And if any one shall ask, wherein this effect of the mighty power of the Lord Jesus consisteth, and how from thence professors may be prevailed upon to keep close to the obedience of him in his kingdom, -the apostle answers, verse 27, " And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain." And thus am I stepped down upon the words of my text, finding them in the close of the arguments drawn from the power of Christ to persuade professors to constancy in the paths of the gospel; and having passed through their coherence, and held out their aim and tendence, their opening and application come now to be considered.

And herein these three things:-I. The apostle's assertion: "The things that are shaken shall be removed, as things that are made;" II. The proof of this assertion: "This word, Yet once more, signifieth no less;" III. His inference from this assertion thus proved: "The things that cannot be shaken must remain."

I. In the first I shall consider,-1. What are the things that are shaken; 2. What is their shaking; 3. What their removal, being shaken.

1. For the first, there is a great variety of judgment amongst interpreters. The foregoing verse tells us it is not only the earth, but the heaven also; but now what heaven and earth this should be is dubious,—is not apparent. So many different apprehensions of the mind of God in these words as have any likeness of truth I must needs recount and remove, that no prejudice may remain from other conceptions against that which from them we shall assert.

(1.) The earth, say some, is the men of the earth, living thereon; and the heavens are the angels, their blessed inhabitants: both shaken or stricken with amazement upon the nativity of Christ and preaching of the gospel. The heavens were shaken, when so great things were accomplished as that "the angels themselves desired to look into them," 1 Pet. i. 12; and the earth was filled with amazement, when, the Holy Ghost being poured out upon the apostles for the preaching of the gospel, men of every nation under heaven were amazed and marvelled at it, Acts ii. 5-7. Thus Rollocus, Piscator, and sundry other famous divines. But,

[1] The shaking here intimated by the apostle was then, when he wrote, under the promise, not actually accomplished, as were the things by them recounted; for he holds it forth as an issue of that great power of Christ which he would one day exercise for the farther establishment of his kingdom.

[2.] This that now is to be done must excel that which formerly

1 "Nescio an facilior hic locus fuisset, si nemo eum exposuisset."-Mald. ad Luc., ii. 34.

was done at the giving of the law; as is clearly intimated in the inference: "Then he shook the earth, but now the heavens also." It is a gradation to a higher demonstration of the power of Christ; which that the things of this interpretation are is not apparent.

[3.] It is marvellous these learned men observed not, that the heavens and the earth shaken, verse 26, are the things to be removed, verse 27. Now, how are angels and men removed by Christ? are they not rather gathered up into one spiritual body and communion ?1 Hence, verse 27, they interpret the shaken things to be Judaical ceremonies, which, verse 26, they had said to be men and angels.

(2.) Others by heaven and earth understand the material parts of the world's fabric, commonly so called; and by their shaking, those portentous signs and prodigies, with earthquakes, which appeared in them at the birth and death of the Lord Jesus. A new star, preternatural darkness, shaking of the earth, opening of graves, rending of rocks, and the like, are to them this shaking of heaven and earth. So Junius, and after him most of ours. But this interpretation is obnoxious to the same exceptions with the former, and also others. For,

[1] These things being past before, how can they be held out under a promise ?3

[2.] How are these shaken things removed? which with their shaking they must certainly be, as in my text.

[3.] This shaking of heaven and earth is ascribed to the power of Christ as mediator, whereunto these signs and prodigies cannot rationally be assigned; but rather to the sovereignty of the Father, bearing witness to the nativity and death of his Son;-so that neither can this conception be fastened on the words.

(3.) The fabric of heaven and earth is by others also intended,-not in respect of the signs and prodigies formerly wrought in them, but of that dissolution, or, as they suppose, alteration, which they shall receive at the last day. So Pareus, Grotius, and many more. Now, though these avoid the rock of holding out as accomplished what is only promised, yet this gloss also is a dress disfiguring the mind of God in the text. For,

[1] The things here said to be shaken do stand in a plain opposition to the things that cannot be shaken nor removed; and therefore they are to be removed, that these may be brought in. Now, the things to be brought in are the things of the kingdom of the

1 Eph. i. 10. ̓Ανακεφαλαιώσασθαι, that is, μίαν κεφαλὴν παρασχεῖν ἀγγέλοις καὶ ἀνθρώ τοις τὸν Χριστὸν ἀπεσχισμένοι γὰρ ἦσαν οἱ ἄγγελοι καὶ ἄνθρωποι.— Ecumen. in loc. 2 Matt. ii. 2, xxvii. 45; Luke xxiii. 44, 45; Matt. xxvii. 51, 52.

3 Ο γὰρ βλέπει τις, τί καὶ ἐλπίζει, Rom. viii. 24.

Lord Jesus. What opposition, I pray, does the material fabric of heaven and earth stand in to the kingdom of the Lord Jesus? Doubtless none at all, being the proper seat of that kingdom.

[2.] There will, on this ground, be no bringing in of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus until indeed that kingdom in the sense here insisted on is to cease; that is, after the day of judgment, when the kingdom of grace shall have place no more.

Those are the most material and likely mistakes about the words. I could easily give out, and pluck in again three or four other warping senses; but I hope few in these days of accomplishing will once stumble at them.

(4.) The true mind of the Spirit, by the help of that Spirit of truth, comes next to be unfolded. And first, what are the things that are shaken?

[1.] As the apostle here applies a part of the prophecy of Haggai, so that prophecy, even in the next words, gives light into the meaning of the apostle. Look what heaven and earth the prophet speaks of; —of those, and no other, speaks the apostle. The Spirit of God in the Scripture is his own best interpreter.1 See, then, the order of the words as they lie in the prophet, Hag. ii. 6, 7, "I will shake heaven and earth: I will shake all nations." God, then, shakes heaven and earth when he shakes all nations; that is, he shakes the heaven and earth of the nations. "I will shake heaven and earth, and I will shake all nations," is a pleonasm for "I will shake the heaven and earth of all nations." These are the things shaken in my text. The heavens of the nations, what are they?-even their political heights and glory, those forms of government which they have framed for themselves and their own interest, with the grandeur and lustre of their dominions. The nations' earth is the multitudes of their people, their strength and power, whereby their heavens, or political heights, are supported. It is, then, neither the material heavens and earth, nor yet Mosaical ordinances, but the political heights and splendour, the popular multitudes and strength, of the nations of the earth, that are thus to be shaken, as shall be proved.

That the earth, in prophetical descriptions or predictions of things, is frequently, yea, almost always, taken for the people and multitudes of the earth, needs not much proving. One or two instances shall suffice. Rev. xii. 16, "The earth helped the woman" against the flood of the dragon; which that it was the multitudes of earthly people none doubts. That an earthquake, or shaking of the earth, are

"Nunquam Pauli sensum ingredieris, nisi Pauli Spiritum imbiberis.”—Ber. Ser. de Monte. Τὸ αὐτὸ χρίσμα διδάσκει ὑμᾶς περὶ πάντων, 1 John ii. 27. Ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ νοούμεναι καὶ ἀνοιγόμεναι αἱ γραφαὶ δεικνύουσιν ἡμῖν τὸν Χριστὸν, εἰκότως θυρωρὸς τὸ Trữμa Tò äɣ104-Theophylac. in John x.

› Ps. lxviii. 8; Hab. ii. 20; Matt. xxiv. 7; 1 Sam. xiv. 25-[Heb.]

popular commotions, is no less evident from Rev. xi. 13, where by an earthquake great Babylon receives a fatal blow. And for the heavens, whether they be the political heights of the nations or the grandeur of potentates, let the Scripture be judge; I mean, when used in this sense of shaking, or establishment, Isa. li. 15, 16, "I am the LORD thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: the LORD of hosts is his name. And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people." By a repetition of what he hath done, he establisheth his people in expectation of what he will do. And,

1st. He minds them of that wonderful deliverance from an army behind them, and an ocean before them, by his miraculous preparing dry paths for them in the deep: "I am the LORD, that divided the sea, whose waves roared."

2dly. Of his gracious acquainting them with his mind, his law, and ordinances at Horeb. "I have put," saith he, "my words in thy mouth."

3dly. Of that favourable and singular protection afforded them in the wilderness, when they were encompassed with enemies round about: "I covered thee in the shadow of mine hand."

Now, to what end was all this? Why, saith be, "That I might plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth." What! of these material, visible heavens and earth? Two thousand four hundred and sixty years before, at least, were they planted and established. It is all but [nothing more than] making of "Zion a people," which before was scattered in distinct families. And how is this done? Why, the heavens are planted, or a glorious frame of government and polity is erected amongst them, and the multitudes of their people are disposed into an orderly commonwealth, to be a firm foundation and bottom for the government amongst them. This is the heavens and earth of the nations which is to be shaken in my text.

Isa. xxxiv. 4, "All the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine." Now, these dissolved, rolled heavens are no other but the power and heights of the opposing nations, their government and tyranny, especially that of Idumea, as both the foregoing and following verses do declare. "The indignation of the LORD," saith he, " is upon the nations, and his fury upon all their armies; he hath delivered them to the slaughter, their slain," &c. Jer. iv. 23-25, "I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly." Here's heaven and earth shaken, and all in the razing of

the political state and commonwealth of the Jews by the Babylonians, as is at large described in the verses following. Ezek. xxxii. 7, "I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord GOD." Behold heaven and earth, sun, moon, and stars, all shaken and confounded in the destruction of Egypt, the thing the prophet treats of, their kingdom and nation being to be ruined.

Not to hold you too long upon what is so plain and evident, you may take it for a rule, that, in the denunciations of the judgments of God, through all the prophets, heaven, sun, moon, stars, and the like appearing beauties and glories of the aspectable heavens, are taken for governments, governors, dominions in political states; as Isa. xiv. 12-15; Jer. xv. 9, li. 25.1

Furthermore, to confirm this exposition, St John, in the Revelation, holds constantly to the same manner of expression. Heaven and earth in that book are commonly those which we have described. In particular, this is eminently apparent, chap. vi. 12–15, “ And I be held when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth: and the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places," &c. The destruction and wasting of the Pagan-Romish state, the plagues and commotions of her people, the dethroning her idol-worship, and destruction of persecuting emperors and captains, with the transition of power and sovereignty from one sort to another, is here held out under this grandeur of words,2 being part of the shaking of heaven and earth in my text.

Add lastly hereunto, that the promises of the restoration of God's people into a glorious condition after all their sufferings, is perpetually, in the Scripture, held out under the same terms, and you have a plentiful demonstration of this point. Isa. lxv. 17, 18, " Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create," &c. 2 Pet. iii. 13, "Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." Rev. xxi. 1, "I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed

1 Isa. xiii. 13; Ps. lxviii. 8; Joel ii. 10; Rev. viii. 12; Matt. xxiv. 29; Luke xxi. 25; Isa. lx. 20; Obad. 4; Rev. viii. 13, xi. 12, xx. 11.

Euseb. Eccles. Hist., lib. ix., cap. 8, 10, lib. viii. cap. 17; De Vita Constant, lib. i., cap. 50-52. 3 Isa. Ixvi. 22-24.