N01483:27
Shaking dispensations. An essay upon the mighty shakes, which the hand of heaven, hath…
Shaking dispensations. An essay upon the mighty shakes, which the hand of heaven, hath given, and is giving, to the world. : With some useful remarks on the death of the French king, who left off to make the world a wilderness, and to destroy the cities thereof; on the twenty-first of August. 1715. In a sermon on that great occasion, at Boston, New-England. 13 d. VIII m. 1715. / By Cotton Mather, D.D. & F.R.S.
Boston: printed by B. Green. Sold by S. Gerrish, 1715
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
First. There are Times wherein Shakes are given to the Corporeal World; Heaven and Earth Literally taken, are wonderfully Shaken, and unto the Terror of the Nations.
The God that formed all things, has put all Things into an incomparable Order. But sometimes the World may be put somewhat out of the Order wherein tis ordinarily carried on. When the course of the World is altered, by any Extraordinary work or ⟨p. 7⟩change upon it, then does the Great God give a Shake unto it.
Can Heaven be shaken? Yes. Prodigious Thunderings and Lightnings in Heaven, are some shaking of Heaven. Thus the Lord shook Heaven, at the giving of the Law, when the Thunders & Lightnings were such as to make Moses himself cry out, I exceedingly fear & quake. Of this we read; Psal. LXVIII. 8. The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of the Lord. And so, when the Stars in their Courses fight against the Enemies of God, by raising any Destructive Tempest upon them; Heaven is then shaken in it and for it. There is also a shaking of Heaven, when any real Prodigies do there show themselves: for so we may suppose there sometimes do, without our falling into the whimsies of a fanciful and credulous Livy about them. The Learned Man, who wrote against the Regard of all such Things, afterwards owned unto one to whom I have the Honour to be related, That he had overdone. Those Things that are called, Fearful sights and ⟨p. 8⟩great signs from Heaven; There is a shaking of Heaven in them. We read, Mat. XXIV. 29. Stars shall fall from Heaven, & the Powers of the Heavens shall be shaken. When Blazing Stars, do in their Elliptic Motions make their Descents towards us, & threaten a Mischievous Brush unto us, then do Stars fall from Heaven. But then, most properly, then most awfully, are the Powers of the Heavens shaken; when the Angels of the Heavens are put upon doing unusual Things among us. The Heavenly Powers may go so far out of the common Road, as to break in upon us, and Visibly, or Audibly, and Sensibly do Strange Things among the Children of Men; There is a wonderful shaking of Heaven in such Things. It shakes Heaven, when the Angels do come out of Heaven, with Apparitions, or with Operations, whereat Flesh and Blood falls into a consternation. Heaven is then shaken; when the Heavenly Host is upon such Motions as cause just Amazement; and perhaps the Tongues of Men become the Tongues of Angels. — It becomes me to stop here; and Step into Lower Regions.