AN ALARMING VIEW OF GOD’S DESOLATING JUDGMENTS.
[Preached on the Fast Day, February 21, 1781.]
“Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations
he hath made in the earth.” Psalm xlvi. 8.
Whatever the heart of the fool in ignorance and infidelity may suggest, or the tongue of the bold blasphemer dare to utter, the voice of unerring wisdom declares, there is a God;
“And that there is, all nature cries aloud.”
To this great primary truth, every object in creation bears its testimony; from the first-born seraph down to the meanest reptile; and from the great ruler of the day, down to the minutest part of that stupendous system, of which he is, at once, the ornament and the centre. The celestial, the terrestrial, and aquatic worlds, with all their respective inhabitants, are pregnant with demonstration in favor of God’s eternal power and Godhead. Beings rational and irrational, animate and inanimate, possessing either spiritual, sensitive, or vegetative life; whether they walk the earth, swim the ocean, or fly through the Ærial expanse; are so many vouchers to the existence of a supreme Being. Through the various orders of the great scale of beings, from the lowest to the highest, we behold visible traces of divinity; from the flower of the field up to the cedar in Lebanon, from the minutest insect to the lion that roars in the desert, or from the smallest fish that swims in the briny flood, to the huge leviathan that taketh his pastime therein. In the origin of their existence, the formation and contexture of their frame, and the provision adapted to their support, we behold equally the infinite wisdom and profuse beneficence of JEHOVAH. Yea, the very minutiÆ of creation proclaim his inimitable perfections. Insomuch, that only a blade of grass, or the wing of a moth, exhibits marks of infinite contrivance, which mock the skill and baffle the comprehension of the most sagacious philosopher; while they read him a loud lecture upon that great truth, “Canst thou, by searching, find out God? canst thou know the Almighty to perfection? It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth and broader than the sea.” Job, xi. 7, 9; and chap. xii. 7, 8.
If, from the parts, we ascend to the great whole; or, from contemplating some of the lower stories, we pass to a comprehensive view of the vast fabric of the universe, what a system of wonders rises to declare the glory and handy-work of the supreme Architect! Who can behold an immense multitude of lucid orbs, each of them a world, suspended in the vast expanse, without any visible support; some of them fixed to their stations, though of prodigious magnitude; while others, with a velocity hardly credible, perform their revolutions, and move in their orbits, with the nicest observance of the space and time allotted to them;—who, I say, can observe this wonderful machinery, without acknowledging a present Deity? What is the firmament of heaven, but a golden alphabet, that in capital letters, which all the world may read, deciphers the name, and displays the perfections, of the all-wise God? Who can view the sun, in his azure “tabernacle,” that fairest and brightest image of his Creator, “coming forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber, and rejoicing as a strong man to run his race,” without confessing in him, the most glorious witness to the existence of that God who gave him to be the cheerer of this nether world, and appointed his “circuit,” Psal. xix. 6, which he has punctually performed for thousands of years? Or who can contemplate the moon, the silver lamp of night, and all the stars that glitter in her train, and not hear the silent yet emphatic eloquence with which they publish the praises of their great Original?—
“For ever singing as they shine,
The hand that made us, is divine!”
But man is to himself a voucher for the truth; since he is in himself a microcosm, a little world, or an epitome of a larger system. “I am fearfully and wonderfully made,” Psal. cxxxix. 14, was the acknowledgment of an inspired philosopher, when he contemplated himself; when he looked back to his embryo-state, and traced the footsteps of that divine art, by which his “substance, yet imperfect, was curiously wrought,” or, as he considered its perfect formation by the plastic hand of Jehovah, “in whose book all his members were written, which, in continuance, were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.” Psal. cxxxix. 15, 16. And, if the sight of even a shapeless skeleton, bereft of that beauty which adorns the human frame in its perfect state, could strike conviction into the breast of a philosopher, [194] and save him from Atheism; how forcible, how irresistible the evidence, when the same frame is viewed in all the wise arrangement, symmetry, coherence, usefulness, and elegant proportion of its parts! If human nature, even in ruins, can thus speak loudly for the divinity of its Maker; what an emphasis of demonstration must it give, to view the fabric complete, and forming, by the inhabitation of the soul, a rational and immortal being! So that it is as great a reflection upon the head, as upon the heart of that man, who, amidst all the evidence that surrounds and dwells in him, continues an unbelieving sceptic: and it would be difficult, perhaps, to determine, whether there be more folly or blasphemy in genuine Atheism.
But, while all creation echoes the voice, and implicitly demonstrates the existence of God, so as to “leave without excuse those, who worshipped and served the creature more than (a???? ’? rather than, or and not) the Creator;” Rom. i. 25; yet it is to Revelation we are indebted for that information respecting the nature, works, and dispensations of Jehovah, which the most refined systems of human wisdom have never been able to give us. In the sacred volume, we receive more instruction from a single page, and often from one short sentence, than from whole volumes of antiquity; and more truth too, than all the elaborate systems of philosophers and speculatists have been able to investigate for thousands of years. What they groped after by the dim light of reason, is here revealed to the full satisfaction of the most illiterate inquirer. And what their schemes attempted to elucidate, and, in elucidating, only made more obscure and absurd, is here unfolded in a manner, that exhibits indubitable marks of divine authenticity, and affords an opportunity to “the wayfaring man, though a fool,” to surpass in genuine knowledge the most renowned philosopher, who either had not, or would not have, the “oracles of God,” for his counsellor and guide. Here we are informed not only that God is, but also, “that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him;” Heb. xi. 6;—that “the worlds were framed by the word of God;” verse 3;—that they did not exist from eternity, as some of the philosophers whimsically maintained, but that “in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth;” Gen. i. 1;—that the frame of the universe was not formed from pre-existing materials, for that “the things which are seen, were not made of things which do appear;” Heb. xi. 3;—that, contrary, to the atheistical and stupid hypothesis of the Epicureans, who ascribed the creation of all things to chance, or a fortuitous concourse of atoms; the world and all its inhabitants were the production of an eternal, infinitely intelligent, spiritual, wise, and powerful Being, whom the scriptures call God;—that he, whose almighty fiat from darkness educed light, and from the confusion of chaos brought harmony and order, was the very person, who afterwards disrobed himself of his divine splendor, and “was manifest in the flesh, took upon him the form of a servant, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Phil. ii. 7, 8. For, by him, “in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, and who is the” express “image of the invisible God, were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him,” as the Agent, “and for him,” as the End. Col. ii. 14, 15;—that all the calamities which prevail in the natural and moral world originate in that act of disobedience recorded in Gen. iii. 6,—and that the great remedy provided by infinite Mercy and Wisdom for sin and its bitter effects, is Jesus, the adorable Prince of Peace, who “gave himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet-smelling savor.” Ephes. v. 2.
While the sacred writings open to guilty mortals a prospect of life and immortality, through the revelation of a system of truth, peculiar to themselves; they throw light upon the dispensations of Providence, by assuring us, that all things great and minute, are under the control and superintendence of an omniscient Being, who numbers the very hairs of our head, and suffers not even “a sparrow to fall to the ground” without his sovereign permission; that, although the grounds of the divine dispensations are often inscrutable to human penetration, and form a great deep, which finite intelligences cannot fathom; yet that infinite wisdom presides in them all, and will render them subservient to his own glory, and his people’s good; and that, whatever happens, respecting the fate of empires and states, and all other grand revolutions upon the globe, that display either the goodness or the severity of God, fall out according to the positive design of Him, who “doeth what seemeth him meet among the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth; of whom, and through whom, and to whom, are all things.” Rom. xi. 36.With the volume of inspiration in our hands, and the concurrence of innumerable facts confirming the evidence which it adduceth to the certainty of the preceding truths; let us, upon the present solemn occasion, First, take a view of some of those tremendous works of Jehovah, which, while they speak his existence and interposition, proclaim his wrath; and then, secondly, consider, in what light, and with what temper, we should contemplate such portentous dealings. “Come, behold the works of the Lord; what desolations he hath made in the earth.”
I. There are some works of Jehovah, which proclaim his benignity and tender mercy. All his dispensations are big with a display of these most attractive and endearing attributes. They crown his providence, and shine forth with brightest lustre in the boundless riches of grace. Every land is witness to his patience, and equally so to the vast profusion of his all-bounteous munificence. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord; and all nature smiles under the tender mercies of our God. And, were this the proper place, or would the reference of our text admit of the digression, we might take a view of that beautiful scene, painted by an inspired hand, and in the most sublime imagery, in Psal. lxv. 8–13. We might meditate, with rapture and with profit, on those works of paternal goodness, which “the outgoings of the morning and the evening rejoice” to publish; when the Father of Mercies makes his “paths to drop fatness on the pastures of the wilderness,” and “crowneth” the opening and closing “year with his goodness;” when pastures clothed with flocks, and valleys covered over with corn, “make the little hills rejoice on every side,” give an universal festivity and gaiety to the face of nature, and “shout for joy” in praise of nature’s God. Or we may pass to a contemplation of a still more enrapturing scene, which the former but faintly pictures; I mean that of the human heart emerging from darkness and from barrenness under the propitious rays of the “Sun of Righteousness,” softened by the dew of divine grace, watered by the divine Spirit, that “river of God which is full of water,” clothed with that best robe, the Redeemer’s righteousness, and transformed from a wilderness into a little Eden, flourishing like the garden of God. Or, we might fix our meditations on that most gracious and most stupendous work of infinite mercy, the redemption of sinners through Jesus Christ. A work this, which is the great labor of the skies, and the grandest work of God; on which the believer employs his sweetest meditations, and from which he derives his brightest hopes.
But the subject of the text, as well as the solemnity of the day, calls us, for the present, to consider other works, in which, not the olive-branch of peace, but the rod of vindictive justice, is held forth; where not the goodness, but the severity of God, is the chief object; in which the desolation of the earth is his awful purpose; and by which he speaks, not in the still small voice of mercy and benignity, but in accents more awful than the noise of conflicting elements, and more tremendous than the sound of ten thousand thunders. “For, behold the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; therefore let all the earth keep silence before him.” Isa. xxvi. 21. Hab. ii. 20.
Whether we consider the desolating works themselves, or the instruments, by which they have been accomplished, we shall have abundant cause, in either view, to acknowledge the finger of God, and to confess, that “he ruleth in the kingdoms of the earth, and is very greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints;” that he is “glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders.”
1. As to the works themselves, they reach as far as the utmost extent of the terraqueous globe, and are as numerous as the several countries, kingdoms, or insular districts, into which it is divided by intervening mountains, or intersected by the currents of the ocean. There is not a spot of any considerable extent upon the earth, that has not, in some period or other, experienced the desolating hand of Jehovah; nor can the history of any nation be produced, whose annals do not record some awful visitation, through which he hath “answered” its inhabitants “by TERRIBLE THINGS in righteousness;” Psal. lxv. 5, and forced even pagan nations “that dwell in the uttermost parts of the earth to be afraid at the TOKENS” of his existence and indignation. Indeed, what is the earth, but one vast theatre, on which have been exhibited the successive scenes of mercy and of judgment? bearing, under its various revolutions, visible inscriptions of a divine hand, and visible traces of divine power? and in such phenomena, as might make even an atheist to cry out, “Thou, even thou, art to be feared; and who may stand in thy sight when thou art angry?” Psal. lxxvi. 7.
But, if we consult the sacred writings, those infallible records of God’s works and ways; in them we shall meet with the most numerous and prominent testimonies to the truth before us. There we read of that great work of desolation, produced by an universal deluge; when the earth suffered the most dreadful disruption of its parts; when “the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened;” Gen. vii. 11; when descending cataracts from the clouds meeting with ascending torrents from the great abyss, formed that vast congregation of waters, which overspread the earth, and covered the summits of its loftiest hills; when sin received an indelible mark of its abominable nature, the inhabitants of the earth met with the just desert of their accumulated iniquities, and the earth itself was reduced to such a state of desolation, as can only be exceeded by the terrors of that day, when a different element shall be employed to consummate its final and total wreck; when a flood of fire shall finish, what a deluge of water began, and intermediate desolations have been carrying on for thousands of years; and when God shall accomplish all his works of judgment and of mercy, to the eternal ruin of the wicked, and the complete redemption of his own people.
Although Jehovah hath set his bow in the clouds, as the significant symbol of that covenant, which he made with Noah, for the security of the earth from another general inundation, and of a better covenant established through Christ, whereby the salvation of his people from a deluge of divine wrath is ascertained; yet, if we examine the subsequent dispensations of Jehovah, they will evince, that post-diluvian wickedness has received marks of divine displeasure, in a constant succession of desolating judgments. Of this let the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah be a standing proof; whose inhabitants, for their unnatural lust, were visited with a judgment which served as a prelude and a pledge of that “vengeance of eternal fire,” Jude 7, which they were to “suffer” as the reward of their crimes; while all the cities of the plain, converted into a fetid lake, or dead sea, whose foul exhalations spread barrenness and death all around it, exhibit, as long as the earth itself lasteth, an awful memorandum of the effects of sin, and the judgments of a sin-avenging God.
Or, if the truth require further illustration, let us visit Egypt, and see what “signs Jehovah wrought there, and what wonders in the field of Zoan,” Psal. lxxviii. where he “smote all their first-born and the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham;” where a succession of plagues, desolating their country, and depopulating its inhabitants, terminated at last in the destruction of Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea. What a scene must that land exhibit, wherein the nutritive parts of creation were impregnated with poison and death! the most innocent creatures became a dreadful annoyance! the most useful animals were visited with sickness! the very dust of the ground converted into loathsome insects! the light of heaven changed into “darkness that might be felt!” the first-born of man and beast cut off in a night! the survivors trembling for themselves, and shrieking for the dead! while every element was armed with vengeance, and conspired to complete the desolation. Yet such was the scene, when God sent tokens and wonders into thee, O thou land of Egypt!
But the time would fail me to tell of Moab, and of Babylon; of populous Nineveh, or of imperial Rome; and of Jerusalem, the city of the great King; of the various nations, tribes, and people, to which these mighty cities gave names of pomp and distinction,—of the various revolutions which they have severally undergone, in the course of providence;—of the captivities of some, the conquests of others, and the desolation of all. The history of Israel from their Exodus out of Egypt, to their settlement in Canaan, with their journeyings through the wilderness inclusive, principally contains a narrative of their sins and of God’s judgments; nor does the history of the Jews, through their several captivities, and defections from the Lord, diminish, but rather swell, the dreadful account; as we view them, from the revolt and dispersion of ten tribes, down to the final subjection of the residue to the Roman yoke; an event, which, by a judicial chain of providence, rapidly brought on the melancholy catastrophe, which ended in the ruin of their city and temple, and marked that awful Æra, in which they ceased to be a people. “How unsearchable are God’s judgments, and his ways past finding out!” Rom. xi. 33.
Admitting that there is a God, who created and now governeth the universal frame of nature, a truth, as we have seen, founded upon the most incontestable evidence both of his word and works—it follows of course, that He can never be at a loss for expedients to assert his sovereignty, and vindicate his injured laws. As the heavens and the earth are his property, he can, with as much equity as ease, summon either or both to act in his controversy with a guilty world. His own creation will, at all times, furnish him with ample materials for conducting his judicial dispensations; insomuch, that every creature might be armed against us, and every element be made the vehicle of destruction; or the divine appointment might make the very food we eat, or the air we breathe, the channels to convey instantaneous death. But our business is not now to consider these ordinary incidents, by which “the King of terrors” is continually peopling the regions of the dead, and to which the constitution of our frame is subject; but rather those awful instruments of divine visitation, which are scourges of the Almighty to a guilty world. And one of the most fatal of these, is
1. War. This, howsoever necessary and inevitable it may often be, is always to be esteemed a great evil; if we advert, either to its origination or its effects; and nothing can justify its exertions, but the laws of self-preservation. The sin of man first gave it an existence; and the same bitter cause continues it to this day. “From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even from your lusts?” James, iv. 1. Tyrannical passions predominating in the mind, give birth to those sanguinary schemes, which, when pursued, produce every species of confusion and death. If we examine carefully, from whence all those scenes of devastation have arisen, that have deluged the world with blood, we shall find, that, in general, they have sprung from unbounded ambition, avarice, pride, or resentment. And multitudes of tyrants, as well as factious confederates in usurpation and rebellion, have never been able, in thousands of cases, to assign any other reason for their enterprises in blood and slaughter, but this; that the one could not bear an equal, nor the other a superior; or those had too little, and these not enough. While, to foment the dreadful quarrel, the lust of revenge and rebellion operates like oil poured on the flame. Thus nations begin and carry on war, until they are tired of worrying and killing one another; and when the consequences of this horrid work are weighed in the balance of humanity and reason, many a conqueror may sit down and weep over his victories, when he reflects that they have been purchased at the expense of the blood of thousands of his fellow-creatures. And he who could contemplate such victories with pride or pleasure, unmixed with remorse and compassion for the sorrow, the ruin, the desolation they have caused, is a desperate character, that, one would hope, can meet with a parallel, only in
“Macedonia’s madman and the Swede.”
What desolations have been made in the earth by war, the history of former and latter ages informs us; and, God knoweth, we need no comment on the awful truth. What we want principally, is to be humbled under the visitation; to “hear the rod, and Him that appointed it.” For, we are sure the matter is not fortuitous. If the sword be drawn, it is because God hath said, “Sword go through this land.” Or, if it continue unsheathed, it is because he hath said also, “O thou sword of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? put up thyself into thy scabbard, rest, and be still. How can it be quiet, seeing the Lord hath given it a charge?” Jer. xlvii. 6, 7. Or, if wide-extended destruction mark its progress, it is because, “Thus saith the Lord, A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also furbished; it is sharpened to make a sore slaughter; should we then make mirth? The sword is sharpened, to give it into the hand of the slayer. I Jehovah have set the point of the sword against all their gates, that their hearts may faint, and their ruins be multiplied.” Ezek. xxi. 9–11, 15.
These awful passages intimate, that it is an act of justice in God, to appoint that evil, into which men’s inordinate passions precipitate them: and it may turn out an act of mercy too, if they see their sin in their punishment, and get sick of both. Otherwise additional expedients may be adopted, and increasing judgments be sent. For, the Lord hath at his command the
2. Pestilence. When David, for his sin in numbering the people of Israel, had proposed to him his choice of three modes of punishment, and he preferred falling into the hand of the Lord, for very great were his mercies, and not into the hand of man, whose tender mercies, often, are cruel; “the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel, and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.” 1 Chron. xxi. 12–14. This sore visitation, which sin brought upon David and his people, was often repeated among the other judgments which desolated Israel. See Lev. xxvi. 25. Psal. lxxviii. 50. Jer. xliv. 13. It is mentioned as one of the ominous antecedents of the day of judgment, that “there shall be pestilence in divers places.” Mat. xxiv. 7. And in that inimitable piece of sublime description in Habak. iii. where all nature is represented as convulsed and shrinking to nothing, under impressions of the indignation and grandeur of God, “before him,” it is said, “went the pestilence:” verse 5. Because of the secret manner in which this fearful visitant performs his work, the Psalmist saith, “the pestilence walketh in darkness.” Psal. xci. 6. He enters silently and secretly as the thief, and imperceptibly yet rapidly executes his commission. There is often no security against its approach, since the air we breathe wafts the deadly contagion to all the senses, which, in a moment, convey them to, and, in conveying, contaminate the whole mass of blood. Thousands imbibe the poison, and fall in agonies under the stroke. The bolted door is no barrier against its intrusion; the power of medicine no antidote to the noisome malady. Thousands and tens of thousands fall on the right hand and on the left; and it has been known that this sweeping scourge has often swelled the bills of mortality more in a few weeks, than the whole train of common diseases have in as many years. Never do death’s arrows fly so thick or so envenomed, as when he fills his quiver with the plague; and never is the grave so crowded with dead, as when the pestilence waiteth at its gates. Though the land before it should resemble the garden of Eden, yet behind it the scene will be like a desolate wilderness. And were it not for that hand, which guides its progress, and limits its commission, nothing but rapid desolation and destruction would ensue; especially if we consider, that there follows close at his heels,
3. Famine. As bread is the staff of life, if the prop be removed, the constitution must necessarily fall. The vitals deprived of their wonted nutriment, must languish and die, under one of the most painful and insatiate sensations of nature. As famine is an evil in effect, the causes which produce it may be various. The spread of war, the want, or excess of rain, parching or vitiating the fruits of the earth, great inundations, blasting and mildew, long sieges, intense heat, a long frost or multitudes of devouring insects, locusts in particular, called by one of the prophets, “God’s army,” may, and often have, in their turns, introduced the plague of famine. But who can describe, or bear a description of such scenes as those which mark the effects of this pale visitant! when, as in Samaria’s siege, those things which the stomach would nauseate the very mention of, in a time of plenty, are coveted as food, when the unhappy sufferers have been driven to the horrid necessity of turning cannibals, and casting lots for each others’ persons, till at last a want of every resource brings death, and closes the ghastly scene. A visitation this, one would think, sufficient to alarm and reform a careless people; and yet it is recorded, as an astonishing instance of stupidity and hardness of heart in Israel, that when God “gave them cleanness of teeth in all their cities, and want of bread in all their places, they returned not” unto him that smote them. Amos, iv. 6. So that divine justice was obliged to repeat the stroke, by that, which is of all others the most tremendous visitation of Jehovah, the
4. Earthquake. Of all judicial dispensations, that which appoints the earthquake, is the most terribly vindictive; when the earth, thrown into dreadful concussions, cracks and opens like the gaping grave, or heaves and swells like the agitated ocean. Even the sword, the pestilence, and the famine, are mild in their effects, and slow in their progress, when compared with the earthquake. It often gives no warning, but overwhelms in a moment. Its subterraneous motions tear the bowels of the earth, and make its solid pillars bend, like a reed shaken with the wind; while the sound of thunder from beneath, and the crash of falling structures from above, are often heard at the same instant. A few minutes put a period to the works of ages; to wisdom’s archives; to all the boasted monuments of conquest and of fame; to all the pageantry of the great, and all the hoarded riches of the wealthy; to all the illicit pleasures of the licentious, and all the busy schemes of the proud or factious contending for sway. The loftiest towers, the strongest rocks, afford no hiding-place from its fury, but often increase the ruin. Nor is there any security in flight; since in the open field or spacious plain, a yawning gulf may open and devour multitudes in an instant, or jam them between the closing earth.
“Tremendous issue! to the sable deep,
Thousands descend in business, or asleep.”
To the desolations which this messenger of Almighty vengeance has spread through the earth, let Lima, Callao, Catania, Jamaica, Lisbon, bear witness. In the last place, soon after the dreadful visitation which, in 1755, disturbed the procession of the cursed Auto de fe, and shook the foundations of that bloody tribunal, which Popish barbarity and superstition had set up; the king of Portugal represented his distresses to the king of Spain in a letter, in which was the following affecting passage:—“I am without a house, living in a tent; without subjects, without servants, without money, and without bread.” How humiliating the stroke, which reduces royalty to the dust, or brings all the dignity of crowned heads to a level with the common beggar! Such, but accompanied with circumstances infinitely more terrible and abasing, will that final catastrophe be, when “the Lord shall arise to shake terribly the earth; when it shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it, and it shall fall and not rise again;” Isa. xxiv. 20; when “the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low, and they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty.” Isa. ii. 17, 19.
The quiver of Jehovah is not yet exhausted, though we take into our account the ravages of war, the desolation of famine, the fatal effects of the noisome pestilence, or the overwhelming fury of the earthquake. When he “opens his armoury, he can bring forth” innumerable “weapons of his indignation.” Jer. l. 25. He can execute his tremendous purposes by “fire and hail, snow and vapor.” Psal. cxlviii. 8, or “fulfil his word” of threatening and promise, by
5. Storms and Tempests. These are nothing more than the violent and unnatural agitation of that circumambient air, in which we live and breathe; and which might at any time be excited to such a degree of fearful perturbation, as to discharge some of the most dreadful artillery of heaven. What secret laws produce these phenomena are only known to that God, whose “way is in the whirlwind and in the storm, who maketh the clouds the dust of his feet, and holdeth the winds in the hollow of his hand.” For their dreadful effects we have no occasion to look very far back. The close of the last year exhibited a scene of desolation in the western islands, which their inhabitants can never forget; and in reviewing which, we ought to be actuated with sentiments of the tenderest commiseration and benevolence towards the unhappy sufferers, as well as with impressions full of reverential awe of that God, who sends his judgments through the earth, that the inhabitants thereof might learn righteousness. A few outlines of the devastation occasioned by the late hurricanes, will, it is presumed, convince us of this.—After the storm began, which had been preceded by weather remarkably calm, but by a sky surprisingly red and fiery; the wind was so impetuous as to bear down every object that stood in its way, with a sudden breaking in of the sea, in some places, which swept every thing away with it, so as not to leave the smallest vestige of man, beast, or house, behind; [215a] and all this scene of horror and desolation heightened by repeated shocks of an earthquake. In one island, [215b] we have been informed, that not ten houses survived the fury of the storm. Whole families were buried in the ruins of their habitations; and many, in attempting to escape, were maimed, and disabled. A general convulsion of nature seemed to take place, and universal destruction ensued. On the one hand, might be seen the ground covered with mangled bodies; and on the other, reputable families wandering through the ruins, seeking for food and shelter. Every building and plantation was levelled with the ground; trees were torn up by the roots, or stripped of their branches; and the most luxuriant spring was changed, in one night, to the dreariest winter. In vain was it to look for shelter, when all was a general wreck before the sweeping tempest. Many fell victims to the violence of the winds; and great numbers were driven into the sea and there perished, to the amount of some thousands. Alarming consequences were dreaded from the multitudes of dead bodies which lay uninterred: while, to complete the dismal scene, inevitable famine seemed to stare the miserable survivors in the face. This description includes the calamities of a single island; and, when to these we add, what other islands belonging to us and our enemies suffered by a similar visitation, how accumulated must the loss be of property and of lives! And who can help, in a reflection upon such events, crying out, “Who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord! who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto Jehovah! Thou hast a mighty arm: strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand; justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne.” Psal. lxxxix. 6, 13, 14.
I presume not to decide on the particular designs or intentions of Providence, in selecting some parts of the earth for a manifestation of his power, while others remain untouched; much less do the scriptures warrant us to conclude, that exemplary sufferers are necessarily “sinners above” the rest of the world. A hasty conclusion of this nature would reflect highly on our candor and humility, and involve in it too, a bold usurpation of the prerogative of God, to explore and distinguish the grounds of his own dispensations. And, indeed, the late visitation was so indiscriminate, as to leave us no room to draw inferences, either flattering to ourselves, or insulting to our enemies. And, perhaps, the impartiality and severity, which have marked these recent calamities, in their application, might serve to prove, that powers exhausting blood and treasure in a contest for the empty names of power and sway, are both wrong; when Jehovah seems to take up the controversy, and to punish both. One thing we cannot help seeing; which is, that if the Most High God were to exercise his power, as he is able, or, as we deserve, the necessity of waging or carrying on war would be very soon superseded; for there would exist no belligerent powers to do either the one or the other. We talk of our fleets and armies, and record with triumph the mighty achievements of our heroes; but, behold! the Almighty accomplishes in a few hours, what the armies of the earth are not able to effect in numerous campaigns!We may, however, safely conclude in general, that if “there be evil in a city, the Lord hath done it,” as the scriptures peremptorily affirm. That is, if any part of the earth is visited with evils or calamities, the agency of God, either permissive or decretive, is to be acknowledged in them. We may with equal safety infer, too, that all the judgments originate from, and imply the existence of, sin; since it would be an impeachment of his justice, to suppose, that he would suffer the elements to conspire to man’s ruin, if there were nothing in human nature to provoke his wrath. But this leads me to consider
II. In what light, and with what temper, we ought to contemplate such portentous dealings.
If we consider the works themselves, they should teach us the great evil of sin; if we reflect on the great author of them, they should impress us with a reverential awe of his tremendous majesty, and a dread of his wrath; or, if we have any just idea of our own character as sinners and mortals, they should preach to our hearts the necessity of seeking the great means of conciliating the divine favor, that we may be prepared for those contingencies, which render our existence upon earth so very precarious, and proclaim the folly of those who seek terrestrial good to the fatal injury of their everlasting interests. If we are Christians, we should contemplate the works of Jehovah, with confidence and joy; and, standing at a distance equally from presumption and unbelief, should rejoice with trembling that the great Ruler of the Universe is our Father and our God; while we feel ourselves encompassed with the most forcible motives to love his name and obey his will. But if, instead of living as Christians, any of us should be sunk in ignorance, dissipated by pleasure, supine in carelessness, and immersed in sin; we should awake from the fatal lethargy, and fly from the wrath to come, ere death overtake us, and judgment fix our miserable and eternal doom.
1. The desolating works of God are intended to display the heinous nature of sin. All the evils which overspread the natural and moral world spring from this source. Sin is the great parent-evil, to which, as to a bitter and common fountain, may be traced every corruption that has depraved the heart, every malady that has invaded the human frame, and every judgment that has rent the earth. All the disorder of jarring elements, all the commotions in contending nations, all the convulsions that shake the globe, and all the dispensations that sweep away its inhabitants, imply its existence, and publish its malignity. The sin of man “is written as with a pen of iron, and the point of a diamond, on the tables of the heart,” and stands engraven, in capital characters, upon his words and actions; while all the dispensations of God, directed to the great end of obliterating the writing, shew how enormous that evil must be, which requires the exertions of omnipotence either to punish or reform. Come, ye, who think or speak lightly of sin, and see what desolations it hath occasioned in the earth. Look at the ruins of mighty cities, the depopulation of flourishing states, and the fall of great empires, and then say, whether it be a small thing to sin against God. View the first rebellious pair expelled their earthly Paradise; their sinful progeny swept away with a flood; the earth cursed for the sin of man; and all the generations that are past buried in the promiscuous ruin of the grave; and entertain, if you can, low thoughts of the evil, that has produced these dire effects. Or, if this complex scene of misery and desolation does not sufficiently display sin’s enormity; examine death’s quiver, review the envenomed shafts that fill it; count over the formidable names of war, pestilence, earthquake, famine, tempest, fire, with the numerous train of bodily and mental disorders; and then if you ask, what has given such strength to the arm of the King of terrors, and such execution to the deadly arrows upon the string of this insatiate archer? an apostle informs you, that “the sting of death is SIN, and the strength of sin is the law; 1 Cor. xv. 56; that by one man SIN entered into the world, and DEATH by sin, and so death passeth upon all men, for that ALL HAVE SINNED.” Rom. v. 12. But, should this representation not answer the end of convincing some of you, that sin is an abomination of such enormity, give me leave to ask, “Wherefore hell hath enlarged herself and opened her mouth without measure?” Isa. v. 4. What kindled the flames of Tophet? what awakened the wrath of God? or what exposed his Son to the bitter agonies of the cross? In each dreadful view, sin is the instrumental cause. The sufferings of Jesus, the torments of the damned, proclaim its God-provoking nature. Go then, sinner, and after you have in thought traversed the globe, and seen its desolations; after you have dropped a tear over the monuments of the dead, and looked with horror into the chambers of the grave; go, and visit Calvary. See who hangs there in agonies and shame. What means this affecting scene? Wherefore is the sun darkened, and why are the rocks rent? Why does the immaculate Jesus thus suffer and die, while nature feels the shock, and sympathizes with strong convulsions? Sin, thy sin is at the bottom of this tragic scene. This was the bitter ingredient in the Redeemer’s cup, the dregs of which he drank off in our stead. This was the intolerable burden which he bore for us; and which in the bearing sunk him to the grave. Say then, must not that be a great evil, which is the cause of such calamities to man, and of such incomprehensible sufferings to the “Son of man?”
But do we see this? and are we affected at the sight? We are assembled together for the purpose of humbling ourselves before Almighty God, on account of “our manifold sins and provocations.” Do the feelings of our hearts correspond with the profession of our lips? Do we mean what we say? Is it not to be feared, that many content themselves with a repetition of a devotional form, adapted to the present occasion, without ever entering into the spirit of it? and hereby add to that immense load of inconsistency and guilt, which similar conduct has been increasing for numbers of years? And does not melancholy matter of fact demonstrate, that we are guilty of no breach of truth or charity, when we assert, that multitudes mock Jehovah to his face, by loving and living in the secret practice of those very sins, which, on this day, they condemn with their lips? We profess to regret the continuance of war, and to lament the expense of blood and treasure incurred by it. But, if our eyes are shut to the real cause of the evil, the visitation may be lengthened out, until we are at last forced to read our sin in our punishment. For, whatever some may think, war is a grievous scourge of the Almighty, permitted as a chastisement for crying sins, and a loud call to the nations of the earth to repent and turn to God. Hear what the Lord saith by the prophets. “Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee; this is thy wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reacheth unto thine heart: therefore destruction upon destruction is cried.” Jer. iv. 18, 20. “Because they have cast away the law of the Lord of Hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel; therefore the anger of the Lord is kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcasses were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his HAND IS STRETCHED OUT STILL.” Isa. v. 25. And, in that long list of threatenings recorded in Lev. xxvi. among other denunciations, is the following:—“If ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me, then will I also walk contrary to you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins; and I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant.” Verse 23, 25.
Would to God there were no occasion to apply the following charge to ourselves! “Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction; they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.” Jer. v. 3. Whether this scripture is not fulfilled in this day, let facts declare. We have been for some years involved in all the horrors of war. The desolations of it are continually upon the increase. Our enemies are multiplied; and with them our dangers too. Four great powers are uniting their force against us; and we have not one single ally in Europe, that we can call our own. The conjuncture of our affairs is more and more critical; especially if we consider, that an intestine faction still secretly works in the bosom of the state, and labors hard to kindle and keep alive the expiring flame of discord and rebellion. Add to this, that, through the last year, the metropolis of the kingdom was just upon the point of destruction; and with it the wealth and power of the nation. These are loud calls; alarming visitations. The rod hath spoken again and again; yet how few hear its voice, or fear him that appointed it! The rich and poor amongst us go on as usual. Iniquity stalks with brazen front through our streets; and error, in ten thousand forms, vents its unsoftened blasphemies against God and his Messiah. Places of amusement are crowded; and the whirl of dissipation goes on, as if there were nothing to solemnize us, or make us think. Multitudes of our gentry are laughing, at the play-house, or pursuing a more childish farce at the masquerade, while their poor countrymen are groaning in the field of battle, and, at the expense of their blood and lives, are fighting for that which is to keep others in ease and idleness. Thus, while the deepest tragedy is exhibited beyond the Atlantic, on this side the water we are carrying on the grossest farce. Youth are educated in ignorance, or trained up in fashionable vice; by which they fall an easy prey to the first bold invader of their morals and their virtue. Dress, visiting, and various species of dissipation, leave no time for the serious calls of religion; and a knowledge of the truths of revelation forms, in the system of many, no part of modern education. Frothy and lascivious novels occupy the place of God’s word; and there is no book so little read or understood, as the Book of books. The aged lead the way in folly and vanity; and endeavour to initiate their tender offspring, as early as possible, in those “pomps and vanities of a wicked world,” which both promised to renounce. Thus grey hairs give a sanction to evils, which youth want a curb in the pursuit of. And thus many a child has to curse its parent for an initiation into the pride of life and lusts of the flesh, by which his disgrace and ruin have been led on by a sort of necessary gradation. An introduction to the world, that is, to its nonsense, vanity, and dissipation—is deemed, with many, an essential in good-breeding. And, with many, to keep good company, is not to associate with those who fear God, but with those, who are distinguished by no other excellence but the possession of a title or a fortune. These accidental acquisitions are often complimented with the appellation of good; though all beside should be nothing but a compound of wretchedness and vice. Thus no distinction is made between men and their accidents; and adulation frequently offered at the shrine of debauchery and pride. And thus men confound the names of good and evil; put darkness for light, and light for darkness.
And can it be said that God’s desolations have taught us the evil of sin? No. While vice maintains its wonted vigor, pleasure attracts its votaries as usual, and profaneness rears its triumphant crest without control or shame, it can never be said, that we are advancing in reformation. Rather, as our visitations have increased, the stupefaction of sinners has increased with them. The storms, which should rouse, have eventually rocked them to rest. Even the deaf adder is quick of hearing, when compared with numbers, who neglect or refuse to hear that “Charmer,” whose voice, in his promises, is sweeter and more harmonious than all the choristers of heaven; and, in his threatenings, more tremendous than the roaring of the seas, and all the artillery of conflicting elements. Which leads me to observe, that,
2. God’s desolations in the earth should impress us with a reverential awe of his majesty and a dread of his wrath; should make us see his hand and acknowledge his interposition in every event.
As it is the part of bad divinity to make as little as possible of the Lord Jesus Christ, so it is the province of bad philosophy to leave God out of its favorite systems. In the latter case recourse is had to the doctrine of second causes, and to what are called the laws of nature. Upon this principle, vain man would attempt to account for every thing, and to exclude all mystery from the natural and spiritual world; although, in both respects, the phenomena exhibited evince the vanity and danger of the effort, and prove that, “as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are God’s ways above our ways, and his thoughts above our thoughts.” But, still proud man cannot bear that his reason should be confounded, or his understanding limited; and sooner than confess his ignorance, will explore depths, which angels cannot fathom, and soar so high into the regions of speculation, as to drop into materialism, and lose sight of his God. Thus it appears, that from pride springs every atheistical hypothesis, that produces a contempt of God and a denial of his sovereign interposition; but that the very first step in that heavenly science, which revelation styles “the wisdom from above,” is humility, which makes a man submit to be taught by his Maker, and not dispute away the existence of what he cannot comprehend.
The system of nature, it is allowed, is a chain of second causes, concatenated in such a manner, as to make one link depend upon another by a necessary coherence. But second causes must have a first, and laws must originate in some law-giver. So that, admitting that nature is regulated by certain laws interwoven with its existence and constitution, still the contrivance and execution of the wondrous plan force us to acknowledge, that an infinite mind must have tied together at first every link in the golden chain; and that what heathenism called the anima mundi, is in reality the all-pervading, all-supporting, and all-comprehending presence and power of Deity. But what shall we say, when the laws of nature suffer a temporary infringement? When the regularity of her course is diverted, and broken in upon? Do the convulsions of the earth, and the rage of elements, form any part of her laws, or any link in the concatenation of her parts? Was it by any inherent law, that the ocean once burst its barriers and overspread the earth? that the ground opened and swallowed Korah and his sacrilegious associates? that Sinai’s base shook, while its summit was enveloped with “blackness, and darkness, and tempest?” that the sun was eclipsed without any intervening sphere, and the rocks were rent, when Jesus expired on the cross? Or upon what principle will philosophy account for that final conflagration, which shall, in the destined period, burn up the earth and the works that are therein? when
“The cloud-capp’d tow’rs, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great Globe itself
Shall dissolve; and, like the baseless fabric
Of a vision, leave not a wreck behind!”
Are these nature’s laws? No; they are the disruption of them—the rending, not the order of the system. Who breaks in upon this harmony? The God of nature. The Creator is the dissolver of the world. He who spoke it from chaos into light and arrangement, speaks it into ruin. And those who insinuate, that “all things continue as they were from the beginning of the world,” an inspired apostle calls, “scoffers, who walk after their own lusts. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water; whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished. But, the heavens and earth which are now, by the same word, kept in store, are reserved unto fire against the day of judgment.” 2 Pet. iii. 4, 7.
As, therefore, there is a Supreme Being, that made and now supporteth the world, so there is a God that judgeth the earth. And as the world could not have existed in the beginning without his fiat, so neither can the course of nature be disturbed without his interposition. And they who are so ready upon every occasion to ascribe to second causes merely, what must be the effect of the great First Cause, indirectly strike at the existence of sin, and the being of God. Leaving, therefore, the vain philosopher and cavilling sceptic to speculate about the natural causes of earthquakes, tempests, pestilences, famine, sword; come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations He hath made in the earth. For thus saith Jehovah, “I form light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil. I the Lord do all these things.” Isa. xlv. 7. If the earth be convulsed, Jehovah shakes it. If the sword rages, He “gives it its charge.” If the tempest lours, and the heavens are clothed with black, He guides the storm, and rides upon the wings of the wind. If the artillery of the skies send out their voice, and shoot their arrows, it is He, who maketh the thunder and darts the lightening. If Jerusalem is to be buried in ruins, it is because He saith, “This is the city to be visited.” Jer. vi. 6.
Let all the earth stand in awe of Him, and all its inhabitants revere his majesty and dread his indignation. “He measured the waters in the hollow of his hand; he meted out heaven with a span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance. Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.” Isa. xl. 12, 15, 17. “Behold the name of the Lord cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy; his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire.” Isa. xxx. 27. “If he whet his glittering sword, and his hand take hold on judgment, he will render vengeance to his enemies, and will reward them that hate him.” Deut. xxxii. 41. “Fear ye not ME? saith the Lord. Will ye not tremble at my presence?” Jer. v. 22. “Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him. The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt and the earth is burned at his presence, yea the world, and all that dwell therein.” Nah. i. 5, 6.
“He frowns, and darkness veils the moon,
The fainting sun grows dim at noon;
The pillars of heav’n’s starry roof
Tremble and start at his reproof!”
These sublime passages taken from the inspired writings, and descriptive of the wisdom, majesty, grandeur, and indignation of God, are written, that we might form a due estimate of the littleness and impotence of that reptile man, when contending with Omnipotence? and learn from the desolations of the earth, to tremble at his presence. But where are the people that have learned this lesson? If a veneration for the institutions of Heaven, a delight in the ways of God, a reverent mention of his sacred name, a conscientious observation of the Sabbath, and a hatred of sin, be characteristics of God’s peculiar people, I fear the number will be found very small, when compared with the bulk of the profane. And here I cannot paint in stronger colors the prevalence of immorality in the present day, than by adopting the words of good Bishop Sherlock, in his description of the predominant wickedness of his own times. In a sermon delivered at Salisbury, the good bishop says, “Surely the Gospel of Jesus Christ was never treated with greater malice and contempt by Jews or Heathens, than it has been in this Christian country.—Is not Sunday become a day of diversion to great ones, and a day of idleness to little ones? And has not this been followed by a great increase of great wickedness among the lower sort of people?” And, when speaking of the licentiousness of that period, which succeeded the Restoration, and opened flood-gates of iniquity, which have continued through similar channels ever since; he says, “The sense of religion decayed, and the very appearances of it were suspected as a remnant of hypocrisy. And, if we may judge by the performances of the stage, which are formed to the taste of the people, there never was a time when lewdness, irreligion, and profaneness, were heard with more patience.” No wonder that, from a contempt of the gospel, and a love of dissipation, should spring what the good Bishop asserts in his Pastoral Letter, p. 7, “Blasphemy and horrid imprecations domineer in our streets; and poor wretches are every hour wantonly and wickedly calling for damnation on themselves and others, which may be, it is to be feared, too near them already. Add to this, the lewdness and debauchery that prevail among the lowest people; which keep them idle, poor, and miserable, and the number of lewd houses which trade in their vices, and must be paid for making sin convenient to them; and it will account for villanies of other kinds. For where is the wonder, that persons so abandoned should be ready to commit all sorts of outrage and violence. A CITY WITHOUT RELIGION CAN NEVER BE A SAFE PLACE TO DWELL IN.” [234]
Thus the excellent prelate, like a faithful watchman, lifted up his voice like a trumpet, and dared to speak out. And should not the ministers of the present day copy the example? The lion hath roared, who will not fear? The Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy? O ye ambassadors of Christ, “cry aloud and spare not,” that sinners may take the alarm, and fly from impending judgments and imminent destruction, to that way of salvation revealed in the gospel. And this suggestion points to another improvement to be derived from a view of God’s desolating dispensations; namely,
3. The necessity and importance of an interest in the blessed Jesus, as the great antidote against every calamity, and the glorious security against sin and its consequences.
Of all the symptoms of false security, which mark the complexion of the present day, there is none more truly alarming, than the supine indifference about truth, and the sovereign contempt of the gospel, which prevail amongst us. Our times are distinguished by much free thinking; and I wish there was no cause to add, by much free blaspheming too. I mean not here to insinuate any thing derogatory from that liberty which every rational being indisputably claims of thinking, and judging for himself, in the investigation of truth; provided always that he make the scriptures the ground and guide of his researches. Freedom of inquiry has ever proved friendly to the cause of truth, and inimical to that of ignorance and superstition. But, when this liberty is abused, as penal shackles are taken off, it looks as if men only wanted an easy opportunity of setting up for system-makers, to draw after them a gaping multitude, and make them stare at these prodigies in theology, who profess to suit their tenets to the taste of all. Hence, some make liturgies, and omit all divine homage to Him, whom the scriptures command us “to honor even as we honor the Father.” This appears a bright discovery to others, who immediately take the hint, and frame a manual upon a broader plan; in which the name of Jesus Christ is not so much as mentioned. A compliment this to the Deists, who are very much enraged at the idea of making a crucified man the centre of any system, or the object of any divine honors. But a third, still more hugely catholic, steps forward, and proposes a more enlarged plan, in which Jews, Turks, and the worshippers of Jupiter Ammon, may be blended together in one common brotherhood with believers in Jesus Christ; and a way to happiness be secured for Julian the Apostate, as well as Paul the Apostle. This is free-thinking with a witness. But, would such persons think as closely and calmly, as they think freely, the desolating judgments of God might teach them, that the Jewish nation could not practise idolatry without suffering severely for it; and that rejection of the Messiah, and contempt of his gospel, were the aggravated sins that reduced their city and temple to ashes, and themselves to the abject state of vagabonds on the earth.
If there be any one truth, which appears more prominent than all the rest in the sacred scriptures, it is, that “other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ;”—that he is our “wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption;”—that “there is none other name under heaven whereby we can be saved;”—that he is “set forth as a propitiation through faith in his blood;”—that he “offered himself a sacrifice to God, and died to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself;”—that not our works, but his work, is to be the ground of our acceptance, since “we are accepted in the beloved;” and that, to stamp sufficiency on his glorious salvation, “in him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” And yet how little do these truths enter into popular systems! Is there any question that would appear more difficult to many professors of Christianity to be solved, than, “What think ye of Christ?” But while the infidel sports with truth, and the careless contemn its admonitions, O let us give diligence to make our calling and election sure. Let us fly to him, to whom all the nations of the earth are commanded to look and be saved. Would we be secure from the guilt of sin, or armed against the sting of death, let us betake ourselves to him, who bore the one and conquered the other, by dying himself. Would we be prepared for whatever afflictions may befall us as individuals, or judgments overtake us as a nation; let us but build our hope upon the rock of ages, and then all shall work for good. If Christ be ours, then whether wrath is revealed or judgments impend, we shall have a secure shelter in his blood and righteousness. The earth may be removed, and the mountains cast into the midst of the sea; yet, in the midst of nature’s wreck, we shall sing, “The Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge.”
4. We should view even the desolations of the earth as an accessory ground of joy and confidence in God. When Martin Luther and his associates in reformation were in any trouble, he used often to say, “Come let us sing the 46th Psalm.” With the words of this sweet composition in his mouth, and the energetic power of it in his heart, he animated himself and his companions in tribulation. When any storms arose within, the subject of the psalm dispelled them, and, like the melody of David’s harp, soothing to rest the turbulent spirit of Saul, calmed their fears, and enabled them to sing their troubles away. We should imitate the heroic spirit of these champions in the cause of truth; for we have the same reason to rejoice that they had. If the Lord be our God, we should trust in him and not be afraid. He never gives up that tender relation towards his people, amidst any troubles that may arise. Though he desolate the earth with the most fearful judgments, yet he is the Father of his chosen still. And when this globe shall be in flames, Jesus will collect his jewels, and preserve them from ruin. Therefore, in the words of Habakkuk, “Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls; yet let us rejoice in the Lord, let us joy in the God of our salvation.” Hab. iii. 17, 18.
