be acquainted, at least in speculation acquainted, with grief; and send our thoughts, if not our feet, to visit the abodes of sorrow: that in this school we may learn a sympathizing pity for our distressed fellow-creatures, and see in this glass our inexpressible obligations to the distinguishing goodness of Providence; which has crowned our table with abundance, and replenished our cup with delicacies; permitting neither penury to stint the draught, nor adversity to mingle her gall. Go on, I must entreat you, with your description of com. parative felicity: we have a large circuit still to make before we arrive at our intended port, and I could wish that your discourse might keep pace with the current. Since you approve the subject, answered Aspasio, I will pursue it a little farther. We, the inhabitants of this favoured isle, breathe an air of the most agreeable temperature, and most wholesome qualities: but how many nations languish under brazen skies, vaulted as it were with fire! they welter amidst those furnaces of the sun, till their visage is burnt, and black as a coal. What is far more disastrous, beds of sulphur and combustible materials lie in subterraneous ambush, ready to spring the irresistible mine: ere long, perhaps on some day of universal festivity,+ or in some night of deep repose, to be touched by heaven's avenging hand. Then with what outrageous violence will they burst! rock the foundations of nature! wrench open the ponderous jaws of earth! and swallow Lam. iv. 8. + There is a remarkable passage in Psal. Iviii. 9. which seems to denote some such unexpected, but speedy and inevitable dooin. The sense is darkened not a little by the version admitted into our liturgy, I believe the true translation may be seen in the following italics, and the true meaning learnt from the interwoven paraphrase. Speedily, or before your pots can perceive the warmth of blazing thorns, shall He that ruleth over all, sweep away the wicked: sweep him away by a stroke of righte ous indignation, as by a fierce and mighty tempest; so that, even from the fulness of his sufficiency, and the height of his prosperity, he shall be plunged into utter destruction. The word ", which is very unhappily rendered raw, signifies a state of prosperity, or pleasurable enjoyment. 1 Sam. xxv. 6. The whole verse, in a gradation of striking images, gives us a moss awful display of divine vengeance; vengeance quite sudden, utterly irresistible, and overtaking the secure sinner, amidst all the caresses of what the world calls fortune. up astonished cities in the dark, tremendous, closing chasm! These earthquakes, it may be, both precede and por. tend the pestilence that walketh in darkness, and the sickness that destroyeth at noon-day:" they are at once a fearful omen, and a ruinous blow. The stagnating atmosphere, rank with malignant vapours, becomes a source of deadly infection; or, replete with poisonous animalcules, is one vast, incumbent cloud of living bane. If the active gales arise, they arise only to stir the seeds of disease, and diffuse the fatal contagion far and near. Unhappy people! The plague, that severe minister of divine indignation, fixes her head-quarters in their blasted provinces, and sends death abroad on his pale horse,t to empty their houses, depopulate their towns, and crowd their graves. Our island is seldom visited with either of these dreadful judgments, and has never sustained any very considerable calamity from the former. However, let us not be presumptuously secure. We have, not long ago, received an awful warning. The rod has been shaken, or rather the sword has been brandished, over our territories. Who can forget the general consternation which seized our metropolis, on occasion of the late earthquake? and not without reason: for of all divine visitations, this is the most terribly vindictive. The whirlwind is slow in its progress; war is gentle in its assaults; even the raging pestilence is a mild rebuke, compared with the inevitable, the all-overwhelming fury of an earthquake. When it begins, it also makes an end; puts a period in a few minutes to the work of ages; ruins all without distinction; and there is no defence from the destructive stroke. Should Almighty vengeance stir up again those fierce subterranean commotious; should the most high God bid strong convulsions tear the bowels of nature, and make the foundations of the world tremble like a leaf; what, 'O ye careless ones,' what will you do? whither will you fly? See! the pavement sinks under your feet; your houses are tottering over your heads: the Psal. xci. 6. 11 Sam. ii. 12. + Rev. vi. 8. ground on every side cracks and opens like a gaping grave, or heaves and swells like a rolling sea. 'A noise of crashing" is heard from without, occasioned by the rending streets, and falling structures. Thunders, infernal thunders,+ bellow from beneath, mingled with despairing shrieks and dying groans groans from those wretched creatures, who are jammed are jammed between the closing earth, or going down alive into the horrible pit. Where now will you fly? To your strong towers! they are shattered in pieces. To the stronger rocks? they are thrown out of their place. To the open fields! they are a frightful gulf, yawning to devour you. Wherever you fly, in the wildness of your distraction wherever you seek for shelter, it shall be as if a man * Zeph. i. 10. + Before the overthrow of Catania by an earthquake, a noise was heard, vast and horrid, as if all the artillery in the world was discharged at once. Very memorable, and equally tremendous, is the account of the earthquake that visited Sicily, in the year 1693. It shook the whole island. The mischief it caused is amazing. Fifty-four cities and towns, beside an incredible number of villages, were either demolished, or greatly damaged. Catania, one of the most famous and flourishing cities in the kingdom, was entirely destroyed. Of 18,914 inhabitants, 18,000 perished. Another earthquake almost as dreadful, and in the same year, spread desolation through the colony of Jamaica. In two minutes' time it shook down, and laid under water, nine-tenths of the town of Port Royal. In less than a minute, three quarters of the houses and the ground they stood on, together with the inhabitants, were quite sonk; and the little part left behind was no better than leaps of rubbish. The shake was so violent, that it threw people down upon their knees or their faces, as they were running about for shelter. The ground heaved and swelled like a rolling sea, and several houses still standing were shuffled some yards out of their places. The earth would crack and yawn, would open and shet, quick and fase; of which horrid openings, two or three hundred might be seen at once. In some whereof the people went down, and were seea no more; in some they descended, and rose again in other streets, or in the middle of the harbour. Some swiftly closing, seized the miserable creatures, and pressed them to death; leaving their heads or half their bodies above ground, to be a spectacle of terror, and a prey to dogs. Oat of ouers would issue whole rivers of water, spouted to a great height in the air, and threatening a deluge to that part which the earthquake spared. Scarce a planting-house or sugar-work was left standing fa all the island. Two thousand lives were lost, and a thousand acres of land sunk. The whole was attended with frightfel noises, with brimstone blasts, and offensive smells. The noisome vapours belched forth, corrupted the air, and brought on a general sickness, which swept away more than three thousand of those who escaped the fury of the earthquake.-See Chamb. Dict. on the word Earthquake. fled from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand upon the wall, and a ser pent bit him." Yet there is one place of refuge, which will prove an inviolable sanctuary, and a perfect security; I mean the great, the gracious, the adorable Redeemer's righteousness. Hither let us betake ourselves. Now, before the day of desolation cometh, let us betake ourselves to this strong-hold: then shall we have no reason to fear, though the earth be moved, and though the hills be carried into the midst of the sea. For thus saith God, the omnipotent and faithful God: The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The Lord also shall roar out of Sion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem: the heavens and the earth shall shake; but the Lord' Jesus Christ will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.'+ Or if the true believer is involved in the same undistinguished ruin with the ungodly, even this shall turn to his gain; it shall exempt him from the lingering pains, and the melancholy solemnities of a dying bed. Like Elijah's fiery chariot, it shall speedily waft his soul to the bosom of his Saviour; while the hideous cavern that whelms his body in the centre, shall be its chamber of rest, till the beloved Bridegroom comes, and the day of resurrection dawns. We lift up our eyes and behold the radiant colours which flush the forehead of the morning; we turn and gaze upon the no less beautiful tinges which impurple the cheek of evening; we throw around our view, and are delighted with numberless forms of fertility which both decorate and enrich our plains: whereas, other countries are overrun with immense swarms of locusts, which intercept, wherever they fly, the fair face of day; and destroy, wherever they alight, the green treasures of the ground. Ah! what avails it that the laborious hind sows his acres, or the skilful husbandman prunes his vineyard? that spring, with her prolific moisture, swells the bud ; or with her delicate pencil paints the blossom? Nor grain, nor fruit, can hope for maturity, while these rapa* Amos v. 19% ↑ Joel iii. 15, 16. cious and baleful creatures infest the neighbourhood. They ravage the gardens; they strip the trees; and shave the meadows: scarce a single leaf remains on the boughs, or so much as a single stalk in the furrows. 'A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing can escape them.' Now let the dreadful artillery roar from all its iron throats, and disgorge the heaviest glut of mortal hail. Now, ye sons of slaughter, men skilful to destroy;'+ now hurl the sulphureous globes, which kindle into a hurricane of fire, and burst in ragged instruments of ruin. To no purpose: the linked thunderbolts are turned into stubble; the bursting bombs are accounted as straw. These armies of the air laugh at all the formi. dable preparations of war; and when they fall on the sword, they shall not be wounded. Surprising and awful destination of the everlasting God, at once to stain the pride and chastise the guilt of man! These are a despicable and puny race, clad in no coat of mail, but crushed by the slightest touch; they wear neither sword, nor scimetar, nor any offensive weapon: yet in spite of opposing legions they carry on their depredations, and push their conquests. Terror marches A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame burneth,' Joel ii. 3. This is one of those bold and expressive metaphors, in which the Hebrew language delights, and by which it is eminently distinguished. It signifies a total devastation of the vegetable produce; such as must ensue if a raging and resistless fire attended the progress of these pernicious animals; burning with such vehement impetuosity, that none could quench it; spreading such extensive havoc, that nothing could escape it. + Ezek. xxi. 31. The prophet Joel, foretelling the plague of locusts, gives, under the image of an embattled host, a most alarming display of their terrible appearance, their impetuous progress, the horrible dread they raise as they advance; and the irreparable mischief they leave as they depart; adding, among other amazing circumstances, When they fall upon the sword, they should not be wounded;' which implies, I apprehend, that no method of slaughter should prove destructive to their troops, or that every expedient contrived for their suppression should be utterly baf fled; being, through their immense numbers, as invincible as if every one was absolutely invulnerable. For, though millions and millions should perish by the weapons of war, even such a blow, in reference to their whole collective body, should scarce be perceived as a loss, scarce be felt as a wound, neither diminishing their strength, nor retarding their march, Joel il. 8. |