“To fear God, and to stand in awe of His justice; to trust and depend on Him in all conditions; to submit patiently to His will, under all afflictions; to pray to Him for the supply of all our wants, for the relief of our sufferings, for protection and defence; to love and praise Him for the blessings we enjoy, for peace, and plenty, and health, for friends and benefactors, and all prosperous successes: I say, these are not the acts of reasonable men, unless they believe that God has the supreme disposal of all events, and takes a particular care of us. For if any good or evil can befall us without God’s particular order and appointment, we have no reason to trust in God, who does not always take care of us; we have no reason to bear our sufferings patiently at God’s hand, and in submission to His will; for we know not whether our sufferings be God’s will or not; we have no reason to love and praise God for every blessing and deliverance we receive, because we know not whether it come from God; and it is to no purpose to pray to God for particular blessings, if He does not concern Himself in particular events; but if we believe that God takes a particular care of us all, and that no good or evil happens to us but as He pleases; all these acts of religious worship are both reasonable, necessary, and just.” [98]
The great duty of believers every where to declare and maintain, that “God governeth all things both in heaven and earth,” is dwelt upon more at large, because a neglect,—if not a disbelief,—of a particular Providence, which constitutes practical, and often tends to avowed infidelity, has been already stated to be one of the most crying sins,—I may almost say the most crying sin—of the day. Some openly disclaim all belief in God’s government of the world; others admit it, but are not influenced by it; and others acknowledge a general, but deny a particular Providence. These latter appear not to be aware of the manifest contradiction which their belief involves. “To talk of a general Providence without God’s care and government of every particular creature is manifestly unreasonable and absurd; for, whatever reasons oblige us to own a Providence, oblige us to own a particular Providence. If creation be a reason, why God should preserve and take care of what He has made; this is a reason why He should take care of every creature, because there is no creature, but what He made; and if the whole world consist of particulars, it must be taken care of in the care of particulars; for if all particulars perish, as they may do, if no care be taken to preserve them, the whole must perish. And there is the same reason for the government of mankind; for the whole is governed in the government of parts; and mankind cannot be well governed without the wise government of every particular man.” [99]
We may hope that secret disbelief, or open denial, of a Divine Providence, does not exist to a great extent; but of this every observer must be satisfied, that a practical disregard of God’s providential care and government is gaining ground in this country. Nor are its effects to be seen only in the conduct of individuals, they may be observed in the proceedings of public bodies. Nothing can bespeak this more strongly, than the altered language of the day as regards society, business, and public transactions.
The time was when it was carefully framed in accordance with the apostolic injunction, “for that ye ought to say if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that.” [100] Now it is evidently dictated by that bold spirit of self-confidence, which “having not God in all its thoughts,” says “to-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell and get gain.” Nor do the actions of men in their public and private capacities contradict their language. The time was, when this nation, sensible how highly it had been blessed by Providence, and deeply grateful to the Giver of all good, made it a rule to recognise the hand of God in all things. When His chastisements were upon the land, there was a fast; when deliverance was vouchsafed, there was a thanksgiving; every visitation was received as a just infliction; every escape as an unmerited blessing. Such was the conduct of the people and government, during their late struggle of unexampled difficulty, through which the Providence of the Almighty carried them in safety, and during which the soil of England alone was untrodden by the foot of the invader, unstained by the blood of her sons.
Let, then, all the faithful servants of God, who believe in the government and confide in the protection of His Providence, “be instant in season and out of season,” to counteract this evil principle which corrupts, paralyzes, and nullifies faith; which produces pride, self-confidence, and self-complacency; and exposes to the severe displeasure and heavy judgments of Him whom it “robbeth of the honour due unto His name.” History, viewed by the aid of that light which revelation has shed upon it, proves this incontestably, by supplying both individual and national examples, with the latter of which we are, at present, alone concerned.
All nations are under the government of the King of kings and Lord of lords. “His kingdom ruleth over all;” all are instruments in His hand to accomplish the secret purpose of His will. They may be rebellious and disobedient, but they cannot harden themselves against God and prosper. He exhorts and warns, He threatens and visits; but if they go on still in their wickedness, they soon fill up the measure of their iniquity; the messenger of justice speeds forth, the sentence is delivered, and they cease to be a nation. It is thus great empires in succession have passed away; human reason discovers in their rise, their progress, their decay, and their destruction, nothing more than the ordinary operation of natural causes; revelation raises the veil which envelopes the records of remote antiquity, and discovers the workings of a Divine agency, by which Providence overrules the selfish and short-sighted policy of man, to the development of the mighty and mysterious plans which embrace the government of the world. And that blind and presumptuous man may have no ground to suppose, that the fate of empires is dependent solely upon human causes, the overthrow of the guilty nations of antiquity, by the Divine command, was foretold, and exactly fulfilled. Hence we may learn the sudden and swift destruction, which neglect of Providence, disregard of the authority, and disobedience to the commands of Him, who has said, “I am the Lord, I change not,” [102] will, at last, bring upon any Christian nation, which long continues to refuse the overtures of pardon and reconciliation, made by a gracious, a merciful, and long-suffering God. Predicted destruction overtook the Assyrian and Babylonian empires; and the final desolation of their capitals was foretold. The book of the prophet Nahum opens with “the burden of Nineveh,” which abounds with the most powerful descriptions of the terrible overthrow of the Assyrian empire, and the utter desolation of its vast and splendid capital. Zephaniah looks still further into futurity, and presents a sad but faithful picture of its final doom. “The Lord will be terrible unto them:”—“And he will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria; and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like the wilderness. And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations; both the cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it: their voice shall sing in the windows, desolation shall be in the thresholds; for He shall uncover the cedar-work. This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me: how is she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in; every one that passeth by her shall hiss and wag his head.” [103a] So literally have these striking images of entire and lonely desolation been fulfilled, that in the second century, the very site of the once proud and famous capital of the Assyrian empire was matter of dispute. And as the ruin of Babylon was equally complete, so the language of prophecy is equally clear and descriptive of its entire destruction, “O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thy end is come and the measure of thy covetousness. Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall spoilers come unto her, saith the Lord. Oh Lord, thou hast spoken against this place to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever.” [103b]
Nor was the fate of these empires and cities alone foretold: the long degradation of Egypt, which has been so exactly fulfilled, was predicted: “it shall be the basest of the kingdoms, neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations: for I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations.” [104a] The evils impending over rich and proud Tyre, whilst still in the plenitude of her power and greatness were announced by Isaiah in terms very applicable to that great emporium of commerce: “Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days? her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn. Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth? The Lord of Hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth. He stretched out His hand over the sea; He shook the kingdoms: the Lord hath given a commandment against the merchant city, to destroy the strong holds thereof.” [104b] But it was reserved for Ezekiel to foretell the full extent of the fearful ruin which was to overtake this renowned city: and he has done so, in terms so brief, and yet so minutely descriptive of its present state, as to have excited the observation of all modern travellers: “it shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God: and it shall become a spoil to the nations.” [105a] “I will make thee like the top of a rock: thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon, thou shalt be built no more; for I the Lord have spoken it, saith the Lord God.” [105b] Thus, when Maundrell visited the ruins of Tyre, he found “its present inhabitants to be a few wretches, subsisting chiefly by fishing, who seem to be preserved in this place by Divine Providence, as a visible argument how God has fulfilled His word concerning Tyre.”
Nor were the predictive denunciations of Divine vengeance upon sinful nations, confined to times of a very remote antiquity:—the prophet’s eye glancing through the long vista of coming years, foresaw, and his voice foretold, the empire which the Ruler of the destiny of nations had decreed to Greece and Rome. But there is a people which remain unto this day, at once a living testimony to the truth of Divine revelation, and a living monument of the certainty of Divine punishment. From the Jews this country may draw a very instructive lesson; for there are some striking points of agreement in their earlier history, and would that there the parallel might stop! The Jews were the peculiar people of God.—“Thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself, above all people that are on the face of the earth:” this kingdom has also long enjoyed an extraordinary degree of favour, protection, and blessing, at the hand of God. “The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people, for ye were the fewest of all people: in like manner the population of this country was small in comparison with that of many of the surrounding nations. The Jews were selected that unto them might be “committed the oracles of God:” so also this country appears to have been appointed, by Providence, to preserve the holy Scriptures from misinterpretation or perversion. The Jews were employed to convey to the Gentiles some knowledge of the one true God: in like manner this country appears to have been raised up to diffuse amongst distant nations the light of the Gospel. When grateful for Divine blessings, mindful of the Divine government, and obedient to the Divine laws, the Jews were abundantly blessed, and their wealth and greatness were far more than commensurate with the extent of their territory; and the resources of the kingdom: in like manner God has elevated this country to a rank amongst the nations to which her native dominions did not justify her aspiring. He has enriched her with the treasures of the world, and has invested her with an empire upon which the sun never sets. So far the points of agreement are striking on the bright side of the picture of Jewish history; but there is also a dark side; let that also be examined, to see if there can be discovered any shades of resemblance. The Jews were thus exhorted and warned:—“When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God, for the good land which He has given thee. Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping His commandments, and His judgments, and His statutes, which I command thee this day: lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein: and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply; and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied: then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God,—and thou say in thine heart, my power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is He that giveth thee power to get wealth. And it shall be if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish.” [107] Nor were they left in ignorance as to what would be the ministers of Divine vengeance; unfruitful seasons; and deadly pestilence; and foreign invasion, with its fearful attendants, the slaughter of the inhabitants, and the devastation of their land, were all declared to be instruments, in God’s hand, to punish His ungrateful and rebellious people. Nor did the fearful enumeration of judicial inflictions stop there; they were forewarned of lengthened sieges, of the most frightful extremity of famine, of long and weary captivity in distant lands. Still there was reserved for them,—if they would not know their day of visitation,—a heavier, a more lasting and more terrible punishment. “The Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other.” “And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word among all nations, whither the Lord shall lead thee.” [108]
The literal fulfilment of this prediction is matter of history;—nay, more, the accomplishment of the last and most terrible threat is matter of present experience; we have, unto this day, the Jews scattered amongst all people, distinct in religion, polity, and customs; unmingled with the population, unincorporated in the institutions of the nations amongst whom they sojourn: we see them a byword, a proverb, and an astonishment, in every land: and can it be that we do not discover in them a living memorial of the Divine government of the world, and of the Divine justice, which sooner or later overtakes every nation, which does not recognise God’s authority in all things, and study to obey His laws. The condition of the Jew speaks to the Christian the language of warning and admonition: “you possess privileges I once enjoyed: I forfeited them by trusting to my own right arm, by forsaking God, by not knowing the day of my visitation: take heed lest ye come into the same state of condemnation; for it is God who ruleth in Jacob, and unto the end of the world.”
Let not the warning be addressed in vain: there are fearful points of resemblance between this country and the Jews in the darker side of their national character, when the chosen people of the Lord. We are too much disposed “to say in our hearts, my power, and the might of my hand, hath gotten me this wealth:” and there is a love of the world, which falls little short of idolatry;—there is a trusting to fortune, and an ascribing events to chance and natural causes, which almost amount to deifying fortune and nature. Let, then, all the true servants of God, by their prayers, and their labours, seek, in dependence on God’s blessing, a remedy of these great and growing evils. Let them appeal to the experience of the past; let them prove from sacred history that nations, which exalted themselves, have always been abased, which humbled themselves, have always been exalted: let them shew from our own history how we have been blessed and preserved, and how we have prospered and flourished, when our trust has been in God, who alone “is he that giveth strength and power unto his people: blessed be God!” [110a] Let them bear public testimony at once to the justice and mercy of His visitations; for whilst the pestilence speaks the language of wrath: “Woe to the rebellious children, saith the lord, that take counsel, but not of me, and that cover with a covering, but not of My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin:” [110b] it speaks also the language of merciful warning and gracious exhortation: “As many as i love, i rebuke and chasten: be zealous, therefore, and repent.” [110c]