Thoughts for the Day of Rain.
In Two ESSAY'S: I. The GOSPEL of the Rainbow. In the MEDITATIONS of Piety, on the Appearance of the BRIGHT CLOUDS, with the BOW OF GOD upon them. II. The SAVIOUR with His Rainbow. And the COVENANT which GOD will Remember to His People in the CLOUDY TIMES that are passing over them.
By COTTON MATHER, D. D.
They who dwell in the Uttermost Parts have a reverence for thy TOKENS.— Thou visitest the Earth, and waterest it
In English
BOSTON in N.E.: Printed by B. Green Sold by Samuel Gerrish at his Shop at the Sign of the Buck over against the South Meeting House 1712.
PREFACE.
IT was in Compliance with the Desire of an Honourable Friend that I Wrote both, & Preach'd One, of those ESSAYS which I now present unto his, and the Publick Acceptance. I did it from a perfect Concurrence I had with him, and many other Good men, in the Opinion, That among the Engines of Piety, wherewith our Good God has accommodated us, the Rainbow is one too much neglected with the Professors of our Holy Religion. To Recover the Rainbow unto the Use of our Faith, and Hope, and Joy, and thus to teach the Praising Tribe, the Use of the Bow, I saw to be so sensible a Service unto the Designs of Piety, that I could not but chearfully Embrace it. A very few Hours, and not many more, than the Modern Inspection finds Colours in the Rainbow, made me an▪ Owner of such Thoughts upon my bright Theme, that I began to imagine, I had honest Old Bernards Imprimatur for them; Si metu forte, aut Segnitie, aut minus discreta Humilitat, Verbum bonum, quod possit prodesse multis, inutili, imo et damnabili Ligas Silentio, certe maledictus eris, qui Frumenta abscondis in Populis. Accordingly [Page ii] they are now offered unto the Children of the Covenant And One of the Things wanting in the Christian Asceticks is thus brought in to the Churches Treasury.
The Readers for whose Edification these Essayes are chiefly Calculated, are for the most part Plain men, Dwelling in Tents. It would rather puzzle such Readers, than Instruct them, to give them a Lecture on the Mathematicks of the Rainbow Nor does the Author profess himself to be so much of a Mathematician, as to do it with the Exactness, wherewith it ought to be done, or to be any more than a Wellwiller to such Mathematicks.
A Famous Clergy-man of Spalato, in a Book De Radijs Visus et Lucis, Written before the Beginning of the former Century, began Mathematically to describe how the Interior Bow of the Iris, is made in Round Drops of Rain, by a Refraction of the Suns Light, and One Reflection between them; and the Exterior, by Two Refractions, and Two sorts of Reflections between them, in each Drop of Water.
Descartes, (who don't use to betray his Tutors,) took the Hints from Antonius De Dominis, and went on Mathematically, and with much Demonstration, to give us a Theory of the Iris, from the Laws of Refraction, which Lucid Rayes do suffer in passing thro' Diaphanous Bodies. He clearly demonstrated the primary Iris, to be only, The Suns Image, reflected from the Concave Surfaces, of an Innumerable Quantity of [Page iii] small Sphaerical Drops of falling Rain, with this Necessary Circumstance, that those Rays which fell on the Objects, parallel to each other, should not after One Reflection, and Two Refractions, (viz. At going into the Drop and coming out again) be Dispersed, or made to diverge, but come back again also to the Eye, parallel to each other. The Secondary Iris he supposes produced by those Rays of the Sun, which fall more obliquely, but after the same manner as before, only in these there are Two Reflections before the Suns Rays refracted a second time, and tending towards his Eye, in a parallel Position, can get out from the Aqueous Globules.
The Acute and Accurate Mr. Halley comes after the French Philosopher, and shows how the Cartesian Problems were more easily solved than the Author himself imagined, He shows how to determine the Angle, by which the Iris is distant from the opposite Point of the Sun, and the Ratio of the Refraction being given Geometrically, or, Vice Versa, the Iris being given, to determine the Refractive Power of the Liquor. And he goes on to Cultivate the Subject, with the Ingenuity proper to that accomplished Gentleman.
But then comes the Admirable Sir Isaac Newton; One whom I may venture to call The Perpetual Dictator of the Learned World in the Principles of Natural Philosophy; and the most Sagacious Reasoner upon the Laws of Nature, that has yet Shone among Mankind; and which is the Crown of all, The most Victorious [Page iv] Assertor of an Infinite GOD, that hath appeared in the bright Army of them that have driven the baffled Herd of Atheists away from the Tents of Humanity. This Rare Person, in his Incomparable Treatise of Opticks, has yet further Explained the Phaenomena of the Rainbow; & has not only shown how the Bow is made, but also how the COLOURS are form'd; How the Rays do strike the Senses, with the Colours, in the Order which is required by their Degrees of Refrangibility, in the Progress from the Inside of the Bow to the Outside; the Violet, the Indico, the Blue, the Green, the Yellow, the Orange, and the Red.
But if all my Countrymen could Read Oughtreds Characters, or ken the Terms & Rules of Trigonometry, with the Doctrine of Fluxions; yet my Printer could not easily accommodate us, with the Schemes that would be needful for Dilucidation. The very few that would be gratified with such things, I leave to Consult the Authors themselves, & shall proceed unto more Theological and Agreeable Contemplations.
QUoniam vero Collegium Harvardinum ter-illustre, de Gradu illo [...] Theologia, quo me nec Merentem, nec Quaerentem, In lyrissima Academia Glascuensis [...] de Honore in suum Filium [...], Academice et Benevole judicasse, at (que) in Tabulas Publicas Diploma indignissimo homunculo concessum retulisse. Sentiam: Gratias me Almae venerandae (que) meae Matri publicas (et multo [...] quam in [...]) devere [...] [Page v] debitas (que) hoc Munusculo Iride decorato, jam ex parte persolvo. Fait enim, Dignissimi Domini, [...] inter Academiae Vestrae, dum talem Gradum Conferre in Animo [...] potestate habuerit, Statuta; Quod Unusquis (que) illius Gradus Candidatus, Tractatum quendam in Utile quoddam Argumentum, pro Ecclesiarum Commodo in Lucem emittere tenebitur. Quum autem idem pro ista Relatione hujusce Dignitatis, quod pro ipsa Collatione (Si Licuerit et placuerit) Officium a me Expectari poterit; En Tractatulum in Utile, et Sane Nobile, Argumentum, vobis Optimo Jure Dedicatum,
In Societate Vestra Spectatissima quot video, et quam amabiles Ecclefiae Irides! Vivat igitur, vigeat ac floreat, [...]. De Cantabrigia vestra (cujus et idcirco sit Nomen Eucarpia!) dicatur, Vir et Vir eft in illa natus; Multi Pietate, Ingenio, Doctrina Insignes, in illa Renati, at (que) Formati, Viri; viri qui in Templo Dei refulgeant, et, (quod de Simone olim Syracides) [...]: Et qui de Diluvio quod jam Christianismo imminet, ac omni pietati mortem intentat, Ecclesiae metus pellent, Lacrymai (que) Solabuntur. Fulgidae deni (que) ex illa, primae (que) Magnitudinis qúam plurimoe Stellae, et quae ad CHRISTUM suo ducant Fulgore, Oriantur.
The Gospel of the Rainbow.
Elegia Frytschij.
Frytschius Englished.
The GOSPEL of the Rainbow.
The Lord shall make Bright Clouds.
A Mind commonly forming of Good Thoughts, & filled with them on all Occasions is thereby really Ennobled and Enriched: And Thoughts do not more prove the Existence of it, than Good and Right and Wise Ones will contribute unto its Felicity. Such a Mind makes a just claim, to the Dignity, which in REASON belongs unto it; and it has, yea, it makes, a sort of Heaven for it self, with an Holy Anticipation of the more Local Flight, it is e're long to take into the Heavenly World. It follows, that One of the best Kindnesses that can be done unto the Children of Men, is to Supply them with Good Thoughts: One of the Kindest Offices that we can do for our Neighbours, is to awaken in them the Thought [Page 2] of the Rational and Religious; and help them in Thinking on the Things wherein they are concerned. Of Writing many Books for this End, our Ecclesiastes long since advised, Let there be no End! Tho' the Study of Writing them should be never such a Weariness to the Flesh, yet we will not be Weary of Well-doing in this way, nor count it a Vanity, in this way to go on with Essayes to cure Vanity.
We are surrounded with the Preachers of Truth unto us; All the Elements are full of them: In all Creatures we have the Faithful Preachers; if we have but Ears to hear them. To put the Creatures unto such an Use, as that of being Led by them unto Good Thoughts, and unto the due Acknowledgments of Their and Our Maker and Saviour; 'tis, to do something towards the Restitution of all Things, unto the Primitive and Paradisian State; yea, O Sons of God, it is a little to bring on the State, for which the whole Creation groaneth! Of our Duties, and of His Praises to whom we owe our Duties, I will say, Great is the Army that Publisheth them! And the Kingdom of METEORS has raised for us a particular Army of Monitors; among which there is none that makes a more Illustrious Figure, than One which I am going to rescue from the Neglect, with which it has been too much disregarded & overlooked in a World, which owes more pious Regards unto it.
It is the Rainbow. Of this you Expect [Page 3] not from me, any Attempts at Philology. To tell you, that the Hebrew Name for it is, Ketcheth; The Greek [...], as well as the Latin, Iris; the French, L'arc du Ciel; (or, the Bow of Heaven;) and in like manner, the Italian L'arco del Cielo; and the Spanish, El arco del Cielo; (as also, El arco de las nueues, or, The Bow of the Clouds:) and the German (more akin to ours) Ein Regenbogen; This would perhaps as little Edify you, as to tell you, that our Indians call it by some such Name, as Ukqumogquoanuh. I shall as little attempt the Philosophy of it; For, after I have given you the common Definition of it, Arcus Coelestis, qui fit ex Solis Luce, in Nubem varie compositam et temperatam, sed ex Diametro Soli ipsi incurrente ac incidente, pluvioso tempore; and should add more than as many more, as there be Colours in the Rainbow; and with the Modern Corrections of ancient Errors, proceed unto the Differences between the Solar Iris, and the Lunar: and between the Iris and the Halo; so little progress have we yet made in real and certain Knowledge, that I should Leave you after all, with the Subject of my Discourse, but in the Clouds.
'Tis a Theological Consideration of this Meteor that is now proposed. The Gospel of the Rainbow, is the Theme I have undertaken very briefly to treat upon. I take the Rainbow to be intended, when we read of Bright Clouds. The Glorious One, directed His People to Ask Rain of Him; a moderate Rain in [Page 4] the Time that should render it Seasonable and Serviceable. It is hereupon promised, So the Lord shall make Bright Clouds: that is to say, Clouds brightned with the Rainbow; and such as a Moderate Rain, uses to be distilled from. Compare Job XXVII. 11. We often enjoy this Favour of Heaven; but I am now to bring you the Gospel of it. And my Treatise must begin with a Complaint, That the Christian World have taken so little Notice of a Meteor, upon which the Great God that formed all things, has put such a Stamp of peculiar Excellency. It has pleased His Infinite Majesty, to Stamp a Sacramental Character upon it, and make it as a Sacrament of His Covenant with the Children of Men. We all know, that when the Patriarch Noah, with his Family, came out of the Ark, the Glorious GOD comforted him, and his Posterity, with such an Advice as this; Gen. IX. 13.— 17. I set my Bow in the Cloud, and it shall be for a Token of a Covenant, between Me, and the Earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a Cloud over the Earth, that the Bow shall be seen in the Cloud; and I will Look upon it, that I may Remember the Everlasting Covenant between God, and every living Creature of all Flesh that is upon the Earth. And God said unto Noah, This is the Token of the Covenant which I have Established between Me and all Flesh that is upon the Earth. I believe the Bishop of Milain is the only Author in the World, that ever understood this Bow of any other than the Rainbow. Now, certainly after this, Whenever [Page 5] a Rainbow is Exhibited, there is a Sett of Good Thoughts, with which it should always be Look'd upon. But God is not Glorified upon the view of the Rainbow so Commonly, so Devoutly, and with such Good Thoughts, as ought to be: nor does it generally put us upon such Reflections of Christianity, as might be expected from a People of our Illuminations in the Covenant of the Glorious Lord. I must not make a Fruitless Complaint; and therefore my Design is, now to fit some Arrows for the Bow of God, and make ready a Quiver of Good Thoughts, Which are to be shot from that Bow into the Minds of the Faithful, as often as it appears unto us.
Indeed the First Use that we unavoidably make of the Rainbow, will be in a way of Admiration. Tis truly an Admirable Spectacle. The Spectator of it, is to be called forth in those Terms; Job XXXVII. 14. Stand still, Consider the Wondrous Works of God. And this the more Emphatically, because the Rainbow appears in the very next words of Elihu; for the Rainbow is meant in those words, He causes the Light of His Cloud to shine. The Pagan Theology makes the Rainbow, to be the Daughter of Thaumas [ [...]] because of the Wonderment wherewith we behold it; It is to us, we would rather say, The Mother of Wonderment. But the Wonders which it raises in our Minds, ought to be tuned into Praises of the Great God, whose Strength is in the Clouds, & [Page 6] who displays His Power there. HE is to be Admired & Adored, & with Devout Souls, we are to Look through the Bright Clouds, & shoot up our Hallelujahs. Glorious LORD, How Various and how Beauteous are thy Works! With what Wisdom and what Beauty hast thou made them all! The Lesson is Apocryphal, but Agreeable, which was long since given by the Son of Sirach; [Eccles. XLIII. 11, 12.] Look upon the Rainbow, and praise Him that made it; very beautiful it is in the brightness thereof; It compasses the Heaven above with a Glorious Circle, and the Hands of the most High have bended it.
But we may not, we will not flop here. We will go on to such an Useful Contemplation of the Rainbow as may render it a noble Instrument of Piety, in our whole Conversation. I shall not Enquire into the old Opinion, that the Spots of Earth, where the Feet of the Rainbow strike, are made singularly Fruitful by the Influences or it. But I am sure, the Rainbow striking on our Minds, may produce many Sweet Fruits of Pious Meditation. When it pleases the Holy One to bring out His Rainbow unto our View, Let us Glorify Him, and Meditate such things as these upon it.
The First MEDITATION.
What a Woful, what a Fearful Desolation, once came upon a Wicked World, whose Foundation was [Page 7] overflown with a Flood! Inasmuch as it was the Flood which introduced the Consideration of the Rainbow, the sight of it, may very suitably bring to Remembrance with us, that horrible Flood, in which as we have read, 2 Pet. II. 5. God spared not the Old World, bringing in the Flood upon the Ungodly. It has been well enough proposed, Admoneat Iris horrendi illius Judicii, quod in Di uvio ostensum fuit. Mercer tells us, That the Religious Jews, in many Places, upon the Appearance of the Rainbow, go forth, and fall down, and confess their Sins, and own themselves worthy to be Drowned with a Flood, for their Iniquities. To us, that are Christians, Our LORD says, What do you more than they?
There is no room to doubt the Relation which the Mosaic Records have given us, of that astonishing Revolution, The FLOOD, wherein all Mankind, except the One Family of a Righteous Noah, perished. It is a Matter of Fact, whereof the Evidences are so many and so mighty, that they must Overwhelm all the Contradiction of Infidelity, and, like the Flood it self, carry all before them. It was acknowledged by the most Ancient Writers among the Pagans, quoted by Josephus, and by Eusebius, and by Cyril, and others. Plutarch also has the Story of the Dove in the Flood sent out of the Ark. Tis demonstrated likewise by Kirker in his Arca Noae, that the Deucalion of Antiquity was our Noah. Yea, The Tradition of a General Flood, was every where Currant for Thousands of years [Page 8] among all People; especially in the Countreys near the Place, where the Ark rested after the Flood. Even in the Coins used among them, especially those mentioned by Falconerius, there were Commemorations of it. Martinius reports, that the Chinese have a Tradition of a Flood, in an History very agreeable to ours in the Book of Genesis. Acosta and Herrera find the like Tradition among the Indians of their Acquaintance in America; Corata found it among the Peruvians, and Gomara among the Mexicans. The insolent Attempts of Petrerius, and some others, to restrain the Flood unto Palaestine, or to some few Countreys thereabouts, are not worthy of a Laborious Confutation. The Ruines and Reliques every where sound in the Subterraneous World, which could proceed from nothing but the Flood, (as our Accomplished and Victorious Woodward among the rest, & beyond them all, has rendred incontestable,) abundantly confute the Impiety of those Men▪ and make it most evidently appear, that the Flood was nothing less than Universal. Among the rest, the Undisputed Skeleton of an Humane Body, of about Seventy Foot Long, and his Teeth, some above Two Pounds, and others more than Four Pounds in Weight, lately dug up in our Neighbourhood at Albany, at such a Distance from the Sea, that it could be no Animal of the Sea: This can be no other, than a Lively Proof, brought from America. [How it came hither, Heaven knows!] to go into the Scale with many [Page 9] of the same kind in the other Hemisphere, to confirm that passage of Moses, There were Giants in the Earth in those Dayes. In M. DC. LVI. years, there prevailed such a Flood of Wickedness in the World, that the Holy and Righteous God, by a Flood of Water, brought upon it, a most horrible Desolation. But, who can comprehend, who can imagine, the horror of the Desolation! Many Refined Wits have Employ'd themselves, to frame Hypotheses, of the Methods of Nature, in which the Flood was brought about; until some of them fall into the Distemper, which Learned Men have wisely called an, Hypothesimania; and some of them have too much Excluded that Immediate Interposition of the Almighty GOD, in a way transcending the usual course, and common Law, of Nature, which was doubtless made on this tremendous Occasion. The Fancies and Fictions which Burnet has offered us in his Theory, (proved by Ramazzini, to be no other, than what Patritius an Italian, Published as a part of the Abyssertian Philosophy, an hundred and fifty years ago,) have met with sharp castigations, from them, who have had at heart, the cause & credit of the Sacred Scriptures. But, As of old, a Musician being asked, a Definition of the Soul, his answer was, Tis an Harmony! An answer that had a Tincture of his own Profession in it: So, I do not wonder, when I observe, what the Speculations of Some Gentlemen on this Noble Subject, are tinged withal. A Professor of the Mathematicks, brings in a Comet, as producing all [Page 10] the hideous hurly burly of the Flood, by approaching too near our Globe, in its Elliptick Motion. A Nation (of Whistons) that is not without its Probabilities: And agreeably to it, some Learned Men, foretel the Appearance of another Comet, [For old Seneca's Prediction about such Predictions is now accomplished!] which may bring our Globe, under the other Destruction, for which, we know, it is reserved. Nor am I without Suspicions, That a Comet may be intended by the Vapour of Smoke, which is to bring on the Great and Notable Day of the Lord; which also is most Literally, A Star falling from Heaven: And some think, A World in a State of Punishment! A Professor of Chymistry, from what he had seen in the Effervescence between an Acid and an Alcali, concludes, that there are great Cavities in the Bowels of the Earth, full of Water; that Minerals are generated in these Cavities; that by the colluctation of several Salts meeting together here, an Air was generated, which caused horrendous Earthquakes; that some of the Exhalation Escaping into our open Air, it produced vast Rains, with such Thunder and Lightning, as filled the Ungodly Men with a most confounding Amazement; and that by the Air still Enclosed under ground, the Water of the Abyss, raged and swelled, and broke out, & overflow'd the highest Mountains. This (of St. Clairs) as probably conjectured as the other, I will pass over Mr. Delaprymes Imagination, That God broke the Foundations, Pillars, and Hollows, of the [Page 11] Earth, which till then had stood above the Water. The continual Rains help'd forward the Dissolution; the Earth yielded, and sunk down; it and all the wicked Burden of it, Subsided, and was absorb'd in the Sea, which now covers it; As this Old Earth fell in, our New Earth rose up; This was lifted up, to ballance the other; and as it Rose, the Waters rolled off, and left it at length to be what it is. This conjecture, seems liable to more objections than the former; and will have little but Plato's Tradition of the vast Island Swallow'd up in the Atlantick Ocean, to Support it. Our Warren takes the Account of the Flood given in the Sacred Scriptures, to be Sufficiently Explained, by Saying; That there were vast Caverns, filled with Waters, in the Antediluvian Mountains. The Great GOD broke them open, and they came rolling down, and over-turning all that was in the way of the Mighty Inundation. At the same time, there fell prodigious Rains for Forty Dayes together. It was impossible for People to ascend these Mountains, when the Waters were issuing out from them, with such an impetuous Power & Plenty: and the Loaden Clouds, hanging & bagging about them, Emptied themselves there, like pressed Spunges, and ran down in irresistible Torrents. Doubtless, the Air was full of Water-spouts, like the Exhydriae, which are at Sea sometimes met withal; and the Hills were full of Cataracts Poured out by the Vengeance of God. This Gentleman, finds enough here to drown the World; and thinks [Page 12] there is no Necessity of understanding the Bible, as if the Waters of the Flood, were Fifteen Cubits above the Tops of the Highest Mountains.
There is an Excellent Ray, who will bring us yet more Light, concerning this wondrous Revolution. According to him, the Windows of Heaven were now Opened, by the Quantities of Water, descending from thence; all the Water Suspended in the Air descending on the Earth. The Fountains of the Great Deep were now also broken up, in that the Subterraneous Waters which communicate with the Sea, did thro' great Apertures rush out upon the World. But for the cause of all this, he Supposes, that the Glorious God, now changed the Center of the Earth, and set it nearer to the Middle of that Haemisphere, which was then principally inhabited! Here-upon the Atlantick and Pacifick Oceans, must needs press upon the Subterraneous Abyss. By the Mediation thereof, they must force the Water upward, and compel it to run out at those Wide Mouthes, which the Indignation of God had made for it. The Water poured out from these direful Orifices, upon the Earth, must needs overflow it; until the Omnipotent God restored the former Center of the World Finally; The Incomparable Sir Isaac Newton, judges the Universal Flood, cannot have better, and fairer Account given of it, than this, To Suppose the Center of Gravitation removed for a Time, towards the Middle of the then inhabited Parts of the World: And a change of its Place, but the Two Thousandth [Page 13] part of the Radius of this Globe, were enough to bury the Tops of the Highest Mountains under Water. But we have notorious Proofs, in our Subterraneous Occurrences, that the Flood reached unto America too. I add therefore, the same cause operating a little further, would over-whelm this, as well as the other Haemisphere. After all, we may truly say, that there was a concurrence of many Causes, to bring on the Deluge. It is admirable, that Seneca, treating of that Fatal Day, (which he dreamt of, as being still to come,) when a Deluge is to come; He joyns together many Causes for such a thing; but all concurring, Uno agmine ad Exitium humani generis. But he does it in such Terms, that the Acute Heidegger cryes out; Oratio ita concepta est, ut de industria Explicare voluisse Mosen videri Posset. And Patrick after him; His Words are written, as if he had been directed to make a Commentary upon Moses.
Let a Touch of the Modern Poetry at last write a short Epitaph, on this Liquid Grave of the World.
But, my most Honour'd BLACKMORE, Do thou take this Theme into thy Masterly hand. Let thy Matchless, and Immortal, and Envied Pen, adorn so Stupendous a Subject. When thy Song, shall be Creation, Sing also the astonishing Funeral of so considerable a Globe in the Creation. The Inimitable Monuments of thy Erecting, are such as nothing but another Flood can damnify!
What remains, is, That the view of the Rainbow calls us to look back upon the Desolation which the Flood once brought upon a Well-peopled World. Well-peopled, I may say; For considering the Longevity of the Antediluvians, it is not unlikely, That more People Perished in the Flood, than there be now alive in the World. Suppose a Man to have Children, at sixty years of Age, and only in the next forty years to have Twenty Children. Single out now the shortest Liver of any mentioned, Except Enoch, before the Flood; and from that one Stock of Seven hundred years, multiplying still by Twenty, you'l find the produce to be more than One thousand, three hundred, and forty seven Millions; More People than are now Alive on the face of the Earth. And yet, I must also say, Ill-peopled. For it was, The World of the Ungodly. A World wherein, Gen. VI. 11, 12. The Earth was corrupt before God, and the Earth was [Page 15] filled with Violence. God Looked upon the Earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all Flesh had corrupted His way upon the Earth. Behold then, to what our Meditation shall carry us, on this occasion.
O Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty. The Sin of Mankind once Provoked thee, to destroy a World of Men, with a dreadful Flood of thy Wrath; and with them, to destroy all the works of their Hands; to destroy the Creatures also, which by their Sin were Perverted and Polluted unto other Purposes, than those for which thou hadst created them. I see, I see, Thou art of Purer Eyes, than to behold Evil, and thou canst not Look upon Iniquity. Oh! the Evil of Sin! Oh! what a Destroying Evil! My God, Affect me with deep Apprehensions of that Monstrous Evil. Oh! let me not be one of the Fools, that shall make Light of such a Matchless Evil. Make me most Particularly afraid of the Sins, which were most reigning among the Antediluvian Sinners; Afraid of that Intemperance, that Unchastity, that Oppression and Injustice, for which the Generation of Sinners before the Flood, are branded in thine Oracles. Oh! Do not leave me to do those abominable Things, which are hated by thy Soul, O my God!
The Second MEDITATION.
The Great GOD, will not have this World, tho' a very Sinful one, to be drown'd any more; nor His Church in the World. This is the COVENANT, which our God has made with the Earth; and the Rainbow is the Sign and Seal to the Covenant. We should thankfully Remember it, as often [Page 16] as we see the Rainbow, and Say; Blessed be our Gracious and Merciful and Long-suffering Lord, who hath Swarn, that the Waters of Noah shall go over the Earth no more!
Before I go any further, I Suppose, it will be Expected; that we a little Consider that noted Question.
Whether there were any Rainbow before the Flood?
I answer two things. First; There is nothing in Scripture, no, nor Nature neither, to assure us, that there was. We are not sure, that the Constitution of the Air, and of the Clouds, before the Flood, was the same, that it was afterwards. We are sure, that the Flood brought a Marvellous Alteration on the World; probably on the Air, as well as on the Earth. Doubtless the New Constitution of the Air, was that which had a Share in changing the Constitution of our Bodies, till there came on that Abbrevation of Humane Life, which we are now brought unto. Dr. Jackson argues, That if other Natural Causes depend upon the Final, which we are taught in the Scriptural Philosophy, we may well think, that the Air before the Flood, had not the peculiar Disposition, which is required unto the Production of the Rainbow; which then had not such an End, as that for which it is now Employ'd by the Glorious God. It is now a Messenger, that Reports and Confirms unto the New World, the Covenant of God, for the Preservation of it. If it had been a common appearance unto the Old [Page 17] World, it would scarce have appeared now with so Confirming and Comforting an Efficacy, to Noah and his timerous Posterity.
But then, Secondly; Tho' Aben Ezra thinks there was no Rainbow before the Flood, and many Christians also deny the Antediluvian Existence of it; yet very many will say with my Learned Helvetian, Oppido falluntur; They are very much mistaken. The Army of them, who Engage on this side, will have no less than a Great Calvin, for a Standard-bearer. The Lord speaks not of the Rainbow as a New Thing; He seems to speak of it, as a Thing that had been already placed in the Clouds; I have set my Bow in the Cloud. He invites us rather to Look on the New Use which He assigns unto it. Suppose a Rainbow before the Flood. Why, so 'tis in all our Sacramental Elements. The Water, the Bread, the Wine, that are used in our Sacraments did Exist before; This is no prejudice to the Sacramental Importance, which they carry with them, after a Consecration from Heaven for that purpose on them. To this purpose Danaeus in his Physice Christiana, says, To conclude from the Sacramental Importance of the Rainbow, that there was no such thing before the Flood, is no other, quam si quis Bov [...]s ante Sacrificia Lege Mos [...]s praescripta, vel Aquam ante Baptismum non fuis [...] Colligat.
I return to my Meditation
The Rainbow is Expresly called. A Token of the Covenant. One would suspect, the Pagant [Page 18] had some Notion of this; when they would have this Meteor to be, Internuncia Deorum, the Messenger of the Gods. With Homer 'tis, [...], as if one should say, An Angel of the Covenant. He represents Iris therefore, as being sent with a peremptory Command unto Neptune, that he should not aid the Graecians; doubtless, by the Swelling of the Waters. The Name Iris, perhaps may be from [...], i. e. [...]. Or, from the Chaldee, Ir, an Angel.
Some will have the Rainbow, to be a Token of the Covenant, which may be called, Quedammodo Naturale; inasmuch as it is only seen, when the Clouds are so thin, as to give no Apprehensions of Showers enough to make another Flood. Valesius accordingly says, Qui enim possit, cum ne (que) Caelum totum Obductum nubibus sit ne (que) quae adsunt sunt valde densae? Thus Aquinas, and Cajetan, and Cardan; Thus among the Hebrews, R. Levi Ben Gerson; who is also followed by Vossius. But some will hardly allow the Expression; because the Flood was not accomplished by meer Showers; but with some Supernatural Circumstances. The Rainbow they will have to be a Token of the Covenant purely by Institution. And with very much of Reason, if the Prognostications of the [...], the Pluvius Vates, (as the Rainbow was of old called) be as Uncertain as Pliny would make them; Nam ne pluvios quidem, aut Serenos Dies, cum Fide portendunt. And yet we can't but own there is in the Rainbow some sort of Analogy, with the Covenant, [Page 19] whereof it is Instituted for a Token; whereof one point is this; The Rainbow is Naturally a Token, that the Rains will not be Great, nor Long; and that Fair Weather is anon to be Look'd for. Bodin speaks the Sense of the usual Prognostications on the Appearance of the Rainbow; Certissimum est Argumentum, Imbres fore Leviores. 'Tis therewithal a most agreeable and Symbolical Token, that the World shall not be any more so Destructively, as once it was, Rained upon. Look upon it accordingly; and say upon it; Oh! the Patience of our God! Tho' the Earth deserve as much as ever, to be drown'd, for the Wickedness of Mankind upon it, yet thou sparest it, O Lord, and thou hast promised, that thou wilt still do so.
But then, I propose, that our Thoughts go on to Consider, on whose, and on what Account the World comes to be so spared by the Lord.
When the Lord says unto Noah, With thee will I establish my Covenant, it is a Remark of Munster upon it; That this refers to the Covenant made at the Beginning, about the Promised Seed, that was to break the Old Serpents Head. This Covenant is now Renewed and Assured unto Noah; who now being satisfied, That the Messiah was to descend from him, he could no longer doubt, that God would have a Church continued among his Posterity. Accordingly, When we think on the Preservation of the World, promised with the Rainbow, it should be with such Thoughts as these; Tis for thy sake, O our [Page 20] Saviour, that such a Sinful World is preserved. O Just One, Thou art the Everlasting Foundation that the World stands upon! Oh! What shall we do for thee, and for thy Service, Thou Preserver of Men! The Name of Nazarene, signifies, A Preserver. Our JESUS of Nazareth, is our Glorious Nazarene.
And then, as it is well remark'd by Heidegger; The CHURCH of God has a singular, a peculiar Concernment, in this Covenant of the Rainbow. The Churches coming to Righteousness by the Messiah, and so the Inheritance of the Righteous, lies Enwrapped in it. And that passage, Neither shall all Flesh be cut off, carries an Intimation, that God will become the God of All Nations, and bring some of All Nations into His Kingdom. Indeed, the Preservation of all Creatures, is for the sake of the Church. All is yours! It was no mistake in Ferus; Pactum cum Noe Prefiguravit Faedus Christi cum Ecclesia. But he might have said more than so. Indeed, The Signification of the Rainbow is to be so Summed up; ‘That there shall not come another Universal Flood upon the World; but that God will preserve a Church in the World; and make it Righteous, & bring it to Inherit the World; and all this, for the sake of the Messiah, whom we find afterwards appearing with a Rainbow about Him.’
Our Saviour has a People in the World; A People, that believe in Him; that follow His Conduct; that in the way of Obedience to [Page 21] Him, Look for a Resurrection from the Dead, unto the Blessedness of a Better World. He will always have such a People. All the Powers of Darkness have been always carrying on a Design to Extinguish this People, and Leave no true Church of our Saviour in the World. This Catholick Church has been the Torment of the Devil, the Envy and Eye-sore of his Children; both his Invisible and his Incarnate Legions. Horrible Floods of the Ungodly have often threatned the Ruine of the Church; Floods of Corruptions; Floods of Haeresies; Floods of Persecutions. If our Great Saviour had not laid a strange Restraint upon them, there had not been Left any true Church upon Earth. If the Lord had not been on our side, may the Faithful now say, If the Lord had not been on our side, the Waters had overwhelmed us, the Streams had gone over our Soul. There are marvellous Repetitions of that Observation; The Wrath of Hell does but Praise the Lord, and the Remainder of that Wrath does He Restrain! Hence, When the Church-state has been Deserted, Betrayed, Quite gone, in one place; and the Children of the Kingdom have Sinned it away, and Sinned themselves into Outer Darkness, it has been produced immediately in another place; the Kingdom has been translated unto Other People, that have brought forth the Fruits thereof. This, This is the Voice of the Rainbow unto us, Be Encouraged, O People of God: Let things Look never so dismally, your Saviour will have a [Page 22] Faithful People in the World: He will come down from the Machin of Heaven where you now see this Rainbow, and rescue His Church, when things come to an Extremity, and it Looks as if its Help were gone; and as if there were none shut up or left. Sirs, What can we now do, but return that Joyful Echo; Lord, I believe thy Promise for thy People; Oh! Let me be one of that Holy People.
It may be Enquired, How far this Faith may be Exercised, with Relation to any Particular Church, which may have any Floods assaulting and hazarding of it; How far the Promise may be applied unto this or that Particular Church in the Dangers of it? It must be sadly confessed; Some Churches are utterly Drown'd in the Floods which the Divine Indignation pours in upon them. Every one of those that are mentioned in our Bible, alas, Every one of them have been so. All of those many Thousands that once were in Asia, and in Africa, have been so. Several Thousands in Europe, even in our Dayes have been so. But we may say, Never, until the Covenant of God has been grievously neglected, shamefully despised in them. Let there be a Godly People in a Church, and let these Humbly plead with God, His Covenant, and represent His Rainbow before Him, in the Distresses of that Church; and let the Duties of the Covenant then be Livelily Prosecuted there. Then! That Church will be that House, whereof we read, The Rain descends, the Floods come, and the Winds blow, and beat upon the House; and it falls not, for it is founded on a Rock.
The Third MEDITATION.
A Glorious CHRIST! How can I Look to Heaven at any Time, and especially NOW! without ravishing Thoughts of Him and of His Glories! The Rainbow will many wayes put us in mind of our Admirable Saviour. He would not have appeared with a Rainbow about Him, as He did in the Visions both of Ezekiel and of John, if He did not intend that the Rainbow should Lead us to think of Him. Shall we say, That the Covenant on which our Eternal Safety depends, is made with our Saviour? Tis verily so; The Agreement is between God the Father, and our Saviour. He is our Head; We are nothing but what we are in Him. Shall we go on to say, That all the Good Engaged unto us in the Covenant of our Safety, is owing to our Saviour? Tis verily so; Our Saviour is the Purchaser of it all; the Dispenser of it all. The Rainbow is the Proclamation of, A God Reconciled unto the Children of Men. Iris is related unto [...]. 'Tis our JESUS that is the Author of the Reconciliation. We read, 2 Cor. V. 19. Of, God in CHRIST, Reconciling the World unto Himself. At the View of the Rainbow, this were a very proper Acknowledgment; 'Tis by thy Mediation, O our dear Saviour, that the Great GOD becomes Reconciled unto us!
I will proceed; There are some, who would find in the Rainbow it self, some Intimations of [Page 24] the Glories belonging to our Saviour. In the Sun begetting of the Rainbow, some would read a little of that incomprehensible Mystery, The only begotten Son of God. In the Three Colours (for of old, they counted no more) of the Rainbow, others would read, the Three Offices of our Great Redeemer. But these are Strains that I would not insist upon; and I would not Look upon the Clouds too fancifully. One would rather Consider the Sun, as an Emblem of our Saviour; that wonderful Sun of Righteousness. And here, tho' I am somewhat gratified, with a Good Thought, which I find in a Sermon, Of the Rainbow, Preached by Mr. Bourn, almost an hundred years ago; ‘This Bow is in the Clouds; the further we are from it, the less beautiful, and glorious does it appear; and so, the further we are from Jesus Christ, by our Corruption, and our Continuance and Impenitence in Sin, the less beautiful, and glorious, and excellent will He appear unto us: But the nearer we approach to Him, in Faith and Holiness, the more Glorious will He be to us, and the more Earnestly shall we Long to Enjoy Him.’ Yet I would rather chuse to turn it so; the Cloud, by Receiving Beams from the Sun, & Reflecting of them, how Beautiful an Appearance is there now produced on it? Lord, Let the Beams of my Saviour fall upon me. Let me receive His Knowledge; Let me reflect His Image; Let me be under His Impressions; I cannot ask for a greater Glory! I remember [Page 25] it was of old given as the Commendation of a Famous and Useful man; Ecclesiast. L. 7. He was as the Rainbows giving Light in the Bright Clouds. The way to arrive unto such a Glory is to get near, and keep near our Admirable Saviour; to hold Communion with Him, and to be under His Influences. The more a CHRIST is Entertained by any man, the more Glorious is He!
But then, I will take Leave, to fetch from the Rainbow, an Instruction of the Humility, that such a man will be adorned withal. The most Learned man perhaps (I take him to have been so) that ever was in the world, was himself a bright Instance of his own Observation, in his, Theologia Naturalis. The Higher the Sun, the Lesser the Rainbow. So, Quo Altior est Sol Justitiae Deus in Cordibus nostris, Et quo plura in nos Confert Dona, eo minores esse debemus, Et [...] debemus Superbire. The Higher a Glorious CHRIST is with us, and in us, and the more He does for us, the Smaller must we be in our own Eyes; it will Humble us, and Abate our Pride most wonderfully!
The Fourth MEDITATION.
Tho' a Watery Flood that may drown the World, is no more to be fear'd, yet there is a Fiery Flood, for the depredations whereof a miserable World is growing horribly combustible. There is a Desolation to come on this Lower World, which the Writings [Page 26] of the Ancients mention under the Name of, Diluvium Ignis; a Fiery Flood. Some think, the Heathen themselves had some Notion of this, Lying under the Embers of their Fable, that made Pyrrha, (a Name that carries, Fire in it,) the Wife of their Deucalion. Tis well-known, that their Philosophers tell of, an, [...], or, Conflagration, which the World is one day to undergo. The Oracles of the Sacred Scripture have positively declared it; 2 Pet. III. 7. The Heavens and Earth which are now, be reserved unto Fire, against the Day of Judgment, and Perdition of Ungodly Men. And some read it, in the very Colours of the Rainbow; as plainly Legible there as ever it could be upon Seths Pillars of old: The Watery Colour Leads them, to think on the Water which once destroy'd the World. The Grassy Colour Leads them, to think on the Day of Patience which God now allows unto the World, to bring forth Fruit unto Him: The Fiery Colour Leads them to think, on that Fire which is e're long to consume the World. Be that as it will; It is most certain from our Prophecies of a Divine Inspiration, (and there can be no Colour for the Infidelity that questions it,) That the World which was once Drowned, is e're long to be Burned. By Fire will the Lord plead with all Flesh, and the Slain of the Lord shall be many. 'Tis true, In the Circumstances of the Conflagration to be Expected, there are Some things hard to be understood. It seems that the Descent of our Saviour, at, and for the Destruction [Page 27] of Antichrist, and the Beginning of the Blessed Millennium, will not be without a Conflagration. Then, Our God shall come, and a Fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very Tempestuous round about Him. Then a Fire shall go before the Lord, that shall burn up His Enemies round about, and Lightnings will Enlighten the World, and the Earth shall tremble, and the Hills melt like Wax, at the presence of the Lord. But it looks as if this Conflagration would be Partial & Progressive. The first and main Effects of it, will be on the Italian Territories. And a Total Consumption of the whole world is not as yet to be accomplished. The Things then to come on, are those whereof we have those Acclamations; Let the Earth be Glad, Let the Field be Joyful, Let all the Trees of the Wood Rejoyce. A Total Consumption of them, could not be proposed as that wherein they might be Glad, and be Joyful, and Rejoyce. No; the Earnest expectation of the Creature, waiting for the manifestation of the Sons of God, is now to be accomplished. That for which the Whole Creation groaneth, even to be brought into the glorious Liberty of the Children of God, is now to be accomplished. The worst that can then be supposed, is what Salonius of old, Express'd as the Sense of many more; Caelum et Terra transibunt per Meliorationem, non per Oblationem. Renovabuntur, non penitus distruentur. Tantum quippe ardebit Sursum, et Terra deorsum, quantum malitia hominum simul et Daemonum Coinquinare potuit. Yea, who can tell, but the Century is now begun, that [Page 28] shall see this tremendous Revolution? I am sure, An Old Tradition, that the Rainbow shall cease to appear, forty years before the End of the World, is a poor security to be relied upon.
But then, there seems to be a Consummation of all things, that must arrive, after a Number of Ages known to God alone. And, if there must come upon this World, a Substantial Destruction, it seems to be reserved until those Unknown Ages be rolled about, and the Great Day of Judgment has had Every Work brought into it.
There are many passages of this Importance, in the Writers of Primitive Christianity; That the World shall [...] suffer a Dissolution. In Justin Martyr, in Irenaeus, in Lactantius, there are many such passages. Tis enough to recite the words of Hippolitus. Fluvius igneus Egrediens, cum furore, instar maris saevi, exuret Montes et Colles, et Mare delebit ac aethera velut Ceram inflammatione dissolvet. Yea, there are Praesages of this thing, in the Writing of Pagan Antiquity. The Sibylline Oracles have it.
[Page 29]And again,
Justin quotes Verses of Sophocles, that foretel a Conflagration wherein All things will be utterly destroy'd, and neither Earth nor Sea, shall be found any where any more. Clemens Al. quotes Verses of Diphilus, that Sing the same Ditty. Ovid also tells us,
Yea, the Wicked Lucretius himself suspects, ‘Una Dies dabit Exitium.’
Indeed, with the Stoicks it was a common Expectation.
I resume the proposal I was upon; Let the Rainbow bring to our Thoughts, the Circumstances of the Terrible Day, when all these things shall be dissolved. But at the same time, Oh! Let our Hearts be taken and weaned, from the Things of a World, which an hideous Fire shall one Day sieze upon. Let us not be bewitched with a World, that shall one Day be Burned. Think, and wish, at this rate. O my God, Let me have my Portion in those Durable Blessings, which the Last Fire can't reach unto; O my Saviour, I commit my self unto thee for my Safety in the Day when the Last Fire shall carry all before it.
A Fifth Article.
Fifthly and Finally, I will present you with a whole Cluster of MEDITATIONS, which the Rainbow will very agreeably produce in a Serious Mind; and many of them, (which you will see when I mention them,) such as it has already produced, in the Pens of the Servants of God.
And here, first; I do not ask you, to fall into Basils Meditation; who, when he saw (for at that time of day, they would see no more,) the Rainbow appearing in Three Colours, but One Bow, applied it unto the Doctrine of the Trinity; Three Persons, but One God. Christian, To Converse with the Great GOD, and very distinctly with each of the Three Persons in the God-head, is the very distinguishing Spirit and Glory of Christianity. May this part of the Divine Asceticks be more Studied a more Practised! I confess, the Rainbow will do a Good Office, if it Excite such a Study and Practice; tho' this be not the Office it was firstly intended for.
Nor Secondly, was it intended for a Representation of our Three Graces; Faith, and Hope, and Love. Yet I find some, drawn from the Three Colours which were all that Antiquity distinguished in the Rainbow into a Tropological Meditation on the Three Graces. And it will do us no Hurt on this Occasion, to lift up our [Page 31] Hearts unto the God of all Grace, with our Supplications; Lord, Let me have an Holy Faith, and Hope, and Love, ever shining in my Soul!
It has been on all hands agreed, That in the Rainbow, we have, the Mercy of our God, in Lively Colours Painted out unto us. And some will more Particularly have the Three Colours of Red, and Green, and Blue, in the Rainbow, to intimate the sweet Mixture of Justice and Mercy, accomplished by the Blood of the Covenant. But it is a Prejudice to those Niceties, that the Colours of the Rainbow are more than Three, This however, may, Thirdly, be a very Proper Meditation on the Sight of the Rainbow. It Proclames the Mercy of God unto a Sinful World. Yea, how Emblematically! It was noted by Ambrose of old; That our God sayes, I will put my Bow in the Cloud. He sayes nothing of any Arrows. Tis a Bow without Arrows. When we see this Bow, let us then call to mind the Mercy of our God; and with a Grateful Soul acknowledge, Lam. III. 22. It is of the Lord's Mercies, that we are not Consumed; because His Compassions fail not. Indeed as the Rainbow is formed in a Cloud, (which Commenius observes,) a Luce in millies millenis diffluentu Nubis Guttulis div [...]rsimode reflexa: the Mercies of our God unto us, are far more than the Drops in that Cloud. Lord, How great is the Sum of them!
The Mercy of God, holds out the Rainbow, like the Scepter of old, and invites the worst of men, to come in unto Him, with an Exercise of [Page 32] true Repentance. He sayes to the Rainbow, as in Jer. III. 12, 13. Go, and Proclaim these words, and say, Return, and I will not cause my Anger to fall upon you, for I am Merciful, saith the Lord: Only acknowledge thine Iniquity.
But then, there are two Circumstances of the Rainbow, that carry much Admonition in them. And there also, are to be taken into your Meditation.
First. The Bow is only to be seen above the Earth. Accordingly, tis only in this Life, and while we are yet above the Earth, that we have our Opportunity to lay Hold on the Offered Mercy of God. Lord, They that go down into the Pit, cannot hope for thy Truth.
Secondly, Tho' the Bow has no Arrows upon it, yet the Impenitent will find, the Great GOD, has His Quiver full of them. The Great God has Treasures of Wrath, and fearful Reserves of Plagues for the Impenitent. He sayes, I will heap Mischiefs upon them, I will spend my Arrows upon them.
I pass on, to take notice, in the Fourth place; of some Lessons which the Rainbow may give us, concerning the Covenant and the Kingdom of our Saviour. Some of the most Judicious Men in the World, and such as have been the farthest from indulging and humouring a roving Fancy, have ye noted such Things as these. The Rainbow never fills a Circle, nor makes more than a Semicircle. The Kingdom of our Lord in His Church, has in this thing a Picture [Page 33] of it. It is part on Earth; part Above. Our Saviour was on Earth when He Suffered for us, and began His Kingdom; He went up from Earth to Heaven; and will come down from Heaven to Earth again. The Afflictions attending the Kingdom of our Lord in the World, and the Enemies not yet all wholly subdued, make the Condition of a Semicircle too agreeable unto it. The Circle will not be filled up, till the Kingdom shall be delivered up unto the Father, and God shall become All in All.
And since the Rainbow is not a Perfect Circle, if Moreover the Servants of God are Warned from thence, of the Imperfection, which will attend all Sublunary Things, we shall but go on to make an Improvement thereof, that some Wise Men have made before us. Look upon the Rainbow that wants Perfection, [its nearness to the Earth allows it not!] and say, I have Seen an End of all Perfection!
But, Finally, Let our Meditation carry us over, to another World, that has it. The Excellent Alsted advises us, from the Rainbow, to form a Meditation, of the Glory that shall be imparted by our Saviour, to our Bodies, at the Resurrection of the Dead. After this manner he gives us the Noble Reflection. Si Deus per Solem in Nubibus Excitat tam Splendidum Meteorum, multo magis ipse tanquam [...] Justitiae in Corporibus [Page 34] nostris aliquando Progignet admirabilem Splendorem. Our Saviour fetching up our Bodies into the Heavenly Places, will shine upon them, and communicate a Glory beyond that of the Rainbow to them; a Glory wherein, being Changed into the likeness of His Glorious Body, they shall Shine like the Brightness of the Firmament; Yea, Shine like the Sun, in the Kingdom of our Father.
THE Saviour with His Rainbow.
The SAVIOUR with His Rainbow. At BOSTON-Lecture. 12. d. 5. m. 1711.
A Rainbow was upon his Head.
IT is the Head of your admirable Saviour, which, O Distressed People of God, now appears before you. Oh! Behold it, with sweet Encouragements; with just Astonishments! The Head about which we now see the comfortable Rainbow, is thy Head, O thou Church of the Living God; It is HE, whom God has Placed as thy Head, and thou thy Self hast chosen Him, hast owned Him.
When you see what it is that this Mighty Angel comes down from Heaven to do; That He comes with a loud Voice to proclame the End of the Time for the Reign of Sin and Satan in the World, and make a Demand of this Lower World, for the Kingdom of the Great Redeemer, how, how can you forbear a loud Voice of Supplications▪ Great God, Send this Mighty Angel [...] wrong [...]
The Servant of God had seen the Face of the [Page 38] Roman Empire, down as Low as the conclusion of the Saracen Oppressions, and the Turkish Hostilities; the very Period unto which we are now certainly arrived. Then there appears unto him, a Mighty Angel, in so Stately and so Splendid a Pomp, that many Interpreters can hardly allow Him to be any less a Person than our Great Saviour Himself. He appears to Exhibit a New Scene of things Marvellous and very Amazing. And if this be the Period for the Appearance of such an Angel, I do a very Seasonable Thing this Day, in Showing Him among you. I dispute not, whether this Angel be our Saviour Himself, because He descends with a Glory too big and bright for any Creature; Or, whether He be a Created Angel; For, if He be so, yet He comes in the Name of our Saviour; and He comes with a Representation of that Glory, which belongs to none but our Saviour.
The Design of the Descent made by this Mighty Angel, is, to foretel, and bring on, a wonderful Reformation of the World. If he appears in a Cloud, this must not be wondred at. There is a Super-celestial Cloud, which from the Beginning has been Employ'd as a Symbol, and a Cover for the Majesty of our God, in His Appearance. Not only the Israelites, who were favoured sometimes with an actual view of something that belong'd unto that vast Cloud; but even the Pagans also, and their Poets, had some Tradition of it.
There is an Intimation in it, that there will be Unsearchable Circumstances, Unsearchable Dispensations, [Page 39] in His Appearances. And if thou wilt come unto us in Cloudy Times, O Glorious Lord, Thy will be done: Yet, Even so come unto us!
The only Thing that we now Single out for consideration, is that Particular Glory of our Appearing Saviour; A Rainbow was upon his Head. The Rainbow is a well-known Meteor, often beheld, but not with Eyes Devout enough, among us in the Day of Rain. Perhaps, there is nothing in all the Meteorous Kingdom so very Beautiful. Such is the Beauty of the Meteor, that while the Heathen Mythology made it, The Daughter of Wonderment, Cicero makes it a matter of Wonderment that it was not Lifted in the Number of their Gods. Let those declaim on this Beauty, who can fetch a Text from the Son of Sirach, that sayes, Look on the Rainbow, and Praise Him that made it; very Beautiful it is in the Brightness thereof. That which it becomes us most of all to Ponder, is, That the Sovereign Creator of the World, has in His Wisdom Stamp'd a Sacramental Character on the Rainbow; He has Instituted the Rainbow, for a Sign, and Seal, of His Covenant with the World. All Christians are apprised of the Signification which the Ninth Chapter of Genesis, has left upon the Rainbow, for our perpetual Consolation; and as our Assurance, that the World shall no more be Drown'd, as it was in the Days of Noah. Wherefore, our Saviour appearing to us, with a Rainbow, about His Head, Proposes to Preach this Joyful Doctrine unto us.
And this is the Doctrine, which I am now to insist upon; I wish you had a more able Barnabas, to insist upon it. My Doctrine, it may drop as the Rain; as the Sweet, and Small Rain from a Cloud, that has a Rainbow brightning of it. We may see Cloudy Times; Yea, we may apprehend such a Flood of Calamity, as will carry all before it; yet now, O People of God; You are a People in Covenant with Him; A Reliance on your Sacrificed Saviour, Secures your Title to His Covenant. O Now Look up to your dear Saviour. See, He appears to you, in your Cloudy Times, with a Rainbow about His Head. He declares unto you, That He will Remember His Covenant; He has not Forgotten to be Gracious. You shall not be Overwhelmed; The Evil Things, which threaten you, shall not be too hard for you. You shall, you shall be Gloriously Delivered.
I. In the first Place, I will show the Rainbow about the Head of a Saviour, unto every Particular Believer on that Faithful Saviour. My Friend, Apply the Glorious Rainbow, to thy own Particular Condition; Thy Saviour invites thee to do so. I will venture to lay this down, as a Rule of Application. ‘The Promises which belong to the whole Church of God, are the Portion of every Particular Believer, and he is [Page 41] welcome to make use of them, as far as ever he can find his own Case adapted in them.’ According to this Golden Rule of Faith, and of Fellowship, I now say; Believer; Dost thou not see Cloudy Times? I know, thou dost: There is no Believer, but what has his Times of Darkness: No Child of Light, but what sometimes Walks in Darkness, and sees no Light. 'Tis often, often the Case of every Believer; Lam. III. 1, 2. I am the man that hath seen Affliction; He hath brought me into Darkness. He cannot understand the meaning of the Divine Dealings with him; he cannot see the Face of God favourably Shining on him; he cannot but fear a sad Issue of the Things which are breaking of him. His Temptations make it the Hour and Power of Darkness with him. He knows not what to do, nor what God intends to do. Perhaps it comes to that Extremity; Lord, Thou hast covered thy self with a Cloud, that my Prayer should not pass through. In so dark a Time, the afflicted Believer is afraid of a Flood that will totally over power him; that he shall perish in his Affliction.
But now, Comfort ye, Comfort ye my Children, saith the Lord. Show my Rainbow unto them; Tell them, that I will be Ever mindful of my Covenant. The Children of God, may be sure, that in Remembrance of His Covenant with them, He will save them from the Floods, which threaten Destruction to them. Only, My Brethren, Be sure that you Remember one Direction; Psal. XXXII. 6. For this shall every [Page 42] one that is Godly pray unto thee, in a Time, when thou mayst be found; Surely in the Floods of Great Waters, they shall not come nigh unto him. [One has thus given us the true sense of it. For this shall every Good man pray, when thou art to be found; And shall be safe in mighty Floods, when other men are drown'd.] I Will first of all show you, what the Comforts are, that May delight and support your Souls, and keep you from Sinking in the multitude of your Thoughts within you; The Comforts to be read in this Rainbow on the Head of your Lovely Saviour.
First. Have you a Flood of Adversity beating on you? Perhaps you may suffer a vast weight of Adversity; Troublesome Occurrences, Innumerable, Irresistble. The Roaring Billows of Adversity rolling in upon you, may make you cry out, Save me, O God, for the Waters are come in unto my Soul, I am come into deep Waters, where the Floods overflow me. Hear the Answer from the Rainbow. Ah, Thou afflicted and tossed with Tempest; Be thou Comforted: Thy Lord will step in and save thee. He will fulfil that Promise of His Covenant unto thee; Isa. XLIII. 2. When thou passest thro' the Waters, I will be with thee, they shall not overflow thee.
Again; Does a Flood of Corruption rise in your Souls? Perhaps, the power of Corruption in you may be such, that you may think, I shall one day perish by the Hand of such or such a Sin! Lust may so prevail against Grace, that you can see no hope of Grace ever getting the Upperhand. [Page 43] O Soul, Mourning because of the Oppression of an Adversary that provoketh thee sore▪ Mourn on, Mourn on; And then know, that the Spirit of God will dry up those cursed Waters. Tho' thy Grace be but a Spark, yet many Waters shall not quench it, neither the Floods drown it. Thy Saviour will fufil unto thee that promise of His Covenant; Rom. VI. 14. Sin shall not have Dominion over you.
Furthermore; In the Assaults of Hell upon your Souls, does the Enemy come in like a Flood upon you? It may be the Powers of Darkness are pouring in upon you. Your Tempted Souls are exceedingly born down; disordered with hideous Injections; terrified at the Noise of the Water spouts. Yet, O Molested Christian; Thy Saviour, hath Set Bars to the Tempter; & said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further, and here shall thy proud Waves be staid. That promise of His Covenant shall be fulfilled unto thee, 1 Cor. X. 13. God is faithful who will not suffer you to be Tempted above what you are able.
Once more; We read concerning The Floods of the Ungodly. Sometimes the Servants of God, are uneasy at the Power, the Number, the Malice of Men that are disaffected unto them. If they are Engaged in more notable Services for God, they may be Exposed unto the Rage of Wicked and Restless Men, which may make them afraid, left their Serviceableness be utterly Extinguished. There may be Times wherein Hell may be Evidently and Furiously broke Loose upon them. The foaming Waves of Hell, may dash, & beat [Page 44] against them, and make a Noise that reaches up to Heaven. Times when the Workers of Iniquity do as it were make an Insurrection, and bend their Bows to shoot their Arrows, even bitter words. How accommodated a Rainbow for such Times! What is the way, which, O Lord, thou knowest thy Servants use to take, in such Storms as these! They repair humbly, with Repentance, with Prayers, and with Tears, to their Compassionate Saviour. All their Opportunities to Do Good, they put into His Gracious Hands. Lo then, then! they see the Rainbow about the Head of their Strong Friend in the Heavens concerned for them. He sends this Advice unto them, and the Promise is fulfill'd unto the surprize of all wise Observers; Isa XLI. 10, 11. Fear thou not, for I am with thee; Behold, all they that were Incensed against thee, shall be ashamed, and confounded. This, this was the Ancient Experience. The Floods of Ungodly men made me afraid. In my Distress I called upon the Lord, & cried unto my God. He drew me out of the many waters; He delivered me from them which hated me!
Finally; The Fate of Mankind, under the Law of Mortality, is thus described unto us; Psal. XC. 5. Thou carriest them away as with a Flood. Believer, Thou also must in thy Fathers Time for it, be Carried away. Death, Death, is unavoidable. But thy Head is always above Water; Thou shalt not always ly among the Dead. The Quickning Spirit of that Head will fetch out of the Grave, all that belong unto Him. When the Black Waters of Death have Compassed thee about, [Page 45] and the Depth has Clos'd thee round about, and thou art gone down to the Bottom of the Mountains; thou shalt not have cause to complain, The Earth with its Bars is about me for ever! No, Thou wilt bring up our Life from Corruption, we know it, we know it, O Lord our God. Ah, Dying Believer; Thy Saviour who was once Dead, is Risen from the Dead. On the Rainbow about His Head, O Read what is written; Behold, I am alive, and I live for evermore. Because I live, thou shalt also live. Heaven, that high Seat of the Rainbow, yea, an higher Heaven shall be the Seat of the Raised Believer too. The Risen Saviour will infallibly Raise the Believer. Child of God, Thy Sin has wash'd thee over-board. O cruel Wave! It layes thee in the Deeps. But the Hand of thy Kind Saviour will take thee up;— will pull thee up, and show wonders to the Dead;— Thou shalt Rise, and Praise Him! †
[Page 46]I will go on, and show you, Secondly; Some special Seasons, wherein you will do Exceeding well, to make use of these Comforts. And there are Especially Two such Seasons, that I will commend unto you. I shall sensibly Serve the cause of Piety, by commending of them.
First. On the Sight of the Natural Rainbow, these comfortable Meditations on the Covenant of God, and of Grace, will be very Seasonable. It is a real Fault in the People of God, that they can be Spectators of the Rainbow, with no more Proper, Holy, Heavenly Thoughts, produced in their Souls; A very Faulty Unthankfulness to our Great Saviour, who has placed it as His Bow in the Clouds, and said unto us, O my dear People, Do you Look upon that, as the Memorial of my Covenant! The Gospel of the Rainbow, is truly, One of the Desiderata, among the Subjects that should be cultivated in the Church of God. At present, I will only say; The Covenant with our Father Noah, whereof we have the Rainbow, for an Obsignation, had such an Aspect upon the Messiah, that we may fairly be led by the Rainbow, to Remember the whole Covenant of Grace, in all the Very Great and Precious Promises of it. Concerning the Covenant which God has made with our Saviour, for the Redemption of His People; we read, Psal. LXXXIX 37. It shall be Established, as the Faithful Witness in Heaven. By the Faithful Witness in Heaven, is meant, The Rainbow. Well then; when we have that Comely Work of God before our Eyes, Let us [Page 47] Entertain such Thoughts as these; ‘May a Glorious CHRIST be my Saviour, and my Surety, how Happy, how Happy, am I! My Sins will be cast into the Depths of the Sea; I shall not my self be cast thither for them. O my Soul, Be not thou cast down. Be not afraid of all thy Sorrows; Thy Lord will not leave thee to Sink in any of thy Sorrows. Tho' the Grave do Swallow me up, Oh! Let me not Fear to go down into the Grave; My Lord will Bring me up again! I see a Faithful Witness in Heaven, that puts me in Mind of an Established Covenant for such Blessings of Goodness.’
Secondly. When we see the Baptism of the Lord administred, these Meditations may be very Seasonably awakened. It is no small Advantage, to be minded of the Covenant, which our God has made with our JESUS for us, and with us, in our JESUS. We are minded of this Covenant after an Excellent Manner, by the Administration of Baptism in our Congregations. God Sanctifies the Sight of this Administration, as well as the other Ordinances in the Assembles of Zion; and it is a Profane Folly to make light of a thing which God uses for an Instrument of so much Good unto the Souls of Men. As in any Sprinkled Water, the Light easily causes a sort of a Rainbow, so in the Baptismal Water, we see the Rainbow about our Saviour; He there and thence calls to the Beholders; O my People, I will be ever mindful of my Covenant! Let our Glad Souls be Sensible of this. I mention it the [Page 48] rather, because I find, 1 Pet. III. 19. Baptism is made the Antitype of the Flood; unto which the Rainbow has Relation. The Old Man in us, is like the Old World; under a Curse. The Blood of our Saviour washing away the Guilt of our Sin; and the Spirit of our Saviour taking away the Life of our Sin; are both of 'em compared unto Waters. By these Waters, the Old Man is destroy'd in our Souls, as the Old World was by the Flood. The New Man, like Noah in the Ark, is by these Waters, Raised up, and brought nearer to God. In this Way tis, that the Blessings of the Covenant become our Portion. Sirs; When you see a Person Baptised in our Congregations; then think! ‘O that Blessed Covenant! According to that, only my Sin shall be drowned; But I my self shall be Raised unto the nearest communion with Heaven. Yea, a Resurrection from the Dead will be bestowed upon me!’
But thus I Leave every Particular Believer to his own Meditations, on his own share in the Covenant of God.
II. I am now to tell you, What a Messenger [Excuse and Indulge me if I make Reprisals of the Term, A Messenger] of Happy Tidings, the Rainbow about the Head of the Saviour, is unto the Church in general, unto the whole Church of the Living God upon Earth.
The Covenant of God, for the Continuance of His Church in this World, and its Fruition of Blessedness in a New World; this was included in [Page 49] the Covenant made with our Patriarch after the Flood. Our Holy God never gave the Rainbow for a Token, that He would preserve a World, only to be a Rendezvouz of Traitors & Rebels: a Field for none but Wicked People to graze upon. The Preservation of the World, is, that so our Saviour may have an Elect People here Prepared for Him, and that anon there may come on a Revolution wherein the Whole Earth shall be filled with that People, and His Kingdom. You should Read this Glorious Thing written on the Rainbow with Capitals! And hence this Covenant of God, is Engrossed in those Terms; Isa. LIV. 9, 10. This is as the Waters of Noah unto me; for as I have sworn, that the Waters of Noah should no more go ever the Earth, so— my Kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the Covenant of my Peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. We are fallen into Cloudy Times; and, The Floods have Lifted up, O Lord, the Floods have Lifted up their [...]; the Floods lift up their Waves. But we have a Lord with a Rainbow about His Head; and this our Lord is mightier than the mighty Waves of the Sea. You find me using some Expressions in the XCIII Psalm. I will go on, and give you a very Good Gloss on the last verse of that Psalm, which I find in a Late Version of it.
[Page 50]O People of God, and you that have Jerusalem coming into your Minds; Look up, Look up; see a Rainbow about the Head of your Saviour; and hear that ravishing Voice come out of His Mouth; I will take a sufficient Care of my Church in the World. My Covenant for my Church, there shall be no breaking, no failing of it!
And is not this the meaning of that Exibition? Rev. IV. 3. There was a Rainbow round about the Throne. Our JESUS is Enthroned in the Heavens; The Scepter of God is in His Hands; But He will so manage every thing, that His Covenant for the preservation of His Church in the World, shall be most punctually accomplished.
First. I will give you some Reasons why the Rainbow about the Head of our Saviour will not prove an Empty Show; but He will fulfil to His Church, the Covenant of His Mercy. Tis for such Reasons as these.
First. The Blessed God, is a most Faithful God: The God of Truth. Oh! Let our God be True, in our Praises of Him, and Every man a Lyar, that has the least Murmur of His being any other. In the midst of our deepest Lamentations, we must own that thing; Lam. III. 23. Great is thy Faithfulness. He is the Unchangeable One. He makes a Covenant, and He Changes not; Therefore the Church to be preserved according to His Covenant shall not be consumed. His Nature, and His Glory is that; Psal. III. 4, 5. The Lord is Gracious and full of Compassion; He will ever be mindful of His Covenant.
[Page 51]Again; Our Saviour with the Rainbow about His Head, appears before His Father, as well as unto His People. The Eternal Father is the God of our JESUS, He is in Covenant with Him. Our JESUS, is the Head of the Covenant which is made for the People of God; it is made with Him. Our Saviour presents Himself before God, as the Mediator of the Covenant. He pleads the Cause of His Church; He pleads for its Preservation. We are sure of that; Heb. IX. 24. He is gone into Heaven it self, now to appear in the presence of God for us. This Angel with the Rainbow, if He who took not on Him the Nature of Angels, and He who is, Above all Angels, may be ever called, An Angel; He is the Angel of the Covenant; and I will add, He is the Angel of His Presence. In the Presence of the Eternal Father, He makes this Demand; ‘O my Father, my Father; The Church which I have dy'd for, it must, not be Lost; Oh! Let it Live Eternally!’
Lastly. The People of God, they Mind Him of His Covenant; they point Him to His own Rainbow. They are a Praying People. Because they see a Rainbow about the Throne of Heaven, this Emboldens them to Approach the Throne; they come with Boldness unto it, as a Throne of Grace. They lay hold on all the Promises. The Cry of their Incessant Prayer to God is that; Jer. XIV. 21. O Remember, Break not thy Covenant with us. They are a People that also wait upon God in the Sacraments of His Covenant. By attending on the Sacraments, they Celebrate [Page 52] the Covenant of God; they sollicit for the performance of it. Yea, When they see those Commemorations of the Covenant in the Churches of the Lord, they Lift up their Hearts unto Him; O thou Great God, who keepest Covenant and Mercy; Remember thy Covenant of Mercy to thy People! And, I hope, the view of the Rainbow will now more than ever, have the like Improvement with them. The Glorious Hearer of Prayer will take notice of it.
I will proceed Secondly, to set before you, some Articles in the Covenant of Mercy to the Church, which are declared and confirmed unto us, by the Rainbow about the Head of our Merciful Saviour. Be the Times never so Cloudy, and the Floods never so boisterous, never so mountainous, the Church of God, has the Expectations of the Rainbow to Live upon.
They are such as these.
First. The Church cannot be drown'd. The Church of God may read that Motto on the Rainbow; Jer. XLVI. 28. I will not make a full end of thee. Our Saviour will always have a Church, yea, a Visible Church, in the World. Tho' it may fly for some Ages into the Valleys of Piemont, yet even there it shall be Visible. No Flood shall utterly swallow it up. A Number of People visibly Embracing the Truths, and obeying the Laws of the only Saviour, will be always upon the Face of the Earth. We read, Psal. CXXV. 1 Of a Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever. I will not say, This [Page 53] was a Covenant for the Literal Mount Zion; for this has been Removed; the Hill was dug down, with a vast Labour of three years, in the Days of the Maccabaean Simeon. The Jews on certain Accounts of Policy, dug down their Zion with their own Hands. But, O Church of our Blessed JESUS, Thou art that Mount Zion. The most Ancient of all the Mountains, the most Lasting of all the Hills; Eternally Impregnable! No Flood can roll over the Top of the Holy Hill of Zion. There is a word in the BIBLE, which has been as an Ark for the Church of God, in the most Cloudy and Stormy Ages of it; That word, Mat. XVI. 18. I will build my Church, and the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. I Incline to think, that our Saviour alludes to what occurred in the Flood which once Overthrew the Foundations of the Wicked. In that Flood, we read, The Fountains of the Great Deep were broken up; and, The Waters prevailed exceedingly upon the Earth; they prevailed, and the Mountains were covered. Yet the Family of the Just One perished not. Sirs, It will be so! Tho' the Bars of the Bottomless Pit should be broken up, and should pour out a Flood of Mischiefs on the Church, yet there shall not issue out such a Flood from thence, as to drown the Family of our Saviour. The Flood shall not prevail so far as to drown the Church in the World. Our Lord Sits King on the Floods, and sets Bounds to them; they shall not prevail to carry all before them. Had it not been for this Word, the Church had been drown'd in the Days of Dioclesian, [Page 54] when he set up his Pillars, with this Inscription on them, Christiana Superstitione Deleta. Wretch, The Inscription on the Rainbow about the Head of our Saviour, confounded thine! Had it not been for this Word, the Church had been drown'd by the Flood, which the Dragon cast out of his Mouth in the Arian Haeresies; when, The World Sigh'd, that it saw it self become almost entirely Arian. Had it not been for this Word, the Church had been drown'd in the Flood of the Romish Apostasy, at the Latter end of the Fifteenth Century; when there were left One Little Flock of Taborites in their Caves; and these poor Speculani sent four Agents to the several points of the Compass, to find, if it were possible, any pure Church in the World; and they all return'd with a Sorrowful Report, That there was none to be met withal. Were it not for this Word, The Grand Assyrian of this Day would be Master of Europe, and the Religion of Christ be every where Little better of it, than it is in his own Bloody Dominions. But O thou Monster of Baseness, The Daughter of Zion despises thee. And, O thou Troubler of the Nations, A Few Months more shall bring thee down to the Sides of the Pit, and it shall be said by them that Consider thee, Is this the man that shook the Kingdoms of the Earth!
In short▪ The Church of our Saviour must Our live all the Attempts of Earth and Hell against it. The Story of the Church Surviving [Page 55] all the Attempts of its Adversaries in the former Ages, is a wonderful Story. The Threed of the Story shall never be broken off! Our JESUS will have Subjects, His Bible will have Students, His Spirit will have Temples, let all the Devils in Hell do what they can to defeat such Intentions of Heaven. The Saviour with the Rainbow about His Head, will tread on the Head of the Old Serpent; All the Plots in that Bruised Head, shall come to nothing!
Secondly. The most Cloudy Times that pass over the Church of God, have their Mixtures of Mercy, and of Moderation in them. There's a Rainbow; The Clouds of Wrath are not so thick, not so spread, but there is a Sunshine of Mercy with them. If the Floods rise high; yet not so high, that all shall be covered; all overcome. It was a thing proposed; Hab. III 2. O Lord, Revive thy Work in the midst of the years; In wrath remember Mercy. His Church is His Work. In the midst of the Seventy Years assign'd for the Captivity of the Jews, they found a Remarkable savour from the Court of Babylon, in what was done to one who represented them there. This Revived them in the midst of the years; This was Mercy in the midst of Wrath▪ Indeed things may go very bad, with the Church; yet never so Bad, but they might be Worse. O the amazing Supplies of Grace which are sent in unto the Church, under its greatest Languishments▪ There will be at least a battle [Page 56] Reviving. What Ezra of old called, A Little Reviving to set up the House of our God. The Church will find that thing; Psalm LXXVIII. 38. He does not stir up all His wrath. The Church will find, the Saviour with His Rainbow, dealing according to that word; I am with thee, I will correct thee in measure. That word; He stays His Rough Wind, in the Day of the East Wind. The Calamities of the Church, have Glorious Mitigations.
Thirdly. The Church can't be totally Drowned: The World is; But the Flood of Wickedness, which overspreads the Whole World, is going off. We have a sad Account of this wretched World, 1 Joh. V. 19. The whole World lies in Wickedness. Alas, the Whole World is under that Flood, which we find before the Old Flood, and the Cause of it; we ought with unutterable Anguish, to make the Complaint, Behold, the Earth is corrupt before God, and all Flesh has corrupted his way upon the Earth. A Flood of wickedness, has laid Mankind groaning under the Waters. The Exceptions to the Epidemical, the Universal Wickedness of Mankind, are so very few, that we may still Complain, They are all gone aside; they are together become filthy! But, my Brethren; It shall not always be so. The Saviour of Mankind shows Himself unto us with a Rainbow about His Head. It is to inform us, That the Flood of Wickedness in which the World is at this Day buried, shall one day be rolled off. Of the Angel coming down from Heaven with a Rainbow [Page 57] on His Head, we read, He sets His Right Foot on the Sea, and His Left Foot on the Earth. Our Saviour will come to take possession both of the Sea, and of the Earth. He will possess Himself of Mankind, both on the Sea, and on the Earth. He will assert His Dominion both on the Sea, and on the Earth. He will Chain up the Deceiver of the Nations. But, How Long, O Lord, Holy and True, How Long ere thou So come down unto us! There is a Day a coming in which, according to the ancient Prophecies; Psal. XXII. 27. All the Ends of the World shall turn unto the Lord. And, Psal. LXXXVI. 9. All Nations whom thou hast made, shall come and Worship before thee, O Lord, and shall Glorify thy Name. Most certainly, There will come a Day when there shall be more Godly People, than there are now Wicked People in the World. I am certain, God will one day destroy them that Corrupt the Earth; We shall see an Earth wherein shall dwell Righteousness; it shall be filled with Righteous ones. The very first Time, that an Hallelujah occurs in the Sacred Scriptures, it is on this occasion; Psal. CIV. 35. Let the Sinners be consumed out of the Earth, and let the wicked be no more. Hallelujah. There will come a Time, when that Great Hallelujah shall be heard in the World!
Fourthly. Our Great Saviour, the Ruler of the World, aims at the Good of His Church, in all the Changes which He brings upon the World. This, is a very Turneable World; very Changeable. Others besides that King of Egypt, the Great Sesostrys, whom our Bible calls by the Name of Shishak, [Page 58] have seen a Wheel Turning about. Tis a most Elegant and Expressive Hieroglyphick, which our Prophet Ezekiel had of it, in his Vision of the Wheels. There is a Tradition, that Pythagoras invented his, from his Acquaintance with Ezekiels, who was his contemporary. He saw four Wheels. Will you give me leave to Say, That here is a Wheel for each of the Four Great Monarchies. The Last of them is now Turning apace. Our Immortal King is bringing the Wheel over that wicked Empire. Will you give me leave also to Say, That here is a Wheel for each of the Four Quarters of the World? Then besure America must be concerned in the Turning of the Last Wheel; and verily, we find it so to our Wonderment. Well, but who has the Management of all these Wheels? Truly, Our Saviour with a Rainbow about Him? All the Angels in Heaven, who have their uncontroleable Influences on Humane affairs, are but the Officers of our Saviour; they Execute His Orders; they are the Ministers which do His Pleasure. We read how the Wheels are managed; Ezek. I. 26, 28. On the Throne, there was the Appearance of a MAN above upon it: [That MAN, tis our JESUS, tis our JESUS! We know, tis He!] It followes; As the Appearance of the Bow that is in the Cloud in the Day of Rain; [The RAINBOW!] So was the Appearance of the Brightness round about. From our JESUS on the Throne we are now so advertised; ‘O my dear People, I remember my Covenant for you: And in all the Turns which I bring upon the World, I am fulfilling of it!’
[Page 59]This is HE, whom the Disciple that Jesus Loved, had His Allowance to Look upon!
But may We also at this Day, be allowed and advanced unto a View of that Glorious One! Yea, O People Highly favoured of the Lord; unto You does the Saviour with a Rainbow about His Head give that Glorious Call; ‘Behold me, Behold me, O my People; Behold, and Believe my Remembrance of my Covenant, in all the Cloudy Times that are passing over you.’
We are fallen into a Day, whereof we may say, what we read; Zech. I. 15. It is a Day of Trouble and of Distress, a Day of Clouds and of Thick Darkness. Yea, tis a Day wherein the People of God have their Fears, Lest the Waters overwhelm us, lest the Proud Waters go over our Soul. In the midst of these Clouds our Saviour appears to us, with a Rainbow about His Head.
And the first thing, with which I would animate my Brethren, is; That He is Our Head, and we may safely trust Him with Our All. On that Passage; Eccl. II. 14. A wise mans Eyes are in his head, I remember two of the Ancient Gregories, both a Greek one, and a Latin one, have a devout Gloss, which is rather an Allusion than an Exposition; Our Glorious Christ is our Head; and say they, in Him we have our Eyes. This I may very Reasonably say; O Church of the Lord; Thy Eyes are in thy Head; Even in that Head which has the Rainbow about it. His Eyes will be on the Look-out for thy welfare: He will See to the fulfilling of all that His Covenant has engaged for thee.
[Page 60]What tho' there be dismal Clouds! The Clouds gather; Look very dismally; tis true. But, of thy Saviour, thou hast been told, Behold, He cometh with Clouds!
I will go on to say; Tis a dreadful thing unto Good Men, to see such a Death upon all that is Good in the World. Every thing lies Dead: Zeal, tis Dead; Love, tis Cold & Dead; The Life of Religion is gone. A Publick Spirit, its Dead; The Success of the Gospel, seems Dead. Churches, Oh! how Cadaverous are they! What Putrefactions in them! O ye Witnesses of the Lord, you also, are either Dead, or at least have not got off your Grave-Cloathes. And yet, this may the rather be the Time for a Speedy Appearance of our Saviour. It was a Prediction; Mat. XXIV. 28. Wheresoever the Carcase is, there will the Eagles be gathered together. I take it for a Prediction of our Lords coming, with His Gospel, as the Lightning, to Ruine Antechrist, & Reform His People. The Church at this Time; is to be like a Dead Carcase; partly so, by Sufferings: much more so, by Corruptions. Our Saviour will now come as a Glorious Eagle; so He did, when He brought His Dead People from Egypt of old. And, because He will use His Mighty Angels in what He is to do, marvel not, that you hear of Eagles, in the Plural Number for it.
And, yet; I judge it not amiss to acquaint you, That there is of late, within these few years, a most Surprizing Revival of Good Things in the World. Should I speak of but One Country; There are some strict observers of the Signs of the Times, [Page 61] who have lately Published a Collection of Observable Things, wherein the Kingdom of God has been more sensibly opening it self in the Heart of Germany; Things of an Holy & Hopeful Tendency, to bring on a more ample Reign of Piety; The Collection contains no fewer than Fourscore and Four Articles. In many other places, there are some Excellent Things a doing. Essayes to do Good, begin to be in request. They grow more Fashionable, and Reputable. North-Britain will become a peculiar Seat, and Example of them. Among the rest, there is this to be observed; A Spirit of Association for Noble & Pious Purposes, has of late begun Strangely to Visit the World; it begins to do Wondrously. Some Societies perhaps are yet only laying Foundations, for purposes of a more Exact Regulation hereafter to be built upon. But as far off as in Switzerland they Prognosticate upon them; ‘They annunciate a more Illustrious State of the Church of God, that is Expected, in the Conversion of Jews & Gentiles.’ These Things are the Rainbow of the Day!
In the next Place; I will freely confess to you, that there is not any One thing at this day a doing, which I have my Eye more upon, than the Fate, & I hope, the approaching Fall, of the Ottoman Empire. There is a Coincidence of more than as many things, to perswade us, That the Threchundred & ninety odd years allotted for the Turks to be the Plagues of the Roman Empire, Expired at the late Peace of Carlowitz. If that Empire should once fall, what a Jubilee would arrive to the poor [Page 62] Greek Churches! Oh! Let us Pray more for them! Yea, the Jews as well as the Greeks would feel a quickening Energy upon it. Now, a mighty shake seems to be giving unto the Ottoman Empire. There are Millions of Oppressed Christians, who begin to see a Rainbow in that Thing, if God will please to give the Word. If it should be so, that the Ottoman Empire be falling, Then, Then, that Great Trumpet is going to be blown, which brings on the Kingdoms of this World, to be the Kingdoms of the Lord.
I have one thing more to say. The Grandeur of Antichrist is plainly on a Decline. Yea, the Clouds of this day, are big with desolating Thunder-bolts, to be discharg'd upon him. The Twelve hundred & Sixty years of the Papacy, could not commence much later than the year Four hundred & fifty, or sixty. All Rational computations conspire to proclame this; A Great & Notable Day of the Lord is at hand; The Day is near, it is near, & it hasteth greatly! The Papal Authority now Suffers a marvellous Diminution; it is Irrecoverably diminished. Its Bulls roar very insignificately. Let it fulminate what it will, People do but Squib at it. The Spirit of Persecution, which where-ever tis found, is the Spirit of Antichrist, it is wondrous to see, how tis going out of the World; men grow Ashamed of it; They that would fain be at it, yet they also Occasionally acknowledge, That it is Contrary to the Spirit of Christianity. Some that have been most notorious for it, Labour mightily to shift off the charge.
I greatly suspect, that we are fallen into the Period, [Page 63] for the Effusion of the Vials, which brings the Last Plagues on the Papal Empire: It looks, as if the first of them, were newly dispensed; A Boyl on the Earth; A Pestilence on the Inland Parts of that Empire. I tremble at the Second. — But they will all be Rainbowes of Hope, for the pure Worshippers & Followers of the Holy JESUS.
Finally; But must my poor NEW-ENGLAND, have no part in the Rainbow, about Him, that has hitherto been the Hope of NEW-ENGLAND, and the Saviour thereof in the Time of Trouble! Yea; And tho' there is no Particular Church, but what may be drown'd, yet I Suppose, tis not until it neglect the Rainbow, and by overgrown Impiety & Impenitency forget the Everlasting Covenant And, O poor Flocks in the Wilderness; will you do so? I confess, we are very criminal; and all out crimes have peculiar Aggravations. Yea, there are some very Base People among us; People who do things that Pagans would abhor to do; People who bring a Blemish on all the Country. But yet, first, the Body of the People, are a Sober, Honest, Well-instructed People. All Civil Travellers who do them Justice give them this Testimony. Then, there is also Scattered all over the Country, a Generation of Serious, Prayerful, Watchful Christians; many that make no Noise, are the Humble Favourites of Heaven; the Chariots & Horsemen of the Land, & yet by their Modesty almost Invisible. The Charities of these Christians, especially in this Town, they are going up as Memorials before God continually. There is likewise [Page 64] a Set of Young Ministers, and Candidates for the Ministry, who are full of Goodness; Lovely Young Men; Sons of Zion, comparable to fine Gold; Nazarites, Purer than Snow, brighter than Pearl; their Polishing that of Sapphire. God grant the Rainbowes may Multiply! O Multiply our Tokens for Good.
I will Conclude with Saying this thing▪ Methinks, A Saviour with a Rainbow about His Head, should most movingly. Invite every Sinner to come in unto Him. I have read some-where, a Sorrowful Relation of a man who was a Drowning, at the very Instant when he saw a Rainbow in the Sky before him; whereat he cryed out, Haec Iris, quid mihi proderit, si Ego peream. ‘What Advantage to me the Rainbow which secures the World from Drowning, if now I my self be Drowned.’ This I will say; O poor Sinner, what Advantage canst thou Expect from a Saviour with a Rainbow about His Head, if thou despise that Saviour, & Provoke Him, to cast thee off! Wherefore, Oh! Hearken to the Voice from the Cloud about the Glorious High Throne of our Saviour; Ah, Repenting Soul, I remember my Covenant of Mercy; I am ready to receive thee! Behold His Bow; there are no Arrows in it. But if any of you will go on still in your Trespasses, think on that word, Psal. VII. 11, 12, 13. God is angry with the wicked every day; If he turn not, He has bent His Bow, & made it ready; He ordains His Arrows against him. Verily, The Clouds about Him, will Pour down terrible Thunderbolts!—