John Owen · 40 of 157

Sermon V. Hebrews xii. 27. · Part 1

Sermon V. The shaking and translating of heaven and earth

“And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.” — Heb. xii. 27.

The main design of the apostle in this scripture to the Hebrews, is to prevail, with his countrymen, who had undertaken the profession of the gospel, to abide constant and faithful therein, without any apostasy unto, or mixture with Judaism, which God and themselves had forsaken; — fully manifesting, that in such backsliders the soul of the Lord hath no pleasure, chap. x. 38, —

A task, which whoso undertaketh in any age, shall find exceeding weighty and difficult, — even to persuade professors to hold out and continue in the glory of their profession unto the end, that with patience doing the will of God they “might receive the promise;” — especially if there be “lions in the way,” if opposition or persecution do attend them in their professed subjection to the Lord Jesus. Of all that deformity and dissimilitude to the divine nature which is come upon us by the fall, there is no one part more eminent, or rather no one defect more evident, than inconstancy and unstableness of mind in embracing that which is spiritually good. Man being turned from his unchangeable rest seeks to quiet and satiate his soul with restless movings towards changeable things.

Now, he who worketh all our works for us and in us, Isa. xxvi. 12, worketh them also by us; and, therefore, that which he will give, he persuades us to have, that at once his bounty and our duty may receive a manifestation in the same thing. Of this nature is perseverance in the faith of Christ; — which, as by him it is promised, and therefore is a grace; so to us it is prescribed, and thereby is a duty. “Petamus ut det, quod ut habeamus jubet,” Augustine; — “Let us ask him to bestow what he requires us to enjoy.” Yea, “De Domine, quod jubes, et jube vis;” — “Give what thou commandest, and command what thou pleasest.”

As a duty it is by the apostle here considered; and therefore pressed on them who by nature were capable, and by grace enabled, for the performance thereof. Pathetical exhortations, then, unto perseverance in the profession of the gospel, bottomed on prevalent scriptural arguments and holy reasonings, are the sum of this epistle.

The arguments the apostle handleth unto the end proposed are of two sorts:— First, Principal; Secondly, Deductive, or emergencies from the first.

First, His principal arguments are drawn from two chief fountains:— 1. The author; and, 2. The nature and end of the gospel.

1. The author of the gospel is either, —

(1.) Principal and immediate, which is God the Father, who having at sundry times and in divers manners formerly spoken by the prophets, herein speaketh by his Son, chap. i. 1.

(2.) Concurrent and immediate, Jesus Christ, this great salvation, being begun to be spoken to us by the Lord, chap. ii. 3. This latter he chiefly considereth, as in and by whom the gospel is differenced from all other dispensations of the mind of God. Concerning him to the end intended he proposeth, —[1.] His person; [2.] His employment.

[1.] For his person, that thence he may argue to the thing aimed at, he holdeth out, —

1st. The infinite glory of his Deity; being “the brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express image of his person,” chap. i. 3.

2dly. The infinite condescension of his love, in assuming humanity; for, “because the children were partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself took part of the same,” chap. ii. 14.

And from the consideration of both these, he presseth the main exhortation which he hath in hand, as you may see, chap. ii. 1, 2, iii. 12, 13, etc.

[2.] The employment of Christ he describeth in his offices, which he handleth, —

1st. Positively, and very briefly, chapters i., ii., iii.

2dly. Comparatively, insisting chiefly on his priesthood, — exalting it in sundry weighty particulars above that of Aaron, which yet was the glory of the Jewish worship; and this at large, chapters vi., vii., viii., ix., x. And this being variously advanced and asserted, he layeth as the main foundation, upon which he placeth the weight and stress of the main end pursued, as in the whole epistle is everywhere obvious.

2. The second head of principal arguments he taketh from the gospel itself; which considering as a covenant, he holdeth out two ways.

(1.) Absolutely, in its efficacy in respect of, —

[1.] Justification. In it God is merciful to unrighteousness, and sins and iniquities he remembers no more, chap. viii. 12; — bringing in perfect remission, that there shall need no more offering for sin, chap. x. 18.

[2.] Sanctification. He puts his laws in our hearts, and writes them in our minds, chap. x. 16; — in it purging our consciences by the blood of Christ, chap. ix. 14.

[3.] Perseverance: “I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people,” chap. viii. 10.

All three are also held out in sundry other places.

(2.) Respectively to the covenant of works; and in this regard assigns unto it principal qualifications, with many peculiar eminences them attending, — too many now to be named. Now, these are, —

[1.] That it is new: “In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old,” chap. viii. 13.

[2.] Better. It is a better covenant, and built upon “better promises,” chap. vii. 22, viii. 6.

[3.] Surer, the Priest thereof being ordained, “not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life,” chap. vii. 16.

[4.] Unalterable. So in all the places before named, and sundry others.

All which are made eminent in its peculiar mediator, Jesus Christ; which is the sum of chap. vii.

And still, in the holding out of these things, that they might not forget the end for which they were now drawn forth, and so exactly handled, he interweaves many pathetical entreaties and pressing arguments by way of application, for the confirming and establishing his countrymen in the faith of this glorious gospel; as you may see almost in every chapter.

Secondly. His arguments less principal, deduced from the former, being very many, may be referred to these three heads:—

1. The benefits by them enjoyed under the gospel.

2. The example of others, who by faith and patience obtained the promises, chap. xi.

3. From the dangerous and pernicious consequence of backsliding; of which only I shall speak. Now this he setteth out three ways.

(1.) From the nature of that sin. It is a crucifying to themselves the Son of God afresh, and putting him to open shame, chap. vi. 6; a treading under foot the Son of God, counting the blood of the covenant an unholy thing, and doing despite to the Spirit of grace, chap. x. 29.

(2.) The remediless punishment which attends that sin: “There remaineth no more sacrifice for it, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries,” chap. x. 26, 27.

(3.) The person against whom peculiarly it is committed, and that is he who is the author, subject, and mediator of the gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ; concerning whom, for the aggravation of this sin, he proposeth two things.

[1.] His goodness and love, and that in his great undertaking to be a Saviour; being “made like unto his brethren in all things, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people,” chap. ii. 17. And of this there is a sweet and choice line running through the whole discourse, making the sin of backsliding against so much love and condescension appear exceeding sinful.

[2.] His greatness or power; which he sets out two ways.

1st. Absolutely, as he is God, to be “blessed for ever,” chap. i.; and, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God,” chap. x. 31.

2dly. Comparatively, as he is the mediator of the new covenant in reference to Moses. And this he setteth forth, as by many and sundry reasonings in other places of the epistle, so by a double testimony in this 12th chapter, making that inference from them both which you have, verse 25, “See that ye refuse not him that speaketh: for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him who speaketh from heaven.”

Now, the first testimony of his power is taken from a record of what he did heretofore; — the other from a prediction of what he will do hereafter.

The first you have, verse 26, in the first part of it, “His voice then shook the earth;” then, — that is, when the law was delivered by him, as it is described, verses 18–21, foregoing; when the mountain upon which it was delivered, the mediator Moses, into whose hand it was delivered, and the people for whose use it was delivered, did all shake and tremble at the voice, power, and presence of Christ, — who, as it hence appears, is that Jehovah who gave the law, Exod. xx. 2.

The other, in the same verse, is taken from a prediction out of Hag. ii. 6, of what he will do hereafter, — even demonstrate and make evident his power, beyond whatever he before effected: He hath promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

[2.] This that now is to be done must excel that which formerly was done at the giving of the law; as is clearly intimated in the inference: “Then he shook the earth, but now the heavens also.” It is a gradation to a higher demonstration of the power of Christ; which that the things of this interpretation are is not apparent.

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

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

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

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

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

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

[1.] The things here said to be shaken do stand in a plain opposition to the things that cannot be shaken nor removed; and therefore they are to be removed, that these may be brought in. Now, the things to be brought in are the things of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus. What opposition, I pray, does the material fabric of heaven and earth stand in to the kingdom of the Lord Jesus? Doubtless none at all, being the proper seat of that kingdom.

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

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

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

[1.] As the apostle here applies a part of the prophecy of Haggai, so that prophecy, even in the next words, gives light into the meaning of the apostle. Look what heaven and earth the prophet speaks of; — of those, and no other, speaks the apostle. The Spirit of God in the Scripture is his own best interpreter. See, then, the order of the words as they lie in the prophet, Hag. ii. 6, 7, “I will shake heaven and earth: I will shake all nations.” God, then, shakes heaven and earth when he shakes all nations; that is, he shakes the heaven and earth of the nations. “I will shake heaven and earth, and I will shake all nations,” is a pleonasm for “I will shake the heaven and earth of all nations.” These are the things shaken in my text.

The heavens of the nations, what are they? — even their political heights and glory, those forms of government which they have framed for themselves and their own interest, with the grandeur and lustre of their dominions. The nations’ earth is the multitudes of their people, their strength and power, whereby their heavens, or political heights, are supported. It is, then, neither the material heavens and earth, nor yet Mosaical ordinances, but the political heights and splendour, the popular multitudes and strength, of the nations of the earth, that are thus to be shaken, as shall be proved.

That the earth, in prophetical descriptions or predictions of things, is frequently, yea, almost always, taken for the people and multitudes of the earth, needs not much proving. One or two instances shall suffice. Rev. xii. 16, “The earth helped the woman” against the flood of the dragon; which that it was the multitudes of earthly people none doubts. That an earthquake, or shaking of the earth, are popular commotions, is no less evident from Rev. xi. 13, where by an earthquake great Babylon receives a fatal blow. And for the heavens, whether they be the political heights of the nations or the grandeur of potentates, let the Scripture be judge; I mean, when used in this sense of shaking, or establishment, Isa. li. 15, 16, “I am the Lord thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: the Lord of hosts is his name. And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.” By a repetition of what he hath done, he establisheth his people in expectation of what he will do. And, —

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

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

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

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

Isa. xxxiv. 4, “All the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine.” Now, these dissolved, rolled heavens are no other but the power and heights of the opposing nations, their government and tyranny, especially that of Idumea, as both the foregoing and following verses do declare. “The indignation of the Lord,” saith he, “is upon the nations, and his fury upon all their armies; he hath delivered them to the slaughter, their slain,” etc. Jer. iv. 23–25, “I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.” Here’s heaven and earth shaken, and all in the razing of the political state and commonwealth of the Jews by the Babylonians, as is at large described in the verses following. Ezek. xxxii. 7, “I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord God.” Behold heaven and earth, sun, moon, and stars, all shaken and confounded in the destruction of Egypt, — the thing the prophet treats of, their kingdom and nation being to be ruined.

Not to hold you too long upon what is so plain and evident, you may take it for a rule, that, in the denunciations of the judgments of God, through all the prophets, heaven, sun, moon, stars, and the like appearing beauties and glories of the aspectable heavens, are taken for governments, governors, dominions in political states; as Isa. xiv. 12–15; Jer. xv. 9, li. 25.

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

Add lastly hereunto, that the promises of the restoration of God’s people into a glorious condition after all their sufferings, is perpetually, in the Scripture, held out under the same terms, and you have a plentiful demonstration of this point. Isa. lxv. 17, 18, “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create,” etc. 2 Pet. iii. 13, “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” Rev. xxi. 1, “I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.” The heaven and earth are restored, but the sea, — that shall be no more. Those gatherings together of many waters, rivers from all places, or pretended clergymen from all nations into general councils, which were the sea or many waters on which the whore sat, shall have no place at all in the church’s restored condition.

I hope it is now fully cleared what is meant by the things that are shaken, — even the political heights, the splendour and strength of the nations of the earth: the foundation of the whole is laid, and our heap (or building, if your favour will so accept it) will go on apace; for to the analogy hereof shall the residue of the words be interpreted.

2. The second thing considerable is, What is the shaking of these things?

To this the answer is now made brief and facile. Such as are the things shaken, such must their shaking be: spiritual, if spiritual; natural, if natural; civil, if civil. Now, they being declared and proved to be civil things, such also is their shaking. Now, what is a civil shaking of civil constitutions? how are such things done in the world? what are these earthquakes? Truly, the accomplishment hereof is in all nations so under our eyes as that I need not speak one word thereunto.

Neither shall I insist upon the inquiry, when this shaking shall be?

The text is plain, that it must be previous to the bringing in of those things that cannot be moved; that is, the prosperous estate of the kingdom of Christ. Only we may observe, that besides other shakings in particular nations, of less general concernment and importance, this prophecy hath and shall receive a twofold eminent accomplishment, with reference unto a twofold eminent opposition which the kingdom of Christ hath met withal in the world.

(1.) From the Pagan-Roman state, which, at the gospel’s first entrance, held in subjection most of the chief provinces of the then known world. What were the bloody endeavours of the heaven and earth of that state for the suppression thereof is known to our children. The issue of the whole in the accomplishment of this promise, shaking those heavens and earth to pieces, I before pointed at from Rev. vi. 12–17, beginning in the plagues of the persecuting emperors, and ending in the ruin of the empire itself. But, —

(2.) The immovable things were not yet in their glory to be brought in. More seed of blood must be sown, that the end of the gospel’s year may yield a plentiful harvest. That shaking was only for vengeance upon an old, cursed, and not for the bringing in of a new, blessed state. The vials of God’s wrath having crumbled the heavens and earth of pagan Rome into several pieces, and that empire being removed as to its old form, by the craft of Satan it became moulded up again into a papal sovereignty, to exercise all the power of the first beast in persecution of the saints, Rev. xiii. 12. This second pressure, though long and sore, must have an end; — the new-moulded heaven and earth of papal, antichristian Rome, running by a mysterious thread through all the nations of the west, must be shaken also; which when it is accomplished, there shall be no more sea. There is not another beast to arise, nor another state to be formed; — let endeavours be what they will, the Lord Jesus shall reign.

3. What is the removal of heaven and earth, being shaken?

The word here translated “removal” is μετάθεσις: whence that is come to pass I dare not positively say. This, doubtless, is a common fault amongst translators, that they will accommodate the words of a text to their own apprehension of the sense and matter thereof. Understanding, as I suppose, that the things here said to be shaken were the Jewish ordinances, they translated their disposition a “removal;” as the truth is they were removed. But the word signifies no such thing. As its natural import, from its rise and composition, is otherwise, so neither in the Scripture nor any profane author doth it ever signify properly a “removal.” Translation, or changing, is the only native, genuine import of it: and why it should in this place be haled out of its own sphere, and tortured into a new signification, I know not. Removal is of the matter, translation of the form only. It is not, then, a destruction and total emotion of the seat things of the nations; but a change, translation, and a new-moulding of them, that is here intimated. They shall be shuffled together, almost into their primitive confusion, and come out new-moulded, for the interest of the Lord Jesus. All the present states of the worm are cemented together by antichristian lime, as I shall show afterward:— unless they be so shaken as to have every cranny searched and brushed, they will be no quiet habitation for the Lord Christ and his people. This, then, is the μετάθεσις of the “heaven and earth” of the nations.

Now, this is evident from that full prediction which you have of the accomplishment hereof, Rev. xvii. 12, the kingdoms of the west “receive power one hour with the beast.” Verse 13, in their constitution and government at first received, “they give their power to the beast,” and fight against the Lamb. Verse 14, the Lamb with his faithful and chosen ones overcomes them. There their heaven and earth is shaken. Verse 16, their power is translated, new-moulded, and becomes a power against the beast, in the hand of Jesus Christ.

This, then, is the shaking and removal in my text, which is said to be, “as of things that are made;” that is, by men, through the concurrence of divine Providence for a season (which making you have, Rev. xvii. 12–17); — not like the kingdom of Christ, which, being of a purely divine constitution, shall by no human power receive an end.

The other parts of the text follow briefly.