That the earth, in prophetical descriptions or predictions of things, is frequently, yea, almost always, taken for the people and multi- tudes of the earth, needs not much proving.^ One or two instances shall suffice. Rev. xii. 16, "The earth helped the woman" against the flood of the dragon ; which that it was the multitudes of earthly people none doubts. That an earthquake, or shaking of the earth, are
' " Niiiiquam Pauli sensum inn^redieris, nisi Pauli Spiritum imbiberis." — Ber. Ser.
de !Monte. To ccLto ^oiT/yta ^ilaffxii ifiOii Tio) wavrwv, 1 John ii. 27. 'E» ■7rtivu.tt.Tt ayiM vii!iuf/.ivai koI a.voiyi>f.L%va,i al y^aipu.) ^(iKvvouffiv -hfuv ■rov Xoiittov, ilxiiru; Bupujpos to
^viv/j.a, TO aymv — Theopbylac. in John x.
2 Ps. Ixviii. 8; Hab. ii. 20; Matt. xxiv. 7; 1 Sam. xiv. 25— [lieb.]
254 THE SHAKING AND TRANSLATING
popular commotions, is no less evident from Rev. xi. 1 3, where by an earthquake great Babylon receives a fatal blow. And for the heavens, whether they be the political heights of the nations or the grandeur of potentates, let the Scripture be judge ; I mean, when used in this sense of shaking, or establishment, Isa. li. 15, 16, "I am the LoRD thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared : the Lord of hosts is his name. And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou Qxt my people." By a repetition of Avhat he hath done, he establisheth his people in expectation of what he will do. And, —
1st. He minds them of that wonderful deliverance from an army behind them, and an ocean before them, by his miraculous preparing dry paths for them in the deep : " I am the Lord, that divided the sea, whose waves roared."
2dly. Of his gracious acquainting them with his mind, his law, and ordinances at Horeb. " I have put," saith he, " iny words in thy mouth."
Sdly. Of that favourable and singidar protection afforded them in the wilderness, when they were encompassed with enemies round about: " I covered thee in the shadow of mine hand."
Now, to what end was all this ? Why, saith he, " That I might plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth." What ! of these material, visible heavens and earth? Two thousand four hun- dred and sixty years before, at least, were they planted and established. It is all but [nothing more than] making of " Zion a people," Avhich before was scattered in distinct families. And how is this done? Why, the heavens are planted, or a glorious frame of government and polity is erected amongst them, and the multitudes of their people are disposed into an orderly commonwealth, to be a fimi foundation and bottom for the government amongst them. This is the heavens and earth of the nations which is to be shaken in my text.
Isa. xxxiv. 4, " All the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off fi'om the vine." Now, these dissolved, rolled heavens ai'e no other but the power and heights of the oppos- ing nations, their government and tyranny, especially that of Idumea, as both the foregoing and following verses do declare. " The indig- nation of the Lord," saith he, " is upon the nations, and his fuiy upon all their ai-mies; he hath delivered them to the slaughter, their slain," &c. Jer. iv. 23-25, " I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was with- out fonn and void ; and the heavens, and they had no light. I be- held the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly." Here's heaven and eai-th shaken, and all in the razing of
OF HEAVEN AND EARTH. 255
the political state and commonwealtli of the Jews by the Babylonians, as is at large described in the verses following. Ezek. xxxii. 7, " I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark ; I ynW cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. All the brio-ht lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord GoD." Behold heaven and earth, sun, moon, and stars, all shaken and confounded in the destruction of Egypt, — the thing the prophet treats of, their kingdom and nation being to be nuned.
Not to hold you too long upon what is so plain and evident, you may take it for a rule, that, in the denunciations of the judg-ments of God, through all the prophets, heaven, sun, moon, stars, and the like appearing beauties and glories of the aspectable heavens, are taken for governments, governors, dominions in political states; as Isa. xiv. 12-15; Jer. XV. 9, li. 25.'
Furthermore, to confirm this exposition, St John, in the Revelation, holds constantly to the same manner of expression. Heaven and earth in that book are commonly those which we have described. In particular, this is eminently apparent, chap. vi. 12-15, " And I be- held when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake ; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood ; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth : and the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and eveiy mountain and island were moved out of their places," &c. The destruction and wasting of the Pagan-Romish state, the plagues and commotions of her people, the dethroning her idol-worship, and de- struction of persecuting emperors and captains, with the transition of power and sovereignty from one sort to another, is here held out un- der this grandeur of words,^ being part of the shaking of heaven and earth in my text.