EARTHQUAKES. "Behold, famine, plague, and tribulation are sent as scourges for amendment." Esdras xvi. "There was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth; so mighty an earthquake, and so great.”—“ Every island fled away." Rev. xvi. 18. There appear no records of any earthquakes before Christ's death (except Korah, Dathan, and Abiram's *; Jericho's walls; and one in Asia, which overturned twelve cítics, A. D. 17.), who said, "There shall be Earthquakes, famine, and pestilence, in divers places, and these are the beginning of sorrows." Christ, who refused a sign to the Jews (except that of the prophet Jonas), has stamped his divine power, by the most extraordinary and terrible earthquakes, which have continually happened, since his resurrection, upon heathens and heretics, to punish misers and idolators, who reject the gospel. Earthquakes are awful signs over all the world, speaking, and serving to show that Christ is God, and God is Christ; confirming the gospel so clearly, that it is madness to doubt one word that Christ has uttered: yet Christendom is fallen asleep, more heedless of all his threats and promises than the Jews, for they profess still to expect Christ. I have extracted, from chronological history, accounts of the principal, the earliest, and latest earthquakes, because they prove that Christ holds all power in heaven and earth, and will surely perform all his promises and threats, though utterly unheeded, scorned, and derided, or misunderstood, and unbelieved. * "If these men, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and their congregation, die the common death of all men, the Lord hath not sent me; but if the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth and swallow them with up, all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit, then ye shall understand that they have provoked the Lord.The earth clave asunder, and opened her mouth and swallowed them all up, their houses and all their goods; they went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them, and they perished.-All Israel fled at their cry, saying, Lest the earth swallow us up also." Numbers, xvi. Aleppo was destroyed a few years ago by earthquake, when, most providentially, all the Christians escaped, for the heathens and heretics forbade Christians to assemble in the city to worship God; and had they neglected his worship, they would not have escaped, but they assembled a few miles from Aleppo, and while out of it, the hand of God swallowed the citizens up alive, like Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Earthquakes are judgments executed upon the wicked, to warn survivors to repent and believe in Christ, who appeared to Joshua before the walls of Jericho fell. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram's fate was marked also by the express curse of God; these two first earthquakes prove that Christ still executes his miraculous power against sinners, by every earthquake throughout the world, to arouse it to flee for his promised mercy; but the survivors take not the most awful warnings, but continue in all the sinful lusts of the flesh. Nothing can root out sin but universal depopulation (similar to the deluge), for sin reigns in the hearts of all men, and nothing but death can end its reign. "A mighty angel took up a stone, like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, thus with violence shall that great city Babylon* [or CHRISTENDOM] be thrown down, and found no more." Rev. xviii. 21. * "I will make Jerusalem [the gospel] a burthensome stone for all people: all that burthen themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all nations be gathered against it." Zec. There was a great earthquake at the crucifixion; and another when Paul was in prison. The threats expressed in the Rev. xvi. and xviii. are so tremendous, that if England utterly sinks in the sea, (like a great millstone), her sins will deserve her fate. Alas! * These main points will be expounded in the chapters concerning GREAT BABYLON and JERUSALEM. Constantinople and Rome The gospel has been continually confirmed by great EARTHQUAKES SINCE CHRIST, viz. : Herculaneum, &c. destroyed, with 250,000 souls Antioch Nicomedia, &c. In Macedonia, 150 cities Jerusalem and Constantinople Italy Nice A general earthquake In Europe, from September to November In Palestine Constantinople Constantinople, during 40 days Six hundred cities destroyed 742 England felt several shocks, followed by a scarcity At Oxenhall, near Darlington, the earth rose and sank with China EARTHQUAKES SINCE CHRIST. Marcley Hill moved near Hereford, and continued nearly two days in motion Yorkshire, and several counties London and Westminster, when part of St. Paul's, and the Sandwich Harbour Peru In Dorsetshire, 13 Jan. A field of three acres passed over another at Blackmoor, and settled in the high road to Hearn Bohemia, Moravia, &c. 1571 1574 1580 1583 1583 Japan In Kent 1596 1596 1600 1639 1657 In Norway In France Oxford Smyrna Lyme, in Dorset, with three ebbs and flood tides. Port Royal, in Jamaica Messina 1693 1704 Palermo Naples Aveline Arundel, &c. Leghorn Lima* Liverpool and Manchester 1750 The earthquake at Lima, 30 March 1828, was witnessed by an officer of H. M.S. Volage, at anchor, who says, "the sea hissed, and fish floated dead; one chain cable was affected, and condemned at Portsmouth, the other was not. Four priests were killed; one while kneeling before an image at church. The sailors saw the steeple rock and fall, and cried, THERE GOES THE TOWN."" - Ex Sailor's Magazine, April, 1830. EARTHQUAKES SINCE christ. Adrianople Grand Cairo A general earthquake 5000 miles, half of Madeira de- 1 Nov. Meteline Isle 1755 Bourdeaux Tripoli Truxilla Balbec and Damas Ireland Smyrna Oriano Messina Patrasse Scotland At Brixton, in Norfolk, the ground sank 30 feet St. Lucia Nova Castello Scotland Cuba Zante and Lisbon houses, 20 December The bog of Castleguard in Louth, Ireland, moved some miles, and crossed the road to Doon, and threw down some Bedford and Lincolnshire The lake of Harantoreen, in Kerry, Ireland, a mile in circuit, sunk 25 March Salisbury and Shaftesbury The ground at Fawnhope, near Hereford, removed to the extent of four acres, 4 April Caissar, in Turkey North of Scotland Vesuvius (almost continually) Woggis (near Lucerne) 1795 Attaquea, in Syria Smyrna South America |