^ Nunquani Pauli sensum ingredieris, nisi Pauli Spiriluni imbibrris. Ber. Sn-. do ftlonte. To aiiTo ;^giVjWa SiJao-jt£i i)f*Sj ttej; TravTctv. 1 Jolm ii. 27. '£v 7rv£u/(*aTt ayw •jooufxltcn Kai avoiyofXiMcn ai yja<^ai Sexvmwiv hfMV tov XpixTov, eiVstw; ^v^iufoq To jtvtiiua. re ayiov. Tlicophvlac. in John x.
348 THE SHAKING AND TRANSLATING
power, whereby their heavens, or political heights, are sup- ported. It is then neither the material heavens and earth, nor yet Mosaical ordinances ; but the political heights and splendour, the popular multitudes and strength of the nations of the earth, that are thus to be shaken, as shall be proved. That the earth in prophetical descriptions or predictions of things is frequently, yea almost always, taken for the peo- ple and multitudes 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 popular commotions, is no less evident from Rev. xi. 13. 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 es- tablishment. Isa. li. 15, 16. *I am the Lord thy God who divided the sea, whose waves roared : the Lord of hosts is his name. And I have put my words in thy mouth, and 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 art my people.' By a repetition of what 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 mi- raculous preparing dry paths for them in the deep : ' I am the Lord who 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, * my words in thy mouth.'
3dly. Of that favourable and singular 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 foundation of the earth.' What, of these material visible heavens and earth ? Two thousand four|hundred and sixty years before at least
' Psal. Ixviii. 8. Hab. ii. 20. Malt.xxiv. 7. 1 Sam. xiv. '26.
OF HEAVKX AND EARTH. 349
were they planted and established. It is all but making of ' Zion a people/ which before was scattered in distinct fa- milies. 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 firm 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 hosts of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll, and all their hosts shall fall down as the leaf falleth from the vine.' Now these dissolved, rolled heavens are no other but the power and heights of the opposing nations, their govern- ment and tyranny, especially that of Idumea, as both the foregoing and following verses do declare. ' The indigna- tion of the Lord,' saith he, ' is upon the nations, and his fury upon their armies, he hath delivered them to the slaughter, their slain,' &c. Jer. iv. 23 — 25. ' I beheld the earth, and lo, it was without form and void : and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.' Here's heaven and earth shaken, and all in the raising of the political state and com- monwealth 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 will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. And all the bright 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 ruined.
Not to hold you too long upon what is so plain and evi- dent, you may take it for a rule, that in the denunciations of the judgments of God, through all the prophets, heavens, sun, moon, stars, and the like appearing beauties and glories of aspectable heavens, are taken for governments, governors, dominions in political states, as Isa. xiv. 12 — 15. Jer. xv. 9. li. 25."
"• Isa. xiii. 13. Psal. Ixviii. 8. Joel ii. 10. Rev. viii. 12. Matt, xxiv, 29. Luke xxi. 25. Isa. Ix. 20. ObHd. 4. Rev. viii, 13. xi. 12. xx. 11.