any evil Tidings Psal 112.7 8. We may possess our Souls in Peace for God will keep them in perfect Peace whose Minds are stayed on the Lord Isa 26.3 They may say when it thunders It is the Voice of my Father and when the Earth trembles It is the Tread of his Foot or with David The Lord is my Refuge the Lord is my Habitation what need I be afraid Psal 91.9 A Refuge is a Place of Retreat and Safety in a time of VVar An Habitation is a Place of Abode in a time of Peace At all Times and in all Conditions such are provided for The Lord is my hiding-Place and my Shield therefore will I hope in his VVord Psal 119.114 He will either keep me out of Danger or defend me when I am exposed to it either what I fear shall not overtake me God will be my hiding-Place or if it do come it shall not hurt me God will be my Shield He has promised to be with me in the Fire and in the VVater He has bid me not to be dismayed for I am with thee I am thy God I will strengthen and help thee and uphold thee with the right Hand of my Righteousness Isa 41.10 and 42.2 He will cover me with his Feathers and under his VVings I shall be safe I may abide under his Shadow and dwell safely from the Fear of Evil. Now it is one great End of such extraordinary Appearances of God to bring Men to adore and seek after God Joel 2.30 I will shew VVonders in the Heavens and in the Earth c. before the great and terrible Day of the Lord and whosoever shall call on his Name shall be saved Our Business therefore is to make Peace with God to acquaint our selves with God and be at Peace with him and then Good shall come unto us and the Almighty himself shall be our Defence so as we need not fear Job 22.21 Let what will come to pass such shall be safe who are under the Covenant-Love and Care of God And it is his Presence alone is able to secure us Good Men have always thought so even when they had the greatest Assistance for outward Security O Lord we rest on thee alone says Asa 2 Chron. 14.8 When he had an Army that bare Targets and Spears out of Judah to the number of three hundred thousand and near as many out of Benjamin that bare Shields and drew Bows viz. two hundred and fourscore thousand yet he overlooks all this and rests on God alone So did Jehosaphat 2 Chron. 17.14 15 16. with an Army of eleven hundred threescore thousand fighting Men besides his Garisons and yet Chap. 20.12 he says VVe have no Might against those that come against us but our Eyes are unto thee Eleven hundred and threescore thousand fighting Men in the Field and yet had no Might but what he expected from the Presence of God All our Stability and Safety depends upon God as our Keeper If it be asked Is it in your Armies and Officers and Commanders they must say No it is not in us Is it in your Fleets and Navies and Admirals It must be said It is not in them Is it in your Allies and Confederates It must be said still It is not in them In your Castles and Garisons and Fortifications in the Situation of your Country or the Numbers of your People c. It is not in them In no humane Power Policy Cunning Correspondencies abroad or Councils at home nothing but in God who is the Keeper of Israel and therefore to be at Peace with him is our only Safety If he be our Rock and Refuge we may depend on him and find Security all other Foundations and Buildings are weak and tottering but the Foundation of God stands sure The Lord knoweth who are his and he can and will take Care of them though the Earth tremble under your Feet or you sink into the Bowels of it He can own and distinguish you even in such a Calamity by a temporal Salvation as An. 1584. when a certain Hill near Berne in Switzerland was violently removed by an Earthquake and covered a whole Village that had ninety Families in it one half House only excepted wherein the Master of the Family was praying with his Wife and Children * Polani Syntagma p. 841. Polanus relates it who lived in those Parts By an Earthquake at Constantinople wherein thirteen thousand Men perish'd An. 1509. many of the Turkish Mosques fell but the Christian Temples stood firm ‖ An. 1663. in Insula Canada horrendi Terrae motus sentiuntur Haec Tempestas ingentem Terrarum tractum infestavit Barbaros Christianis interim incolumibus gravi damno affecit Cluverius p. 868. And other Instances may be given of the like God is an unchangeable Refuge and by Interest in him we are sure of a Building not made with Hands Eternal in the Heavens Though our earthly Dwellings should be swallowed up our Souls are safe our Portion is secure for when this earthly Tabernacle is dissolved into Dust by that or any other Calamity yet shall we not miss of eternal Blessedness in the Heavenly Mansions And there are no Storms or Tempests no Commotions or Tremblings there CHAP. III. We ought not to Censure others because of such Calamities as greater Sinners than those who escape much less should we pass a Judgment on their Eternal State because they are cut off suddenly by a temporal Judgment TO apply this 1. Let us not then excuse or encourage our selves by censuring others as greater Sinners than we on whom more terrible Judgments have been inflicted For except we repent we must also perish This is the express Declaration of Christ upon the Account given him of those on whom the Tower of Siloam fell and of the Galileans whose Blood Pilate had mingled with their Sacrifices Luke 13.5 As to these Galileans their Crime is not certain some think they brought this Judgment upon themselves by their Sedition as conspiring against the Roman Government intermixing some Acts of Religion as the Bond of their Conspiracy which Pilate hearing of surprized them in the Act and put them to Death Others think they were the Followers of Judas of Galilee mentioned Acts 5. who seduced many from their Obedience to the Roman Emperor and that they were Jews coming up to the Passover to sacrifice and there he fell upon upon Others suppose them to be Samaritans and that they were slain worshipping in their Temple on Mount Gerizim but called Galileans from Judas the Head of the Faction and the Hatred of the Jews against the Samaritans might occasion that severe and bitter Censure Whatever the Occasion was of their Sufferings our Lord condemns the Censure of them as greater Sinners on that Account for tho sometimes Men guilty of provoking Sins are followed with such remarkable Judgments that it would be stupid Impiety not to observe the Hand of God therein as in the Case
the World are fit to be registred and remembred by us as Testimonies to us of his Being Holiness and Righteous Government Come hither says God and behold the Works of the Lord what Desolation he has made in the Earth Psal 46.8 Secondly As we must observe and consider these Instances of God's Severity upon others so they are very proper to affect us with an holy Awe and Fear of God He owns himself the Author of all the Desolations wrought in the Earth Earthly Princes will have Matters of Favour deriv'd from themselves but all Acts of Severity they put off to subordinate Agents But God will not stand on such Points he rather professeth to lay claim to all the memorable Acts of Vengeance upon sinful Nations and People It is He that shakes terribly the Earth and rends the Rocks and makes the Mountains tremble who overturns Cities and Countries as in an Instant who swallows up many hundreds and thousands of Persons and Families at once And shall not we who hear of it stand in a we of him We should say on such an Occasion Who hath an Arm like God We should consider Who can stand before him when he is angry Who can contend with him Who would not tremble in his Presence He who can cast Soul and Body into Hell in a moment can as soon cause his Earth to open and swallow up the strongest the largest the most populous City upon Earth and turn it into a Heap of Ashes or a Pool of Water Ought not this God to be feared When his right Hand does teach him terrible things shall not the Question then be put as Job 12.9 Who knoweth not that the Hand of the Lord has wrought this When he shakes the Heavens and melts the Mountains and cleaves the Valleys as Wax before the Fire and as VVaters poured down a steep Place Mich. 1.4 he seemeth to say I will work and who shall let I will destroy and who shall save I will lay my Hand says God upon Egypt and I will bring my People thence by my great Judgments And it follows The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord Exod. 7.4 5. The Greatness and Terribleness of the Calamity in such cases bespeaks God to be the Author of it Man cannot but take notice of His Hand and inquire Wherefore has the Lord done this and what means the Heat of this great Anger Deut. 29.24 With God is terrible Majesty he is Almighty we cannot find him out Men do therefore fear him Job 37.22 23 24. When he makes the Mountains tremble and the Earth shake our Hearts should tremble too Fear ye not me says the Lord and will ye not tremble at my Presence Jer. 5.22 Will ye not fear me who can open the Cataracts of Heaven above or break up the Fountains of the great Deep below and pour forth whole Floods of Vengeance when I please who can rain Hell out of Heaven or kindle those Exhalations and Steams that are in the Bowels and Caverns of the Earth as I cause Thunder by giving Fire to those in the Clouds and make them force their way to the Overthrow and Destruction of Villages and Towns and Cities and Countries whenever I will who can thus suddenly turn a fruitful populous Land into an amazing Spectacle of Desolation and Ruine If God but write bitter things upon the Wall against Belshazzar his Loins are loosed and his Knees knock one against another The great Emperour Caligula runs under the Bed at the noise of God's Tabernacle his thundring Voice And certainly God's shaking the Earth in so terrible a manner as of late may much more make us tremble To this purpose it is elegantly described by the Prophet Isa 24.17 18 19 20. Fear and the Pit and the Snare are upon thee O Inhabitant of the Earth And it shall come to pass that he who fleeth from the noise of the Fear shall fall into the Pit and he that cometh up out of the midst of the Pit shall be taken in the Snare for the Windows from on high are open and the Foundations of the Earth do shake The Earth is utterly broken down the Earth is clean dissolv'd the Earth is mov'd exceedingly the Earth 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 Upon such Manifestations of Divine Power and Justice we may well cry out Great and marvellous are thy Works O Lord God Almighty VVho would not fear thee and glorify thy Name when thy Judgments are thus manifest Rev. 15.3 4. Such a Judgment as this of Earthquakes is especially proper to affect us with an awful Fear of God of his Majesty and Power his Greatness and Dominion his Soveraignty and Justice He caused the Mountain to quake at the Delivery of the Law when he would prove to the Jews that he was their Lord and Soveraign When the Centurion observed the Earthquake at the Death of Christ He and others feared greatly saying Truly this was the Son of God To this purpose we may consider the Earthquake that did hinder the Attempt of rebuilding the * Amm. Marcell Hist l. 23. Chrysost Orat. 2. c. Jud. Socrates l. 3. c. 17. Sozomen l. 5. c. 21. Jewish Temple which the Emperour Julian set afoot to spight the Christians and to contradict the Prophecy of our Saviour and to oppose Moses unto Christ He gave all Encouragement to the Jews he provided them with all Materials at his own charge They with great Joy and Readiness set about it But when they began to search the Ground in order to the laying of the Foundation the Earth round about trembles with a horrible Earthquake and the Flames on a sudden break out which not only consumed the Undertakers but a multitude of Spectators too and the Materials prepared for the Building This made an universal Astonishment and struck Julian himself with some Fear so that he gave over the Attempt and many of the Jews were perswaded to receive the Faith of Christ About the same time the Pagan Temple at Delphos was destroyed by Earthquakes Thunder and Lightning Such Manifestations of his Power challenge our Fear He looketh on the Earth and it trembleth he toucheth the Hills and they smoak Nahum 1.5 The Mountains quake before him and the Hills melt he removeth the Mountains and overturneth them in his Anger he shaketh the Earth out of its place and the Pillars thereof tremble Job 9.5 And the rather should we fear in such Cases because they are often set forth as God's Judicial Act. These fiery Meteors are turned by God's Counsel for Correction and Judgment Job 37. The Earth shook and trembled the Foundations of the Hills were moved and shaken * See more of this in the following Chapters BECAVSE HE WAS WROTH There went up a Smoak out of his Nostrils and Fire out of his Mouth devoured Coals
the Lord What if England Scotland and Ireland should be a Seat of War and a Field of Blood as well as other Parts of Europe that never sinned against such Light such Warnings and such Obligations as we have What if a sudden Earthquake should swallow up a great part of these Countries as it hath of others Why may not the very Dregs of the Cup be reserved for us who have been incorrigible under all the Methods of Divine Providence to reform us What Certainty have we that it shall not be so Where is the Ground of our Confidence What Assurance have we that God will spare much longer What strong Reasons can we produce for the Entail of Liberty Peace and Plenty There needs no Spirit of Prophecy to declare our Danger considering our Guilt but a more serious and more general Spirit of Humiliation Prayer and Reformation to be poured out to prevent it God has waited long and tried us by various Methods of Mercy and Judgment he has manifested how loth he is to destroy us and therefore gives us many Admonitions and Items formerly and of late He calls loud and often by manifold Warnings he lifts up his Hand on high as if he would strike that we might turn to the Lord and prevent it he shakes the City and threatens the Nation but has not yet delivered us over to utter Ruine He tells us by the Examples of others what he can do with us and what we may expect if we will go on He doubles and trebles his Messages by the Voice of his Prophets and by the Voice of his Providence He calls us by what he hath done abroad and by what he hath done at home to repent and turn to the Lord lest Iniquity prove our Ruine But have we not reason to fear that all his Kindness and Patience has but hardned us the more and rendred us the more incorrigible and ripe for Ruine We continue our Rebellions against him as if we were sure he would never be weary of Repenting Being often reproved and warned and delivered and yet Impenitent ought we not to fear lest we be suddenly destroyed and that without Remedy How many Countries and Cities have been so How many former Instances and later ones may be mentioned And if we are spared it is mere Soveraignty and Prerogative CHAP. V. Of God's Unwillingness to destroy a People Hosea 11.8 9. explained paraphrased and applied to our Nation and City How shall I give thee up Ephraim c. Abraham 's Pleading with God for Sodom and Gomorrah Gen. 18. Moral Causes why we may expect and fear National and Publick Calamities IT is the Language of Divine Providence to us as to his ancient People Hos 11.8 9. How shall I give thee up Ephraim How shall I deliver thee Israel How shall I make thee as Admah How shall I set thee as Zeboim Mine Heart is turned within me my Repentings are kindled together I will not execute the Fierceness of mine Anger I will not return to destroy Ephraim for I am God and not Man the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee He denounced dreadful Judgments for their Ingratitude ver 5 6 7. but when it comes to the Execution he is loth to destroy How shall I give thee up To which it is answered My Heart is turned within me my Heart is turned against that Determination of Judgment I seemed to resolve on or my Heart is returned to Pity and Compassion that I cannot execute my threatned Vengeance How shall I deliver thee up O Israel To which it is answered My Repentings are kindled together that is my Bowels yearn towards you still As little as you deserve any Favour or Compassion at my Hands I am inclined to reprieve and spare you a while longer to give you space and time to repent How shall I make thee as Admah one of the Cities of the Plain that was utterly destroyed with Fire and Brimstone from Heaven with Sodom and Gomorrah Unto which it is answered I will not execute the Fierceness of mine Anger as I did against that wicked City How shall I set thee as Zeboim another of those wicked Cities which the Lord overthrew in his Anger and his Wrath Gen. 19.24 To which it is answered I will not return to destroy Ephraim I will not make a full end of him for I am God and not Man not of an hasty passionate revengeful Temper as Men who are injured and affronted and provoked by one another I delight in Mercy I have the Patience of a God as well as the Power and therefore you are not consumed Mal. 3.6 I am the Holy One of Israel a God in Covenant with your Fathers and have promised to be so with their Posterity I am the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee You are called by my Name and I am yet amongst you by the Tokens of my Presence I am therefore loth to leave you utterly to leave you to Destruction You have the like Expression Hos 6.4 O Israel what shall I do unto thee O Judah what shall I do unto thee for your Goodness is as the Morning-Cloud and the early Dew that passeth away that is I am loth to punish you with destructive Judgments but what shall I do to prevent it O Israel O Judah what would you have me to do Would you have me neglect the Honour of my Government and be an idle Spectator of all the Affronts that you have offered me Must I repeal my Law and throw aside my Scepter and tamely suffer the Rights of my Throne to be incroached on and trampled under Foot Must I resolve to suffer you to go on in your Hypocrisy and Idolatry and shameful Backslidings without testifying my Displeasure I have done much to warn you to awaken you to reform you to prevent your Ruine I am inclined to Pity I am unwilling to destroy But O Israel what shall I do unto thee You will not be purged you will not be healed you will not be gathered you will die And yet Mercy interposes again before the Stroak is given How shall I give thee up O Ephraim Must I after all give Orders for thy Destruction How shall I do it Though thou deservest to be forsaken by my Mercy which thou hast abused and seized by my Justice which thou hast provoked yet how shall I find in my Heart to permit it Though I can hardly tell how to bear with thee any longer or with Honour to my Name and Government to delay the Execution of that destructive Vengeance threatned on my part and deserved on thine yet O Ephraim my dear Son how shall I give thee up O Israel the Posterity of my ancient Friend Jacob how shall I deliver thee over to final Ruine In answer to this says God My Heart is turned within me my Repentings are kindled together i. e. I find such Struglings of Compassion in my Heart towards thee that I know not
have been particular Inundations in several Countries notwithstanding the Oath of God to Noah that there should not be another General Deluge But the Truth of God endures throughout all Generations Mount Sion abideth for ever and cannot be moved and all the Promises of the latter Days shall certainly be accomplished Though I will not be positive as to the Time of those things so as to ground any Assurance concerning their near Accomplishment or the particular Share of this Nation in them Yet as to such prophetick Periods God will break through all Obstructions to accomplish his own Counsel And what the present Shakings and Convulsions of the Nations round about may issue in who can tell For never was any great Good to the Church or any considerable Reformation introduc'd without great Commotions And Literal Earthquakes are often taken notice to have preceded About the Beginning of the Reformation from Popery An. 1569 and 1570 there was one in Ferraria which Country was lately given to the Pope and in Portugal whereby * P. Jovius Lisbon was shaken 1500 Houses ruined all the Temples turn'd into Rubbish the Ships swallowed up in the Ocean the River thrown out of its Channel And the same Earthquake affected the Netherlands and caused great Inundations of the Sea And the like formerly is observable before the Division of the Roman Empire into ten Kingdoms that there were frequent Earthquakes and other Prodigies Before Saladin attempted the Overthrow of Jerusalem and to ravage the Holy Land An. 1172. * Saladinus adjecit animum ad Regni Jerosolymitani eversionem praevio ut solet fieri Terrae motu quo Antiochia Laodicea Alapia Caesarea Emissa Tripolis aliaeque Urbes ferè conciderunt Cluverius great Earthquakes preceded Anno 1300. when the Turkish Empire began to be considerable there †Platina was such an Earthquake at Rome as the like never was before As when the Pagan Empire was to turn Christian in the time of Constantine the Great great Earthquakes also did precede by one whereof thirteen Cities in Campania were overthrown Great Designs of Providence being serv'd and the Changes of States and Countries usher'd in by Earthquakes after the mention of that Terrible One in the Days of Vzziah King of Judah Zech. 14.5 it is added And the Lord my God shall come and all the Saints with thee Or thus And yet O Lord my God come and all the Saints with thee Notwithstanding our Fears and Terrors without this we should not see thy Salvation Dr. * Dr. Jackson 's Works Tom. 2. Part 2. lib. 7. p. 526. Jackson thinks that Earthquakes were Emblems and Types of that Great Change by the Ministry of John the Baptist our Lord's Forerunner in the 15th Year of Tiberius who declared the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand when Publicans and Sinners were advanc'd and the Children of Abraham who gloried in their Birthright were debased when poor Fishermen became Heads of the Tribes of Israel greater Men in the House of God than Moses and Aaron had been while the Successors of Moses the Chief Priests and Doctors of the Law were infatuated and like Salt without Taste or Savour And he reckens the Prophecy of Isaiah chap. 40.14 Every Valley shall be exalted and every Mountain and Hill shall be brought low was fulfilled and answered in its literal Meaning in part at least by that Terrible Earthquake in the 6th or 7th Year of the Emperor Tiberius which overthrew twelve famous Cities in Asia For among other Symptoms of it Tacitus * Sedisse immensos Montes visa in arduo quae plana suerint Tacit. Annal. lib. 2. relates this for one that the Valleys were exalted and mighty Hills brought low Before the Accomplishment of divers Prophecies God gives some Glimpse or Hint by some real Event answerable to the plain literal Sense of the Prophet but immediate Prognosticks of Greater Mysteries approaching He saith farther that the Earthquake which happened in Jewry while Augustus Cesar and Anthony tried their Fortunes in that great and famous Sea-fight at Actium was in part an Accomplishment of the Prophet Haggai his literal meaning chap. 2.6 7. Yet once it is a little while and I will shake the Heavens and the Earth and the Sea and the dry Land And I will shake all Nations c. This shaking of the Nations and of the Earth at that time was a sore Prognostick of that Mystery which the Prophet in the following Verses foretells viz. That the Glory of the latter Temple should be greater than the Glory of the former and that He who was the Desire of all Nations and the Glory of both Temples the Prince of that Peace which God had promised to give in Jerusalem should shortly come For about twelve Years after Herod erects the Temple anew and made it even for External Pomp and Ornament more Beautiful than Solomon's Temple had been that the King of Glory and Prince of Peace for whose Entertainment though unwitting to Herod it was erected might come into it and fill it with Glory And within eighteen Years after Herod began this Work our Lord was presented in it and acknowledged by Simeon to be the Light of the Gentiles or one desired of all Nations and the Glory of his People Israel Great Revolutions and Changes sometimes for the better but more often for the worse have been observ'd to follow Earthquakes as to Natural Civil and Ecclesiastical Affairs Let me mention some Instances Three Cities in * Orosius l. 7. c. 9. Cyprus fell by an Earthquake in the time of Vespasian and Titus followed with a great Pestilence at Rome In Julian's †Sozomen l. 6. c. 2. Theodoret l. 4. c. 4. time there were several great Earthquakes followed with a terrible Famine at Alexandria and in Egypt ‖ See Hottingeri Dissert de Terrae motu Diss 4. Quaest 3. Unde Terrae motus immittantur fintne fortutti purè naturales an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An. D. 342. Constantius made several beneficial Laws for the People and renewed the Privileges granted to Artificers It is observ'd he was constrain'd thereunto by a sense of Publick Calamities for during the War with Persia and about those Times great Mischiefs had proceeded from many and most Terrible * Howel 's Gen. Hist Vol. 2. p. 83 84. Earthquakes St. Jerom in his Cronicon tells us that the Year following the Death of Constans the Younger many Cities of the East fell to the Ground by an horrible Motion of the Earth And some three Years after this that Neocaesarea was overturn'd and all its Inhabitants perished except such as were saved with the Bishop in the Church as also that the Year following this and preceding the building of the Haven in Seleucia Dirrachium was by an Earthquake demolished Rome trembled for three Days and as many Nights and many Towns of Campania were sorely troubled To these Cedrenus adds that in the fourth or fifth Year of Constantius Antioch