THE SUM OF Two Sermons ON THE WITNESSES, AND THE EARTHQUAKE That Accompanies their Resurrection. Occasioned from a Late EARTHQUAKE, Sept. 8. And Preached on the FAST following, Sept. 14. By W. C. M. A. Minister of the Gospel.  
LONDON, Printed, and are to be Sold by Jonathan Robinson at the Golden Lion in St. Paul's Churchyard. 1692.   

To his very much respected Friends, ANTHONY STEPHENS, Esq; Cashier of the Treasure of the Navy, and his Beloved Consort Mrs. MARGARET STEPHENS.  
SIR,  
NExt to that Devote Society, whose I am, and whose Desire was my Call to publish this Discourse, it became me to pitch on you for a Theophilus, to whom and your Second Self I might Dedicate it; it being the First Fruits of a small Recovery of Health from a dangerous and tedious Sickness, and you being so constant a Friend and comfortable a Visitant under it; Amicus certus in re incertâ cernitur. I hope you will not be offended that I have thus published your Name, you being a public Person for so many Years, and it being the Desire of all good Men that know you, that your Virtues were still in a more public and visible Station. There are but few who have served Three such Kings without real or reputed Blame by one Party or other, in Wisdom, Diligence or Fidelity, as you have done; and long may you live to do so.  
Madam! All things under your Care are in print; and for that Cardinal Virtue of your Sex, Cleanliness and Neatness, you are a Pattern both at London and Epsom. I wish all Gentlewomen would copy out the rest of your Virtues in their Lives also. 1. In making the Pleasures and Diversions of Civil Converse wear the Livery of Religion, recommending their Profession as that which is not only consistent with Cheerfulness and Sociableness, but as that which refines it, and preserves it from Extravagancy and Troublesomeness. 2. In adorning themselves in such a modest and acceptable Dress, that neither runs to the Extreme of the Vanity or Costliness of some, who think their Habit is never fashionable enough, except they become the Pity of Persons wise and grave, and the Scoff and Ridicule of the Vain and Foolish like themselves, and think their Apparel and Furniture never rich enough, except they endanger the Estates and Credits of their Parents or Husbands, and bring them under the Curse of Woman's ruling over them, and children's oppressing them; nor the singular Affectedness of others, who think the most of Religion is wrapped up in Garments, or that a Profession is invisible, if it have not a Badge in their ; and that to be the Duty of a Sect, that themselves think the Sin of an Office. 3. In that Abhorrence of Idleness, not only overseeing your Household Affairs with your own Eye, but giving an Example with your own Hand, and sometimes bearing the heaviest part of the Burden. 4. In the charitable Improvement of a plentiful Allowance, by which they may lay up so sure a Foundation, that no Earthquake can shake, but may establish. 5. In a true and constant Sympathy with the meanest and lovest of Acquaintance and Friends, not forgetting them in Adversity, or slighting them whilst unserviceable.  
The more of Perfection you have both obtained, the more easy the Duty of Progress and Growth will be, and the greater Obligation lies on you for it from him who made the difference. The Foundations of Religion are Living Roots, and they have a Sun to shine upon them that knows neither Night nor Winter.  
That you both may in this, and all other things, prosper, and that this small Offering, and every other Providence may promote it, is, and shall be the Prayers of  
Your Faithful and very much Obliged Friend and Servant, Walter Cross.   
REV. XI. xiii. 
And the same Hour was there a great Earthquake, etc.  
THIS Book of the Revelation is not only Divine, but is a standing Witness to the Divinity of all the rest; it is a Seal to the whole Bible both in Order and Nature, being a Volume of Prophecies methodically digested, concerning the Empire of the World, and the Church of God ander its Dominion, from the End of the Sacred History unto the End of the World, whose daily Fulfilments in the great Revolutions of both, show him alone to be the Author that can show things to come, and foretell what shall happen, Isa. 41.23.  
The Goodness of the Author declares it to be intelligible, and the Faithfulness of him who had Power to open the Book, has in part, and will more particularly put the Key of actual Knowledge in the Hands of Protestants; how else shall the Readers and Hearers obtain the promised Blessing, Rev. 1.3? The times of the end when Knowledge should increase, Dan. 12.4. are come on us, since the ends of the World were come on the Apostles, 1 Cor. 10.11. Shall the Witnesses have Power to shut Heaven, and not unlock this Book? In the time of the Sixth Trumpet the Angel stands with the Little Book open, Rev. 10.2. The Prejudice against the Use of this Book from different Opinions, is an unreasonable Objection, being of no less Force against the whole Body of Divinity, and Method of Salvation by the Gospel, wherein Disputes are neither fewer, nor of less moment.  
This Portion of the Prophecy about the Witnesses, is as much enquired into, and as much agreed about, as any in the whole Book. A Disagreement about 60 or 70 Years in an Aera of nigh 1300 Years Duration, is but a small Difference. We have no Period of Time before Christ's Incarnation of so great a quantity, that is not liable to greater Disputes. And if Prophecy since Christ be as clear as History before his time, the Ground of Complaint from Obscurity is not great.  
The hopeful Nighness of this mystical Earthquake, with which the Witnesses arise, the dreadful portenduousness of this Literal Earthquake we have heard of from America, Italy, Holland, France, and felt in England, and the probability or possibility they may be one, makes me choose this Text.  
These 12 Verses, from the 3d to the 14th, contains an entire Treatise about the Two Witnesses, and doth contain twice two distinct Parts in it, viz. Two Persons, Two Periods, Two States, and Two Consequents of the Persons last Living and Heavenly State.  
First, We have two Persons for our Pattern as well as our Subject. Sackcloth is an Habit becoming a Fast Day, it is an Habit becoming the whole Life of a Protestant or Witness, until the Witnesses are risen. Sackcloth is the Symbol of Prayer and Repentance: an humbled Condition, and humble Heart, and an humble Habit become each other.  
By these Two Witnesses are represented the Universal Church under the Imperial Jurisdiction, (there never were very considerable parts of the Church without the Limits of the Empire) especially from the beginning of the Reformation: For,  
First, These Witnesses must be Persons, Men, they cannot else be Witnesses. Moses and Aaron, Elias and Elisha, Joshua and Zerubbabel were Persons.  
Secondly, Not Individual Persons. 1260 Years are too long an Age for Numericals', they must therefore be a kind or sort of Successions of Men.  
Thirdly, They are a Church, from their Office before God, Prophets; from their Symbols, Olive-Trees, Candlesticks, from the like Couples that conducted and presided in the Church under the Old Testament, Moses and Aaron, Elias, etc. whose Individual Characters are here described by devouring Fire, 2 Kings 1.10. Shutting up of the Bottles in Heaven from Rain, 1 Kings 17.1. Measuring of the Temple, Zech. 2. & 4. Plaguing of Egypt, and turning its Rivers into Blood, from their Interest in Heaven, and at last going to Heaven.  
Fourthly, They are a Church contemporary with, and opposite to the Beast and his Gentilism. 1. By Beast, all over this Book is understood the Roman Empire, under its Eighth and last Form of Government, viz. Ten Sovereignties or Kingdoms, Politically and Ecclesiastically united to Rome. This Beasts Body or Subjects are the Gentiles, for the time of Duration is the same, Rev. 11.2. and 13.5. 2. The Opposites are the same, Rev. 13.6, 7. and 11.2, 7. 3. The Nature is the same, for Popery is an Image of Paganism, Rev. 13.14. 2ly. 42 Months, and 1260 Days are of the same Extent, so they are contemporary and opposite.  
Fifthly, They are a Charch, represented by Two. 1. From the Sufficiency of their Testimony, to have convinced the Gentiles of their Gentilism, and leave them without Excuse if not convinced. 2. From that Famous Division of their Testimony, the Old and New Testament. 3. From the two distinct People that make up the New Testament Church, Jew and Gentile, Eph. 2.14. Two made one in their Testimony, which Division is observed in the Scaled Servants of God, Rev. 7.3. For Ver. 4. One Hundred Forty Four Thousand are Sealed out of the Tribes of Israel, and a greater Number out of all the Kindred's of Gentiles, Ver. 9 These two Bodies of Men are Sealed from the sinful Apostasies that did begin and continue with the Trumpets.  
Sixthly, They are the Representatives of the Church, especially from the beginning of the Reformation. 1. The very Name Protestant proves it: For Protestant's, Witnesses and Martyrs differ only in Language, Latin, English and Greek: The Year 1530, when they who composed and professed the Augustan Confession of Faith, were so solemnly baptised Protestants, than did the former Sealed Servants of God publicly commence Witnesses. 2. The Work of Reformation was carried on by very Famous Two's: Waldus and Bruis, Wickcliff and Pourney, Huss● and Jerome of Pragne, Luther and Melancton, Zuinglius and Occolampadius. 3. Before the beginning of the Reformation they had another Name, and in another Condition, Rev. 7. and 14.1, 2. Sealed Servants of God, without a Temple or Church, scattered as the Seven Thousand in Elijah's Days, and absconded: Here they are in a better Condition, in a Temple, and have got a new Name, Witnesses. 4. All things spoken of in this Paragraph are Occurrences under the time of the Sixth Trumpet, whose whole Period is but an Hour, a Day, a Month, and a Year, that is, 396 Years: For it gins Ch. 9.14. and Ch. 10.6, 7. the Angel stands as in that Period, saying, There was no more Time to come, but what was to be under the Seventh Trumpet: Moreover he gins no other period until his Discourse come to the 14th verse of the 11th Chapter. 5. This Chapter gins with Measuring of the Temple, which is an Emblem of Rebuilding it, Zech. 2.2. to measure Jerusalem, for she shall be Inhabited as Towns without Walls. This was the Work of Joshuah and Zerubbabel the two Olive-trees, Zech. 4. From the certainty of this last Argument, Marckius, a late and large Writer on this Book, draws a most Melancholy Conclusion; viz. That 1260 years are to begin from the Reformation: But the Answer is easy, and the Cause evident, why the Spirit of God mentions so particularly this period here, not to give a Character of their Beginning, but to give a Reason, why the Outward Court, and the Holy City were not Measured as well as the Temple; (i. e.) Why the Reformation was confined to so narrow Bounds, and did not extend itself as far as the Name and Profession of Christianity; viz. Because the Gentile or Beasts Period of 42 Months was not yet ended. The Lease that God had given them was not out, nor the season of sincere Saints Sufferings, tho' they might be full of Expectation from what they should see at that Great Revolution. Hence the Protestants are the Witnesses.  
The Second Two are two Periods, a Greater of 1260, and a Lesser of 3 Years and a half: These two cannot be of equal Extent. For, First, There is no Parallel to explain it by after that Calculation in Scripture, viz. Days for Years, and then the Days of these Years for Years again; nor could Reason ever satisfy herself about Rules for explaining Mystical Numbers at that rate. Secondly, The Two States of Death and Prophesying, which are the Contents of the two Periods, are opposite. Thirdly, The one gins when the other is about to end. Ver. 7. And when they shall have finished, or when they are about to finish: For the Subjunctive Mood in Greek has no other Future Tense than the Aaorist.  
The first Great Period has a most visible Mark to know its beginning from; viz. The Eighth kind of Government in the Roman Empire, Rev. 17.10, 11. But lest only Historians should know that, the form of that last kind is described by its being divided into Ten several Kingdoms, Rev. 17.12. And the Ten Horns which thou sawest are the Ten Kings which have received no Kingdom as yet, but receive Power as Kings one Hour with the Beast. Likewise in the 13 Chap. at his first arising he has Ten Horns and Ten Crowns, from which Birth he is to continue 42 Months, and this very Beast it is, Chap. 11.7. and 13.7. both from his Original and his Enmity to the Saints, that is contemporary with and opposite to the Witnesses; now this Form of Goverament was fairly visible between 450 and 460, and consequently ends between 1710 and 1720. But there is some ground of hope that the Resurrection of the Witnesses may be sooner: First, Because it is not positively said, that these three years and a half shall be the last three, but about it. Secondly, The Beast is alive after the Witnesses are risen, for the third Woe that then commences is inflicted on him. Thirdly, The Witnesses period seems to begin from their being Sealed at the beginning of the Trumpets, Rev. 7. and their entering into the Wilderness, Rev. 12.6. both which are before the Beasts rise.  
The second Little Period is little for Time, but greatest for Concern of any mentioned in Sacred or Civil Writ, excepting the three Days and half of our Lord's Death and Sufferings. There has been no Notable Persecution since the Reformation, but some Writer or other has referred this time to; and no great wonder, since there are no other limits to it but indefinitely about the end of the great Period, and no other Comment than the Aspect of the Divine Providence, which affords us several Arguments to judge it present at this Day.  
1. From the Universality of the Suffering of Protestants who are under the Roman Beasts Jurisdiction: Some killed, some fled, some Apostatised, some Absconded; the Authority of some whole Nations and Provinces brought under in acknowledgement to the Papal Power, and Profession of its Religion; all this is visible in the Savoy and French Persecution, in the prevailing of Popery in Poland and Hungary, in a Popish Person being made Prince Palatine, and another was King of Britain and Ireland; through all the Streets of this great City Babylon, according to the degree of her Power has Persecution been meted out to Protestants.  
2. From the Bitterness and the grievousness of the Persecution; Daniel says it shall be such a time of Trouble as never was since there was a Nation. The Text represents it under the Emblem of Dead Carcases lying in the Street; and in the 14th Chap. 13th Verse, Death is said to be a State preferable to it. It is not a State of Universal Temporal Death, for Faith and Patience remains their Duty, neither is a Resurrection so suddenly supposeable from that kind of Death; nor could the Enemies bear the sight of so many Carcases so long; but an Universal Temporal Death of the Witnesses being excepted, no bitterer Persecution can be expected than has been of late; some in England and Scotland, where only Drops of that Shower fell, begged no greater Mercy at their Enemy's Hands than the tolerable Death of a Malefactor, but the Torments and Temptations of the Sufferers in France has filled Volumes, and may more.  
3. From the apparent Death both upon the Cause and Hearts of Protestants: some years ago they could taste an Earnest of that Prophecy of smiting the Earth with Plagues as often as they will, but now they can work no Deliverance in the Earth: formerly a Harmony of Confessions was an easy and pleasant work, but now there is Breach upon Breach; formerly there was a Spirit of Life in all kinds of Worship, but now Deadness and Formality are Epidemical Distempers; but when the Witnesses rise, a Spirit of Life from God will enter into them, and they shall be called up to Heaven.  
4. The present Confederate Armies seems to be a Comment on that mixture of Tongues, Kindred's and Professions, ver. 9 that will not suffer these Dead to be Buried, nor Public Affairs to lie in this prostrate Condition under these Papal Feet and Toes; a Person Dead and Unburied in the Eastern Mystical Style, to which this Book is very Conform, is a Symbol of a low and sickly, but yet hopeful and recoverable Condition.  
5. From the apparent Decay of the Turkish Empire, the sixth Trumpet and second Woe are evidently the same, and it's generally agreed they do both represent the Turks Invasion of the Eastern Empire; the Thirteenth Hundred Year of our Lord gins the Ottoman Aera, and their Successful Invasion of the Roman Territories. There is but then wanting four or five years to the passing away of the second Woe; for the whole Period of the sixth Trumpet is but an Hour, and a Day, and a Month, and a Year, that is Three Hundred Ninety six years, and the passing away of this Woe, for 14. is immediately consequential to the rising of the Witnesses. I do not enlarge upon periods of Time: 1. Being not useful in Popular Sermons. 2. Because a Piece of great Pains is to be Published on them quickly.  
The third Two are two States, the State of the Witnesses before Death, and after the Resurrection Christ's Witnesses appear in this state like Joshua in filthy Garments, but in the future with a fair Mitre on his Head, and change of Raiment, Zech. 3. They are here in Dust and Ashes, hereafter in Heaven and Paradise; here in Sackcloth, there in Glory. This Two admits of a subdivision into Four. 1. The state of Sackcloth. 2. The state of Death. 3. The state of Resurrection to Life. The 4. Of Ascension to Heaven: All which I shall only explain by some Doctrinal Propositions.  
The First state is contained in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth Verses; from which I observe,  
1. V 3 That what we obtain through the most visible influence of second Causes, is yet God's Gift: Industry and Diligence are most necessary means of Knowledge and Utterance, yet to Prophesy he gives Power.  
2. God doth not only foreknow but determine the Times of every State. For 1260 years the terrible Beast with his Ten Horns, Blasphemous Mouth, and Train of Gentiles, cannot stop their Mouth from Prophesying, nor can they or all their Friends, or their Interest in Heaven, change their Raiment, they shall Prophesy 1260 years, and they shall Prophesy in Sackcloth. Acts 17.26. He hath determined the Times before appointed.  
3. Prodigality in Protestants before the Resurrection, is an Heinous Crime. 1. It is an attempt against Providence; God says ye shall not get out of a Sackcloth condition, but you will try it, if by any means Money can be had, therefore God loses the Beasts Chain to Rob them of it; as a Priest told a French Lady, This Persecution is to Humble your Pride, but the next Judgement will utterly ruin Us. 2. It is a shameless Breach of Divine Precept, 1 Tim. 2.9. Modesty and Cheapness are the two measures for Furniture and Apparel. 3. It is out of Fashion, Unseasonable. There are two Rules to know what is seasonable by, the one from Heaven, who makes all things Beautiful in their Season, and appoints the Bride's Ornaments, and the Sufferers Sackcloth, the Times to mourn, and to rejoice. The other from Hell, Eph. 2.2. that is, to follow the Course of the World, and be like my Neighbours. Now the time of the World's Rejoicing and Feasting is the time of the Saints Death and Suffering, ver. 8, 9 And è contra, the Saints take their Fashion and Figure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from Gods Providential dealing with them. When our Husband puts a Bill of Divorce in our Hands, and our Father threatens to disinherit us. When the Spirit of the Lord has forsaken our Assemblies, and the Ministration of the Gospel become a Savour of Death, shall we be pleasant and merry, and put on fine Attire, when Antichrist prevails, and the Interest of our Lord seems to lose ground? Isa. 5.12. and 22.12. When the Lord calls to weeping and girding with Sackcloth, shall we not regard the operation of his Hands?  
4. It is unsuitable to our Brethren in a Day of Affliction: God leaves some rich, to relieve them that are poor: 1 Tim. 6.17. And to be rich in good Works: But how many, as the rich Corinthians, 1 Cor. 11.2. rather shame them that have not, than relieve them. The Pomp and Splendour of some Men in their Stately Palaces, vast Revenues, Epicurean Tables, Lordly Trains and Attendants, without remembering Joseph's Afflictions, is too sad a Witness against their Protestantship.  
Prop. 4. V 4 Though Grace and Gifts too are Supernatural, yet when engrafted, they become a Second Nature. The Church is not like the Candle, but the Candlestick, that neither has Light nor Aptitude to be turned into a Flame; yet when the Light is added, she becomes like the Olive-Tree with a native Fatness, Rom. 11.17. Christ is the Root of the Olive-tree, the Church is a wild Branch engrafted. Hear her own Confession, Hos. 14.8. I am like the green Fir-tree, fruitless by Nature: But Christ answers, From me is thy Fruit sound.  
Prop. 5. V 5 A Penal Prodigy usually kills the Persecutors of Protestants; they die not the usual Death of Men, but by prodigious Punishment. Monstra Poenarum: God by a Visible Hand writes Mene Tekel on their dying Carcases. 1. If any Man hurt, great or small. If he 2. Will, when the Power is restrained, if the Enmity remain. 3. Killed, Violence shall be visible. 4. There is a Necessity of it, He must. All Necessity of it with God is only a Decency, Heb. 2. It became him to make the Captain of our Salvation a complete Sufferer. 5. After this manner, as Elijah did the Captains with their Fifties, 2 Kings 1. And as the Earth opened and devoured Corah, Dathan and Abiram, Numb. 16.30. so an Earthquake, ver. 13. shall devour them. Instances of this are many. Charles the V the first Persecutor after the Solemn assuming that Name, died like Dioclesian. Philip the II. of Spain, the next great Pushing Horn, set up the Inquisition, for●…d the Armado, made it his Business to root out the Reformation, was made a remarkable Spectacle of Divine Displeasure: He was tormented two Years with Anguish and Pain in his Bowels, and the no less loathsome and stinking Disease of Vermin crawling on him and from him, than painful. His Country remains a Monument of the Divine Stroke in its Weakness unto this Day. Some complain of the want of an Historia Nemeseos, a well-attested Account how evil has hunted the violent man to overthrow him, Psal. 140.11. But it's sure there is no want of matter for such a History; for fewer Ringleaders of Persecution have escaped, than those who have suffered, and might deservedly be Chronicled in Tabulis Parcarum. But there is a greater Difficulty to find certain Rules of Distinction between such Judiciary Punishments and Common Evils. I shall give a few. 1st. When the Punishment is a Pourtraicture of the Sin, as Absalom's Incest was of David's Adultery; and as the Dogs licking Jezabel's Blood, was of her causing Naboth's Blood to be shed, and licked by Dogs. Isa. 33.1. When thou shalt cease to spoil thou shalt be spoiled. When a Person triumphs over another's Distress, and is smitten with the same, than the Judgement carries the Signature of the Sin, and the Rod hath an audible Voice. 2ly. When Judgements surprises the Sinner in the Act, as it did Herod and Nabuchadnezzar, Dan. 4.31. Acts 12.23. God executes Sentence against an evil Work speedily, for Patterns to prevent others, Eccles. 8.11. 3ly. When the Crimes are such, as God hath not only threatened Death against, but Judiciary Death, 1 Tim. 5.4. Some men's Sins are open before hand, going before to Judgement: Such an one is Persecution, especially in them who take no warning from other Men's Falls, Psal. 10.5. His ways are always grievous, thy Judgements are out of his sight. Jer. 2.3. All that devour him shall offend, for mine Eyes are upon him, saith the Lord. 4ly. All National or Universal Judgements; though little in degree, they are Penal Signs of his Displeasure; such as Famine, Sword and Plague. 5ly. When Scripture has foretold the Judgement, as here in the Text, the Prophecy and Fulfilment make two sufficient Witnesses. 6ly. So doth the Person and the Judgement, Job 34.26. He striketh them as wicked Men in the open sight of others, Luke 13.1. 7ly. When many of a Company, as Four or Five of Twelve or Twenty that have been Social Assistants of a Murder. 8ly. When the Sin lies in the Mean, and the Punishment in the End: Unjust Means for Honour or Riches cursed with Poverty and Contempt.  
Prop. V 6 The Prayers of true Protestants are of great Interest in Heaven: By no other mean did Moses and Elias work the Miracles referred to in the Text; and no less Influence has the Prayers of Saints to the Plagues Symbolised by them, though Second Causes are more visible in producing the former Effects. The Fire, Thundering and Lightning that brought forth the Trumpets, came out of the same Censer from which the Saints Prayers did ascend, Rev. 8.5. So all the shutting up of Blessings from Heaven, and turning the Benefits upon Earth into Curses; yea, all the Plagues that fall on Babylon, comes from their Prayers. The Second State is that of their Death, contained in other Four Verses, 7, 8, 9, 10, which I shall sum up in Five Propositions.  
Prop. 1. V 7 The seeming hard and Hieroglyphic Terms of Scripture this Book contains, are of as fixed and determined a Sense as any other Words or Terms in all the Scripture. There is a fair Instance of this in the termed Beast, which is the Subject of this Verse, and a considerable part of the whole Book, which every where signifies the Roman Empire under its last Form of Government, viz. As it is divided in Ten several Kingdoms: For, 1. That the Four first Beasts in Daniel signify the Four Monarchies and the Fourth Beast, the Roman Empire is an undoubted Axiom. 2. That the Beast in the Revelation is the same with Daniel's Fourth, is sufficiently evident. First, The Time and Duration is the same, Times, Time, and Half a Time. Secondly, From the End thereof at the Beginning of Christ's Kingdom. Thirdly, From the Form thereof, 10 Horns or Dominions, to no other Kingdom in the the World can these three Characters agree. 3ly, The constant Form under which this Book considers the Beast as it's formal Object, is Ten Horns, Rev. 17.11, 13. and 13.1.  
Prop. 2. There is necessarily supposed some great Defection and Backsliding of the Protestants or Witesses, after their begun public Testimony before their Death. For, 1. Sin must always go before Punishment: Though this Death is brought for other Ends than mere punishing, yet there is no place for Punishment where Sin does not precede. 2. Their great Interest in Heaven for plaguing the Earth as often as they will, is supposed lost, when they fall in War before their Enemies. 3. The Threatening or Warning given in the 9th and 10th Verses of the 14th Chapter, implies a Danger of Apostasy. Hence the very Nature of the Sin is pointed at, viz. A returning to Babylon, and re-conforming to her in Doctrine, Worship, Discipline, Frame of Spirit, Life and Conversation, with Politic Interest and Ends, which some think make the Number of the Beast's Name, that is, have another Name, but may be numbered under that.  
Prop. 3. A providential Work of Reformation meets with many Rubs and Difficulties in the way: when the Cause of Truth and Godliness does thrive and prosper apace, of a sudden it is often blasted, some surprising adverse Wind arises in its Face. The Children of Israel must take many a backward turn in the Wilderness after they are come to the Borders of Canaan; and the People of Israel are longer in building the Second Temple than they were in Captivity: So here the Witnesses after their great Interest in Heaven, and prosperous Fightings with their Adversaries, are suddenly conquered, and killed, and thrown in the open Streets. The first preaching of the Gospel met with no greater Opposition than the Reformation has done. If we consider the Power of the Spanish Emperor, the Author of the sad Overthrow of the Protestant Patriots, the Duke of Saxony, and the Landgrave of Hesse, etc. the Authority of a Council, viz. Trent, a subtle Dividing Interim, a horrid and cruel Inquisition, a bloody French Massacre, the Succession of a Popish Queen Mary in the room of a Protestant King, a formidable Catholic League to root out Protestants, a Division among the Ministers of the Reformation, and a Party arising with that Name, that were a Scandal and Reproach to the whole; and another Party Apostatising, and saying, Let us return to Egypt again.  
Prop. 4. That the time of the War, and being Killed, is Extrinsic and antecedent to the Three Days and a Half, and therefore might justly have all the Sufferings and Persecutions of Protestants referred to it.  
Prop. 5. The State of our Lord's Humiliatson and Suffering is an exact Pattern of this Death-state of the Witnesses, where also our Lord was Crucify'd: 1. In his preaching, or bearing Testimony to the Gospel for three years and a half, i. e. 1260 Days. 2. At finishing his Testimony he drinks a most bitter Cup. 3. He is killed, and lies dead three days and a half. 4. There is a kind of utter Death upon his Gospel, or Testimony during that time. 5. This was done under the Romish Jurisdiction, by the same Bestial Power, and in the same Babylonian Streets. 6. The King of France did kill the Protestants from the very same Motive and Spring that the Pharisees did persecute Christ, viz. A Jealousy and Fear of being suspected, as defecting and declining from the Romish Power. 7. There are some unexpected Friends, a Joseph of Arimathea to take Care of his Body, as here a mixed Multitude does of the Witnesses: The one to afford Decent, the other to prevent Undecent Burial. Lastly, There are his Enemies, who cried, Crucify him, Crucify him; rejoicing and triumphing over his Death at the Passover; as here the Men of the Earth do, who had seized the Estates of the Dead Witnesses.  
The Two last States of Resurrection and Ascension are contained in two Verses, viz. 11, 12. From which observe, First, That the Scheme is quite altered. For, 1. They are before Dead, now Alive. 2. Before deserted of the Spirit of God, now they enjoy it. 3. Before they lie fallen, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, now they are on their Feet. 4. Before their Enemies rejoiced and triumphed over them, now they are afraid of them. 5. Before they are as low as the Dust in the Streets, now they ascend to Heaven. 6. Before they are contemned as unworthy of Toleration, now they are in highest Power and Authority. 7. Before they tremble before their Adversaries, now the Men of the Earth quake before them. 8 Before their Enemies slay them, now their Enemies are slain, or give Glory to God with them.  
Prop. 2. There is a Likeness to Christ in their Exaltation, as was in their Humiliation. 1. In a Resurrection to Life. 2. In an Ascension to Heaven in a Cloud. 3. In a terrible attending Earthquake. 4. In a plentiful Effusion of the Spirit of Life from God. 5. In a constituted Church of Jew and Gentile; but with this difference, before the Gentile was engrafted upon the Jewish Stock, now the Jew is added to the Gentile, Rom. 11.15. Rev. 16.12. 6. In a Fall of Gentilifm, or the Roman Power in Religion before their Testimony.  
iv The last two general Heads, are the two Consequents contained in the 13th and 14th Verses, viz. the Earthquake and the third Woe. 1. For the Earthquake, it is confequential in Order of Position, but concomitant as to the time. For the Text saith, In the same Hour: Or as other Copies, In the same Da●. But Grotius and Mead judge it to be an antecedent translating, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, There had been a great Earthquake, that is, a great Military or Civil Commotion and Justling between the Beast and the mixed Multitude, who would not suffer them to be put in Graves, which became a Mean of their Restauration. The rest of the Verse favours this Sense, which is set down as a threefold Effect of this Earthquake. 1. A Tenth part, that is, one Kingdom fallen off from the Romish Power to the Reformed Religion. 2. A Slaughter of Seven Thousand Names of Men, or Men of Names, Persons, or Persons in Dignity and Office. 3. The Conviction or Conversion of all the rest of that Nation from Idolatry to the Worship of God alone.  
It is to the Earthquake that I shall confine the following Discourse, though I doubt not it is to be understood mystically, 
2d S●rn  for a Military or Civil one, an Ecclesiastical or Spiritual one; but there is probability to include a literal one also, as a prodromical Omen or Monitory Symbol of the former: For a Literal one did accompany Christ's Resurrection, which is the Pattern of this. 2. It is an usual Method of Divine Providence to send such Similary Prodigies before the Fulfilment of Prophecies, whose Terms are borrowed from them. For Instance, The first Trumpet is said to bring Hail and Fire mingled with Blood, which is commonly judged to be fulfilled under Julian and Valence, Anno Christi 364. of whom Nazianzen speaks thus, Valens insurrexit repentè nebula grandine plena: A Cloud full of Hail, as much a Hater as a Worshipper of Christ: In Persecution next to Julian; not an Apostate, but yet no better Christian. A Shower of Hail fell in his Reign, whose Drops a Man's Hand could hardly Grasp; that not only killed Men, but Beasts; and he himself shed as much Blood of true Christians, being a bitter persecuting Arrian, as might have been mingled with it: Neither was there wanting Fire by Thunder, and Lightning, and Earthquakes in the very Letter: For Nice, where the first Council sat, that pretended an Infallible Authority, was utterly overthrown by one, and Ten Cities in Crete more, many Cities in Sicily; Land and Sea changed their Stations, Ships carried to Mountains, and Mountains dashed against each other. 2. The Second Trumpet mentions a great Mountain burning with Fire, which some apply to the breaking forth of Vesuvius, which made most dreadful Havoc in Italy: But if they mean it's first Eruption, that was sooner, in Titus' time. 3. Hophmannes' expounding the Locusts to be the Jesuits, who received their Universal Diploma from the Pope, 1543. says, They had Swarms of Locusts for their Forerunners through Germany, Italy, Poland and Hungary, and left a double Plague behind them of Jesuit and Famine.  
The Text thus explained, affords these Four Doctrines. 1. That Earthquakes are both signal and penal Prodigies. There was a great Earthquake, and the 10th part of the City fell. 2. Sinners Penalties are Saints Praemiums; the Punishment of the one is accompanied with Reward to the others; nay, there is Goodness to both: For though they suffer, their course of Sinning is stopped, which is the worst Evil of the two. God destroys not for Destruction sake; he lets not carelessly his Creatures fall out of his careful Hand; but the greater Good is to the Saint, who enjoys both Deliverance, and serving his God without Fear; and most Glory to God, who manifests his Holiness by such angry Stamps of his Foot, such visible Threaten. This Earthquake shakes Antichrist's Foundation, and by it the Graves of the Dead Witnesses are opened, and many Antichristians turned Glorifyers of God. 3. There is reason to expect signal Earthquakes, though we dare not assert, that this which is come, is one of them we expect, until we see more of the Event. There are three great Earthquakes yet to come. 1. This in the Text at the Resurrection of the Witnesses. 2. One at the opening of the Temple, ver. 19.3. The greatest of all under the 7th Vial, at the Day of Judgement, Rev. 16. The First of these is very nigh; for the Prophecy of the Reformation before this Earthquake, is set down in Seven several Steps; and we can read in History, or see in Providence, six of them fulfilled. 1. A Public Church built by the Measures of Sacred Scripture, ver. 1. a public Testimony for Christ, and a Prophesying. 2 Churches and Ministers filled with Grace and Gifts, like Candlesticks and Olive-Trees. Read Melchior Adamus, Clark's Lives, and other Accounts of our Famous D vines. 3. A most wonderful and successful spreading of the Gospel, notwithstanding all Opposition. Satan was as busy as ever; the Pope and Emperor had neither less Force and Power, nor less Subtlety and Enmity; nor did they use less Diligence than the Pagan Emperors and Pharisaical Jews, did against the Preaching of the Gospel at first. It seems no less a Miracle to see Reformed Churches now, than Christian Churches then: Their Arms were no other but approving themselves to Men's Consciences by manifestation of the Truth. What Arms had Luther and Melancton, or Wickliff or H●sse? A coming out of Babylon needs Divine Power, as well as coming out of Egypt. In the very next Parish where I was born, 500 were converted at once. Several of themselves have given me an Account of it. There was Power to smite the Earth. 4. Remarkable Judgements, that had a Visible Finger of God in them, destroying the Adversaries of the Gospel, and Persecutors of its Witnesses, as we may read in Three King Henries of France, and most of the Ringleaders of the French and Irish Massacres, and netherlands Persecutions; besides Instances at home.  
V A great Decay in Religion, Conviction and Conversion more rare than formerly: Ministers go forth to their Work as Samson, when his Hair was cut; Prayer less powerful, and less delighted in; strictness in Holiness, and Conscientiousness, out of Fashion; Christian Conferences forgotten, Popish Doctrines and Formal Superstition thought more tolerable: There is a great Degeneracy and backsliding from the Steps of our Fathers. Pride, Luxury, Vanity and Formality prevail too much.  
VI Hence the Beast has prevailed in War; God has been chastizing us with inward Desertion, Leanness to our Souls, Sackcloth on our Loins; though we endeavour to cover our Shame with outward Fig-leaves, and outward Providential withdrawing from protecting and prospering us formerly. Our Glory is gone, our Ark taken, our Arm feeble against the Philistines.  
VII. There remains then but one Step more to the Earthquake; and we hope also that the three days and an half is nigh an end.  
Fourthly, The most terrible Judgements, even Earthquakes, have glorious issues: The rest give Glory to God.  
I shall only discourse on the first Doctrine under these Three Heads. 1. In Explication of the Nature of an Earthquake, and of a Prodigy. 2. In proving that an Earthquake is a Prodigy. 3. In Improvement of it, according to our old customary Method of preaching.  
The First Head has two Members to be spoken to apart. The Nature of the Earthquake: And the Nature of a Prodigy.  
The First whereof is the Nature of an Earthquake, which I sinned as well explained in 2 Sam. 22.8. and Psal. 18.8. as in either new or late Philosophers: Then the Earth shook and trembled, the Foundations of Heaven moved and shook, because he was wroth: there went up a Smoke out of his Nostrils, and sire out of his mouth devoured, Goals were kindled by it. In which Description there is, First, It's Protcus, or manifold Form and Appearance. 1. It shook 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 twice. Greek, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, either by a vibration or trembling, or an obliqne declining, which, Seneca says, of all others is most dangerous: For if the Inclination should continue one Minute, all Hills, Mountains, Cities, Castles, must necessarily be tumbled down: And such was that with us without any Overthrow, by reason of the sudden recovery from the Inclination. Philosophers call them Epiclintas and Brastas, etc. Secondly, And trembled. Th●…●ord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a Bellowing or a Noise; and Bruit, as it is translated sometimes. These are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, A roaring and bell●…g of Wind under ground, it's Passage being straight and various●… 〈◊〉 Thirdly, Moved, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or removed from one place to another, as the Hill in Queen Elizabeth's time here in England. So Josephus gives an Account of another next to Jerusalem, removed into another place. And Amberbachius tells of another in Helvetia, 1561. Or divides chasmatically the Earth, as when it swallowed up Corah, etc. Numb. 16.31. And a greater shall be at the Great Day, Zach. 14.4. when the Mount of Olives shall cleave● towards East and West.  
Secondly, The Subject of this Concussion and Commotion, the Earth, called also the Foundation of the Heavens, it appearing to us the Centre of the whole Heavens; every thing tending to the Centre of it, or from it, according to their Weight or Levity: And some say, it is not only the Pillar and Atlas of the Heavens by its Solidity, but the furnished Table and Store house whence all its Luminaries are nourished. God lays the Beams of his Chambers in the Water; this renders it so wonderful, that the solid Earth, whose Foundations God lays, that it should not be removed for ever, Psal. 104. should shake and tremble. It is the Weight of Sin doth it. God would never have altered, or suffered to be altered, any of his Foundations to the worse, if Man had not altered his Allegiance. That a most solid Body, 7000 Miles thick, should be shaken like a Rod, and shattered like a tottering Fence, is a prodigious Work of God.  
Thirdly, There is the supreme and principal Cause, GOD, he was angry, his Nostrils, his Mouth, (the very Pagans own this) who ascribed sometimes to one God, sometimes to another. Hence Neptune is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, when they think the Water is the Mean of it. They who ascribe it to the Fire, call all second Causes Vuldan's Tools.  
Ferrum exercebant vasto Cyalopes in Antro  
Brontesque Steropesque & nudils membra Pyrachmon:  
They who ascribe it to the Wind, call Aeolus its Author.  Aeolus hic Clauso ventorum carcere regnat. 
It is a great Argument against Seneca's Christianity, and true Piety too, that discoursing of Earthquakes, he says, Illud quoque proderit presumere animo nihil horum Deos facere nec ira numinum, aut Coelum aut Terram concuti: It will be our certain Advantage to take it for granted, that God is neither Author of Thunder nor Earthquakes. But we have a more sure Word of Prophecy, that saith, God is he who removeth the Mountains and they know not; who overturneth them in his Anger, who shaketh the Earth out of her place, and the Pillans thereof tremble, Job. 9.6. Also Nahum. 1.5. The Mountains quake at him, and the Hills melt, and the Rocks are thrown down by him. So Psal. 97.3. etc. Reason also assents, and says Amen to Scripture. 1. From it's own Weariedness in the greatest Philosphers, in its searching after another Cause. The usual Return is, Non est inventus. We do not know, after all Seneca's great Search in his Old Age, and second Attempt upon the Earthquake in Campania. He brings forth Six May Be's at a Breath. 2. From the greatness of the Effect? A moving of that which has the whole Heavens pressing it down, and 3000 Miles of Foundation solid as Marble to support it; and the greatness of God's Concern in the various Effects of its 3. From the Irregularness as to Time, Place, Manner or Mean. We must either put it under the Conduct of Divine Wisdom, or set up Fortune or Chance for another God.  
A gradual Preparation of the very Entrails of the Earth for the Conflagration of the Earth at the great Day, does not prove the Orderliness of the Progress: For when the Caverns are widened by Earthquake, it's done violently and not gradually. So when burning Mountains, Sulphureous Lakes, Oleous Springs take their Rise, it is not by little and little, but a powerful Violence. 4. It is such an immediate and extraordinary Judgement or Mercy, that Reason presently attributes it to the Sovereign Distributer of Rewards and Punishments. Hence he sets forth himself in his Word as an immediate Disposer of all those Meteors, wherein the Comfort or Ruin of our Life very immediately does consist. He is the Father of the Rain, and he begets the Drops of Dew: The Clouds are his Bottles, at his Voice they are open: He has Treasures for Snow and Hail; he parts the Light, and scatters the Wind, Job 38. Psal. 147. He has his Coals and Furnaces in the Earth, Psal. 18.8.  
3ly. The Means by which he does it, Smoak, Fire and Coals. If according to our new Philosophers, Scripture speaks in things Natural, according to the commonly received Opinion of that Time it was wrote in, they lose the Honour of New Invention; who say the Cause is an Exhalation, or a Wind in some Cavern of the Earth, penned up and rarified by the heat of some Sulphureous or combustible matter kindled by accidental Motion, which they illustrate by their Copper Globe, for this is very Old Philosophy.  
But no doubt the Second Causes or Means are as various as the Forms or Effects, though the Variety of the one does not always flow from the Variety of the other. 1. Some [as Thales] think the Earth a great Ship sailing in a vast unknown Ocean, either meeting with a cross Wave, is disturbed in its easy Motion, or by its Weight so presses down the Water, that it pierceth through its Chinks and Crevices, and disturbs the Burden or Loading of the Vessel; yea, breaks forth into great Rivers from the very tops of Mountains. 2. Others impute it only to that last Branch, viz. The Rivers and Lakes within the Body of the Earth, from whence our Rivers above Ground rise. These Rivers sometimes leaving their  Channel, or over-swelled with Water, break down their Banks, which produces a Motion in the Earth above them. 3. Some Copernicans, and others also, think the Earth a great Animal, and that an Earthquake is a Fever, or a Fit of Vapours by which it is distempered, which may be allowed metaphorically, Rom. 8.22. The whole Creation roaneth and travaileth in pain waiting for the Manifestation of the Sons of God. So it is like a Pang of a Travailing Woman, in order to the Birth of a New Earth, 2 Pet. 3.4. Straton and his Followers call it a Fight between Cold and Heat. Hence they are frequent in Spring and Autumn, at which time these Particles pass by one another on the outward Crust of the Earth. 5. Very many call it a Wind penned up. And Histories record Wind to have blown out of its Eruptions and Gulfs that it has made for several Days, as it did at Chalcis, according to Seneca out of Asclepeadotus, and also at Herculea in Pontus. Moreover, great Winds are frequent after, though we know not their Passage, and a Calmness usually precedes them: Which is a very plausible Account, adding Heat to rarify the Vapour: Psal. 135.7. He causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the Earth, he maketh Lightnings for the Rain, he bringeth the Wind out of his Treasuries. And this he doth in the Seas, and all deep places, Job 38.24. By what way is the Light parted which scattereth the East Wind upon the Earth. 6. Some impute it to Old Age, 
Terra superna tremit magnis concussa rui nis  
Subter ubî ingentes speluncas subruit Aetas.  As in old Buildings, when there is more Weight above than Strength in the Pillars below, occasions either a rebounding Fall from some Rock, or some surrounding trembling from a Lake. 7. Some to a great Mass of Chemical Spirits fettered in some mashy matter like the Distillers' Tunn, or in some close Cave where the Pores are too narrow for the Particles. 8. Vanhelmont refers it to an Eccentration of the Earth; but then all Earthquakes should be universal, which is both contrary to Scripture and Experience.  
The Effect is solvable by most of these as Means, by none as total Cause, especially universal ones. For if the Caverns be but half a Mile or a Mile deep, an Earthquake of an Hundred Miles is impossible without vast Eruptions. 2. The removing of Mountains leisurely for two or three Miles space. The contemplative Poieret says, the Study of Natural Causes, without their relations to to their Creator, 1st. As their Author, 2ly. As their Pattern, 3ly. As their Governor, makes but half Philosphers. And we find the end of Scripture treating of these, is to make us see a God in them and from them: Psal. 29.6. He maketh Lebanon and Syrion to skip as a young Unicorn. And Job 37. speaking of the Fiery Meteors, says, They are turned round about by his Councils, that they may do what soever he commandeth them upon the Face of the World, or in the Earth: He causeth it to come, whether for Correction or for Mercy, etc.  
4ly: The moving Cause, which supposes the demeriting, because he was wroth, who can be angry at nothing but Sin; Isa. 13.13. I will shake the Heavens, and the Earth shall remove out of its place, in the Wrath of the Lord of Hosts, and in the day of his fierce Anger; and it shall be as the chased Roc. Our Sin, and God's Anger for it, is a Burden the Earth cannot bear. Hence are its Groans and Travailing in Pam: Man is punished in the Earth, as a King in his Subjects, or a rich Man in his Poslessions.  
Three remarkable Degrees of Punishment the Earth undergoes for Man's Sin. 1. The Curse in Adam's time, Gen. 3.17. Cursed is the ground for thy sake, which we may compare with the 7th Verse. The Natively consequential Punishment on Man's Body, they both were naked: The nearness of the Union and Relation between his Soul and his Body, brought the Curse there before the other, and without a positive Infliction. There was a capacity of everliving from that harmonious Constitution in his Body; but his Constitution is now mortal, not only a Disease, as Physicians say, but Mortality itself is a preternatural state: For Perpetuity is a Print, or a stroke of Divine Image that became him to put on the Substance of every Creature he made: For he cannot deny himself in his Works or in his Word: All he does must have a fittedness to represent him; and what became him to make, became him to continue: And Aeviternity of Creatures is the Image of the Eternity of God. Death was a conditional Threathing; Life was an absolute natural Promise. Man had nothing to do but to continue yielding himself to that Inclination that was from the Image of God in him, without attempting to do any thing of himself, by which he might be something by himself. Self denial, which is a Negative Term, was the principal Duty. 2. There could not but arise from this Immortal Constitution an unspeakable Beauty, The most fresh, healthy, young and vigorous Constitution is like wrinkled old Age, in comparison of an Immortal one: Old and Young, Sickness and Health in a Mortal, differs but in Degree; but that is a natural capacity of ever living. Mortality and Immortality differ like Sin and Holiness, Death and Life. So much must the greatest Beauty of Mortals shall short of Eve's.  
Secondly, If we take measures of this Beauty from what the meanest Man shall be when sinless; and the Beauty was a Glory; for our very Bodies shall be fashioned like to his Glorious Body, and the very reason of it flows from its incorruptibleness, 1 Cor. 15.32. The first Property being always the eminent and emanent Cause of the rest. Adam's Immortality was a proper Incorruptibility.  
Thirdly, If we compare this Beauty with the remaining Relics in Plants and Fowls (for we cannot suppose the Curse to shall so heavy, or to last so long upon any body, as the Body of Man; for their union with the Soul is nighest, and the Property and Dominion greatest) it is a kind of Covering; for such are their Feathers and Flowers that excels all the Glorious Ornaments that a Solomon could array himself with, by reason of their Nativeness, flowing from the Constitution of the Creature it adorns, Matth. 6.28, 29, 30.  
The Privation of this Covering, that did consist of Glory, or radiant Beams of Light, was literally Adam's and Eve's Nakedness, which did flow from the Souls Nakedness of the Objective Image of God, and the inherent qualitative Image that did flow from it: For Man in Regeneration is in part restored to what he was when sinless; and this is a changing into a glorious Image, by beholding the glorious Image of the Lord in the Glass of our Souls, form there by the Spirit of the Lord.  
The Curse of Barrenness upon the Earth must be some way proportioned unto this. An inward change of the Contexture and Particles, at least of the Surface and Crust of the Earth above the great Deep, which would necessarily cause an Alteration in the Air, the Constitution thereof being ruled by the Vapours and Exhalations of the Earth, if it reached no higher: We may see this from the vast difference of Soils, their Barrenness or Fertility ariseth from the Disposition of the Earth, and Position of the Sun.  
The Second Degree of Punishment was in Noah's time, by the great Deluge, where there was made not only a Change of Particles, or composure of the Earth, but the whole uppermost Sphere or Crust broke in pieces, and laid like an Heap of Rubbish or Shipwreck; and from this Constitution of it ariseth its fitness for Conflagration, it's Liableness to Earthquakes, Thunder and Lightning, Storms and Tempests: So that Philosophers ought not only to study its relation to God, but it's relation to Sin and Punishment, it's constant or natural Constitution is preternatural, like a crazy Person Hectic and Consumptive.  
The Third Punishment is yet to come, when it shall be wholly burnt up by Fire, 2 Pet. 3. And if we may take Measures of what it was before Sin, from what it will be after, it must certainly have been a glorious Globe: When the most solid Gold shall be transparent, and the whole new Earth, the Foundation of the New Jerusalem, more precious and Diaphanous than the most precious Stones; some Rudera of this appears in the Crystalline Stones, and other things under Ground; and that vast Fire in which all will be burnt up, hath an evident Virtue to render it vitrial: So much for the Nature of an Earthquake.  
The Second thing to be explained, is, the Nature of a Prodigy, which is superior to a Sign, and is a Miracles Fellow. These three explain one another, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Sign, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Prodigy, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Miracle, Heb. 2.4. Signs, Wonders, and divers Miracles. 1. Signs are Naral, as Gen. 1.14. We know how long to Night or Darkness by the place we see the Sun in, or to Morning by other Stars: So when Spring and Harvest, etc. When an Eclipse, when the Tides, when seasonable to Sail, to Fish, to Blow, to Sow, etc. The Lights of Heaven are given for Signs of these things. So Mat. 16.2. A red Sky is a sign of fair Wether, because the Sun shining through it, demonstrates it to be thin; but if the Clouds in our Horizon be black and lowering, implies it to be full of thick Exhalations, on which the Sun beating and piercing for a whole Day, dissolves into Wind or Rain. A third Instance is in Luke 12.54. A Southwind is a sign of Heat, because the Exhalations come from the Torrid Zone, Job 37.27. and the West rainy, because the more Humid Vapours come from the Sea. This is less sensible to us, who are surrounded by Sea.  
2. There are Signs that signify by Virtue of Institution, as the Bow in the Cloud, Gen. 9.13. Naturally it signifies a small Shower past or to come; for it is in a Cloud that in part reflects, and in part is penetrated by the Sun; but by Divine Institution it signifies the universal absolute Mercy of safety from a Deluge. Hence Christ is represented, Rev. 4. and 10. with a Rainbow about his Head.  
2ly. On the other Superior Hand stand Miracles, that have God alone for their Author. Psal. 72.18. Who only doth wondrous things: And 86.10. To which Four Qualifications are requisite. 1. That the Effect be above the Power of Natural Causes; tho' we know not her certain Limits, we know some things to be certainly beyond her Limits, as raising the Dead. 2. That the Effect be visibly so, all kind of Juggle or mean of Deception of our Senses be removed, that it be beyond Dispute to an unprejudiced Mind: The born Blind could say, Know ye not whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine Eyes? 3. Suddenly. It is beyond Nature's Power to cure of a Fever in an Instant. 4. Perfectly. The Effect must be complete at once. The Fever may be stopped by Physic, and return again. But a Miracle cures perfectly.  
3ly. Prodigies being in the middle, sometimes seem to partake more of the one Extreme, sometimes more of the other; sometimes they seem to stand neutral, as the Rarities of Nature, boiling Springs, flaming Mountains, petrifying Waters, Aunts as big as Oxen, monstrous Births, that are not so much as Signs, but only fill up their own absolute places, for Nature's Variety or Defect. Hence we may divide Prodigies into Four kinds.  
I. Those that are only nick named so, and own their High Title unto our Low Intellects; as, Eclipses, the turning of men's shadows who pass the Tropic, the appearance of two or three Suns at once, or of some new Star:  
II. There are Prodigies truly preternatural; that is, such as hold of no steady Causes, nor are produced by any regular Motion, and that seem to require at least an Angelical Power; as those that the Magicians in Egypt produced, the Turning of Rods into Serpents, Rivers into Blood, and such Wonders as may be wrought to deceive. Deut. 13.2. Rev. 13.13. Such Christ and his Disciples not only did, but were. Isa. 8.17. I and the Children whom the Lord hath given me, are for Signs and Wonders in Israel. Under this Head may be reckoned spots of Blood appearing in Leaves of Trees, Stones, Statues.  
III. Those that are not only preternatural and significant, but also of a determinate signification, about which there is a great need of Skill, Prudence and Prayer, in order to draw positive Conclusions: For the Righteous Man's Trials look as prodigious, like as the Wicked's penal strokes; and the Wicked's sudden Prosperity is often very observable. The Earthquake that threatened Ruin to the Prison, spoke Mercy to the Gaoler.  
1. In not being over-obstinate Infidels; for by reason of this the Jews rejected the Messiah, and were rejected by him; they would be satisfied with no other Prodigy as a mark of his first coming, but such as were to be Fore tokens of his second coming, to wit, A glorious Appearance of a Man coming from Heaven, Matth. 24.29, 30. which, they expected from that Prophecy of him in the 7th of Daniel: And yet such an one as may be would have satisfied them, would have been far less miraculous than those he wrought.  
It is probable that Sign of a Flaming Sword hanging over Jerusalem for a whole Year together, and the Vision of Chariots, Horsemen, Armies and Arms filling a vast compass of the Air, was taken for an occasion of their embracing False Christ's afterwards; being a Type of the Son of Man's second coming.  
2. We would not be over-obstinate, because God hath not said, that he would reveal no more Oracles, nor work no more Miracles; this Scripture rather seems to promise some at some extraordinary occasions, Rev. 11.6.  
3. We are commanded to take notice of prodigious Appearances, Psal. 9.16. God is known by the Judgement which he executeth. Psal. 10.5. It is a mark of the wicked, that his Judgements are far above out of their sight, and that they regard not the Oporations of his Hands; Rev. 15.4. All Nations shall worship before thee, for thy Judgements are made manifest.  
Secondly, We ought nor to be over-credulous, since Nature is so full of Power. 1. Matter set on motion by our own Arts, amaze ourselves; and not only full of Power, but full of Rarities; and sometimes Discords, to recommend the Harmony of the whole: Besides, Satan is not only full of Power, but full of Cunning and Malice too, and the length of his Chain we know not; we see at once his Power over the Sabeans and Chaldeans, and over the Wind too, Job 1. and over the Body of Man, to smite it with Diseases; and over the Soul of Man, to tempt it with Prodigies and Wonders, Deut. 1 8.2. 2 Thess. 2.2. We find the Nature of our own Minds as weak in discerning, as their Power is to give occasion of mistake. Our very natural Principles are sullied, and our Ratiocination slow and uncertain. Our Wills incline more to Curiosity than useful Knowledge, and to Superstition more than to Religion 〈…〉. Many actually have been deceived with Sophistical Wonders, pretended Prophecies, inexplicable Impressions, natural E●…usiasms, turgent Imaginations, Astrological Conclusions, melancholy Dreams and wanton Fancies.  
I shall therefore lay down these Prudential Rules about them.  
I. That Judiciary Astrology about Men's Lots and Future Contingents is a mere Lie. Isa. 44.25. God frustrateth the token of the Liars, and maketh the Diviners mad. Jer. 17.9. The Lord forbids us to hearken to these Prophets and Diviners.  
II. We find the Lots of Men as different as Heaven and Hell, who have been born at the same place, in the same time, and from the same Womb.  
III. Where there is no certain Premises, there can be no sure Conclusion. Astrologers can neither produce History for unerring Observations, nor can they produce rational Axioms, how a Body infallibly should govern a Spirit: The very Government itself is unnatural; but Rules of the constant Method are impossible.  
iv Where many more as powerful Causes concur, the Effect can never be concluded from one. 1. Free Grace. 2. . 3. The Constitution of the Body or Csimate.  
V The greatest of the Art never drew One true Conclusion of Twenty.  
2. Eventually. Accidental Omens are as false as the other, to wit, A stumbling in the Threshold, a Hare crossing one's way; it neither becomes a prudent Man to mind, or take pains to refute, were it not for the Sin that ignorant supestitious Minds may contract by their Use, Deut. 18.10, 11. The Instances in Scripture that are brought for a Proof for them, are, 1. Personal, not standing Rules instituted for a common Standard to judge by. 2. They are begged, as Signs from God to determine them about some extraordinary Service, as Jonathan's Sign of the Philistines, bidding him come up, 1 Sam. 14.10. Or Eliezers' Sign of the Woman that should be Isaac's Wife. 3. The being of them lay doubtful, whether God would condescend to grant or no. 4. They were often miraculous, as gideon's Fleece, Josh. 6.7. There is a secret Touchstone in a prudent sagacious Christian to discern, between a Divine Lot and a natural Accident, or Satanical Delusion. 1. From the deepness of Impression it makes, the Power and Influence it has on them for attempting or persevering in a known Duty or good Cause. 2. The momentuousness of the matter, and greatness of the Concern. 3. The tendency it has to Piety, or other Circumstances, as may be observed in many Instances. (1) The Evening Lesson after the Earthquake, being a providential Exposition of it, Jonah 3. Within Forty Days and Nineve shall be destroyed. I hope as sure an Interpreter of the Event, Nineve was not destroyed, as of the Duty; Ninove repent; it was an Accident or Lot to the Composers of the Book, but none to the Disposers of Lots. Clodov●us thought it a Divine Encouragement to War, when he heard they sung at Church, Psal. 144. He teacheth my Fingers to fight. The Consul of Roscius, a Persecutor, convinced on his Deathbed by a Divine Sortilegium that fell on Psal. 32.2. and made him confess his Sin. M●ldacion foretold the Recovery of his only Child from Psal. 103.3.  
3. The Rarities of Nature, or ruch new things as natural Reasons may be clearly given for, are not to be concluded Prodigies.  
4. There can be no Danger, but rather a Duty of suffering every extraordinary Appearance to awaken us to what Duties we knew before: For that which is the End of common Providence, must be much more the end of extraordinary. Beside, the very Word Mophath signifies a powerful Persuasive; and in this it differs both from Signs and Miracles; that Signs are instructive Prodigies, to excite and stir up to what we know; Miracles are for certain Confirmations of particular Truths, Persons Offices before manifested; but Prodigies are chief designed against Security, and for making Man humble under the Sense of new Impressions of God from new Appearances. Isa. 48.6, 7. They are created new, lest thou shouldst say, Behold, I knew them. Eccles. 8.17. Tho' a wise Man think to know it, y●… shall he not be able to find it. So though it own the Name of Prodigy merely to our Ignorance, yet this general moral use of it is our Duty. Joel 2.30. I will sh●w Wonders in the Heaven and in the Earth, etc. before the great and terrible Day of the Lord; and whosoever shall call on his Name shall be saved. So whatever great Day such Appearances impress on us, if they bring us to call on the Name of the Lord, the Effect is saving. Suppose they were done by Satan permitted to try us, as in Job's Case, when they bring forth this effect upon us, Satan is disappointed of his Designs, Deut. 13.3. Moreover, such kind of Appearances being of a threatening Nature, are of themselves more indefinite and conditional; so that such an Improvement removes their relative signalness.  
5. We are to reckon them Prodigies determined, 1st. When we see the Event correspond, and the likeness between them, an Expository Gloss. 2ly. When Scripture has mixed a Prophecy and Prodigy together, and limited the Time either by Quantity or Characters, as the Destruction of Jerusalem, the Day of Judgement, and this in the Text, than we may determine the Event when the Prodigy appears, Rev. 15.4. 3ly. When the Prodigy is very great: As the Text says, a great Earthquake, Rev. 16. the greatest that ever was, and the Concern very great which is signified: For God sends no extraordinary Ambassadors on mean sleeveless Errands: Greatness and Goodness are the Standard of Divine Effects. We have very good Testimony that a Herald from Heaven came to King James the Fourth of Scotland, to forbid him the intended War against the English in the midst of his Court: On this the Nations Happiness depended. 4ly. When Prodigies are crowded together in multitudes, as was before Jerusalem's Destruction, Luke 21. and before the Division of the Empire into Ten Kingdoms, there were frequent Earthquakes and Eclipses, Bearded Comets, Armies appearing in Fiery Figures, with Bloody Rivers, wild Beasts coming tamely into Crowds of People. 5ly. When the same Prodigy is often repeated, which has very evident Signatures of the Effect, as Luke 20.30. Earthquakes in divers places: Or if it has been an usual Presage of like Judgements. 6. If it be a Foretaste of Judgement upon a whole Nation, that are afterwards destroyed by a fuller measure of the same Cup, Matth. 24.7. Those Prodigies before Jerusalem's Destruction, are called the Beginning of Sorrows, which are completed Luke 22.26. at the Destruction of the World. Lastly, Where ever we are sure to make Scripture the other Witness, there we may be sure to determine the Event, and be among the Wise Men that can discern the Signs of the times, Matth. 16.3.  
There are a Fourth kind of Prodigies that are Judicial, being extraordinary Punishments in themselves: But all Temporal Judgements being Signs and Warnings to others that are guilty of the like Crimes, of the like Punishments, and to themselves of greater Judgements to come, Luke 13. John 5.14. Thou art made whole, sin no more, etc. They differ only from signal Prodigies in their absolute not formal and relative Nature.  
The Third Head was the Proof of an Earthquakes being a Prodigy. 1. It is evident from its being the Prince of Prodigies. A Prodigy is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a terrible thing. There is nothing terrible, if this be not. The sad and lowering Face of the Heavens gives some warning of Thunder, but Death's the first Presage of Earthquakes. Dat signum ruina. From Storms in the Air, or Tempests in the Sea, we fly to the Land or Houses: But if the Earth itself fail us, and the Foundations of the Houses shake, whither can we then run for Refuge? Riches or Power, Strength or Wit, can save from many Dangers, but none of them prevalent against an Earthquake. A Cave in the Earth will save from Thunder, the Walls and Cover of our Houses can save from Wind and Hail; but all these Shelters are dissipate, when the Earth is dissolved. We can change the Air in time of a Plague, and the Country in time of Famine; but the gaping Earth stops all Passage. Sword and Sickness have laid some City's waste, but they never overthrew in a moment, and buried them under ground. When the devouring Fire burns up Cities, we can leave our Houses to the Flame; but here is neither time for Flight, nor place for Safety. The greatest of Moralists have made it their business to look out for some Comfort against this Evil that admits of no Remedy; but all the Light of Nature in its highest Improvement hath found none. They tell us, Since we must die, it's great to die by a great Cause.  Si cadendum est mihi Coelo cecidisse velim. 
They tell us, it's great to die revenged of our Adversaries; since the Earth destroys us, the Earth perisheth with us. They tell us, We ought not fear, where there can be no help; that is, we should despair, that we may not fear. They tell us, Why should we fear that so much, since far less things may destroy us. But what Comfort is there in hearing of the Increase of our Enemies? All the Fruit of their Consolations is, to drive us into Despair, or to harden us; but neither of these can save us. Si fractus illabatur orbis impavidum ferient ruinae: The Secure is as soon destroyed as the Fearful. This discovers the Terribleness of this Prodigy, that nothing can comfort under it, or support against it, but what is able to support against the Gates of Hell: There is no remedy to the Men of the Earth, when the Earth fails. Heaven is only a place of Refuge, when the Earth shakes: That is the only City, whose Foundations never move. The Gospel that brought to light a Saviour from Sin, hath brought to light Salvation from an Earthquake. This is sufficient Evidence that the Earthquake is a Prodigy, since it is an incomparable one. What are Visions in the Air, or Spectrums on the Earth? What are monstrous Births, or fortuitous Omens? What are Blazing Stars or Bearded Comets? Nay, Thunder and Lightning are nothing to this. The very Judgements other Prodigies prognosticate, are not so bad as this Prodigy. Some Men have hardened themselves, or have been hearte●… against the worst of others; but the Prince and the Peasant, the Young and the Old, the Man and the Beast, the Atheist and the Christian, all are afraid of this; even a Moses did exceedingly fear and shake. How can an earthy Man but tremble, when his Earth shakes?  
2 Argument. Is from the Multitude, Variety and Dreadfulness of its Effects. It was one of these Prodigies by which the Apostles were confirmed in their Work and Office, Acts 4.31. and by which others were persuaded of the Divineness of their Call and Doctrine, Acts 16.26. To these the Apostle appeals to, 2 Cor. 12.12. 2ly. The Destruction of Men and Beasts, Villages, Cities, Countries, which is attested by all Historians. Herodotus, Thucydides, Livius, each asserting none so terrible as that they described. 3ly. Islands turned into Sea, and Sea into Islands; as Greenland, Sicily, some say America and Britain too. Seneca mentions Tharsia or Thea, which in his Day the Mariners saw rise out of the Sea: And several Historians mention Islands we cannot now find. 4ly. Burning Mountains, as Aetna, Strumbolo, and many others. Vesuvius is sufficiently attested by Historians to have risen by an Earthquake in Titus' Time, after the Destruction of Jerusalem. 5ly. The Convulsion, Collision and Transportation of Mountains in 1584. in the Dominion of Bernat there was a Mountain removed over several other Mountains, and covered a whole Village of 90 Families, excepting the half of one House, where the Master of the Family, Wife and Children were at Prayers. Pliny 2d. reports, in the last Year of Nero, two Mountains to have rushed so against one another with such great Noise and Force, that they tore in pieces all the Villages between them. 6ly. Famine's, Pestilences, and other Diseases, the Springs and Airs being infected with its Exhalations. 7ly. The change of the Channels of Rivers, the turning the Sea into Land, and Land into Sea, as was by the dreadful Earthquake under Valence, by which the Ploughed Land became Navigable, and the Ships were found on dry Land Lastly, It was the great second Cause by which Korah, Dathan and Abiram were swallowed up, by which the Mountain of Sinai did shake, by which the great Deep was broke up at the Deluge, and by which the Earth shall be torn in pieces at the Day of Judgement, Zech. 14.4.  
The Third Argument is from Scripture, that testifies Earthquakes to be one of the greatest Prodigies that ever was, or shall be in the World, whether it discourses of it Historically, Prophetically or Doctrinally.  
1. The great Deluge was by an Earthquake, dividing and breaking asunder the upper Sphere of the Earth above the Deep, Gen. 7.11. 2. That extraordinary Visitation of Corah, Dathan and Abiram, when the Earth opened her Mouth and swallowed them, their Houses, their Goods, and all that appertained to them, Numb. 16.31. it was done by some Sulphureous Fire under Ground, where God hath his Furnaces as well as his Treasures, Ver. 35. And that is the very Cause of an Earthquake. Psal. 18.8. The Earth shook and trembled by devouring Fire, and Fire was made by God's kindling the Coals in his Anger. 3. An Earthquake bore no small share of that dreadful and prodigious Appearance on Mount Sinai at the giving of the Law, the Smoke thereof ascended as the Smoke of a Furnace, and the whole Mount quaked greatly. 4. It was none of the least of the Miracles that was wrought in that miraculous Period of Moses. Psal. 1 14 4. The Mountains skip like Rams, and the little Hills like Lambs: Tremble thou Earth at the Presence of the Lord. Psal. 78.15. He clavae the Rocks in the Wilderness. 5. The great Revolutions in David's time had Earthquakes as their Signals, and as their Causes. Psal. 18.8. My Cry came before him, than the Earth shock. 6. In the days of Vzziah there was so famous an one, that gave Birth to a Period, Amos 1.2. and was a joint Prophet with Amos, of the Judgement, pursuing those Eight Neighbouring Nations, as ●…e metaphorical Phrases of his Prophecy witness. I will smite the great House with Breaches, and the little House with Clefts. God called to contend by Fire, and it devoured the great Deep, and did eat up a part. He calls for the waters of the Sea, and poureth them out on the Face of the Earth. It's Terribleness we read in Zech. 14.5. As you fled before the Earthquake in the Days of Vzziah. 7. Before Christ's Birth in Herod's Reign, Zonar gives you an Account of an Earthquake in Judea wherein Thirty Thousand Men perished. But we have aninfallible Historian giving an Account of two, one at his Death, Matth. 27.51. & 28.2. another at his Resurrection. To which also Phlegon gives his Testimony, referring it to the same Year in which the universal Eclipse of the Sun was: And Didymus, with Twenty Four Greek Doctors after him, on the 9th of Job, relates that Earthquake to have been Universal; Mei autem Christi tempore non privatus fuit aliquis terrae-motus sed tota ipsa terra conquassata est & centro convulsa. This Didymus lived about 380. Phlegon relates it's Extension to reach Bythinia, where many Houses were shaken with it. 8. It is prophesied of in Scripture as a Signal of Jerusalem's Destruction, Matth. 24. and also of the universal Destruction of the World, Luke 21.26. Rev. 16.18. There was a great Earthquake, such as was not since Men were upon the Earth; so myhty an Earthquake, and so great. This being the last of the last Plagues, must be the Day of Judgement. There are other Prophetical Periods, as the Sixth Seal, Rev. 6. The Beginning of the Trumpets, Rev. 8. The opening of the Temple, Rev. 11.18. And this in the Text, The Rise of two Witnesses, that have Earthquakes for their Forerunners.  
The Fourth Argument is from History, wherein sometimes the Terribleness of the Relation renders the Relators Testimony doubtful. At Venice, in 1342. there was a very dreadful Earthquake, after which followed such a Plague, that scarce one of an Hanored who fell sick escaped Death. The Venetians published an Edict, That whosoever would come and live there with Wife and Children for two Years, should receive the Privilege of a Citizen.  
In 1348. Aventinus, a faithful and diligent Historian, singular for Piety and Learning, born in 1466. relates this most dismal Story of an Earthquake, whose extent reached from Constantinople to Hungary and Italy, and its time endured for Forty Days; 26 Cities were overthrown by it, Men and Beasts, Walls, Temples, Castles, Towns were swallowed down at one Mouthful; the Mountains were torn up by the Roots and thrown on the tops of Cities, or ●…thing against one another, were broken in pieces; Fifty Men, with Women and Beasts, by that strange Exhalation were congealed and turned into Statues of Salt. Conrades of Ma●denburgh, a famous Philosopher, and the Chancellor of Austria, attest they have seen them. In the year 1300, which bagan the Turkish Empire, or the Ottoman Aera, and as interpreters, ●…y, the 6th Trumpet, ●…na in the Life of Boniface the Eighth, relates such an Earthquake at Rome, as the like never was before; besides the Appearance of a Comet, both Presages of a future Calamity. In Constantine the Great's Time, when the great Revolution was of a Pagan Empire into a Christian, commonly interpreted the Sixth Vial, great earthquakes did proceed, by one whereof 13 Cities in Campania were overthrown. About 450, under Valentinian the Third, when the Empire put on its last and Ten Horned Form, which is by some interpreted the beginning of the Trumpets, Prodigies, of Comets, Eclipses, Fiery Visions in the Air, were frequent, among which Earthquakes were numerous. For Dyrrachim in Dalmatia perished by one; Neocaesaria was swallowed up, the Island Rhodes dreadfully shaken, Twelve Cities in Campania overthrown, Rome trembled three days.  
About the beginning of the Reformation there were very many Prodigies: Yea, in that very Year the Name Protestant or Witness was assumed by the Reformers, both Sabbelicus and Jovius relate a most dreadful Earthquake in Portugal, wherein Lisbon was terribly shaken, 1500 Houses ruined, all the Temples turned into Rubbish, the Ships swallowed up in the Ocean, the River thrown out of his Channel, and the very same Earthquake brought no less Destruction to the Netherlands, causing great Inundations of the Sea: It lasted about 7 or 8 Days, usually returning about 7 or 8 times in a Day. And the Year before, 1569. there was one not much less in Ferraria, that had been lately given to the Pope, wherein there was vast loss of Land, Men and Goods, it returned 140 times in 40 hours, and was again repeated after two Months.  
Providence is the Pagan's Bible. A great Divine calls it, The first Edition of the Covenant of Grace: But it is surely not to be neglected by us. He that studies not the Text well, can never be a great Divine by reading Commentaries and Systems. The Works of God are our Text; he is an Atheist that doth not regard the Operation of his Hand; the Word of God is a Commentary on it. Whether we read it, or Pagans own Opinions over it, we shall still conclude an Earthquake a Prodigy. Petrusloycks relates one in the Ninth Year of Constantine Copronymus, by which in Syria some Cities were exterminated, others much damaged, others carried 6 or 7 Miles safe from the Mountains to the Plains with their Walls, Houses and Inhabitants entire.  
Can we impute this to Fortune or Chance, or disown such a distinguishing Providence in the Destruction or Safety of Men? In 1509. there was one at Constantinople, wherein 13000 Men perished: Many of the Turkish Moschets fell to the Ground, but the Christian Temple stood firm. Was there no Evidence given to God's Care of, and Love to the Christian Religion by this? Had it not a speaking Voice that Christ, not Mahomet, was Governor of the World, and could save or destroy.  
The last proposed Head of this Discourse was the Improvement of it. Which may be  
1. For Information, about the Being, Nature and Government of God. For an Earthquake is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a proper Work of God's. He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the only Author of Prodigies. There are three ways to know the Being of a God, beside Tradition or Universal Testimony! 1st. From the Being of Creatures, and the orderly Course of Providence and disposal of them. This is a very solid way, but it requires a very solid Mind, and very accurate in pursuing the Current of Thoughts, the Connexion and Chain of Truths, and but very few that have given up themselves to Study and Ratiocination, have obtained a demonstrative Satisfaction in it. 2ly. By Grace, which is the most comfortable way. When God draws his own Image on the Glass of the Soul, by the immediate Finger of his own Spirit, that immediately at once both gains our Assent to his Being, and our Consent to his Government. But this is not the common way of Persuasion. The 3d way is, by some extraordinary Providence, that strikes the very Senses of the poor Sensitive Creature, throws down all the Batteries that the Atheist by pains of corrupt Reasoning, or more corrupt Living, hath built against the Faith and the Fear of a God. Such means God useth with a poor rude unthinking stupid People, to keep alive the Acknowledgement of himself in their Minds, and to defend that universal Light that shines in the Principles of Natural Religion, from being quite extinct by the Subtlety of Satan, and poisonous Exhalations from our earthly Minds. How visible is this in Persons of whom it may be too truly said, God is not in all their Thoughts; their Soul, like the Serpent, living upon the Dust of the Earth! Some carnal Profit or Pleasure perpetually possessing their Thoughts, all of a sudden, when Thunder from above, or Earthquakes from below, shakes the Foundation of their Hopes and Joys, they cry out, Lord, have mercy upon us! will the Earth swallow us up? I am unfit to die: Doth the Judge of the World come to call me to an Account? Woe is me, I have not minded a God more!  
2. It serves for our Conviction, not only of being sinful, but of Sin's being rooted in us, and reigning over us. When God fills a Land with Prodigies, it argues it guilty of Atheistical Unbelief, carnal Security, Earthly-mindedness, Hardheartedness, and mere Formalness in Religion. For, 1st. God doth nothing in vain, he doth not use extraordinary Means, when ordinary Means can prevail. Isa. 5.4. What could have been done more to my Vineyard, that I have not done in it? I have used all ordinary means of Conviction and Conversion; but yet they remain Covetous: Por their Work is to join House to House: They remain profane, for they rise early to follow strong Drink; they remain hypocritical, therefore follows prodigious and extraordinary Methods; Their Hills shall tremble, and their Carcases shall be torn in the Streets. After the same manner, and with the very same People, doth Christ deal in his time, Matth. 11.17. They would neither dance to Piping, nor would they lament to Mourning, therefore prodigious Judgements destroys the People, and lays their City desolate. 2ly. We find all these People toward whom God used miraculous Dispensations, to have been an unbelieving, carnal, secure People. We find three Seasons of Prodigies, Moses' time, Christ's time, and Elijah's time, in all of which we have the evident Discoveries of the most rude, heard-hearted People that ever was on the Earth; after their safe Passage through the Red Sea, it is said, The People feared the Lord, and believed him. But it is added, They soon forgot his Word: Ezek. 16. They were as unteachable as Newborn Babes, that were neither salted nor swaddled. 1 Cor. 14.22. Signs are only given for them that believe not; hence God did not work Miracles in bringing his People out of Babylon, as he did in bringing them out of Egypt. 4ly. If all Punishment suppose Sin, extraordinary Punishment presupposes extraordinary Gild. One of these two we must conclude, when God exerciseth a Land with extraordinary Prodigies, that all Sin is very vile and hateful in his sight, which a carnal Sinner is very unwilling to believe, seeing a pure eternal Mind only in the spotted Glass of his own corrupt Mind: Or we must conclude, that there is a great deal of Sin in us, when we see a God of all Grace and all Consolation, a Father of Mercies, whose very Being is Love, unto whose natural Actions Judgement is a Foreign thing; to see such an one Thundering in his Power from Heaven, and stamping in his Anger upon the Earth, until the Dust of his Footstool full the Air with Clouds: When we see him either visibly threatening by Prodigies, and only beating the Ground before us with his Rod of Iron, or more surprisingly punishing us, as he did Corah, Dathan and Abiram, we cannot but conclude we have highly offended him. An Instance of the latter kind we have heard of with Terror from Jamaica, and one of the former we have gently felt, according to God's usual Method of patiented and merciful dealing with England. We have usually but some drops of the Hail that destroys our Neighbours; the Rod is but shaken over our Heads, while their Backs are severely smitten; he deals with us as a Father with his Children, to let the Blow fall on the Ground, that he seemed to levelly at our Face. While we behold these things, and consider the Nature of God, we cannot but conclude, Sin is a very evil thing, or that we are very guilty.  
3d Use, That prodigious Presages serve for, is to raise our Expectations about great future Judgements or Mercies. 1st. It puts us in expectation of the great Day of Judgement; an Earthquake being one of its Forerunners, Rev. 16.18. Luke 21.26. There are considerable Reasons to persuade us of the Nighness of it, tho' we know not the Year or the Day. 1. Because the New Heaven and Earth (which is to be the Foundation of that long looked for 1000 years) is to come after the Dissolution of the World by Fire, 2 Pet. 3.7. The Heavens and the Earth which are now, are reserved unto Fire against the Day of Judgement, and perdition of ungodly Men: ver. 13. Nevertheless we look for a new Heaven and a new Earth, wherein dwelleth Righteousness. Rom. 8.21. The Creature itself also shall be delivered from the Bondage of Corruption into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God. So the Day of Judgement is nearer by a 1000 Years than many expect. 2. The Day of Judgement seems partially to begin with the utter ruin of Antichristianism. 2 Thes. 2.8. The Lord shall destroy him with the brightness of his coming. Rev. 19.3. Before the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, it is said, Her smoke risen up fir ever and ever; ver. 20. The Beast and the false Prophet are to be cast alive into the Lake of Fire burning with Brimstone. Dan. 7.12. After the Body or Nation of the Beast is given to the burning Flame, Greece and Asia with its Inhabitants continue preserved, though without Dominion, until Christ's everlasting Dominion gins, which is the second coming without Sin unto Salvation. 3. After the Rise of the Witnesses, there is but only one Woe to come, and one Trumpet to sound, Rev. 10.7. The Angel swore, that there should be Time no longer, but in the Days of the Voice of the 7th Angel. 2ly. It ought far more to put us in Expectation of the great Revolutions that must be before then; Earthquakes also being Forerunners of them, as we see in the Text, and ver. 19 in the opening of the Temple. There are Seven Great Kevolutions at hand. 1. The Rise of the Witnesses. 2. A plentiful Effusion of the Spirit. 3. The Reformation of a Nation or Kingdom. 4. A great Military Slaughter of Persons, or Civil Death of Papal Dignities. 5. An utter Ruin of the Turkish Empire, which is a passing away of the Second Woe. 6. The Conversion of the Jews, which is to be by the coming of the third Woe, or drying up the River Euphrates by the Sixth Vial. Lastly, The persecuting Arm of the Beast broken, though his Life shall be longer continued. 3ly. It may put all impenitent Sinners, whose Reformation neither ordinary means, nor such extraordinary, has produced, in far more certain expectation of dreadful Punishments. For, 1. No impenitent Nation under such ordinary and extraordinary means continuing impenitent, ever escaped Destruction. Pharaoh and his Kingdom can witness this: The Jews, God's own peculiar People, can also witness this, Matth. 11. John 10. They would not be persuaded by the Miracles and prodigious Signs Christ wrought; therefore he brought prodigious Desolations upon them; and they remain Prodigies to this Day, scattered like the quartered Members of Rebels against their King, and preserved separate from all the Nations where they dwell, that they may be the more visible. 2. The God that has Power, and cannot lie, has sentenced utter Ruin for their Lot; Because they regard not the work of the Lord, nor the Operations of his Hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up, Psal. 28.5. Job 9.4. Who hath hardened himself against him and prospered; who removeth the Mountains, etc. No Sinner can have any thing to plead against the prodigiousnsss of that which was here, excepting what was from the mixture of Mercy with it; for its Extent was extraordinary. 2ly. There was not one, but divers, another being in Italy, and a third in Amerîca. 3ly. The manner or kind was most dangerous: For Houses are able to bear a direct Motion upward or downward, to a much higher Degree than they can in an Obliqne declining. 4ly. We have Scripture prophesying of such kind of Signals about this time. 5ly. The universal Voice of Providence is a Call to Repentance, Rom. 2.4. Despisest thou his Goodness and Forbearance, not knowing that they should lead to Repentance, but after thy impenitent Heart treasurest up Wrath against the day of Wrath? Now such extraordinary Providences are like Majusculis Literis in the Book of Creation. There is nothing can be said against its being a Prodigy, but that we are not destroyed by it; and than it had not been the Signal, but the Judgement: For it is a thing rare with us; the Constitution of this Island, whether as to Air or Land, is not liable to it. We may say of it, as Herodotus said of the Scythians, Thunder in Winter, and Earthquakes at any time, are Prodigies among them.  
4th Use, May be of Exhortation to all the Duties we know ourselves tardy in. An Earthquake is a Mophath, a Perswasory, not a Directory; not so much to give Light about what we know not, as to awaken us to what we know. 2 Pet. 3.11. Seeing then that these things shall be dissolved, what manner of Persons ought ye to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness. It says to the covetous Earthworm, Put not thy Trust in uncertain Riches, lay up a good Foundation for time to come; for this Foundation is to be dissolved, which shakes already. Stultum è spem firmam in re tremulâ ponere. It says, to the backsliding Apostate, Why dost thou leave the Foundations of the Apostles and Prophets, and Jesus Christ that precious and Cornerstone, who is a tried Stone by Heaven and Hell, who has born the Weight of Sin and Punishment, and has neither shrunk nor been shaken; who has neither split nor given way, but has been found a sure Foundation to all that worship him? But read thy own Lot, with these splinting Reeds thou leanest on, Rev. 14.10. If any man receive the mark of the Beast, he shall drink of the Wine of the Wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the Cup of Indignation. It is a Threatening against them that persevere in Popish Doctrines after the Light of everlasting Gospel has shined in a Work of Reformation, but especially against Backsliders. The first Vial or Cup of that Indignation, brings a Pestilential Vapour out of the Earth upon those that receive the Mark of the Beast, Rev. 16.2. It says to the profane Person, The Earth is utterly broken down, the Earth is clean dissolved, the Earth is moved exceedingly, the Earth reels to and fro, because the transgression of Man is very heavy upon it: The treacherous Dealers have dealt treacherously, they have transgressed the Laws, changed the Ordinances, and broken the everlasting Covenant, Isa. 24. It is a Midnight Cry to the sleepy Virgins, and a Reproof to the Madness of the poor empty and vain Heart, that is set upon the Toys and Shadows of earthly Things, when the Earth it sell is not a solid Bottom for our Hopes. It is a great Motive to Humility; if we cannot understand the Thunder of his Power, how much less the Power that is exerted in shaking of such a solid Body as the Earth. What little Aunts on our dusty Molehill are we, in comparison of him! If we improve it aright, it will be a Spur to duty, a Wall of Brass against Temptations: Who would not fear him that shakes Heaven and Earth, and a strong Battery against our Lusts? We ought to inculcate it more, because it is of so hardening a Nature. Pharaoh's Mistake of Divine Prodigies for Natural Effects, made him a Pattern of Hardheartedness. 2ly. It speaks our Case yet hopeful, when God gives us any Means, especially when he falls upon a new Method. It speaks our Case yet hopeful, because it is a Threatening in its Nature, not a Punishment; it is a Threatntng, not of the Nature of a Promise, that binds and obliges the Person to fulfil. We ought the more to hearken to it, because it is a God that speaks, and speaks with so loud a Voice, that implies a dulness of hearing already begun. We ought to yield to it, because it is always the last Mean and Motive God makes use of. Lastly, Because we are sure to gain the End that God designs by it, if we receive it as a Word of Exhortation for Amendment. If it have the same Influence that Jonah's Prophecy had on Nineveh, we may be as sure of London's Safety.  
5th Use, May be a Doxology. We ought in every thing to give Thanks, because there is Mercy in every Dispensation that befalls us in this Life; our Diseases are Medicines, our Poverty enricheth, our Disappointments six our Expectations on a sure Bottom, and all our Evils work for good: There are a great many Ingredients of Gratitude in this Dispensation.  
1. That God should use extraordinary means to reclaim us from Formality and Security, when an ordinary method proves unsuccessful.  
2. That it was a mere Signal Prodigy, when we deserved it should be a Penal one too. What was our City better than others, that have been either in half, or in whole devoured by such a Judgement?  
3. That God hath given us a more sure Foundation than this Earth to trust on, that we have the Everlasting Gospel, built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles, by which we have a Discovery of a City that hath Foundations, and a Kingdom that cannot be moved. For want of this Knowledge the greatest Pagan Philosophers or Moralists that ever were, were not able to fortify their own Minds, or the People's, against the Terror of an Earthquake, or quiet them under it.  
4. That God gives any glorious Discovery of himself to rejoice the Hearts of his Children, that can say of Thunder, This is the Voice of my Father: And of an Earthquake, This is the Tread of his Foot; that he refutes Atheists, who say, All things continue as they were; and frights the Earthworm into Religion, that scoffed at those who look for solider Comforts than it affords.  
5. That our Lot is fallen so late in the World, that Earthquakes beget rather a prospect of Good than of Hurt to the Church; they make us look out for the Rise of the Witnesses, the opening of the Temple, and the Second Coming of our Lord.  
6th and Last Use, Is of serious Prayer and Supplication. We ought to be anxions and careful about nothing, but in every thing to make our Requests known unto him. Nothing is more apt to fill us with anxious, careful and dreadful Thoughts than an Earthquake, therefore it is a fit Season for Prayer. (1) That God would save us: We need not doubt he can, after such great Demonstrations of his Power: We need not doubt his Will, after the saving of us out of such a dismal Judgement. It should then make us approach a God able and willing to save us. He has told us in his Word, That he wills all Men to be saved; and we will not believe him, now he gives a Miracle to confirm our Faith. (2) Let us come earnestly beseeching him to be reconciled with us; for we see there are no Hopes of succeeding in Enmity and War against such a mighty Power: We see it is an unspeakable Happiness to have such a Power on our side: We must always overcome and triumph in War, when Allied to such a Lord of Hosts. He has made a Covenant of Reconciliation with Sinners, through a Mediator; let us make use of such an Opportunity, while our Spirits are under the Sense of the Danger and Evil of an unreconciled Estate, to lay hold on his Peace-bearing Offers, (3) Let us come begging powerful and effectual Grace, to change our Hearts and Spirits into a submissive and obedient Temper. The Reason we are not in Friendship with God, is from a defect on our side, not on God's. We do not love him, while he shows daily Love to us; we prefer carnal, earthly things to him; we make Mammon our God, our Belly our God, our Fancy and Imagination our God: Let us pray for a Christ being form in us; for such a discovery of his Likeness that may sully win our Love, and then we are sure Peace will not only soon be made, but is made already. (4) Let us come praying for the remission of our Sins, owning and acknowledging our Gild. We first fell out with God, therefore we ought to own a Fault. God sends no Judgements on his side, until Sin gins on ours; therefore let us own it as becomes disobedient Children, as becomes rebellious Subjects, as becomes betraying Friends, as becomes an Adulterous Wife; all manner of Relations has a Sinner violated, who hath broken the Law of his God. (5) That God would prepare us for the great Day of Judgement, for we see this Earth daily waxing old and dissolving: For these Earthquakes have a gradual Tendency to dispose it for the Flames: But it is all one to us, whether it or we be dissolved first; we are sure our little pieces of Earth cannot stick long together, but either must be deluged with a Dropsy, burnt up with a Fever, choked with Vapours, or torn in pieces by a Paroxysm: And when we are once dissolved, the Earth is dissolved to us, and there is no entering Heaven while one spot of Sin cleaves to us. (6) To pray that God would hasten the Rise of the Witnesses, with all the Blessings to his Church that do accompany it; and that our Kingdom and our King may still shine more visibly and prosperously, as the chief among the Kindred's, Tongues and Nations that befriend the Witnesses dead Cause, and never suffer it to be buried, until the Spirit of Life from God enter into them, and then they shall never die more. (7) That God may grant our Hopes that are fixed on his Mercy, and prevent our Fears of any greater future Death yet to come upon the Witnesses. This is the greatest that ever yet has been, but a greater may be: This is universal through the Streets that are under the Pope's actual Jurisdiction and Possession: But some fear that a Death must extend wherever his Jurisdiction has been: For when Rome shall be destroyed, she says in her Heart, She is no Widow. But from whence then shall come the Kindred's, Tongues and Nations to help? In such a Case therefore let us praise his Word, hope in his Mercy, and still beg the Glorious Days of the Church may commence in our Day: Hence we may see these bright Dawnings of the Son of Man, and departed like a dying Simeon with a Christ in our Arms. But let us do all this submissively, saying, Fac Deus in nobis quid velis esse ratum.  
FINIS.