^ Add hereunto, that in this mighty work the Lord Jesus Christ will make use of the power of the nations, the horns of them, that is their strength; Rev. xvii. 16. They must hate the whore, and make her desolate and naked, and eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. Now whether this can be accomplished or no in their present posture, is easily dis- cernable. Doth not the papal interest lie at the bottom of all, or the most ruling lines of Christendom?* Can that be ejected without unbottoming their own dominion ? Do they not use the efficacy of the Roman jurisdiction to balance the powers of their adversaries abroad, and to awe their subjects at home? Hath not the pope a considerable strength in every one of their own bosoms ? Are not the locusts of their religious orders all sworn slaves to him, for number, sufficient to make an army to fight the greatest em- peror in the world ? Are not most potentates tried by oath, or other compact, to maintain either the whole, or some part
"^ Psal. cxxxvii. 8, 9. Isa. xlvii. 7 — 9.
y Jer. li. 25, 26. Rev. xvii. 1 , 2. Zech. ii. 7. Jer. li. 6.
» Judges xvi. 28, 29. a Pctra dedit Petro, Petrus diadema Rodulfo,
36G 1 UK SHAKING AND TR ANSI ATINC-
of the old tower, under the name of rites of holy church, pre- lates, and the like / And can any expect that such as these should take up the despised quarrel of the saints against that flourishing queen ? Doubtless no such fruit will grow on these trees, before they are thoroughly shaken.
(4.) A fourth reason is, that his own people seeing all earthly things shaken, and removing, may be raised up to the laying hold of that durable kingdom that shall not be removed.'' All carnal interests will doubtless be shaken with that of Babylon. Many of God's people are not yet weaned from the things that are seen :"= no sooner is one carnal form shaken out, but they are ready to cleave to another, yea, to warm themselves in the feathered nests of unclean birds. All fleshly dominion within doors, and all civil dominion that opposeth without doors, shall be shaken. Now these things are so glewed also to men's earthly pos- sessions, the talons of the birds of prey having firmly seized on them, that they also must be shaken with them ; and therefore from them also will he have us to be loosed; 2 Pet. iii. 12, 13.
And these are some of the reasons of the position laid down, which is so bottomed, so proved, as you have heard. Of the speedy accomplishment of all this I no way doubt. ' I believe, and therefore I have spoken.' Whether I shall see any farther perfection of this work, whilst I am here be- low, I am no way solicitous; being assured that if I fail of it here, I shall, through the grace of him who loved us, and gave himself for us, meet with the treasures of it otherwhere.
Come we to the uses.
Use 1. The rise of our first use I shall take from that of the prophet: ' Who is wise, and he shall understand these things ? prudent, and he shall know them ? For the ways of the Lord are'right, and the just shall walk in them : but the transgressors shall fall therein ;' Hos. xiv. 9. Labour for this heavenly wisdom and prudence, that we may know these things, and be acquainted with the mind and will of God, in the season and generation wherein we live. His way is not so in the dark, nor his footsteps in the deep, but that we may perceive what he is about.
Luke xii. 54 — 56. our Saviour gives it in as a sure tes-
•> Heb. xii. 28. ' 2 Cor. iv. 18.
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timony of the Pharisees' hypocrisy, notwithstanding all their pretences, and possession of Moses' chair, that they were wise in earthly things, and had drawn out experiences by long observation of what was like to come to pass as to the weather, by considering the ordinary signs of the alterations thereof; but notwithstanding that mighty effectual concur- rence of signs in heaven and earth, with the accomplishment of prophecies, all pointing to the instant establishment of the kingdom of God in the coming of the Messiah, not dis- cerning them at all, they come and cry, ' If thou be the Christ, give us a sign;' when, without satisfying their sinful curiosity, heaven and earth was full of signs round about them. Men, who will not receive God's signs, suppose they should be wonderful proficients in credulity, might they have signs of their own fancying. The rich glutton thought, that if his way of teaching might have been set up, by men rising from the dead, there would have been a world of con- verts, more than were made by preaching the word of God.*^ Men suppose, that if God from heaven should give in some discriminating prodigy, oh, how abundantly should they be satisfied ! The truth is, the same lust and corruption that makes them disbelieve God's signs, moves them to look after signs of their own. For this very thing then were the Pharisees branded as hypocrites, that having wisdom in na- tural things, to calculate and prognosticate from necessary signs ; yet in the works of the Lord, though the signs which in his wisdom he was pleased to give, were plentiful round about them, they must have some of their own choosing. I pray God none such be found in our day.