conceivable Terror and Mifery among the intelligent and rational Creation. Nor is it enough to fay, "That these dismal Events "happen with a Defign for our Discipline " and future Good;" for what Advantage are the Thousands at Lisbon that have been crushed to Death, likely to receive from this terrible Calamity? The better Way methinks, that we ought to take in accounting for thefe `direful Events, is to refolve them into the Divine Juftice, or to grant that they are the Effects of the Divine Refentment against Sin; and that though God, when he is pleafed to punish, may choose out whom he will. in a guilty World as the Examples of Punishment, as a King out of a Number of equal Malefactors may execute some and fpare others, yet that he never afflicts any of his Creatures without Sin, as the procuring Cause. Such a Sentiment as this, methinks, well agrees with the Belief of a God as a Governor of the World, well I agrees with the universal Guilt of Mankind, and above all, correfponds with the Scripture Revelation. In the Scriptures we learn that God is righteous in all his Ways, and holy in all his Works.* He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the Chil dren of Men, to crush under his Feet all the Prifoners of the Earth, to turn afide the Right of

* Pfal. cxlv. 17

of a Man before the Face of the Moft High, to fubvert a Man in his Caufe the Lord approves not. Wars, Peftilences, Famines, Fire, and Earthquake are threatned as Punishments for Sin, particularly where God declares, Thou shalt be visited of the Lord of Hofts with Thunder, and with Earthquake, and great Noife, with Storm and Tempest, and the Flame of devouring Fire.§ And the Apoftle Paul afcribes Death to Sin as its Caufe; and, if Death is the Offspring of Sin, muft we not of Courfe refolve all his furrounding Terrors, fuch as Sickness, Pain, and various Sorrow to the fame Parent? Wherefore as by one Man Sin entered into the World, and Death by Sin; and fo Death paffed upon all Men for that all have Sinned ‡. I will only add in Proof of this Point, that if our Afflictions and Diftreffes are not to be confidered as the Judgments of God upon us for our Sins, these two Confequences feem to me neceffarily to follow; the first, that we should be deprived of a cogent and powerful Argument for our Repentance and Return to God, for we fhould never look upon our Sorrows as the Effects of Sin, and fo should not be excited to Contrition and Humiliation before God upon its Account, or, in the Language of the Prophet, Our own Wickedness would not correct us, nor our own Backflidings

Lam. iii. 33. 36. § If. xxix. 6: Rom. v. 12.

flidings reprove us; nor fhould we know by our Afflictions, that it is an evil Thing and bitter that we have forfaken the Lord, and that his Fear is not in us.* The other mifchievous Confequence refulting from fuch a Sentiment as that Sin is not the Cause of Affliction, would be, that it would be impoffible for us to know that there can be a Judgment of God upon us; for, if our Calamities do not" fpring from Sin as the Original, how can we in this World, where we learn God by his Operations and Effects, and not by a Sight or Converfe with himfelf, ever be affured that we are punished for our Iniquities? And thus we fhall be led into this ftrange Notion, That it is uncertain whether God treats us at all in this World as moral Agents, by the Beftowal of Bleffing on one Side, and by the Execution of his Anger on the other. Upon the whole then, we conclude that there is an awful Difplay of the Divine Juftice in the late Earthquake at Lisbon; and, though we don't affirm, being guarded by our Lord from fuch rafh Cenfure, that the Inhabitants of that City were greater Sinners than all Mankind befide; yet, this we maintain, (confiftent with what our Lord fupposes that the Galileans were Sinners, though not the greatest Sinners) that Sin was the procuring Caufe of this tremendous Catastrophe, and that it is to be accounted a Judgment, and a

* Jer. ii. 19.

terrible

terrible Judgment too, from the Righteous' Governor of the World. The demolished Houses, the destroyed Inhabitants, and the difmal Wreck of that once great and populous City, difplay the Divine Justice, and God has written Vengeance in deep and indelible Characters upon its Ruins. its Ruins. And I cannot but obferve, though I would not affirm that Lisbon was greater in Crime than all other Cities, and particularly than London, whofe distinguishing Privileges and Advantages must inconceivably aggravate its Guilt, that if any Judgment in the Almighty's Quiver feems to be chofen out as an extraordinary Punishment for extraordinary Sin, I should be apt to conclude it was such an Earthquake as that which has lately happened. It is what is in its own Nature, from its fwift and uncontroulable Defolation, inexpreffibly dreadful, and it is nearly a-kin to the Overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrha, which Event we are affured was the Effect of the fierceft Indignation of the Almighty, and inflicted as a Punishment of enormous Guilt. And, if the Opinion I have formed concerning Lisbon be right, it was a City of great and crying Abominations, and particularly, there reigned the groffeft and most inhuman Popery; and there the Inquifition, the Emblem and the Rival of Hell, though now perhaps tumbled into the general Ruin,

once

once flood. Oh! what Torture and Cruelty have been there practifed, and these the choiceft Servants of God and Chrift. This Earthquake, O thou Seat of Horror and infernal Mifery, has fhaken thy Walls, and made thine Inquifitors themselves, who were once fo unconcerned at the Tears of others, and fo deaf to their importunate Entreaties, and piercing Cries, exceedingly fear and quake; and, it may be, fhriek and howl too for Help in vain. It may be, their Place of Barbarity is now become their Sepulchre. Tormentors and Tormented, once fo mutually deteftable, are now perhaps blended together in one common Deftruction. If fo, may none ever, O thou Curfe, and Plague, and Reproach of the World, rebuild thy Walls, forge again thy Racks and Chains, fink again thy fubterranean Dungeons, or renew thine excruciating and exquifite Torments!

too, it may be, fometimes upon

III. This Earthquake, methinks, founds a loud Alarm to the Inhabitants of our Land, and this City in particular. Don't let us be vain and prefumptuous, and think that our Mountain ftands ftrong, and that we shall never be moved. What has befalen others may befal us. If Lisbon has had the full and unabated Stroke of Vengeance, yet our Coafts have had the lighter, but yet very awful Notices of this tremendous Vifitation. And

befides,