Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A60562
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A discourse concerning divine providence, in relation to national judgments
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Smith, Thomas, 1638-1710.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing S4222; ESTC R3450
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13,165
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32
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cannot escape him and the like is to be said of a sinful nation but then this is only a reprieve and respite no revocation of the sentence which is gone out against it and it is the highest provocation of Justice to take no warning it is an unpardonable stupidity and the direct and ready way to ruine Whatever judgments are inflicted in this world concern others as well as those on whom they are inflicted These things are our examples as Saint Paul does most rationally conclude from the overthrow of the Israelites in the Wilderness 1 Cor. x. 6. to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted Now let us consider what is it that has ruined so many famous Monarchies but luxury and pride and base perfidiousness and irreligion how many glorious Cities have been demolished and destroyed by war fire and earthquakes whose ruines will be eternal monuments of their sin and of the divine vengeance All history abounds with examples and above all the Sacred which serves not only to inform us of past events but for direction and warning of what will be they are the standing registers of Gods proceedings with men the prophesies against Jerusalem against Babylon against Nineve in the general are in force still making allowances for the variety of circumstances as to those times and these as if they were directed to Christendom and the Nations out of it and their Capital Cities They are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the Earth are come Look about and see what desolations are brought upon the Earth go and enquire of the ages past and consider how God has dealt with them in his anger how he hath made their own wickedness to correct them as the Prophet speaks Jerem. ii 19. how he has given up some to the violence and fury of an enraged foreign Enemy others to the more raging furies of a Civil War how he has sent pestilential diseases and other plagues among them and the like By which examples God doth forewarn all other Nations as well as the people of the same in different times of the certain and woful and unavoidable consequence of Sin persisted in and unrepented of The belief of this truth that the Judgments which are in the world are the effects of Gods displeasure is necessary in order to our receiving benefit and making that right use of them to which they are designed For so long as Providence is denied and the justice and power of God called in question and the threatnings of Scripture disbelieved and lookt upon as bruta sulmina empty sound and noise and only natural causes supposed to be concerned in the dismal Judgments which have been and are in the world without the superintendency of the first and supream cause and that all things come to pass either by chance as causes which have no dependence one upon another happen to be joyned or by a fatal necessity it is a very easy consequence that men of this perswasion should continue in the same ill course of life and be never a whit the better for the most astonishing calamities Fear indeed is usually wrought in the minds of the stoutest and most resolute by Judgments Psal. lvii 8. Thou didst cause Judgment to be heard from heaven the Earth feared and was still But this may flow only from a principle of self-preservation The most hardy and bold the wits and the Hobbists les be aux et les forts esprits for all their sophistry and artificial evasions and for all their principles of fate and praedestination have an abhorrence of sudden death nor indeed can they think of any kind of death with any patience whose hopes are only confined to the animal life it may also oftentimes be and for the most part is only a kind of present horror a being troubled at the danger lest it may involve them as well as others and a meer effect of surprize and astonishment like the Emperour Caligula who was afraid and crept under his bed when it thundered but as mad and as dissolute as ever as soon as the noise was over But certainly all sober and serious people will make a better use of the judgments of God and in such cases conduct and govern themselves and their behaviour by true measures of wisdom and piety and especially by these two following rules 1. That we look up to God in all times of publick distress and calamity For will it not be a foolish obstinacy beyond all aggravation to complain of the stroke and smart and not see the inflicting hand which is so visibly lifted up No one certainly can be so slight an observer of the age wherein he lives as not to see enough to convince him that there is a God who judgeth in the earth and that he brings about those revolutions which are in the world Psalm lxiv. 9. all men that see it shall say this hath God done they shall perceive that it is his work But tho we are to observe and admire and adore Providence we must not presume to justifie any evil action by it as if success of it self were a sufficient proof encouragement and approbation of it For we cannot but remember how this was the common theme and topick in the late times I mean before the year 1660 of popular discourses both from the pulpit and the press to justifie the cursed rebellion of forty one that the God of hosts fought for his Saints and Servants at Marston-more and gave them victory over his and their enemies that is their rightful Soveraign to whom they had often sworn allegiance and his faithful Subjects and appeared most gloriously on their side at Naseby and the like and Bradshaw in his speech just before his pronouncing the sentence of death upon the blessed King Charles the first in which he most wickedly misapplies Law and the history of the tumultuous times of K. Edward the Second and K. Richard the Second together with foreign examples of the like villany as if they had been just and authentick proofs of what they were then acting appeals to Providence and saith that God had dealt gloriously and miraculously for them Providence cannot without an imputation upon the righteous government of God be supposed much more made use of as a plea or argument to justifie that which religion and the divine law severely prohibit tho judgments by what means or instruments soever brought about are full proof of Gods anger and displeasure against sin In every judgment God doth as it were thunder out of heaven and we must be more than deaf that is affectedly stupid if we will not hear and take notice Micah vi 9. The Lords voice cryeth unto the City and the man of wisdom shall see thy name hear ye the rod and who hath appointed it 2. That we reflect upon our sins which are the meritorious cause of Gods dealing thus severely with us In general may we not justly fear that the Lord hath a controversie with England for the crying sins of it because there is no truth nor mercy nor knowledge of God in the land by swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing adultery they break out and blood toucheth blood Hoseah iv 1 2. and have we not reason also to fear that the following menace will be fully executed upon us v. 3. therefore shall the land mourn and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish But without descending to a minute consideration of the publick sins wherewith almost the whole nation in general stands charged let us as we are private persons reflect upon our necessary dependance on God that all we have we derive from his goodness and that we cannot subsist one moment without his providence which continues our being to us and further consider that notwithstanding those obligations to serve and obey him which our being in the world and our being of such an order of creatures and our daily preservation lay upon us we daily provoke God to anger and if so when ever we feel the smart of our Sins we cannot but bow down our heads humbly before him and adore his justice which yet punisheth us less than we have deserved Righteous art thou O Lord and true are thy judgments Psal. cxix 133. He doth not afflict willingly the children of men Lam. iii. 33. but we our selves pull down these judgments upon our heads we will not let God as it were be at rest we provoke him to wrath and indignation against us by our ingratitude and disobedience and by an obstinate continuance in sin Whenever therefore his hand is lifted up and before it be lifted up let us endeavour to atone his wrath by a hearty and speedy repentance let us prostrate our selves before him and deprecate his anger that we be not consumed by the means of his heavy hand and then we may be assured that he will return to us in mercy and will either avert or remove his judgments from us and will heal us and our Land and the breaches of it tho it shaketh and is ready to fall into pieces FINIS ERRATA PAge 4. line 20. all mankind p. 5. l. 26. for hast r. had p. 6. l. 13. for our r. out p. 10. l. 7. first cause * Matchiavel in his Prince speaking of the ill success of the counsels designs and enterprizes of Caesar Borgia nac que da una straordinaria estrema malignita di fortuna cap. vii * De Paenitentia ex edit Rigaltii page 14â— Specialiter quaedam pronunciata generaliter sapiunt Cum Deus Israelitas admonet disciplinae vel objurgat utique adomnes habet cum Aegypto Aethiopiae exitium comminatur in omnem gentem peccatricem praejudicat Tertull de spectaculis ex edit Rigalt p. 91.