The Judgments of Providence in the Hand of Christ, Title page – To the reader
The Judgments of Providence in the hand of CHRIST: His Voice to us in the terrible Earthquake. And the Earth devoured by the Curſe.
In four SERMONS.
By Benjamin Colman.
Iſaiah XXIX. 9.
Thou ſhalt be viſited of the LORD of hoſts with thunder, and with earthquake and great noiſe; with ſtorm and tempeſt, and the flame of devouring fire.
BOSTON: Printed for J. Phillips at the Stationers-Arms on the South ſide of the Town Houſe, and T. Hancock at the Bible and Three Crowns near the Town Dock, 1727.
Errata.
P. 6. l. 21. r. ſit. p. 12. l. 6. for and r. that. p. 14. l. 11. dele and. p. 27. l. 5. r. ſhewed. p. 39. l. 1. r. feeling. p. 41. l. 28. r. pr fane. p. 51. l. 7. r. he went forth. p. 72. l. 25. r. the Pſalm.
To the Reader.
THE late ſurpriſing and awful Event of Providence wherein the moſt High GOD hath paſſed before us, in an amazing Earthquake, of vaſt extent and in a degree of uncommon terror; whether we conſider the greatneſs of the Shock, or the great noiſe that attended it; is the occaſion of publiſhing the following Sermons, tho' not of the preaching them all.
For within the month wherein the earthquake came I had preached twice to my People from this awful Subject, The Judgments of Providence in the hand of CHRIST: to which I added three Sermons more, in a proper and ſerious Application of the Subject to ſo ſingular and uncommon a Providence; wherein I have conſider'd the Earthquake in the hand of CHRIST, and what his voice to us is in that teaching and affecting Diſpenſation. Theſe five Sermons I have here reduced into three, only pointing the Reader where he may divide the contracted double Sermons, for the uſe and benefit of his houſhold.
It is only the Chriſtian Improvement of this awakning Providence that I have here attended to, and the Reader is deſired to expect no other; leaving the Enquiry into the natural Cauſes of Earthquakes, and the Hiſtory of them, to a better Hand, which has promis'd to gratify the Publick therewith.
Something of the Scriptural hiſtory of the Earthquake is here given, and the peculiar honour of theſe Diſcourſes is their ſincere Aim to render unto CHRIST the glory of this tremendous Judgment, and of our Preſervation in it.
To HIM therefore let theſe Meditations be ſacred (however mean and unworthy to be offer'd to his glorious Name) according to the Commandment and declared Will of the FATHER to us, Who hath committed all judgment to the SON, that all men ſhould honour the Son even as they honour the father.
Our LORD has viſited us this year as he told Ariel, the City where David dwelt, that it ſhould be viſited of the LORD of hoſts with Thunder, and with Earthquake, and with great Noiſe; with Storm and Tempeſt, and the flame of devouring Fire.
The great noiſe of thunder we have often heard, I hope with trembling and godly fear, as Elihu did in his day. And we have ſcarce ever heard more of it in a ſummer, than in this which is now paſt. But we never heard the great noiſe of an Earthquake till in the late calm and ſtill night, when it came ruſhing and roaring on us in hollow ſubterraneous thunders, the beſt and trueſt Compariſon I can make of it.
As for the flame of devouring fire we had very much of it in the ſultry and parching extream heat of the ſummer, of a long continuance, for many weeks together. This burning drought penetrated far into the earth, ſo that many wells and ſprings of water fail'd that never had before. Some have been ready to ask, Whether this might contribute any thing, as a natural cauſe in the hand of CHRIST, to the Earthquake that has follow'd upon the rains and cold of Autumn, which ſuddenly ſet in after ſo uncommon and long a heat? But when we ſearch (as I think we muſt) very deep after the probable natural Cauſe of ſo great a ſhake, I am conſtrained to drop this burning … on the ſurface, had it been more than it was.
In the midſt of this ſultry heat, and in the Evening after a very parching day, (Auguſt. 1.) the Heavens broke out into a continued blaze of flame and roar of thunder, horrible to behold and hear, for two or three hours together. The flaſhes of lightning were almoſt without intermiſſion, and conſequently the peal of thunder perpetual in our ears; As if the heavens being on fire were diſſolving and paſſing away with a great noiſe, and the earth alſo with its works were to be burnt up. Yet the lightning did little or no hurt that I heard of.
Forty ſix days after this, namely on the 16th. of September, the ſame Almighty power in like majeſty and terror came down to us in the whirlwind and in the ſtorm, and the clouds were the duſt of his feet; He made darkneſs his ſecret place, his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. The furious wind ſhiver'd the mighty oaks and the ſtrong elms, tore off their vaſt branches as a man plucks a twig with his hand, and turn'd up the wide roots of innumerable trees with all their turf cleaving to them into the air; a new and ſtrange ſpectacle of deſolation in the fields and woods. Yet it pleas'd GOD again to preſerve our dwellings and our lives that tempeſtuous day and night; Only a family or two ſuffer'd by loſs of life or broken bones, who had the due and hearty Sympathy of their ſpared nei'bours.
And now that after all this flame, thunder and tempeſt, at the end of forty three days more, October. 29. we ſhould be viſited with a tremendous Earthquake, has fill'd the year with ſo many remarkable threatnings of judgment as were never known among us before in ſo ſhort a compaſs of time. Truly the LORD has paſſed by in the great and ſtrong wind, in the flame and earthquake; and what ſhould follow but his ſmall and ſtill voice in his preached Word? if we might be ſo happy and honoured of him as to interpret his Providences aright, and bring his mind and will in ſuch a clear and ſtrong light, as by the bleſſing of the HOLY SPIRIT to make ſutable and ſaving impreſſions upon our ſouls.
There is but one doub, in a way of Speculation, that I would here propoſe, and in a few words offer to reſolve: namely,
Whence might it come to paſs, that the late ſhock of the Earth was felt, and the noiſe or roar of the earth heard, in all the very diſtant places to which it reach'd, ſo far as we can yet learn, at or very near the ſame moment of time?
I ſee not how this can be accounted for, but by ſuppoſing the whole Shake to come from one ſingle blaſt or ſtroke, in ſome mighty Cavern at a vaſt depth in the earth: Where let us ſuppoſe a vaſt body of prepared ſulphurious matter, like that from whence the lightnings and thunders in our air proceed; or if you pleaſe compare it to that prodigious preparation of man on earth Gun-powder: Let us imagine a quantity hereof ſufficient to ſhake a Circle of our Earth of five hundred miles diameter; which I take to be much within the meaſure of the Circle ſhaken by our late Earthquake, which reach'd from our moſt northern bounds as far ſouthward as Philadelphia: Say now that this prodigious quantity of prepared ſulphureous matter take fire all at once, and blow up, tearing to pieces a vaſt part of the Intrails of the earth, but chiefly diſcharging it ſelf into the mighty Deep below, while at the ſame time it muſt alſo ſtrike dreadfully upwards, and heave at once the earth of ſuch a circle as is before named, and ſet it all a trembling near the ſame inſtant of time: But then in the extremities of the Circle the ſhake will naturally be leſs, and toward the center of it more; and the noiſe of the blaſt below will naturally accompany the ſhock it gives, and be heard every where in that inſtant that the ſhake is felt, and in proportion to the ſhock the noiſe will be in one place and another.
This is my plain and ſhort reaſoning upon the point, and I am glad to find I am not alone in it; ſuppoſing the Letter from Marblehead to mean the ſame thing, when it ſays, I am ready to conclude that the ſhocks were general and at the ſame time, and that their direction was from beneath upwards, and not along the ſurface of the earth. That this opinion is right ſeems very evident from the nature of the thing. For both the ſhock and ſound being almoſt at the ſame time in every place, where it was felt or heard at all, "the direction muſt be from beneath upwards, and not along the ſurface of the earth, as our ſenſes at the time would have perſwaded us.
And accordingly in the extremity of the Circle ſhaken, for inſtance at Philadelphia, the ſhake and rumble we hear was but ſmall. Moreover, In proportion to the vaſt Circle ſhaken, I conclude we muſt conceive of the depth below where the blow was given; and alſo of the force of the blow it ſelf, as well as of the vaſt quantity of matter'fir'd and blown up: For a ſhake of ſuch dimenſion and to ſuch a degree, is moſt eaſily accounted for from a fiery blaſt.
Every Generation, I ſuppoſe, may look for Earthquakes in this Continent; and in every Century ſome very great ſhocks may be reaſonably expected. Sixty five years are now paſſing ſince the Land was ſhook much as it was now: The pewter fell off the ſhelves, the joice wro't in and out of the mortices as the houſes rock'd, the lids of warming-pans were flung up; paſſengers on the way were unable to keep their feet and ſat down while the ground heav'd them: Something alſo of the like noiſe and rore of the earth accompanied that ſhake.
Many ſmaller ſhakes have been felt ſince. Greater and more dreadful ones may be expected, as the Country fills more with ſin. For the Great GOD foreſees all the Events of nature in its courſe, and the Sins of places and people in their courſe and increaſe; and in his moſt wiſe and juſt Government of the World they exactly tally one with the other, to his infinite glory and everlaſting praiſe from the Intellectual world.
We may conceive that every ſuch blaſt from within the bowels of the Earth, very much thins the cruſt between the ſurface whereon we live and the Abyſſe of fire below. And the more this is ſhatter'd and broken by blaſts within, the nearer is the ſinking of the earth, and the eruption of fire, here and there, by ſhakes that are to come: The ſhakes that are ſtill felt in divers places, with the rumbling noiſe accompanying them, ſeem to me to proceed from the fall of certain huge pieces of the earth, which the firſt great ſhake had looſned, and the furious flames have ſince prey'd on and torn down. By all of which they gain more and more upwards. At the Contemplation of theſe things our fleſh may well tremble becauſe of GOD, and we ſhould be afraid of his judgments.
The viſitation by Earthquakes this year ſeems directed more eſpecially to Great Britain and its Dominions. The accounts from thence tell us of Earthquakes there the laſt July, preceeded by a mighty noiſe like thunder at a diſtance; the houſes ſhook, the walls of gardens rock'd like a cradle, the tops of ſeveral chimneys fell; many left their houſes in great fear thinking them falling on 'em, and others were toſs'd in their beds. What the import of theſe things may be to a ſinful (otherwiſe happy) Kingdom, and to theſe Provinces; Whether our holy Proteſtant Religion or our Civil Liberties are to be ſhaken; as GOD only knows, ſo may He avert the Omen. Our part is to make ſupplication to our Judge.
To be ſure the great Mercy of GOD to us in our Preſervation ought greatly to affect us, and never be forgotten. I have endeavoured to give this a due place and conſideration in the following Diſcourſe; and the Subject naturally led to it, the Judgment and the Salvation coming from the ſame hand of our Lord Redeemer.
That He may ſanctify to us all his Diſpenſations, every Mercy and every Judgment, and bleſs this humble Offering to that ſaving effect, is the Prayer of the unworthy Author.
B. Colman. Boſton Nov. 2…. 1727.