of my judgment and veracity, that it will never be well with our country till there be more of the fear and love of God in it, and till the name of Jesus be of more importance among us. I could prescribe a method for our deliverance, which is at once infallible, and also cheap and safe, and so far from endangering the life of any, that it would secure the everlasting life of all that comply with it. Ye that complain of the burden of our public taxes; ye that love ease, and shrink from the dangers of war; ye that wish to see peace restored once more; ye that would be happy beyond the grave, and live for ever, attend to my proposal: it is this, a thorough, national reformation. This will do what millions of money and thousands of men, with guns and swords, and all the dreadful artillery of death, could not do; it will procure us peace again; a lasting, wellestablished peace. We have tried other expedients without this long enough: let us now try this new expedient, the success of which I dare to warrant. And do not object that such a general reformation is beyond your power; for a general reformation must begin with individuals: therefore do you, through the grace of God, act your part; begin at home, and endeavor to reform yourselves, and those under your influence. 66 It is a natural inference from what has been said, that if the defence of our country, in which we can stay but a few years at most, and from which we must ere long take our flight, be so important a duty, then how much more are we obliged to seek a better country, i. e. a 'heavenly ;" and to carry on a vigorous war against our spiritual enemies, that would rob us of our heavenly inheritance! therefore, in the name of Jesus, the Captain of our salvation, I invite you all to enlist in the spiritual warfare. Now proclaim eternal war against all sin. Now "take to you the whole armor of God; quit you like men, be strong :" and, for your encouragement, remember, "He that overcometh shall inherit all things;" he shall enter into a kingdom that cannot be shaken-cannot be shaken with those storms of public calamities which toss and agitate this restless ocean of a world. In that blessed harbor may we all rest at last! SERMON LXIV * THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. LUKE XXI. 10, 11, 25, 26.-Then he said unto them, Nation shall rise up against nation; and kingdom against kingdom; and great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences, and fearful sights, and great signs shall there be from heaven. And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts fail them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth. ALL the works of God are worthy of our admiring notice; and to overlook or disregard them, is at once an instance of stupidity and wickedness. It was a heavy * The following nineteen Sermons were printed in London in 1806, in a separate volume. The Publishers are happy in being able to increase the value of this edition by so rich an acquisition. To the volume published in London was prefixed the following advertisement : WE have scarcely ever felt more highly gratified, than in the opportu nity we now embrace of presenting to the religious public, one more volume of the interesting sermons of that most excellent man, the late Rev. PRESIDENT DAVIES, of America-Sermons, admirably calculated to promote the grand interests of vital evangelical godliness; or increase the knowledge and influence of real religion in the hearts and lives of men. That they are the genuine productions of the masterly pen to which they are ascribed, no other evidence need be adduced than an appeal to the discourses themselves. Let them be compared with those already abroad in the world, and they will be clearly seen to carry their own witness along with them. The instant they meet our eye, with but a com mon degree of discernment, we cannot but be struck with the coincidence with respect to method and order-to a free and masculine diction-a rich vein of evangelical doctrine-an impartial regard to the cases of all his hearers, and an animated and pathetic application, between this and the preceding volumes "The sun," it has been remarked on a similar occasion, discovers himself to be the sun, by the beams with which he irradiates and enlivens mankind, and is easily distinguished from the other heavenly bodies by his surpassing lustre." It is not for a moment to be doubted, but that these composures, had they passed under the revision of their worthy author, would have receiv ed considerable embellishment. That they were not so favored, is a cir cumstance not a little to be regretted. But we need not inform the intel charge against the ancient Jews, that they were sunk in luxury and pleasure, while the signals of divine vengeance should have cast them into the posture of anxious expectation. "The harp and the viol, and the tabret, and the pipe, and wine, are in their feasts; but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands."* And if all the works of God, even those that are ordinary and according to the known course of nature, are worthy of observation and wonder; certainly much more so are those which are extraordina ry-those which are done by the immediate hand of God, above the course of nature; or which are accomplished according to such laws of nature as are unusual, and intended to be carried into execution only in extraordinary periods, and for purposes of uncommon importance. To disregard these, is the more stupid and inexcusable, as they have a natural and direct tendency to engage and fix our attention by their new and strange appearances: for things common and familiar to us, cease to be objects of our admiration and wonder, however great and surprising in themselves: whereas, things new and strange, attract the gaze of mankind, though not more astonishing or important than the former. And if these unusual works of God are also prognosticative; if these extraordinary appearances in the natural world are signals and premonitions of some important revolutions in the moral world, for which our duty and our interest ligent reader, that this is a too frequent disadvantage attached to posthu mous publications. It is, however, pleasing to reflect, that the several former volumes-the manly compositions of the same capacious, soaring genius, were not, on this account, perused with less cordiality by a discerning public. As it is more than probable this will be the last volume of the admired author that will ever be introduced to public notice; we do most affec tionately accompany it with our warmest wishes-that a portion of the mantle fallen from our Elijah may become the perquisite of every reader of these discourses; in which-"the various excellences of learning, judgment, eloquence, piety, and seraphic zeal, mingled in one uncommon glory-not unlike the beams of the sun, collected by a burning-glass, that at once shine with the most resplendent brightness, and set fire, wherever the blaze was directed, to every object susceptive of their celestial influence." What happy prophet shall his mantle find, WATTS. * Isaiah v. 12. r require us to prepare ;-I say, if this be the case, then, to disregard them is still more stupid, and aggravatedly wicked; it is highly ungrateful to God, who is kindly pleased to give us warning of the impending events, that we may put ourselves into a proper posture to meet with them and it may be highly injurious to ourselves, who may feel, to our cost, the unhappy want of that preparation, which we might have obtained by timely notice of these monitory signs. Now my present intention is to inquire, Whether unusual phenomena, or appearances, in the natural world, may not be really intended, by the great Ruler of nature, as prognostics or fore-tokens of some grand events in the kingdoms of the earth, and in the church, for which it becomes us to prepare; and to prepare us for which, these monitory passages may be given us? I own it has been with hesitation, that I have ventured to devote an hour of your sacred time to so unusual an inquiry. But after much thought, that which determined my fluctuating mind, was this consideration : That if these unusual commotions and appearances are intended by divine Providence to be premonitions and signs of some grand and interesting revolutions among mankind, they would miss their end entirely upon us, unless we should regard them in that view; and we should be guilty of hardening ourselves against warnings kindly given us from heaven. But if we should be mistaken in looking upon these things in this prognosticative view, still it would be a harmless, and even a profitable mistake, if it might render us more thoughtful and serious, and set us upon preparing for all events, whether presignified or not. That which has turned my mind to this inquiry has been the late unusual and strange commotions and appearances in heaven and earth, which have been felt and seen in various parts of the world, particularly in Europe and America. An earthquake of prodigious extent and violence has shaken half the globe, buried cities in ruins, split the earth into hideous chasms, which have swal. lowed many thousands of mankind in Europe and Africa, and tossed the ocean into an unusual ferment for thou sands of miles. Great Britain has trembled from shore to shore, and some parts of America seemed to sympa thize with it. "Solid rocks have split to pieces, and huge unwieldy mountainous fragments have been hurled to some distance, while the ground a little way off was not affected; particularly a well-known ledge of rocks, called Whiston-cliffs, in Yorkshire, in England, where a horrid rumbling noise was heard for some days; and at length, sundry large pieces of rock were torn off and hurled through the air into a valley, one of which was about thirty yards high, and between sixty and seventy broad and there did not appear to be any cavities in the rock, where air might be imprisoned to cause the rupture. But (says one that saw it*) one part of the solid stone is cleft from the rest in a perpendicular line, and smooth as if cut with instruments." Near this, two pieces of ground, thirty or forty yards in diameter, have been removed entire, without cracks, with all their load of rocks; "some of which (says the same relater) are as large as the hull of a small ship, and a tree growing out of one of them." In various parts of Europe a strange and unaccountable motion has been observed in the waters, not only that of the sea and the rivers communicating therewith, but even that in canals, ponds, cisterns, and all other large or smaller collections of water; and that without the least motion of the earth around, or of the vessels which contained the water. Strange meteors and appearances have also been seen in the aerial regions: a fiery bloody-colored sky-the modern phenomenon of the Aurora 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 drought 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 Mr. John Wesley.-See his Thougnts on the Earthquake at Lisbon, an excellent and seasonable performance. † Particularly of the Rhone, in France, some months ago; and of the sea at Charleston, in South Carolina, about two or three years ago. |