What desolations have been made in the earth by war, the history of former and latter ages informs us; and, God knoweth, _we_ need no comment on the awful truth. What we want principally, is to be humbled under the visitation; to “hear the rod, and Him that appointed it.” For, we are sure the matter is not fortuitous. If the sword be drawn, it is because God hath said, “Sword go through this land.” Or, if it continue unsheathed, it is because he hath said also, “O thou _sword of the Lord_, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? put up thyself into thy scabbard, rest, and be still. How can it be quiet, seeing the Lord _hath given it a charge_?” Jer. xlvii. 6, 7. Or, if wide-extended destruction mark its progress, it is because, “Thus saith the Lord, A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also furbished; it is sharpened to make a sore slaughter; should we then make mirth? The sword is sharpened, to give it into the _hand of the slayer_. _I_ Jehovah have set the point of the sword against all their gates, that their hearts may faint, and their _ruins be multiplied_.” Ezek. xxi. 9–11, 15. These awful passages intimate, that it is an act of justice in God, to appoint that evil, into which men’s inordinate passions precipitate them: and it may turn out an act of mercy too, if they see their sin in their punishment, and get sick of both. Otherwise additional expedients may be adopted, and increasing judgments be sent. For, the Lord hath at his command the 2. PESTILENCE. When David, for his sin in numbering the people of Israel, had proposed to him his choice of three modes of punishment, and he preferred falling into the hand of the Lord, for very great were his mercies, and not into the hand of man, whose tender mercies, often, are cruel; “the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel, and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.” 1 Chron. xxi. 12–14. This sore visitation, which sin brought upon David and his people, was often repeated among the other judgments which desolated Israel. See Lev. xxvi. 25. Psal. lxxviii. 50. Jer. xliv. 13. It is mentioned as one of the ominous antecedents of the day of judgment, that “there shall be _pestilence_ in divers places.” Mat. xxiv. 7. And in that inimitable piece of sublime description in Habak. iii. where all nature is represented as convulsed and shrinking to nothing, under impressions of the indignation and grandeur of God, “before him,” it is said, “went the _pestilence_:” verse 5. Because of the secret manner in which this fearful visitant performs his work, the Psalmist saith, “the pestilence walketh in darkness.” Psal. xci. 6. He enters silently and secretly as the thief, and imperceptibly yet rapidly executes his commission. There is often no security against its approach, since the air we breathe wafts the deadly contagion to all the senses, which, in a moment, convey them to, and, in conveying, contaminate the whole mass of blood. Thousands imbibe the poison, and