Borealis, or a midnight brightness in the north-three unusual circles, intersecting the sun and each other, which some of us have seen not many years ago-unusual rains, hail, thunder and lightning, in England, in the winter season-a severe draught last summer in our country, that threatened many parts of it with famine-irregular tides, and inundations of seas and rivers,* by which much loss has been sustained, and many lives perished. Besides these strange phenomena, which have already appeared, if we regard the calculation of that great philosopher, Doctor Halley, and of some others, we are to expect a visit from that portentous stranger, a comet, in about two years hence; a huge globe, heated, according to Sir Isaac Newton's calculation, two thousand times hotter than red-hot iron. And Doctor Halley ob. serves, that the last time it revolved, it moved in the same line in which the earth performs her annual course round the sun; but then the earth was on the other side of her orbit: whereas, in this revolution, it will move not only in the same line, but in the very same part of that line in which the earth moves. And will not this, upon the principles of philosophy, occasion a collision of those two bodies, or such a near approach as would prove fatal to our earth? For such an enormous body of solid fire would burn it to a coal, and cause an universal conflagration; and we have no reason, that I know of, to hope the contrary but from revelation, in which we find many prophecies not yet fulfilled. But upon the principles of infidel-philosophy, this dreadful consequence seems unavoidable.

These are certainly very uncommon things: it is not in every year, nor in every century that they appear. Some of them, particularly earthquakes, inundations, et cætera, are evidently the judgments of a righteous God upon our guilty globe; and in this view they undoubtedly demand a serious regard but is this the only view we should have of them? May we not look upon these and the other harmless phenomena as signs and forerunners of some revolutions in the world of mankind, as strange and extraordinary as these are in the material world? May not the convulsions of the globe be an omen of the agitations and confusions of the kingdoms of men that are to follow? May not a fiery bloody-coloured sky be a signal to the world below to prepare.

Particularly of the Rhone, in France, some months ago; and of the sea at Charleston, in South Carolina, about two or three years ago.

for scenes of blood and slaughter? And as to comets, may we not use the words of a good philosopher, as well as a divine poet?

"LORD of the armies of the sky;

He marshals all the stars;

Red comets lift his banners high,

And wide proclaim his wars !"

WATTS.

Are there not some strange events in the womb of Providence? And are not these the struggles and pangs of nature labouring with the prodigious birth? I will not be peremptory in determining this point. Nor am I about to assume the airs of a prophet, or the low character of a fortune-teller; but I shall humbly offer my opinion with the reasons of it, and then allow you to judge for yourselves. Nor shall I inquire into the philosophy of these things. Perhaps they are all the effects of natural causes, as some of them undoubtedly are. We are not on the one hand to feign needless miracles ;* and on the other hand, I see no reason why we should be so scrupulous, as some seem to be, of supposing the immediate agency of the Divine hand in some unusual appear ances above or contrary to the laws of nature. By forming servants to do his work, the Lord of nature has not rendered himself dependent upon them, so that he cannot work without them; and he has no where informed us that he has so tied himself down to them, that he will never work without them; or that because miracles were more frequent in those ages in which the true religion was introduced and confirmed, therefore they shall not be wrought in other ages at all. Such immediate interpositions of the divine hand can afford the Almighty no trouble; for it is as easy for him to manage the universe without instruments as with them. Upon the whole, I can see no sufficient reason to suppose that he never works but by secondary causes, and according to the established laws of nature, even in the ordinary ages of the world. Even in such ages there may be some events to be accomplished which it may be most proper for him to take into his own hands, and order his servants to suspend their agency-to stand still and see the works of God: but to determine this point is by no means necessary to my present design. These commotions and appearances in nature may be ominous or prognosticative, and yet be the effects of the established laws of nature; for, be

* Nec Deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus inciderit. HOR.

sides the usual laws established at the creation for the regulation of the world in ordinary times, and which are every day carried into execution, and obvious to common observation; besides these, I say, why may there not be, as I hinted, other laws, equally fixed and regular, but not carried into execution, except in extraordinary seasons, and as signals and premonitions of some important events, of which it is proper mankind should have some previous intimations, that they may prepare for them? May not the wise Contriver of the machine of nature have placed in it certain hidden springs, which, like the stroke of a clock at the hour, will move and operate at the appointed period, and rouse the attention and admiration of a stupid world? Besides the causes of the daily familiar phenomena of nature, may there not be causes in reserve for some grand purposes to produce some strange unusual phenomena, adapted to the exigencies of some extraordinary periods? All the exigencies of such periods were known to the omniscient Creator when he first formed this vast machine, when he wound it up and put all its wheels in motion; and there he could easily adjust those latent springs in such a manner, as that they should operate exactly in the appointed period, when it should be fit, that for extraordinary reasons, extraordinary appearances should be produced, whether at the distance of twenty, an hundred, or a thousand years: there he might place certain powers, for this end, to give an alarm to the world when he should be about to accomplish some important revolution. Thus, you see, it is not necessary to the present inquiry to determine whether these unusual appearances are miraculous or agreeable to the stated course of nature; for whether you suppose them the one or the other, they may be portentous, and forebode some great revolutions.

This is certain, that such strange appearances have been prognosticative in times past, particularly in that period to which my text primarily refers; namely, the destruction of Jerusalem and the church and state of the Jews. It is to that dreadful unparalleled calamity, the predictions in this chapter primarily refer; though, it must be owned, it is described in such language, and under such majestic images, as naturally carry our minds forward to the still more dreadful destruction of this guilty globe at the final judgment. And indeed, it is a very usual thing for the prophets to have two events in view in the same description, the one more immediately, and the other more remotely and that

part of the description which is not fully accomplished in one, has its final and complete accomplishment in the other; particularly, it is common for them to make the judgments God inflicted upon guilty nations in this world, and the overthrow of cities and empires, a representation of his still more glorious and terrible appearance in the character of universal Judge at the last day, to inflict everlasting punishments, of a more terrible kind, upon the world of the ungodly; and of the universal overthrow and conflagration of the earth and all that it contains. This is certainly a wise method of instruction, as it makes the events of this life so many hints and mementos of the more important scenes before us at the end of this world, and in that awful eternity which is to follow. Thus, the ruins of cities, the fall of kingdoms, and unusual commotions in the natural and moral world, are made warnings to us to flee from the wrath to come, and provide for our safety in the wrecks of dissolving worlds. In this double view, we should consider the chapter where my text lies; though the most, if not all the strange signs and prodigies here foretold, did actually appear before the destruction of Jerusalem.

Then the kingdoms of the earth were in a ferment and perturbation, and rumours of wars spread their terrors from country to country. "Nation rose up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom." This may have a particular reference to the insurrection of the Jews, at that time, in various places, particularly at Jerusalem, upon the Roman emperor's ordering his image to be set up in the temple :* and at Alexandria, and about Babylon, where they flew to arms, and many of them were slain.† As the revolutions and destruction of kingdoms are generally brought about by the force of arms; rumours of wars, and insurrections of nations against nations, are the usual forerunners of such melancholy events; and to look upon these as a presage, is but to infer the effect from the cause. I need not tell you that

*Jussi a Cajo Cæsare effigiem ejus in Templo locare, arma potius sumsere; quem motum Cæsaris mors diremit. Tacit. Hist. v.

Præbuerunt Judæi speciem motus orta seditione. Id. An. xii.

† Vid. Josephus agxatoλoytas xviii. et Philo adv. Flac. To these we might add the tumults and slaughter of the Jews at Cæsarea, Scythop. olis, Ptolomais, Tyre, Gadaris, and Damascus ; and the wars of the Jews of Perea against the Philadelphians, of the Jews and Galileans against the Samaritans, &c.

this is the present posture of affairs in those parts of the world in which we are most concerned. Armies marching, arms brightening, magazines filling, forts and castles besieged, countries ravaged and deserted, blood streaming by sea and land, and the world of spirits peopling fast; and this ferment is not likely to subside till some important revolution be brought about. Some decisive blow is likely to be given, that may be fatal to one or other of the contending parties, and on whom the blow will fall is as yet an anxious uncertainty, and holds our minds in a painful suspense. May Heaven determine it in favour of religion, liberty, and justice!

The convulsions of the earth were also an omen of the de. struction of the Jews. "There shall be earthquakes in divers places," says our divine prophet. Accordingly, history informs us, that in the reigns of Claudius and Nero, there were frequent earthquakes in Crete, Smyrna, Miletus, Samos, Laodicea, and other places; in all which the Jews were settled, and conse, quently had their share in the common calamity.* Now, if, as Grotius judges,† earthquakes are not only severe judgments in themselves, but also signs of divine vengeance, which either causes them, or does not hinder them by restraining their nat ural causes; if, I say, they forebode future calamities and revo, lutions, as well as produce present, certainly our age may stand in the posture of eager expectation, "looking after those things that are coming upon the earth;" for perhaps there never was a more terrible and extensive earthquake than that which happen, ed about ten months ago, since the universal one, which broke up the fountains of the great deep at the deluge.

The word rendered earthquakes, in my text, properly signi fies shakings or concussions, without determining in what ele ment; and therefore may be taken in a larger latitude, to signify unusual tremors and motions, not only in the earth, but in the sea and air. And accordingly the Jewish historian, Josephus, informs us, that at that time there were prodigious storms of the sea, tem

* Josephus gives an account of an earthquake, about this time, in Ju dea also, in which no less than thirty thousand men were swallowed up. De Bell. Jud. c. xix.

Terræmotus autem, præterquam quod signa sunt iræ divinæ, eos aut procurantis, aut impedire nolentis, graves etiam clades sæpe urbibus ad ferunt, Grot, in Matt. xxiv.

† Σεισμοί.