe enough And this will make such Judgments the more dreadful and terrible when they light upon Men in such an unguarded manner and so unprepared for them This will make every blow to fall heavy and to wound deep when we have lifted up no hand towards Heaven to ward it off by our Prayers and Supplications to Almighty God to have mercy upon us and in Judgment to remember Mercy and not to shut up his bowels of compassion towards us Such dreadful Surprizes are like to confound Men's understandings and to damp and quell all their Spirits and Courage and to make them like blind and distracted Men that have no power to use the common prudence and strength that God hath endowed them withal Surprisals do betray the succours that
Almighty God that he of his great Goodness and for the sake of our dear Lord and Saviour would be pleased freely to pardon and forgive us our great Wickedness that makes such a great separation and distance between us and our God That we may call for and seek to procure a supernatural Assistance from above to keep us from being born away with such a black Stream and Tide of Wickedness as is now ready to break in upon us That we may all be awakened out of our carnal and vain Security and prepare for such an extraordinary coming of Almighty God among us That every one may make clean his own Door against this signal Approach that no Wickedness which is so loathsom to God may be found thereat That Warning may be given and such a Preparation made do I purpose by God's help to say something upon these words of the Prophet wherein this Warning was to be given to the Jews of the Day of the Lord being at hand to them Blow ye the Trumpet in Zion and sound an Alarm in my holy Mountain Let all the Inhabitants of the Land Tremble for the Day of the Lord cometh for it is nigh at hand In these words we may observe these three Particulars First That the Trumpet was to be blown and an Alarm to be sounded in God's Church and among his People Blow ye the Trumpet in Zion and sound an Alarm in my holy Mountain Secondly That all were to hearken to and regard the sound thereof and to be moved to fear and trembling upon it Let all the Inhabitants of the Land Tremble And Thirdly The Reason of it because a great Visit and Judgment of God upon them was then at hand for the Day of the Lord cometh for it is nigh at hand I purpose to say something to every one of these Particulars but to begin with the last first I. For the Day of the Lord cometh for it is nigh at hand I intend not to trouble my self nor you with any deep Inquiry what Day of the Lord this was which the Prophet here declared to be coming and nigh at hand The Day of the Lord as it is a day and season of Terror and to be prepared for doth signifie several Days and Times 1. The Day of the Lord doth point at the great and final Day of Judgment when our Lord and Saviour shall come in a most glorious manner to judge the whole World and to reward every one according to his works when the Heavens shall be dissolved and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat when the Earth and the Works that are therein shall be burnt up as St. Peter saith 2 Pet. 3.10 And when all sinners that repent not of their wickedness shall be given up to that everlasting Fire that was prepared for the Devil and his Angels Matt. 25.41 This is the most eminent and dreadful Day of the Lord of all 2. The Day of the Lord in the Scriptures doth often respect some Temporal Judgment and Calamity that God doth bring or is bringing upon a Land or Nation for the great sin and wickedness thereof And such doth this Day of the Lord here seem to be 3. The Day of the Lord may be referred to particular Men tho' the Scripture doth not seem often to use the Day of the Lord with respect to single Persons only When God doth send some great Judgment and Calamity upon single Persons it may be looked upon as a Day of the Lord's wrath to them And the day of their Death may well be accounted as such And indeed a terrible day of the wrath of God will it be to them if they be surprised and snatch'd away in their sins without Repentance We may see what a miserable case the Fool in the Parable was in who was snatch'd away in the midst of his Jollity when he was singing Requiems to his Soul and promising himself great joy and happiness to come Luke 12.20 But God said unto him Thou fool this night thy Soul shall be required of thee then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided Like a Dream and a Vapor will all such Worldly confidence and trust leave Men and into this Fool 's Paradise will such be brought The things wherein they trust like the Morning Cloud will soon vanish away and they from their high confidence will drop into the Pit of Destruction We read of the Rich Man Luke 16.22 That he died and was buried and immediately after it follows That in Hell he lift up his eyes being in Torments We may see that the day of Death especially to sinners that die without Repentance may well be looked upon as a day of the Lord and a dreadful one too to them But here the words of the Prophet do seem to respect some temporal and publick Judgment and Calamity of God upon the Jewish Land and Nation and are to be ranked in the second place But what kind of Judgment and Calamity this was which the Prophet here gives this Warning of is not agreed Some do conceive that this day of the Lord here in the Text was a sore and grievous Famine and Calamity brought upon the Jews by Locusts Catterpillers and the like Creatures And some places in this Prophecy of Joel do seem to give testimony this way Joel 1.4 saith the Prophet That which the Palmer-worm hath left hath the Locust eaten and that which the Locust hath left hath the Canker-worm eaten and that which the Canker-worm hath left hath the Catterpiller eaten And v. 18. How do the Beasts groan The Herds of Cattel are perplexed because they have no Pasture And Joel 2.25 And I will restore to you the years that the Locust hath eaten the Canker-worm and the Catterpiller and the Palmer-worm my great Army which I sent among you These and such places do give countenance to this Interpretation that this day of the Lord was a sore judgment of Famine upon the Land of the Jews occasioned by Locusts Catterpillers and such Creatures and that by Famine and other ways they were sorely afflicted by them And we may see in the Book of Exodus chap. 10. That Locusts were one of the great Plagues and Judgments that God sent upon the Egyptians And with a plague of Locusts doth God threaten to scourge his People the Jews if they should revolt and fall from him to Idolatry Deut. 28.38 42. Again some do conceive that this day of the Lord might be some great Destruction and Waste that was to be brought upon them by the Armies of the Assyrians and Chaldeans c. that they were to be plagued and scourged by them And some places in this Prophecy do agree herewith Joel 1.6 For a Nation is come up upon my land strong and without number whose teeth are as the teeth of a lion and he hath the cheek-teeth of a great lion And Joel 2.2 A great people and a strong there hath not been ever the like
no more and the other was kept in Captivity for the space of seventy Years as we may see in the end of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles And as our blessed Lord had told them when they were fallen to great wickedness again That except they repented they should perish as the Galileans did so for want of their repentance and amendment did God send a most heavy Judgment upon them about 38 or 39 Years after our Saviour's Death and the Romans did destroy and root them out of their own Land in the end The Sword of the Enemy without and Famine and Pestilence and intestine Broils within did make most miserable havock of them The Famine was so sharp in Jerusalem that they eat their own Children through extream hunger as Moses long before had told them And the slaughter of the Jews of all sorts that died first and last in the compass of a few Years by Sword Famine and Pestilence was so great that there perished above fourteen hundred Thousand Persons as it is reported By these and the like Examples we may see that God hath often sent very sore and heavy Judgments and Calamities upon the Inhabitants of the World for their great Sin and Rebellion against him And now as for our selves we can plead no exemption from such Judgments of God We have no cause to believe that our Age and our Nation should be free from the Scourges of Divine Providence and the Lashes of God's Rod when others have smarted so sorely under it and been punished in this dreadful manner if we commit Sin and Wickedness as they have done When our sins grow clamorous towards Heaven and ascend up like the Cry of Sodom and call for Judgment upon us we may well expect that God will hear the cry of them and be moved to wrath and come down in vengeance upon us We are to know that our condition is the same with others and that these menaces and threatnings of Judgments and Calamities to others are to be such to us when our sins and transgressions grow great as theirs did and wax ripe for punishment And these Judgments and Plagues that have fallen upon others are to be Warnings to us what we are to expect if we become great transgressors like them as the Apostle sheweth 1 Cor. 10 5-11 Now all these things happened unto them for Examples and they are written for our Admonition upon whom the ends of the World are come And the 2 Pet. 2.6 And if we do but seriously mind how black and dark our Land is grown with all kind of wickedness and how little Light appears in it how bold and daring Sin and Profaneness is grown and what high Affronts and Provocations are offered against Heaven we may well conclude that the righteous God above will not always keep silence but that his patience and forbearance will be tyred out and that he will come in wrath to revenge himself and to still such Clamors and hideous cries that will not let him rest and to ease himself of his Adversaries and to vindicate his Honour and Worship and Dread here among Men. We may see that the unprofitable Husbandmen were to be destroyed and the Vineyard to be let out to such Husbandmen as should render the Fruits thereof Mat. 21.41 And if we observe how little the blessed word of God is regarded how some have not patience enough to hear it and that others lay it but little to heart and let it have but little influence upon their lives to lead them accordingly we may justly fear that God will not suffer his blessed Word to be so slighted and contemned by us but will remove our Candlestick and his blessed Word and Light from us and leave us to grope in the dark a while that we may know the better how to value such a Mercy when we have suffered a while for want of it And if we do not repent but proceed on in wickedness and add new sins to our old ones if besides our former transgressions and provocations we fall to that gross Idolatry which is in the Roman Church which God declares he so much detests and abhors we may well expect that the Beesom of Destruction will sweep us away in the end and that the Sword or some other Instrument of Divine Vengeance will cut us off at the last And what Judgments soever befall us we are to know that the hand of God is therein and that he suffers them to light upon us for our sin and wickedness And that Men may be prepared against such dreadful Judgments of God and not surprized with them that they may repent and provide for their escape and security at such a time is Warning usually given and so we see it is here II. Here we see that Warning was to be given in the Church and among his People that this dreadful Day of the Lord was coming and nigh at hand to them Blow ye the Trumpet in Zion and sound an Alarm in my holy Mountain for the Day of the Lord cometh for it is nigh at hand Here the Prophet useth Metaphorical Expressions alluding to the Camp and Military Affairs as I conceive when he bids the Trumpet to be blown and an Alarm to be sounded The Trumpet indeed was used among the Israelites for other purposes besides Martial Affairs viz. to assemble the Congregation for the worship of God and for Consultations c. But here the Prophet having joined the Alarm with it he seemeth to allude to Martial and Military Affairs when the Trumpet is blown and an Alarm is sounded at the sudden and unexpected approach of an Enemy that they might put themselves into as good a posture of defence as is possible for the reception of them that they might be able to stand valiantly against them and not be overcome by such a sudden Assault and be beaten and routed by them And so here the Prophet sheweth that as the Trumpet is to be blown and a loud Alarm to be founded at the unexpected coming of an Enemy so was Proclamation to be made and Warning to be given at the approach and coming of this dreadful Day of the Lord. And this was to be done in Zion that is in Jerusalem the chief City of the Jews for Zion was a part of this Renowned City and in God's Holy Mountain that is where the Sacred Temple of his Worship stood or rather in the Land of Judea where God's peculiar People dwelt which seems here to me to be called God's Holy Mountain From hence I shall endeavour to shew how God doth usually give Warning to all but especially to such as will hearken to his voice and take Warning when such a Day of Judgment and Tribulation and Destruction is coming upon Men that they may prepare for it and for their own safety and security in it Such is the wonderful Love of God to Mankind that he desires not the death of sinner but is earnest with them