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Thoughts upon this awful Subject? For I intend not to address you as an Historian or a News-writer, nor as a natural Philofopher, but as a Minister of Jefus Chrift, who is fincerely concerned to promote your spiritual and immortal Benefit, while I am difcourfing upon the late terrible Event, from the Words I have now read, O Lord, I have beard thy Speech!

The Words are a Part of the Prayer, as it is called, Verse 1. of Habakkuk upon Sigionoth; that is, for Errors*, meaning the Errors or Sins of the People; or, understanding Sigionoth as referring to Mufic, it may denote a wandering or various Ode +. The next Verse begins the Prayer of the Prophet, and that in the Words of our Text, O Lord, I have heard thy Speech: As if he fhould fay, "O Lord, I, as a Prophet, in"ftructed and commiffioned by thee, have

heard thy Declaration concerning thy Judg"ments impending over us, in giving upthy People to the Power and Ravages of the "Chaldeans, whofe Terrors and Violence I

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have by thine Order largely defcribed and "declared." And have we not heard, tho' not by Prophecy, yet by Providence, the Speech

*à Erravit,

+ Cantio erratica, quæ non uno Metrorum genere conftabat, fed ex variè intercurrentibus conflata erat, & mirâ delectandi vi gaudebat. Vid. Clavim Stockii.

Chap. i. 5-12.

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Speech of the Almighty, in the late Defola tions of Fire, in the Commotions and Havoc of War, and now, within these few Days, in the tremendous Earthquake at Lisbon, which has, in a few Minutes, turned a fplendid and populous City into a ruinous Heap?" But "what Sort of Speech, may it be asked, does "this dreadful Providence contain, or what "are the facred and useful Leffons we may gather from it?" I answer, much every Way, particularly in the following Refpects.

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I. There is an amazing Exertion of the divine Power in the late Earthquake. Oh! how great is the divine Power! This we have learnt from Scripture, this we have learnt from the Rolls of Hiftory, and this we daily learn from the Universe around us, that is full of the wonderful Power of God, in the Extent, Glories, and Harmony of the Creation. And may we not see the divine Power in the late dreadful Calamity, which, in a few Minutes, has buried, under the Heap of its own Ruins, a royal and magnificent City, and turned thofe very Houses, which were built for the Safety and Commerce, and, it may be, for the Luxury and Pride of their Inhabitants, into Sepulchres of Deftruction? It was a Thought which ftruck my Mind, and poffibly it might yours, upon hearing this awful Event, that, while the Nations of the Earth, the little Worms of our

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Globe, were full of Anger and Fury, and breathing out Threatnings and Slaughter against one another, the Almighty was determined to interpofe in the Commotion, and, by fhaking the Pillars of the World, fhew the angry Nations that he could as eafily fweep us away from the Face of the Earth, with all our Pride and Power, as a little Caft of Duft will allay a contending Tumult of Bees or Wafps, or a cold Blast fweep off and deftroy an innumerable Swarm of Summer-infects. We talk, we boast of Power, but behold the Power of the Deity! * Earthquakes as well as Peftilence go before him, and burning Coals go forth at his Feet. A City large and magnificent ftands firm and strong in all the Greatnefs of its Extent, and the Pride of its Grandeur in the Morning. The Inhabitants go to their feveral Employments; fome to their hard Labour, their Trade, or their Compting-houses: fome are at their Dreffing-room, and putting on their Ornaments of Apparel: others are fauntering and trifling, and know not how to deftroy the Hours that lie between them and the Delights of the Opera, the Ball, or the guilty Affignation. The Mifer is counting over his Stores of Gold; the ambitious Man is contriving how he may rife higher in the Scale of Honour; the Statef

Habakkuk iii. 5.

Statesman's Breaft is big with the Pilocy and Fate of Nations; and the pale-eyed Student is poring over the philofophic or historical Page. There's the gloomy Inquifitor preparing for his infernal Work, and meditating what new Machines and Inftruments of Torture he shail invent for obftinate Hereticks. The blindly Religious are telling their Beads, running over their Ave Mary's and Pater-Nofters, croffing their Foreheads with holy Water, or kiffing a fenfelefs Image, while the Priest is ftanding in all his facred Pageantry, and pretending to turn the Wafers into a God. Others, and these not a few, are afleep in their Beds, and have but lately gone to Reft from the last Night's Debauch and Riot. On a fudden the Almighty hakes the Earth. All is Amazement and Alarm. All their Schemes, Defigns, Employments, and Slumbers are broken off. Every Heart meditates Terror, every Cheek turns pale, and their Knees fmite one against another. Before they can recover from their Surprise, another Shock comes! the Furniture, the Walls, the Roofs, the Foundations of the Houfes tremble, reel to and fro, break afunder, and dash one against another: and down defcend in an Inftant whole Ranges and Streets of Buildings, and bear along with them, in the immeasurable Destruction, not only the Substance, the Treasures of Gold

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and Silver they contained, but the Inhabitants, Men, Women, and Children, that dwelt in them, all whofe Shrieks, and Cries, and Groans are not fo much as heard in the unfufferable Noife! Hufbands and their Wives, Parents and their dear Babes, Mafters and Servants, high and low, rich and poor, fink and perish in the fame promiscu- · ous Ruin, Some few, with battered Limbs, ghaftly Eyes, and the living Image of Defpair in their Countenances, emerge from the Wreck, but cannot tell where their Substance or Relations are, or whither to fly for Safety. 'Tis as if there was a Diffolution of Nature, or as if Heaven had at once crushed the City with the whole Weight of Omnipotence, and Hell had opened its Gulph from beneath in devouring Flames! Fires mingle with the vast Defolation, and horribly illuminate, and prevail upon the thick gloomy Clouds of Smoke and Afhes, and what the Earthquake has fpared, this enraged and boisterous Element is commiffioned to deftroy; and he who fends an Account of this dreadful Catastrophe dates his Letter from the Place where LISBON once ftood! Such are the Effects of the Almighty's Power, when he arifes to shake terribly the Earth *, One Difplofion of his Artillery, one Touch of his Hand, in a Way of Vengeance, can pro

* Ifa. ii. 19.

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