No. 1. SCOTTISH PULPIT. SATURDAY, 31ST MARCH, 1832. SERMON by the Very Rev. PRINCIPAL BAIRD, Edinburgh. Price 2d. ON THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD; A SERMON PREACHED ON THURSDAY, 22D MARCH, 1832, BEING THE DAY APPOINTED BY HIS MAJESTY TO BE OBSERVED IN SCOTLAND AS A GENERAL FAST, By the Very Rev. G. H. BAIRD, D.D., Principal of the University, and Senior Minister of the High Church, Edinburgh. "When thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness."—ISAIAH xxvi. 9. I BEGIN, my friends, with remarking that where the precise object of the divine by the term, "judgments of God," the visitation is unknown, and invisible to us. Scriptures sometimes denote the decisions, In many cases, the Lord holdeth back his whether favourable or adverse, which God face in his dealings with his creatures, and passes upon the conduct of men. But spreadeth a cloud of darkness over it: more frequently this phrase is employed men behold the effects only of his interto denote the effect of such decisions, position, without perceiving the particular when they are unfavourable-to denote end for which these visitations were prothose remarkable punishments by which duced. For instance, in the material the Almighty chastises the wickedness of world, we sometimes witness famine, and guilty individuals, and the crimes of guilty the raging tempest consuming all, and nations. In the course of God's provi- blasting the hopes of men; and so it is dential procedure, we often see his judg- to this day in our land. At other times, ments; we see misfortune and distress we behold a terrible pestilence thinning, following so closely and visibly the con- by its ravages, the numbers of the people. duct of men, that we can have no doubt And in the establishments of social life, whatever concerning the connexion that, too, do we not often see deep distress by his appointment, subsists between brought on the inhabitants of whole kingthem. Thus, when poverty, like an armed doms through political revolutions and man, rusheth on the prodigal; when a war? Now, we know from the Scripfailing of eyes, and trembling of joints, tures, and the suggestions of our Own and rottenness of bones afflict the sensu- hearts, that these also are the scourges of alist; when a dissolution of all the moral nations, in the hands of the Almighty. bonds that uphold government sweeps from We are, at the same time, but seldom able a once high place among the nations an to point out the individuals whose sin ungodly, and profligate, and effeminate these judgments were sent more immedipeople, we see in such cases an obvious ately to punish. The individual sufferers, relation between sin and punishment, like the eighteen men upon whom the between the sin and the judgment of Tower of Siloam fell, are often not more God passed against it. They are con- guilty than other people. Let it not, nected as cause and effect, by the original however, be overlooked, that the promisconstitution which the Almighty has im- cuous calamities which happen to them, posed on man, and on the world in which if they do not come as punishments, come man is placed, and where he acts; and we in divine Wisdom, as salutary general feel no surprise when we see these accom- warnings, or as improving tests and trials panying one another-the sin and the of their faith, or as exercises of their punishment. fortitude and patience. In all such cases, it would therefore be rash and unchariA But, my friends, there are many cases watchful providence of God rendering men in their respective spheres, the instruments of promoting the destined and ultimate perfection of our race. table to interpret particularly, and with series of arrangements, we can see the reference to individuals, the views of divine judgment when affecting a multitude. It is enough for us to know that these judgments, whatever be their kind, whatever be their nature, or whatever their degree, are instruments of God's government of his moral and rational offspring, and that the inhabitants of the earth may learn from them lessons of righteousness. This is the view, you will remark, in which the text represents the judgments of God to our consideration; and, therefore, in conformity with the pious purpose for which we are assembled this day, I shall endeavour to suggest, briefly, two of the righteous lessons which the judgments of God ought to teach us. In the first place, the judgments of God, whatever their form, and whatever their degree may be, when they are contemplated by an enlightened and devout mind, are found powerfully to excite within it sentiments of warm piety and deep devotion toward that God from whom these judgments proceed. My friends, that God continues to govern the world which he has made; and that his rational subjects owe to him reverence and obedience, are truths which scarcely admit of doubt. God has impressed so visibly on all his works the signature of that unceasing care which he exercises for their preservation, that we have only to open our eyes on his works and behold it. When we look up to the heavens which his fingers have framed, when we see the sun, and the moon, and the stars observing order and regularity in all their movements, we are at once convinced of the powerful superintendence and energy of their Creator; and when we turn our view to this earth, we meet every where indications of a similar kind. It is by the energies of his hand that all the things of this world are maintained, each of them in their due season and proportion, and it is upon him they depend for the wonderful maintenance of their condition. But above all, we can trace the watchful providence of God in the history of our race; we can trace the watchful providence of God communicating to man, at his first formation, the instincts and powers required for the new condition he was to fill; we can trace the watchful providence of God mingling men in society, and adjusting their talents to the situation which each of them has been destined to fill in it; and, through a most complicated Now, to a man capable of reflecting on these marks of divine government, the Almighty surely presents an object most worthy of unbounded veneration-a being whose mercies in all things are conspicuous, and who has an unquestionable title to receive from his rational creatures the worship and homage which he requires. But, alas! my brethern, while things observe their ordinary course, how seldom do we permit our thoughts to rise from them to the power by which they are conducted? Alas! alas! the beauty and benignity which our Father in heaven has spread around us in the world, where he has given us our situation, detain our attention on themselves, without suggesting the source from which they flow. Nay, that very order, that very regularity which is the effect of his present power and care, lulls our minds asleep, and renders us insensible to the workings of his hand. It is, in truth, only when the general order of events seems to be sensibly interrupted; it is only when the elements composing the world and the frame of divine government seem to jostle, as it were, against each other; it is only when the pillars that support the society of men are suddenly shaken or broken down, or when some public or personal misfortune crosses the path of life, that the thoughtless multitude-and, alas! are we not all to be considered too much members of the thoughtless multitude, arise to reflection, and feel the presence of their God. My friends, there are various principles in our constitution, by which the judgments of Heaven contribute to a salutary effect upon the minds of a thoughtless world. Unexpected revolutions, either in the natural or moral world, naturally arrest our attention. They demonstrate, in the most sensible manner, to our consciences, our own weakness, and the incompetency of our powers, either to produce or control the changing events around us; and to every mind that is not totally enfeebled and darkened, through corruption, such revolutions suggest with irresistible force the notion of a powerful Supreme Ruler; they alarm our fears at his displays, and awaken all those sentiments (this is at least their natural tendency, or ought to be their constant effect) of humility and penitence, which form the beginning of a pious and devout temper. And would especially call your attention to this view of the case, that we learn from Scripture that this is not only the tendency of the divine judgments when rightly improved, but often the very purpose for which they were sent by the providence of God. The early record of Moses proclaims repeatedly, that strange punishments came upon the disobedient. And why? That the people may hear, and feel, and do no more their iniquities. The plagues were sent upon Egypt that the Egyptians might know that God is the Lord. When Sennacherib was pursuing his severe conquests, and wickedly railing against the God of Israel, an angel of the Lord slew in one night a hundred and fourscore and five thousand men! And why? It was, that all the kingdoms of the earth might know that he is the Lord God, even he alone! And the Psalmist in express terms asserts the general proposition, that God maketh himself known by the judgments which he executeth, and snareth the wicked in the work of his own hands. If, then, my beloved Christian friends, the judgments of God be both fitted and designed to awaken us to the ways of his providence, how should we labour to regard and improve them? Never let it be forgotten, that the prevalence of these judgments is a means of moral reformation for which we are accountable. They are chastisements which, after all gentler methods have failed, our gracious Father, desirous of our reformation and eternal safety, employs, and employs reluctantly, as the last efforts to recall us to the paths of obedience. And if we return not, if we still harden our hearts more and more, what must be the consequence? You all know what must be the consequence. This consequence may follow, and follow most certainly under the divine government it will, that our wickedness must be avenged by signal calamity. The denunciations made by the mouth of Isaiah must come: This "people turn not to him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the Lord of hosts. Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day; for through the wrath of the Lord of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother." (Isaiah ix. 13, 14, 19.) From these remarks, my friends, it will appear that the divine judgments have as their first and general purpose, whatever their kind and form may be, to rouse the attention of sinners to the proofs of divine government, and to recall them, before it be too late, from their sleep of inconsideration, and from the criminal practices of irreligion and vice. These purposes of the divine judgments, which we have affirmed in so many portions of Scripture, and which so heavily afflict our land, let us carefully improve. Let us remember, that, amid the calamity that is committing its ravages among our brethren, all is the doing of the Lord; and considering that, let us then, with habitual and awful reverence, bow before him, and in submission to his will. 66 But, my brethren, the judgment which has, by the divine permission, visited our land, and which has this day brought us, professing humiliation, to the house of prayer-a judgment as appalling in its effects as it is novel in its circumstances, not only powerfully impresses the general lesson of righteousness which all the divine judgments are calculated to do, but with a fatal and a loud voice reminds us, in the second place, of this other peculiar lesson, the uncertainty of life, and the necessity and wisdom therefore of instant preparation for a Christian death of peace and hope. For, my friends, what judgment has ever taught so widely and so alarmingly the truth, that we know not what a day or a night may bring forth? What judgment has ever so terrified the land with the similitude of the Psalmist, Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men. carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth and groweth; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth." Yes, my brethren, how many are the dwellings around us, where the inmates, healthy and light-hearted when the sun arose, have, ere the sun descended, given the dust to dust, and their spirit to God? Oh! how alarming to unprepared and sinful men is a fate like this? No time is there for review-no time for repentance-no time for making assurance of peace with God. Who prays not earnestly at this moment for himself, from a fate like this,-" O God, of thy good mercy save and deliver me." O my brethren, confine not your feelings to a brief momentary prayer, Let them have a permanent and practical Thou influence on your hearts and lives. The disastrous inroads of the pestilential malady into the bosom of our own city have hitherto been, through the divine forbearance in mercy, comparatively limited; but who will say that our dwellings-who will say that our persons are for the future secure? Signal benevolence has been manifested for averting the mischief by the opulence among us. No labour of love has been spared; and as to the professional members of the healing art, they have, by their conduct, most richly deserved the gratitude of their fellow-citizens, and have won for themselves indelible reputation. They have won it by the fearless exposure of their own persons to the perils of infection in the discharge of their hazardous duty, in their unwearied and watchful toils at the beds of the diseased and the dying. Ye opulent-ye professional men, to whom I have now alluded, let not the unfounded and insane prejudices, as I must term them, of some ignorant and misguided individuals, damp your ardour, or relax your efforts, in your godlike work of well-doing. All that are enlightened and generous, approve and applaud; and even the ignorant will eventually feel shame, as they ought, for their uncharitableness and folly, while it is yours to enjoy, above all the praises of men, the gracious approbation of your consciences and your God. But still, again the startling question recurs, under all that opulence and medical labour and skill have contributed to ward off the evil from our gates, are our houses, I ask again, are we ourselves for the future, with entire certainty, secure from the desolating disease, and that frightful rapidity with which it hurries its victim to the grave? Never let it be forgotten that opulence and medical skill are but secondary means and causes, and that their efficiency depends on the influential cooperation and blessing of our heavenly Father. Let, then, our devout, sincere, and ardent aspirations-let the devout, sincere, and ardent aspirations of every inhabitant of our city ascend to him-let us thrust our tears and supplications before the footstool of his throne, before the great Mediator, that he will be pleased still to be around us, and deliver us from our threatening dangers and troubles. But, then, my people, let me impress on every conscience and heart, if we hope for success to our supplications, that it is not enough that in a momentary feeling of devoutness we lift our hearts to the throne of the Most High, but we must carefully add to our supplications the acceptable incense of penitent hearts and holy lives; for thus only, let us be assured, can our hope be on rational and safe grounds. What is the language of Britons here this day? If it has any meaning, it is that you believe in the great truth of the constant superintendence of God over human affairs;-if it has any meaning, it is that he, by the general tenor of his laws, manifests favour to the godly; but that he does, and ever will, by the unchanging principles of his government, reward the evil according to his iniquities. If the language of Britons has any meaning, it is that you are conscious of much evil-doing; that you deplore it in your own personal case, and that you resolve to cease from doing it hereafter; that you resolve to be steadfast and immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; which steadfastness and immoveableness, and abounding in the work of the Lord, may justify your confessions here, and procure your acceptance in the day of final account. Now, surely, never was there a louder call on Britons than there is this day, to adopt this language in the sanctuary, and in all their future conduct. Let all ranks among us, therefore, as the best preparation for stopping this calamity-as the best preparation for that death which, if not this calamity, some other cause will speedily bring upon us all; let men all repent and reform; let men of every rank consult this Book of God, which explains so clearly, and which alone can explain with authority, because it bears the stamp of divine religion; let all consult this Book, and learn what the terms are on which God is willing to forgive the sinner-what the terms are on which they can receive the assurance in their minds of their being heirs of that salvation which the Redeemer came to accomplish. They will find, that there is only one way in which the sinner can hope for forgiveness. It was said to a person of high rank, that there is no royal road to any particular science. So in the chair of Truth, the teacher of religion is called on to tell the people, that there is no privileged road to heaven; that there is no peculiar road by which the high may reach it to the exclusion of the poor-no peculiar road by which the poor may reach it to the exclu sion of the high:-"Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto |