An exposition with practical observations continued upon the eighth, ninth and tenth chapters of…An exposition with practicall observations continued upon the eighth, ninth and tenth chapters of…

That here spoken of, is quick and violent, and by it's easy representation to the eye, causeth wonder and astonishment in the beholders.

That here spoken of, is quick and violent, and by it's easie representation to the eye, causeth wonder and astonishment in the beholders.

And so it imports a removing them by some violent motion. ⟨p. 174⟩Thus the Lord is able to remove, and hath removed mountains, sometimes by earthquakes: sometimes by storms and tempests, sometime those mighty bulwarks are battered with thunder-balls discharged from the clouds (Psal. 97.5.) The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord. Hills melt down when he appears as a consuming fire (Psal. 104.32.) He looks upon the earth, and it trembleth, and he toucheth the hills, and they smoke. Those rocky mountains are as ready to take fire, as tinder or touch-wood, if but a spark of Gods anger fall upon them, God by a cast of his eye (as we may speak) can cast the earth into an ague-fit, he makes it shake and more, tremble with a look; He by a touch of his mighty arm, hurls mountains which way he pleaseth, as man doth a Tennis-ball. We read (Isa. 64.1.) How earnestly the Prophet prays, O that thou wouldst rent the heavens and come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence: Where he is conceived to allude to Gods coming down upon Mount Sinai at the giving of the Law, Exod. 19. which is said, To melt from before the Lord God of Israel, Judg. 5.3. Some understand it of that day of Christ, when he shall come to judge the world; others of that day when Christ came in the flesh to save the world; then the mountains were levelled according to the preaching of the Baptist; but rather, the Prophet being affected with the calamitous condition, which he fore-saw the Jews falling into, entreats the Lord to put forth himself in some notable works of his providence, which should as clearly manifest his presence, as if they saw the heavens (speaking as of solid bodies) renting, and God visibly coming down; then, those difficulties which lay in the way of their deliverance, and looked like huge mountains of iron, or of adamant, would presently dissolve like wax, or ice before the Sun or fire. The Prophet Micah describes the effects of Gods power in the same stile (Chap. 1.3, 4.) Behold, the Lord cometh forth out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth, and the mountains shall be molten under him,