LETTER Wisdom and righteousness. Calamitous events VIII. of a public nature are not to be confidered as concerning only the particular perfons or people that immediately fuffer by them. They have a more extenfive view, and are defigned and fitted to give inftructive leffons to all mankind that hear of them. The natural tendency of all fuch difpenfations is to awaken in the minds of men a holy fear of the divine Majesty, and to give them a most affecting conviction of the vanity and inftability of all worldly hopes and dependencies. The prophet Isaiah, after having described in a very lively manner the striking.impreflions that fhould be made upon the hearts of men because of the fear of the Lord, and the glory of his Majesty, when he arifeth to fhake terribly the earth, very properly adds, Ceafe ye from man whofe breath is in his noftrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of? Is. xi. 20, 21. Of what avail in fuch a time of awful vifitation, are the arts of human policy, the pomp of courts, or the power of mighty armies, or the riches and grandeur of the most populous and magnificent cities? The plain voice of fuch difpenfations, a voice intelligible to all mankind, is this: Let all the earth fear the Lord: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. Pf. xxxiii. 8. The Lord is the true God; he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble; and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation. Jer. x. 10. Surely we fhould be ready to cry 1 VIII. cry out on fuch occafions, Great and marvellous LETTER are thy works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are thy ways, thou King of faints. Who would not fear thee, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy. For all nations shall come and worship before thee: for thy judgments are made manifeft. Rev. xv. 3, 4. The great ufe, which is to be made of fuch awful difpenfations, is well expreffed by the prophet If. xxvi. 9. When thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness; i. e. they ought to do so, and it is the natural tendency of fuch judgments to engage them to do so. The calamities inflicted upon others should be regarded by us as folemn warnings and admonitions, which it highly concerneth us to improve. The language of such dispensations to all that hear of them, is the fame with that of our Saviour to the Jews, when fpeaking of those perfons on whom the tower of Siloam fell, and of those whose blood Pilate mingled with their facrifices, Except ye repent, ye shall all likewife perish. Luke xiii. 3, 5. How inexcufable fhall we therefore be, if, instead of laying these things seriously to heart, we continue careless and unaffected ftill, and go on in a thoughtless round of gaieties and pleasures, like thofe the prophet mentions, If. v. 12. The harp and the viol, the tabret and pipe are in their feafts: but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither confider the operation of his hands. Against fuch perfons a folemn woe is there denounced. VIII. LETTER And elsewhere, fpeaking of fome who continued to indulge themselves in luxury and riot, and all kinds of fenfual mirth, at a time when the circumstances of things called for deep humiliation and repentance, he faith, It was revealed in mine ears by the Lord of hosts, furely this iniquity fhall not be purged from you till ye die, faith the Lord God of hofts. If. xxii. 12, 13, 14. Whofoever carefully obferveth the course of the divine difpenfations towards us for fome time paft, will be fenfible that we have had many warnings given us. A peftilence amongst the cattle in England for many years paft, and, though abated, ftill continues in fome parts of this country. But a few years ago the fword of war raged in one part of the united kingdom of Great Britain, and was near penetrating to the center of it, and threatned the fubverfion of that conftitution, on which the preservation of our religion, laws, and liberties, in a great meafure, dependeth: but, through the great goodnefs of God, our fears were, after fome time, happily difpelled. More lately encroachments have been made upon our poffeffions and plantations abroad, in which our national fafety and prosperity is very nearly interested. And now it is not many weeks fince a most dreadful calamity hath befallen a kingdom, fo very nearly connected with us in intereft and alliance, that the calamity may be regarded as, in a confider. able degree, our own. And in fact, we have been, VIII. been, and are great fufferers by it. Many lives LETTER have been loft of his majesty's fubjects belonging to Great Britain and Ireland, and many more there are, who, by the fudden fubverfion, have been either totally, or, in a confiderable degree, deprived of their worldy fubftance, and reduced to circumstances of diftrefs. A prefent stop is put to the course of a most advantageous commerce. The fprings of our wealth are obftructed; a great blow is ftruck at our trade, in which we are fo apt to place our confidence: and this at the very time when we seem to be entering upon a war with a mighty nation, a war that threatens to be very hazardous, and which must needs put us to a vaft expence, which we are not very well able to bear. That particular judgment, under which some of the neighbouring nations have fo feverely fuffered, and which is one of the most dreadful of all others, hath greatly threatened us. It is but a very few years fince that great city, which is the metropolis of these kingdoms, and the center of our wealth and commerce, felt an alarming fhock, though, through the great mercy of God, it did little more than threaten and terrify. Since that time, and very lately, there have been several very unusual phænomena among us, of fuch a nature as to have an alarming afpect. Extraordinary agitations of the waters both on our coafts and within land, and fhocks of an earthquake felt in feveral parts of Great Britain and Ireland, and of his majefty's dominions abroad. LETTER ་ Thus the divine judgments feem to be adyancing upon us, and have gradually begun to operate. But fuch is the mercy and forbearance of God towards us, that he feems loth to inAlict upon us the fierceness of his anger, or to pour forth all his wrath. He is pleafed to give us previous warnings, to awaken and rouze us out of our fecurity, that, by a timely repentance, and by humbling ourselves under his mighty hand, we may prevent the neceffity of inflicting feverer punishments. His hand is lifted up, but the awful ftroke feemeth to be fufpended for a while, as if he were unwilling to proceed to extremities with us. Upon confidering these things, that most affecting expoftulation comes to my mind, which God condefcendeth to make by his prophet Hofea, with regard to his people Ifrael, when in a very dangerous backfliding state. How shall I give thee up Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee up Ifrael? How shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I fet 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 in the midst of thee. Hof. xi. 8, 9. Yet we find at length, upon their obftinately perfifting in their difobedience and ingratitude, and abufing the methods of his indulgence, and even growing more and more corrupted, he faw it necef fary to execute his awful judgments upon them, |