A Way to Zion Sought out and Found for Believers, Treatise · Objection 8
Objection from Heb. 12.26, 27.
Whose voyce then shook the earth, but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more, I shake not onelyonly earth, but heaven also, &c. Whence they argue, That God shook the earth at the death of Christ, Matth. 27.51. And now afterward he shaketh Heaven (i.e.) Ordinances, removeth them, that so nothing may remaine but spirituall things, that cannot be removed, &c.
For answer to this, consider these few things:
1 What time it is the Scripture speaketh of, in the word THEN, whose voyce THEN shook, &c. We read of divers Earth-quakes; The Earth quaked at the giving of the Law, The Objection from Heb. 12.26, 27. of shaking heaven and earth, answered.Exod. 19.18. There was an Earth-quake at Jonathan and his Armour-bearers smiting the Philistims 1 Sam. 14.15. An Earth-quake at the destruction of old Babylon, Isa. 13.13. An Earth-quake in the wildernesse of Beersheba in Elijahs time, 1 King. 19.11. Another in the dayes of Uzziah, Amos 1.1. Zach. 14.5. Another at the destruction of Jerusalem, Isa. 29.6. and divers others Act. 16.26. An Earth quake at the death of Christ, Mat. 27.51. which of these is here meant by the word THEN?
They say, That at the death of Christ. I say at the giving of the Law; for marke it, Whose VOYCE then shook the earth; And then the very voyce of God shooke the earth; see Exod. 19.18. Psal. 68.8. and 77.18. But I read of no voyce from God at the death of Christ.
But now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not onelyonly the Earth, but HEAVEN also. What was that? And when was that?
Heaven and Earth shook at the destruction of Babilon, Isa 13.13. And Heaven and Earth shook at the death of Christ. The Earth quaked, and the vaile of the Temple was rent: And so the Holy of Holies was discovered, which was a figure of Heaven; and so Heaven shook: And then he tooke away the things that might be moved, all the Jewish observations of Ordinances. And if any Ordinances be meant here, it is they: Consider what the Prophet saith, 2 Sam. 22.4-9. And this shaking might hold till the utter destruction of Jerusalem, till one stone was not lest upon another in the Temple; All these worships destroyed; for old Jerusalem was called Heaven, Isa. 65.17. Rev 21.1. And consider, Joel 3.16. with Matth. 24.29. So the meaning is, He shook the earth at the giving of the Law, and at the death of Christ he shook Heaven and Earth too. And take one thing more, to prove the shaking of the earth at the time THEN was at the giving of the Law, and that is from Heb. 12. it selfe; looke to the former verses, and among the rest of the terrible things there spoken of, he speaketh of a terrible voyce of words, ver. 19. And to the voyce of words, which voyce those that heard, intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more. And there was the sound of a Trumpet, and the fury of a Tempest, yea the sight made Moses quake. Whether should the time THEN be referred but to this time?
Object. But the Apostle saith, Now he hath promised saying, shewing that this shaking was then for to come.
I answer, The word Now, doth not point out a time there, but a conclusive speech, like that Heb. 11.1.
2 The Apostle relateth to a promise made before, which was spoken by Haggai, Chap. 2.6, 7. Yet once more, saith the Lord, I will shake Heaven and Earth, and Sea and dry Land. And when was that shaking, but at the comming of Christ? The desire of Nations shall come, &c. at his comming, and the setting up of a spiritual House; which was typed out by the second Temple.
3 The Apostle speaketh of things not to be shaken afterwards, but things that were shaken then, Heb. 12.27. Things that ARE shaken, &c. And the Ordinances of the Law were then shaken, but not of the Gospell: I read of no such thing from God, and he was the shaker, and not man.
4 Consider, he speaketh of things that GOD will shake and remove, not man; If it should meane Ordinances, they must be moved by God and not by man; And I would fain see a Scripture for his removing them.