This is a second reason, why the Lord Jesus, by his mighty power at the bringing in of his immoveable kingdom, ' will shake the heavens and the earth of the nations ;' even because in their present constitution they are directly framed to the interest of antichrist, which by notable advantages at their first moulding, and continued insinuations ever since, hath so rivetted itself into the very fundamentals of them, that no digging, or mining, with an earthquake, will cast up the foundation stones thereof/ The Lord Jesus then, having promised the service of the nations to his church, will so far open their whole frame to the roots, as to pluck out all the cursed seeds of the mystery of iniquity, which by the craft of Satan, and exigencies of state, or methods of advancing the pride and power of some sons of blood, have been sown amongst them.
(3.) A third reason is, because as is their interest, so is their acting. The present power of the nations stands in di- rect opposition to the bringing in of the kingdom of Christ. Two things there are which confessedly are incumbent on him in this day of his advancement.
[1.] The bringing home of his ancient people to be one fold with the fulness of the Gentiles, raising up the taber- nacle of David, and building it as in days of old, in the ac- complishment of innumerable promises,^ and in answer to millions of prayers, put up at the throne of grace, for this very glory in all generations. Now there be two main hin-
p Rev. xiii. 15, 16. <i riE/tx^st aim? o Sfioq ivs^yuav ttXov));- 2 Thess. ii. 11.
"■ Roma sedes Petri, q\i?c Pastoralis honoris. Facta caput niundo quicquid non possidet armis, Relligione tenet. Prosp. de Ingrat. > John. X. 16. Isa, xxxvii.31, .Tcr.xxx, 9. Ezek xxxiv, 23. xxxvii, 24, 2.7. Hos. iii. 5. Amos ix. 11.
364 THE SHAKING AND TRANSLATING
derances of this work that must be removed. The first whereof is,
1st. Real: the great river Euphrates, the strength and fulness of whose streams doth yet rage so high, that there is no passage for the kings of the east to come over. Wherefore this must be dried up, as other waters were for their fore- fathers in the days of old ; Rev. xvi. 12. 'Doubtless this is spoken in allusion to Abraham's coming over that river into Canaan, when the church of God in his family was there to be erected, whence he was called the Hebrew, that is, the passenger, to wit, over that river. Gen. xiv. 13. and then it may well enough denote the Turkish power, which, proud as it is at this day, possessing in peace all those regions of the east, yet God can quickly make it wither, and be dried up : or the deliverance of the Jews from Babylon, when it was taken and destroyed by the drying up of the streams of that river, and so the yoke of lier tyranny broken from the church's neck," and so it can be no other but the power of the Romish Babylon, supported by the kings of the nations, which must therefore be shaken and dried up.
2dly. Moral, or the idolatry of the Gentile worshippers.'' The Jews stick hard as yet at this, that God should abolish any kind of worship, which himself had once instituted : but that he should ever accept any false worship, which he had once strictly prohibited, and nowhere to this day ap- pointed, to this they will never be reconciled. Now such is all the invented idolatrous worship, which the kings of the earth have sucked in from the cup of fornication held out to them in the hand, and by the authority of the Roman whore; this still they cleave close unto, and will not hearken ' to the angel preaching the everlasting gospel, that men should worship him who made the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters ;' Rev. xiii. 6, 7. that is, the God of heaven in Jesus Christ, in opposition to all their iconolatry, artolatry, hagiolatry, staurolatry, and mass- abominations. This then must also be removed ; and be- cause as you saw before it is so rivetted and cemented into, and with all the orbs of the nations, heaven and earth, they
■ I Exod. xiv. 21,22. Joih.iii. 1.5, 16. Hab. iii. 8. * Jer. 1). 31, 3'J. " Rct. xi. 2.
OF Hi'.AVEiV AND tARTH. 3S5
must be shaken, and brought tig jutrai^tdiv, before it can be effected.
[2.] The second thing he hath to accomplish is the tre- mendous, total destruction of Babylon," the man of sin, and all his adherents, that are not obedient to the heavenly call; Rev. xviii. 4.^ Now as Samson, intending the destruction of the princes, lords, and residue of the Philistines, who were gathered together in their idol temple, effected it by pulling away the pillars whereby the building was supported, whereupon the whole frame toppled to the ground ;^ so the Lord, intending the ruin of that mighty power, whose top seems to reach to heaven, will do it by pulling away the pil- lars and supporters of it, after which it cannot stand one mo- ment. Now what are the pillars of that fatal building? Are they not the powers of the world, as presently stated and framed ? Pull them away, and, alas, what is antichrist? It is the glory of the kings put upon her, that makes men's eyes so dazzle on the Roman harlot. Otherwise she is but like the Egyptian deities, whose silly worshippers through many glorious portals and frontispieces were led to adore the image of an ugly ape.