SERMON CXXXVIII.

THE CAUSE AND CUKE OF EARTHQUAKES.

[First published in the year 1750.]

“O come hither, and behold the works of the Lord; what destruction he hath brought upon the earth!"-PSALM xlvi. 8.

OF all the judgments which the righteous God inflicts on sinners here, the most dreadful and destructive is an Earthquake. This he has lately brought on our part of the earth, and thereby alarmed our fears, and bid us "prepare to meet our God!" The shocks which have been felt in divers places, since that which made this city tremble, may convince us that the danger is not over, and ought to keep us still in awe; seeing "his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still." (Isa. x. 4.)

That I may fall in with the design of Providence at this awful crisis, I shall take occasion from the words of my text,

I. To show that Earthquakes are the Works of the Lord, and He only bringeth this Destruction upon the Earth.

II. Call you to behold the Works of the Lord, in two or three terrible Instances: And,

III. Give you some Directions suitable to the Occasion.

I. I am to show you that Earthquakes are the Works of the Lord, and He only bringeth this Destruction upon the Earth. Now that God is himself the Author, and sin the moral cause of earthquakes, (whatever the natural cause may be,) cannot be denied by any who believe the Scriptures; for these are they which testify of Him, that it is God "which removeth the mountains, and overturneth them in his anger; which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble." (Job ix. 5, 6.) "He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth; he toucheth the hills and they smoke." (Psa. civ. 32.) "The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth." (Psa. xcvii. 5.) "The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt. Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger! his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him." (Nah. i. 5, 6.)

Earthquakes are set forth by the inspired Writers of God's proper judicial act, or the punishment of sin: sin is the cause, earthquakes the effect of his anger. So the Psalmist: "The earth trembled and

quaked, the very foundations also of the hills shook, and were removed, because he was wroth." (Psa. xviii. 7.) So the Prophet Isaiah: "I will, punish the world for their evil,-and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible:-therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger." (Isai. xiii. 11-13.) And again: "Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty; and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, [in the original, perverteth the face thereof,] and scattereth abroad the mhabitants thereof. For the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake. The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall and not rise again." (Isai. xxiv. 1. 18-20.) "Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob." (Psa. cxiv. 7.) "Thou shalt be visited of the Lord of Hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise." (Isai. xxix. 6.)

Nothing can be more express than these Scripture-testimonies, which determine both the Cause and Author of this terrible calamity. But Reason as well as Faith doth sufficiently assure us, it must be the punishment of sin, and the effect of that curse which was brought upon the earth by the original transgression. Steadfastness must be no longer looked for in the world, since innocency is banished thence but we cannot conceive that the universe would have been disturbed by these furious accidents during the state of original righteousness. Wherefore should God's anger have armed the elements against his faithful subjects? Wherefore should He have overthrown all his works to destroy innocent men? Or why overwhelmed the inhabitants of the earth with the ruins thereof, if they had not been sinful? Why buried those in the bowels of the earth who were not to die? Let us then conclude, both from Scripture and reason, that earthquakes are God's strange works of judgment, the proper effect and punishment of sin. I proceed,

II. To set before you these Works of the Lord in two or three terrible instances.

In the year 1692 there happened in Sicily one of the most dreadful earthquakes in all history; it shook the whole island; and not only that, but Naples and Malta shared in the shock. It was impossible for any one to keep on their legs on the dancing earth: nay, those who lay on the ground were tossed from side to side, as on a rolling billow. High walls leaped from their foundations several paces!

The mischief it did is amazing: Fifty-four cities and towns, besides an incredible number of villages, were almost entirely destroyed: Catania, one of the most famous, ancient, and flourishing cities in the kingdom, the residence of several monarchs, and an university, had the greatest share in the judgment. Fath. Ant. Serrvoita, being on his way thither, a few miles from the city, observed a black

cloud like night hovering over it; and there arose from the mouth of Etna great spires of flame, which spread all around: the sea all on a sudden began to roar, and rise in billows; the birds flew about astonished; the cattle ran crying in the fields; and there was a blow as if all the artillery in the world had been discharged at once!

His and his companions' horses stopped short, trembling; so that they were forced to alight: they were no sooner off, than they were lifted from the ground above two palms; when, casting his eyes towards Catania, he was astonished to see nothing but a thick cloud of dust in the air. This was the scene of their calamity; for of the magnificent Catania there is not the least footstep to be seen. eighteen thousand nine hundred and fourteen inhabitants, eighteen thousand perished therein in the several cities and towns, sixty thousand were destroyed out of two hundred and fifty-four thousand nine hundred !

Of

In the same year, 1692, on June 7, was the earthquake in Jamaica: it threw down most of the houses, churches, sugar-works, mills, and bridges, throughout the island; tore the rocks and mountains, reducing some of them to plains; destroyed whole plantations, and threw them into the sea; and in two minutes' time shook down and destroyed nine-tenths of the town of Port-Royal; the houses sunk outright thirty or forty fathom deep!

The earth, opening, swallowed up people; and they rose in other streets; some in the midst of the harbour, (being driven up again by the sea, which rose in those breaches,) and so wonderfully escaped.

Of all wells, from one fathom to six or seven, the water flew out of the top with a vehement motion. While the houses on one side of the street were swallowed up, on the other they were thrown into heaps. The sand in the street rose like waves of the sea, lifting up every body that stood on it, and immediately dropping down into pits, and at the same instant, a flood of water breaking in, rolled them over and over, while catching hold of beams and rafters to save themselves.

Ships and sloops in the harbour were overset and lost. A vessel, by the motion of the sea and sinking of the wharf, was driven over the tops of many houses, and sunk there.

The earthquake was attended with a hollow rumbling sound like that of thunder. In less than a minute, three-quarters of the houses, and the ground they stood on, with the inhabitants, were quite sunk under water, and the little part left behind was no better than a heap of rubbish!

The shock was so violent that it threw people down on their knees or their faces, as they were running about for shelter; the ground heaved and swelled like a rolling sea; and several houses, still standing, were shuffled and moved some yards out of their places: a whole street is said to be twice as broad now as before.

In many places the earth would crack, and open and shut quick and fast, of which openings two or three hundred might be seen at

a time; in some whereof the people were swallowed up; others the closing earth caught by the middle, and squeezed to death; and in that manner they were left buried with only their heads above ground: some heads the dogs eat!

The Minister of the place in his account saith, that such was the desperate wickedness of the people, that he was afraid to continue among them; that on the day of the earthquake, some sailors and others fell to breaking open and rifling warehouses, and houses deserted, while the earth trembled under them, and the houses fell upon them in the act; that he met many swearing and blaspheming; and that the common harlots, who remained still upon the place, were as drunken and impudent as ever.

While he was running towards the Fort, a wide open place, to save himself, he saw the earth open and swallow up a multitude of people; and the sea mounting in upon them over the fortifications, it likewise destroyed their large burying-place, and washed away the carcasses out of their graves, dashing their tombs to pieces. The whole harbour was covered with dead bodies, floating up and down without burial!

As soon as the violent shock was over, he desired all people to join with him in prayer. Among them were several Jews, who kneeled and answered as they did; and were heard even to call upon Jesus Christ. After he had spent an hour and a half with them in prayer, and exhortations to repentance, he was desired to retire to some ship in the harbour; and, passing over the tops of some houses which lay level with the water, got first into a canoe, and then into a long boat, which put him on board a ship.

The larger openings swallowed up houses; and out of some would issue whole rivers of water, spouted up a great height into the air, and threatening a deluge to that part which the earthquake spared. The whole was attended with offensive smells, and the noise of falling mountains. The sky, in a minute's time, was turned dull and red, like a glowing oven. Scarce a planting-house or sugar-work was left standing in all Jamaica. A great part of them was swallowed up, houses, trees, people, and all, at one gape; in the place of which afterwards appeared great pools of water, which, when dried up, left nothing but sand, without any mark that ever tree or plant had been thereon.

About twelve miles from the sea, the earth gaped, and spouted out, with a prodigious force, vast quantities of water into the air. But the greatest violence was among the mountains and rocks. Most of the rivers were stopped for twenty-four hours, by the falling of the mountains; till, swelling up, they made themselves new channels, tearing up trees, and all they met with, in their passage.

A great mountain split, and fell into the level ground, and covered several settlements, and destroyed the people there. Another mountain, having made several leaps or moves, overwhelmed great part of a plantation lying a mile off. Another large high mountain, near a

day's journey over, was quite swallowed up, and where it stooù s now a great lake some leagues over.

After the great shake, those who escaped got on board ships is the harbour, where many continued above two months; the shakes all that time being so violent, and coming so thick, sometimes two or three in an hour, accompanied with frightful noises, like a ruffling wind, or a hollow rumbling thunder, with brimstone blasts, that they durst not come ashore. The consequence of the earthquake was a general sickness, from the noisome vapours, which swept away above three thousand persons.

On the 28th of October, 1746, half an hour past ten at night, Lima, the capital city of Peru, was destroyed by an earthquake, which extended a hundred leagues northward, and as many more to the south, all along the sea-coast. The destruction did not so much as give time for fright; for at one and the same instant, the noise, the shock, and the ruin were perceived. In the space of four minutes, during which the greatest force of the earthquake lasted, some found themselves buried under the ruins of the falling houses; and others were crushed to death in the streets by the tumbling of the walls, which fell upon them as they ran here and there.

Nevertheless, the greater part of the inhabitants (who were computed near sixty thousand,) were providentially preserved, either in the hollow places which the ruins left, or on the top of the very ruins themselves, without knowing how they got up thither. For no person, at such a season, had time for deliberation; and supposing he had, there was no place of retreat: for the parts which seemed most firm, sometimes proved the weakest; on the contrary, the weakest, at intervals, made the greatest resistance; and the consternation was such, that no one thought himself secure, till he had made his escape out of the city.

The earth struck against the buildings with such violence, that every shock beat down the greatest part of them; and these, tearing along with them vast weights in their fall, (especially the churches and high houses,) completed the destruction of every thing they encountered with, even of what the earthquake had spared. The shocks, although instantaneous, were yet successive; and at intervals, men were transported from one place to another, which was the means of safety to some, while the utter impossibility of moving preserved others.

There were seventy-four churches, besides chapels, and fourteen monasteries, with as many more hospitals and infirmaries, which were in an instant reduced to a ruinous heap, and their immense riches buried in the earth! But though scarce twenty houses were left standing, yet it does not appear that the number of the dead amounted to much more than one thousand one hundred and forty-one persons; seventy of whom were patients in a hospital, who were buried by the roof falling upon them as they lay in their beds, no person being able to give them any assistance.

Callao, a sea-port town, two leagues distant from Lima, was swal