AN almanac But for One Day. OR, The SON of MAN Reckoning with Man upon an High Account-Day. The Last Day. Latter Day. Lords Day. the Day of judgement. Day of Doom licenced and Entred according to Order. woodcut depicting the apocalypse Printed for I. clerk, W. Thackeray, and T. passenger. The Contents of this BOOK. THe fall of Adam. The restoring of Man. The coming to judgement. The signs before it. The miseries following it. The General Sessions. The Judge. The Jury. The Evidence. The Prisoners. The Sentence. The Execution. AN almanac but for one day. Adam's fall. By Woman and an apple, man-kind fell, By Womans Son yet all again grew well. ADam, the first man in the world was the first that over threw it; he was the King of all the Earth, and deposed from his Crown: paradise was ●is Palace,& from that he was driven: Eden, was his Garden, and from that he was beaten. The Beasts of the Earth, the Fishes of the Sea, and the Birds of the Air, were all made to serve him: but he rebelled against God, they rebelled against him; He gave them Names, and lost his own; Birds never sung such Tunes, as when he first heard them; but after his fall, they did not sing but mourn. A Woman caused all this woe: the Woman was seduced by a Serpent, Man by that Woman, and both were Serpents to him. Yet for all this, God took pitty of mans weakness: for as the first Adam brought man-kind to a Bar, so the second Adam brought a Reprieve: Man restored by Christ. Adam ruined all, and Christ restored all The Devil would then have seized on the World, but God snatched it from him, and took it into his own hands. Adams weakness begot Sin, Sin brought f rth Death, and Death Damnation. The last Day. The Trumpet blows, the Dead arise, A dreadful Sessions, yet none dies. FOr the trial of Adams treason, a Sessions will be called, Adams treason paid. him. the Day dreadful, the judge terrible, the jury severe, the Evidence impartial, the crier of the Court as thunder, the Indictment fearful as Lightning, a wretched Soul the prisoner, and all the Nations that ever have been, or now are, the standards by. Oh what a day will this be! a day of Terror, a day of Triumph, a day of confusion to the Wicked, a day of comfort to the Godly, The last day a comfort to the Godly. a day of rejoicing to the Sheep and Lambs, and a day of howling to the Wolves and Goats. This will be the Last day, for no more days shall ever be after; there must never be another Sun, nor any other Moon, or any more Stars; all the Lights of Heaven will be put out, and yet a greater Light be seen, than ever mortal eyes beholded. The Courts of Kings, the Palaces of Noble Men, the manors of Lords, the Banquetting-Houses of Rich-men, the full Barns of Farmers, the Cottages of Husbandmen, and the Stalls under which Beggars lie, will be as one, and all come to nothing on that day. All the Kings upon Earth, all the Nations under those Kings, and all those slaves that have been trod upon by those Nations, shall be called on this day to an open trial? Death then shall see an end of her Reign, the Grave will then be satisfied; nothing must remain but time, and that time must wait upon eternity. On that day the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, and an Arch-Angel shall come with a great Power and Majesty, 1. Thes. 2.16. and he shall sound a Trumpet, whose sound shall be heard over all the parts of the World, and with his Trumpet shall Summon all Nations, and all sorts of people to come t● the general Iudgment, Who shall appeal from this Summons? who shall be able to avoid this Iudgment? What heart will not tremble and quake at the terrible sound of this voice? All that ever have been, or now are must come to judgement. This voice shall take from Death all her spoils, and force her to restore and pay back again whatsoever she hath taken from the World. All that are living shall be changed, all that are dead shall be alive: the Prophets and the patriarches, the Apostles and Evangelists, Martyrs and virgings shall there stand in white. The Graves shall open, and deliver their bodies, those bodies shall resume their own Souls, and those Souls shall appear together: Earth, Water, and Fire give up their dead. The Sea shall give account of those whom he hath drowned: the fire of those whom his flames hath con●umed: whom the sword of Tyrants, the Saws, ●xes,& Wheels of Hang-men have mangled and cut to pieces, shall at this day have every Limb put into it's right place, every joint and bone set together. For on a whi●e throne one shall sit, from whose face Heaven and Earth sh●ll fly away, and their place shall no more be found: Apo. 20 11. before him shall stand the dead both great and small: the books shall be opened, The books of our lives and one book which is the book of Life: and the dead shall be judged of those things which are written in these books, according to their works. The Sea shall give up her dead, De●th and Hell theirs, and Death and Hell shall be cast into the Lake of Fire, which is the second. This day is called the last day, Why called the last Day, because it is the end of all days, the end of the World, the consummation of Weeks, Months, and years; no Day shall ever again be set down in any almanac. It is called the day of anger, or the Lords day, Why the Lords day, or the day of anger. for now he will be revenged of his Enemies, the Lords day, because all other days have been the days of Men, in which they have aviled, rejected, and done what they would themselves in contempt of God, but on this day God will punish such as have abused his Goodness, and rewarding such as have set forth his Glory. The Signs before the Day. When it shall be none knows, yet it must come, And these are signs fore-going the day of Doom. OF that day and hour knoweth no man, Mar. 13 no, not the Angels that are in Heaven, neither the Son himself, save the Father, watch therefore, for it is uncertain whether the Master of the house( being gone into a strange country) will come at even, or at midnight, at the Cock-crowing, or at the dawning. How beit, certain signs shall go before this day, by which signs,( as by the Evening, Men judge of the following Morning) we may prognosticate, not only of the nearness of the time, but of the Terrors which will accgmpany it. St. matthew says, Mat. 24.5. The sins going before this day before the coming of this day, ohere shall be great Wars and Troubles in ehe World, Nation shall rise against Nation, and Kingdom against Kingdom, and there shall be great Earthquakes in many places, and Pestilence and Famine, and terrible things in the Air; and other great Signs and Wonders. St. Luke says, there shall be false Christs, Wars, Sedition, Hunger, Luke 21 Wars. plagues. Plagues, Famine: Prophets betrayed to their own Parents, by their own Brethren, Friends, and some of them shall be put to death. These are the Trumpets, the pursuivants, Vancurriers, and Heralds, which go before and make way for the judge to come; then the day of Sessions drawing nearer and nearer, there will appear other Messengers, far more fearful, far more terrible: For thus saith the Lord by Ezekiel; I will cause the Stars of Heaven to be darkened on thee, and I will cover the Sun with a cloud, and the Moon shall not show forth her light, and I will cause all the Lights of Heaven to mourn, and I will sand darkness over all the Land. The coming of the judge. Christ his coming to judgement A● flo●d of fire THese warnings, and these dreaful Embassies being sent beforehand, at length the judge himself approaches, before whom goes an universal flee which shall burn and consume to ashes, all the Glory of the World: the Fire shall be to the wicked a beginning of their pains, and to the good an induction to their Glory. O says Malachy, who may abide the day of the Lords coming?& who shall endure when he appeareth? for he is like a purging fire, and like Fulers soap: Mal 3 4. the day cometh that shall burn as an Oven, and all the proud yea& all that do wickedly, shall be as stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up, and leave them neither root nor branch. The Prophet Ioel Ioel. 2. strikes on the same string and it sounds this horrid music: A fire devoured before him, and behind him a flamme burneth up: the Earth shall tremble before him, the Heavens shall shake, the Sun and Moon be darkened,& the Stars with draw their shining: This day of the Lord is great and very terrible, and who can abide it The Prophets muster up their forces Together, to express the Glory and Fears that attend upon this general coming into the Field: and Zephany for his part, sets down thus much That is a day of wrath a day of trouble and heaviness, Zeph. 1. a day of clouds& tempestuous storms, a day of the trumpets and alarm, against the strong Cities, and against the high Towers. When the Prophits have closed up their tunes, Mat. 1. listen how an Evangelist sings upon the same Note? As the Lightning that cometh out of the East& shineth into the West, so shall the coming of the son of man be, the Sun shall be darkened,& then shall all the Kindreds of the earth mourn,& they shall see the son of man come in the clouds with power and great glory: and he shall sand his Angels and they shall gather together his Elect from the four winds, and from the one end of the Heavens to the other. St. Mark, St. Luke and St. John, be●r their parts in the same Lesson, all of them concluding, That except the Lord should shorten those days no flesh should be saved. Christ will come as a King, conqueror, a judge, a father, a husband a Saviour Christ therefore will come in glory like a King in Triumph, like a conqueror; in Terror, like a judge; in Mildness like a Father, in Carefulness like an Husband; in Wonder, like a Saviour. He is the King of the whole world, all Nations bow at his feet, the conqueror of Death and Hell: Death where is thy sting? Hell where is thy victory? What judge ever road such a Circuit? Now the Living and the dead must be arraigned before him. What Father can be more pitiful? For as he beats us he hugs us, he weeps when he punisheth; the Church is his Wife, how tender is he over her? Yet how often hath she gone astray, and made her Face deformed in his sight? But who, can stand up in greater wonder than he, that in one hand holds Heaven, and Earth in the other? What Countenance can strike beholders into Love, Astonishment, or Admiration, but this? whose only voice saves or condemns them. A Saviour; what title in the world can be comparable to it? a Saviour, a Redeemer; the Names of Emperours, Kings, Monorchs, Princes, Potentates, are to those two but shadows. The Majestical manner of this Iudges coming is to the life set down by Naham the Prophet in this manner ( viz) Our Lord shall come like a tempest and f●rious Whirl-wind; 3, 4, 5, 6. Nah. 1. and the Clouds are the dust of his feet; He shall take Indignation against the Sea and it shall wax dry, and all the Rivers of the Earth shall be dried up. The little basin and Carmelus shall be whithered, and the mount Libanus shall fade and fall away. The Mountains shall quake before him,& hills shall melt; The Earth shall burn in his sight, yea, the World and all that dwell therein. Who shall stand before the face of his indignation?& who shall abide the fierceness of his fury? his wrath shall be poured out as fire and the very Rocks shall become death before him. He shall come to his Enemies as Thomes solden one with another, and as Drunkards in their drunkenness, they shall be destroyed as stubble fully dried. The world first drowned then burned after. The World at first( for sin) was drowned, and must at last on this day be burned: a deluge of Water swallowed the one, and a flamme of fire must devour the other: not fire alone, but fire and brimstone: not a clear sweet fire, but a black and not some one; as our sins stink in Gods nostrils, so that fire in which our eniquities are to be tried, must stink in ours: for all the World shall make but one bonfire and in the ashes of that fire the whole Earth must be raled up. the Sun was Virgo when Christ was born but when he comes at this latter Day, in terror to judge the World, the Sun will be in lo, as this almanac speaks, for the lion of Juda will then roar, and be heard, and show his strength; and then as an upright judge, he weighs the thoughts, words and actions of Men: then the Sun will be in Libra; an even, The Sun in Libra at the last day. but a terrible heavy balance must at that time be held in Christs hand. This Dreadful Dissolution of the world, in which must perish the Earth, the Heavens, Sun, Moon, Stars, Planets, and all that move in the waters or over our heads, is drawn in this excellent picture by the hand of St. John in his Revelation, and in these curious colours, viz. Apo. 10 1, 2, 5, 6. I saw a mighty Angel cloated with a bright cloud, his face was like the Sun, he had a Rainbow for a Crown on his head, his feet were like pillars of fire, of the which one he set on the Sea, and the other upon the land; the Angel lifted up his arm towards Heaven, and swear by him that liveth everlastingly, world without end, that from henceforth there shall be no more time. The Sessions, the judge seated, the Prisoners at the Bar, the Arraignment and Senten●e. The judge sits on the bench, good Men and bad tried, The bad condemned, the good are glorified. THe judge being( at this dreadful Day of Doom) placed in his seat of Iustice, it will be a full Court, a mighty Sessions: never in any Country or Kingdom hath been held so great an Assizes. All the Children of Adam must stand before him: All before Noah's time, that were overwhelmed in the gene al Flood, and all the Nations of the world, that ever have been, or shall be, shall at that day be raised out of their graves, and receive according to their deservings. The judge shall sit in Majesty and Glory, round about him will stand Angels, archangels; and all the Principalities of Heaven. Before him all the Souls of men, women and children are Prisoners; All Bodies shall rise, but not all after one manner; for the Bodies of such as have done well, shall be fair, beautiful, and brightly shining as the Sun; but the Bodies of those who in their life time upon Earth have done ill, shall appear ugly, horrid, ill-favoured, and very filthy to behold, in as fearful shape as devils. The Guilty shall tremble at the sight of the judge, the Godly shall rejoice: Will you see how the judge himself will appear, how apparalled, and what Countenance he will carry; See then what Daniel saith. thus doth he Describe him; I stood( quoth he) attentively, and I saw certain seats set in their places, and the ancient of years sat down, whose garments are white as snow,& the hair of his head like pure Wool. The Throne whereon he sat was like flames of fire, and a River of raging fire issued and came forth from before him, thousand thousands were attendant to serve him, and ten hundred thousand thousands stood waiting before him, and I beholded all this in a Vision of the night; and I saw one coming in the Clouds, who seemed to be the Son of Man. This Son of Man must be Our judge, before him must be this Arraignment: before his Throne, so built up by Daniel, must all be set; then the Books must be opened. Kings Judged At one opening these Books, those Emperors, Kings, Princes, and Rulers of Nations, that have been cruel Tyrants, and not Governed uprightly nor cared for the lives of their Subjects but made Wars more for ambition and for Revenge, then in any Quarrel for Heaven: all these will wish that their Kingdoms might fall upon them, and hid them from the Face of him who affrights them. All Church-Men Church-men. that have instead of being Faithful shepherds over their Flocks, been wolves to devour them. shall hear a Vae, a Woe Pronounced against them: Judges, Courtiers, Iudges that have feigned themselves with Bribes, Courtiers that have Flown upon the Wings of Pride, vain-Glory, Faction, and ambition; Lawyers Lawyers that have eaten up their Clyants: Generals of Armies, Captains, and common Souldiers, Soldiers that have been drunk with Blood: Citizens, Citizens whose false oaths and dec●itful wears, have to buy Lands, made away their Souls: Farmers Farmers Grassers, and Countrymen, who have murmured at plentiful years. and in dear ones have grinded the faces of the poor. And lastly, common beggars, who have made idleness there living, Beggars whose mouths have been filled with Cursings, with profaneness, with damnable Oaths, and with Blasphemy: These, and the rest, and thousand others as bad as these, are sure to be in a wretched estate, when the judge and their own conscience shall call them to a Trial. No Iustices shall sit on this Bench for bribes, to speak in any Prisoners behalf: no counsellor shall be allotted to pled for any man: no Lords Letters can be received. They that on earth have sumptuous Palaces, and Wardrops full of Embroidered Garments, who every day are wherr●ed thorough the streets in thundering Coaches drawn with four Horses, shows of Foot-men running by: troops of Gallants fluttering before them, Trains of attendants galloping after them: these shall at this Sessions stand shivering, naked, dejected, Titles are not here regarded. and stripped out of all their Glories. Those Titles of High and Mighty, Right Honourable, Most Heroical, thrice Illustrious, thrice reverend, truly Noble, true Valorous, Right Worshipful, &c. shall here be laid by, and not regarded. A cobbler and a Caesar shall at this Bar stand upon equal terms for Life and Death about one and the same offence, and that is Sin: One judge must sit upon both, one jury go upon both, and one and the same Sentence be laid upon them at their Condemnation. What will all the Idolatrous Kings, and People, so often mentioned in the Old Testament, say, when they shall see that true and ever-living God whom they mocked at, and blasphemed? How will the jews curse their infidelity, hardness of heart, and obstinate blindness, when they shall behold the true Messia, whom they reviled, spit at, buffeted, scourged, and crucified? How will the Romans The romans. cry out up on their jupiter, and 400 several gods, when they see themselves arraigned before an Omnipotent Deity, and not one of their false ones able to help them How will Herod, Herod. Caiphas, Caiphas. Annas, Annas. and Pilate Pilate. look, when they see him sit in judgement upon them who was by them basely betrayed, sold, beffled, tormented and condemned? traitor Iudas, Iudas. what Hell wilt thou desperately again east thyself into, to see thy Lord and Maker sit in Glory, whom thou with a kiss betrayedst to a bloody across, to an ignominus, barbarous and cruel Execution. How will the Turks Turks. and all their Grand signors curse their Creation; and rail on Mahomet their deluding Prophet, when before their eyes sits the Father of all the Holy Prophets, whom they on Earth have laughed at: and hated all Christians, because they had their Names from Christ. Christians. Nay, how will those Christians hang the head, and cry, Woe worth to the Wombs that bare them, and to the Papps that gave them Suck, sithence they have gone astray out of Gods Fold, Lived Licentiously, spent their days in Drunkenness, in whoring, Blaspheming, Envying their Neighbours, and in all sorts of varied sins, and have danced hand in hand with Satan? What will they say: Is this he whose Body was Nailed, Hands and Feet Bored, Sides pierced, whose Mouth had Vinegar and gull offered to it, with a Thousand Tortures, Disgraces and Dishonours, onely for us, to save us, to pay our Debts, and yet how did we every hour, again and again crucify him? is this he in whose Name( for Iesus Christ his sake) when no more than one poor Farthing has been begged, we have denied to give it, when at the same time our Pockets has jingled both with Gold and Silver? Is this he, who when we have sat at our Tables surfeiting in variety of Wine and gluttonous cheer, have denied our Scraps and our broken Beer to those who on their Knees have asked for the Tender mercies of our Lord Iesus? O vile, miserable, forlorn, and forgetful Captives that we are. What will remain after this and the like Expostulations, but beating of Breasts, tearing of Hair, Cursing their Creation, then Howlings, Vlulations, Shrieks, Terrors, fear of Torments before their Faces, and an assurance of everlasting Tortures, which are to follow; but only this the Sentence, The Sentence. Doom or Iudgment from the Iudges Mouth, and that is in two words only, ( Itae Venite) Go and come; Go you Cursed, to those who have done ill; Come you blessed, to those who have done well, Go you Cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his Angels; Come you Blessed,& dwell with me in Heaven for ever. Take heed therefore, O thou Christian, and beware that this Great Day of the Lords comes not upon thee unawares and therefore Watch and Pray at all times, that thou mayest be ready when he calls for Iudgement, to be one of those to whom he shall say, Come you Blessed. FINIS.