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on ourselves alfo, will deferve to be feriously confider'd by us. For if we do, in the Words of Bifhop Sherlock, [Serm. Pag. 5.] ever fall into • fuch a Condition as to call down fuch Judgments ⚫ on our Heads, who can deliver us from the Hand of the living God?'

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The fecond of thofe Judgments, I efteem the Locusts, twice mention'd as fuch a Judgment in Deuteronomy; [Deut. xxviii. 38, 42.] which Locusts, as they have more than once ravaged many Parts of Germany and Poland of late, fo may they, it is to be fear'd, come over to us in England if not this Year, yet in fome Year foon after it. Now, whereever they come, they will do ftill, in fome Degree, as they did of old in Egypt, in a greater; I mean they will cover the Face of the Earth, that one cannot be able to fee the Earth; and they will eat the Refidue of that which is escaped, which remaineth and will eat every Tree which groweth for us out of the Field. [Exod. x. 5.] And as the Locusts went up of old over all the Lands of Egypt, and rested on all the Coasts of Egypt, very grievous were they, [V. 14, 15.] as they cover'd the Face of the whole Earth; fo that the Land was darken'd, and they did eat every Herb of the Land, and all the Fruit of the Trees, which was left, and there remain'd not any green Thing in the Trees, or in the Herb of the Field, thro' all the Land of Egypt; fo will they be with us, if they come hither. Nor is it unworthy of our Notice, that when God was pleafed to defcribe the four barbarous and tyrannical Monarchies, by the Prophet Joel, under four fmall Animals, as he had

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done it elsewhere by great ones; he introduces them under the Images of four Sorts of Locufts. [Joel i. 4, &c.] If we therefore would fecure ourfelves from thefe Locufts, one of the fore Judgments of God, we have no other Way of doing it, than God by Joel prefcrib'd to the People of Ifrael, in the other Cafe; we must fantify a Faft, call a folemn Affembly, gather the Elders, and all the Inhabitants of the Land, into the Houfes of the Lord our God, and cry unto the Lord, Alas! for the Day, for the Day of the Lord is at Hand! And as a Deftruction from the Almighty fhall it come. [v. 14, 15.]

The Third of thofe Judgments, in Cafe the Locufts fhould come upon us, or even by other Ways, which the Providence of God can make Use of for the fame Purpose, may well be Famine; which is but a natural Confequence of the Locufts, and may be a Confequent of fome other Method of Providence. This is intimated in the following Words of Joel: Is not the Meat cut off before our Eyes, yea, Joy and Gladness from the House of our God: [v. 16, 17, 18.] The Seed is rotten under their Clods; the Garners are laid defolate, the Barns are broken down, for the Corn is wither'd. How do the Beafts groan? The Herds of Cattle are perplex'd; because they have no Pafture; yea, the Flocks of Sheep are made defolate, &c. Nor can we any other Way secure ourselves from this Judgment of Famine, than by hearkening to the fame Prophet, who from God delivers this as the only Remedy for fuch great Miseries: [ii. 12, 13, 14.] To blow the Trumpet in Zion, and found an Alarm in God's

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Holy Mountain: To turn to the Lord with Fafting, and with Weeping, and with Mourning; to rent our Hearts and not our Garments, and turn unto the Lord our God:- [v. 15, 16, 17.] To blow the Trumpet in Zion, to fantify a Faft, to call a folemn Affembly, to gather the People, to fanctify the Congregation, to affemble the Elders, to gather the Children, and those that fuck the Breaft; for the Bridegroom to go forth out of his Chamber, and the Bride out of her Clofet: To let the Priests, the Minifters of the Lord, weep between the Porch and the Altar, and to let them fay, Spare thy People, O Lord, and give not thine Heritage to reproach, left the Heathen fhould rule over them; which last Words naturally lead me to,

The Fourth of thofe Judgments we have Reafon to fear, which is Captivity or Slavery to a neighbour Nation. This was the great Judgment, which was so often threaten'd to the Wicked Jews, and which came so often upon them, for their frequent Idolatries, and other flagrant Enormities, as may be seen every where in the Books of the Old Teftament; particularly in that terrible Chapter of Judgments threatned by Mofes, and which afterwards came remarkably to pafs accordingly, I mean the xxviiith Chapter of Deuteronomy. [v. 36, 37.] The Lord fball bring thee, and thy King, which thou fbalt fet over thee, unto a Nation, which neither thou nor thy Fathers have known; and there shalt tbou ferve Wood and Stone; and thou shalt become an Aftonishment, a Proverb, and a bye Word, among all Nations whither the Lord fhall lead thee, [v. 64.]—

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And the Lord fhall Scatter thee among all People, from the one End of the Earth to another. [v. 65.] And among thefe Nations fhalt thou find no Eafe, neither fhall the Soles of thy Feet have Reft; but the Lord fball give thee there a trembling Heart, and Sorrow of Mind. Nor is that which Bi-. fhop Sherlock, in his former Sermon and present Letter, appears alfo afraid of very unlikely to come to pass; [Serm. Pag. 8, 9, 10. Let. Pag. 13, 14.] I mean that Popery, which, as he obferves, now gains fo much Ground, fhould at laft prevail over us, and by a juft Punishment from God be entail'd on us, and our Pofterity. This feemed very near about four or five Years ago; and the Succeffes of the Rebels in Scotland terrified the Proteftants to a very great Degree. Nor, in a Kingdom and Metropolis fo wicked as ours, is there any Security from Popery, but by amending the Lives of Protestants, as well as their Doctrine and Discipline, and thereby fecuring ourselves of the Favour of God, and thereby inviting the religious Part of the Roman Catholicks to unite themselves with us, in any farther Reformation, which is for certain greatly wanted in both Churches.

The Fifth of thofe Judgments, which we have Reafon to fear, is what we call the Mortality or Peftilence. This moft frightful and deftructive Malady fometimes follows Earthquakes, as was remarkable in that at Port-Royal in Jamaica, [as the Hiftory of that Earthquake informs us, See Pag. 66. priùs.] and this was terrible in London, 1665, the Year before the Fire, and much more

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terrible at Marfeiles much later, 1721. However, this Nation was then fo alarmed at the Dread of its coming hither, which was very much feared, and that folemn Faft then appointed, was fo much more seriously obferv'd than our common Fafts have of late been, that it pleafed God to prevent its coming over hither, at that Time. Nay, it has pleafed God of late, to preserve the City of London free from that fatal Diftemper, much longer than ordinary. But fince great Mercies greatly abused, dó naturally call down the heavier Judgments at laft, and fince the Iniquity of the Inhabitants of London seems to be entirely full, as we have too fadly found already; and the News which we frequently meet with of the Plague, or the like contagious Distemper in other Places, makes me fomewhat afraid that we fhall not escape this Diftemper very much longer. I only mean this, unless I could fee Signs of much greater and more general Reformation among us, than at prefent appear. This Diftemper would indeed much more scatter Abroad the Inhabitants of London, than the late Panick about a third Earthquake did. Now this is one of those terrible Judgments threatned the Dif obedient Jews in Deuteronomy. [xxviii. 21, 22.] The Lord fhall make the Peftilence cleave unto thee, until he have confumed thee from off the Land, whither thou goeft to poffefs it. The Lord fhall fmite thee with a Confumption, and with a Fever, and with an Inflammation, and with an extreme Burning, and with the Sword. That laft Word puts me naturally in Mind of a fixth Judgment,

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