Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A60144
|
Practical reflections on the late earthquakes in Jamaica, England, Sicily, Malta, &c., anno 1692 with a particular, historical account of those, and divers other earthquakes / by John Shower.
|
Shower, John, 1657-1715.
|
1693
(1693)
|
Wing S3680; ESTC R31944
|
73,148
|
226
|
several Things some whereof are taken notice of by * Mr. Fleming 's Discourse of Earthquakes 8o. some of whose Remarks I here repeat Others that may here very fitly be mentioned as 1. That we have a multitude of such Signs as have been generally esteemed the Fore-runners of publick Calamity It is not the late Earthquake alone but in conjunction with many other things that is the Ground of our Fear And the more Signs we have and the more they are despised the louder is their Voice to those that will consider them We had Signs in the Heavens in 1681. We have had Earthquakes of late in divers Places And God has lately taken Peace from the Earth as to this part of the World by engaging so great a part of Europe in bloody Wars All which has the Appearance of some great Things to be ushered in I durst not be confident as many are what they shall be or the particular Year or Season of their Accomplishment I chuse rather to acknowledg my Ignorance in Prophetick Scripture tho divers Learned Persons say more on that Subject than I am able to answer or refute 2. That the longer the Time is of God's Patience and Forbearance with the distinguishing Mercies and repeated Warnings that we have had the more terrible Judgments are like to follow if we are Unthankful and Impenitent after all Deliverances if not improved are but Reprievals from further Judgment we may not be so much preserved and saved as reserved to greater Misery That Passage seems to record our Doom Psal 106.43 Many times did he deliver them but they provoked him by their Counsel and were brought low for their Iniquity As God will not always contend so neither will he always forbear There is no greater Sign of a final Overthrow than a Misimprovement of past Mercies and Judgments And if God be provoked by National Sins we cannot think his Anger will be turned away while the Cause of it remains that is as much as to say Except we repent we must likewise perish Though a less Repentance may prevent National Judgments than will preserve from Eternal Ruine Is it nothing unto us that God has dealt so severely with other People when our Privileges and Obligations are equal to or greater than theirs There is hardly any one ill Symptom that has ever been upon any People that God has dealt in Severity with but something of it is observable and notorious amongst us I grant we must not set Bounds to the Patience of God any more than to his Power We know not how much longer he may bear with us before he vindicate his own Rights or in what Way or to what Degree he will do so at least in our Time But we have no Ground of Confidence and Security For while we say Peace Peace sudden Destruction yea National Destruction may overtake us as Travail upon a Woman with Child And the rather because all his Warnings hitherto seem to be slighted Our National Preservation and Deliverance so often repeated has not bettered us but our Provocations are rather the more aggravated by all that God has done to Reform Establish and Save us 3. If we are guilty of the like Sins with other People who have been severely punish'd by extraordinary Judgments why may not our continued Impenitence expose us to an equal Punishment And may not England say Are there not with me even with me the same Sins against the Lord The same Sins for which Others have smarted and that with this Aggravation that we sin against more VVarnings God is unchangeably Just as well as Gratious It is Soveraignty alone can preserve us by that he may do so But who can tell whether he will God hates the same Sins in our Days which he hated and punished formerly He is as much or more displeased with our Impurities as with those of other People that are destroyed He loves the same Holiness now which he ever loved he is the same yesterday to day and for ever And why should we think God should go out of his way to spare us As they may encourage themselves by trusting in God who have Examples of God's Deliverance in the like Case of holy Trust in him so they may fear under the like Provocations for which Others have been punished 4. When a Land is full of Sin and the whole Body of a Nation a very Few excepted have corrupted themselves and provoked God consider the Punishment of such Sins can be only in this World while the Community lasts This is not to be reserved to the Judgment of the Great Day when every particular Person shall answer for his own Guilt And is not our Nation full of Sin Do not our Provocations reach to Heaven Is there not a Fulness as to Number and Multitude as to Measure and Degree that the Children fill up the Measure of their Fathers Iniquity and as to Strength and Growth that it rises higher and as to Cunning and Dexterity in the Arts of Wickedness in Court City Country Vniversity among all Ranks and Degrees and as to Boldness and Impudence by open bare-fac'd Impiety Many of those Crimes which were formerly Matter of Reproach and Shame are now Alamode and in Fashion and the Character of a Gentleman CHAP. VII Most slight such Warnings What was done in Jamaica had special Relation to us in this Island We in England have had divers Earthquakes formerly Their Wickedness was great so is ours Several Earthquakes have extended as far as ours Sept. 8th tho felt beyond the Seas near the same Time Other Instances of Eathquakes in Europe WE ought to consider the Extraordinary Warnings that we have had by the late Earthquake in Jamaica June the 7th 1692. and here at home September the 8th and what we have lately heard concerning Sicily This is the more to be attended to because the Most are ready to ascribe all to Natural Causes There is an Atheistical and Profane Spirit visible amongst us to disregard any thing of the Hand of God in these Matters as if he did not direct such a Judgment to one Place rather than Another and determine and over-rule the Time and Season and Degree of it Consider what was done in Jamaica had a special Reference to this Nation the Interest and the Inhabitants of that Place being purely English and so a Part of our Nation though at a distance which calls upon us the more to lay it to Heart Neither is it to be despised that they in Jamaica had a Forewarning by a Trembling of the Earth a little before that Desolation overtook them and soon after that we had the Warning of the Earthquake here it followed so close upon the Tidings of that in Jamaica as to be very proper to awaken us to a deeper Sense of it and to make the Warning the more Remarkable So that God may say of us as he did to Moses If they will not hearken to the Voice
of Herod Acts 12 c. yet God may chuse out some to be Examples and Warnings to others who are not greater Sinners than they 'T is true some Mens Sins are so visible as to be open before hand going before to Judgment as the Apostle speaks 1 Tim. 5.24 They are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 manifest to the Judgment of all Men before they come to be laid open at the last Day they go to Judgment before the Sinners themselves are brought thither When such notorious Crimes are followed with extraordinary Punishments the Connection Relation between them must not be denied But otherwise we should judg charitably of the Sufferers We must not make a rash and hasty Judgment of the Providences of God or interpret the Voice of his Rod by uncertain Guesses of our own We may easily be too curious in prying into the Secrets of Providence for his Judgments are a great Deep and of many of them we may say with Asaph VVhen I thought to know this it was too wonderful for me He hath not thought fit to give us a full Account of all his Designs and Ends why such who are not greater Sinners than others are sometimes punished more In such Enquiries we shall soon get out of our Depth so as to swim in Dissatisfaction or sink into Distrust if we suffer our Curiosity to stretch it self too far Therefore after Solomon had told us Eccles 7.15 that there is a just Man who perishes in his Righteousness and a wicked Man on the contrary who prolongeth his Life in his Wickedness he adds in the next Verse Be not righteous over-much nor make thy self over-wise that is do not think thy self more righteous than the Person to whom such a Judgment befals nor make thy self over-wise i.e. do not pretend to be able infallibly to expound this Riddle and to know the meaning of Divine Providence in such a Dispensation for one Event may befal the Righteous and the VVicked Eccl. 9.11 The great Apostle may have his Hand arrested with a Viper and yet none but Barbarians would conclude upon that Account that he is followed with Divine Vengeance Acts 28.4 We read of twenty seven thousand killed by the Fall of a Wall at Aphek 1 Kings 20.30 As sometimes Appeals have been made to God in the high Places of the Field and yet the Success of the War hath not always been on the juster Side The Benjamites were engaged in an ill Cause and yet were victorious over the other Tribes Judg. 20. The Ark of God hath been taken by the Philistines Children are sometimes cut off for the Sins of Parents as 1 Kings 15.30 Ch. 16 17. God acts as a Soveraign in these things The sucking Infants of Babylon must perish by the Sword and their Brains be dash'd out And the little Children of Sodom and Gomorrah were burnt with their Parents by Fire from Heaven Concerning which God saith Ezek. 16.20 I took away Young and Old as I saw good He doth what he pleaseth and who can say unto him What dost thou He doth not think fit to give us now a full Account of all his Matters or to say all that he can in justification of his present Providence Job 33.13 Isa 46.9 Dan. 4.34 But the Great Day of the Revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God will unriddle all these things and scatter all those Clouds and remove all those Difficulties that now puzzle us Much less should we conclude concerning their Eternal State who are cut off by some temporal Judgment We have no Warrant or Authority to sit as Coroners on the Souls of deceased Persons It would be very uncharitable to conclude that all the Israelites were shut out of Heaven who died in the Wilderness and by the righteous Judgment of God were not permitted to enter into Canaan Or that the inquisitive Bethshemites or Vzza and others that have been struck dead for unwarrantable Actions did perish to Eternity There is a Vail of Darkness upon many such Works of Providence but what we know not now we shall know hereafter John 13.7 Good Josiah may die in a Battel as well as wicked Ahab and Nebuchadnezzar may have a prosperous Reign of forty Years as well as David Eternal Love and Hatred are not known by these things We must not conclude a Man to be certainly wicked because he is cut off by a sudden Death or doth not go to his Grave in Peace Think not says Christ that they were greater Sinners than others who were thus suddenly and exemplarily cut off That is you cannot for that Reason and barely on that Account so suppose and judg of them He doth not deny that they were greater Sinners but only asserts that their greater Sufferings will not prove that they were so For it is agreeable enough to the Wisdom of Divine Government or of any Government that when many Persons are equally guilty some may be selected to be Examples and Warnings to others when others no less criminal are spared Other Nations as bad as Sodom and Gomorrah have not been destroyed by Fire from Heaven We must Adore Divine Justice in the Punishment of a wicked People but his Soveraignty must be owned in the Choice of Subjects We should be very partial to our selves and uncharitable to our Neighbours and Brethren if we conclude them to be greater Sinners than we because they have suffered more I repeat this as knowing that we are very apt to condemn such Persons who are thus Examples in suffering to hug our selves as more righteous than they because we are spared But as to our selves and our own Case we ought to know that God will not always bear to have his merciful Warnings contemned to have numberless extraordinary Mercies abused to have lesser Judgments upon us and his more remarkable Severity upon others disregarded We ought still to remember and consider it that Except we repent we are like to perish CHAP. IV. What Fear of Evils to come is lawful how far a Duty and when sinful Of the Penal Fear of future Calamity Instances of it as a Divine Punishment What little Ground we have to expect a much longer Reprieve we have none for Security and Considence The Doubtfulness of our Case should awaken our utmost Concern and Care to prevent Destruction 2. LET us therefore apprehend the Case to be exceeding hazardous as to our City and Nation when we have had so many Warnings and are not awakened to Repentance and Reformation Besides the natural Fear of approaching Evil which is not to be condemned as a Fault because inevitable there is a sinful Fear of Evils to come and of the Tidings of them proceeding either from Ignorance of God Forgetfulness of his Care or Distrust of his Providence or as unsutable to the Nature Kind and Degree and Duration of the Evils we apprehend Such a Fear as hinders us in the performance of our present Duty that infeebles our Spirits and