In Time of War

"An oracle concerning the Valley of Vision: What troubles you now, that you have all gone up on the roofs, O town full of commotion, O city of tumult and revelry? Your slain were not killed by the sword, nor did they die in battle. All your leaders have fled together; they have been captured without using the bow. All you who were caught were taken prisoner together, having fled while the enemy was still far away. Therefore I said, 'Turn away from me; let me weep bitterly. Do not try to console me over the destruction of my people.' The Lord, the LORD Almighty, has a day of tumult and trampling and terror in the Valley of Vision, a day of battering down walls and of crying out to the mountains!" Isaiah 22:1-5

"The Lord, the LORD Almighty, called you to weep and mourn. He told you to shave your heads in sorrow for your sins and to wear clothes of sackcloth to show your remorse. But instead, you dance and play; you slaughter sacrificial animals, feast on meat, and drink wine.

'Let's eat, drink, and be merry,' you say. 'What's the difference, for tomorrow we die!'

The LORD Almighty has revealed to me that this sin will never be forgiven you until the day you die! That is the judgement of the Lord, the LORD Almighty." Isaiah 22:12-14

The heavy burden of this tragic prophecy falls upon the Valley of Vision, that is, upon Jerusalem, the metropolis of the Jews. It was called the Valley of Vision because it was enlightened by the visions of the prophets, enjoyed the advantages of revelation, and the privileges of the church of God. But though it was thus graciously distinguished by God, it was not safe from danger. The Assyrians were preparing a powerful army to invade the holy land, and the holy city, because it was degenerated into a land of guilt and a city full of wickedness.

The prophet Isaiah, at the foresight of this, feels all the generous and mournful passions of a patriot, a lover of his country, of liberty, and religion. However others were sunk into a stupid security all around him, and indulged themselves in mirth and luxury; he is alarmed and mourns for his country! "Turn away from me!" says he. Do not put my bursting grief under the restraints of modesty--by your presence! I will weep bitterly, labour not to comfort me; for the case requires the full indulgence of sorrow; and it is remediless. "Do not try to console me over the destruction of my people." Thus was Isaiah affected with the danger of Jerusalem, and his native country.

And, O Virginia! O my country! shall I not lament for you? You are a Valley of Vision, favoured with the light of revelation from heaven, and the gospel of Jesus: you have long been the region of peace and tranquillity; the land of ease, plenty, and liberty. But what do I now see? What do I now hear? I see your brazen skies, your parched soil, your withering fields, your dried springs, and your scanty harvests. Methinks I also hear the sound of the war trumpet, and see garments rolled in blood; your frontiers ravaged by revengeful savages; your territories invaded by French betrayal and violence. Methinks I see slaughtered families, the hairy scalps clotted with gore--the horrid arts of Indian and popish torture!

And, alas! in the midst of all these alarms--I see your inhabitants generally asleep, and careless of your fate! I see vice braving the skies; true religion neglected and insulted; mirth and folly have still their places of rendezvous. Let our country, let religion, liberty, property, and all be lost--yet still they will have their diversions! Luxury still spreads her feast, and unmans her effeminate guests. In spite of laws, in spite of proclamations, in spite of the principle of self-preservation, your officers are generally inactive, your militia neglected and undisciplined, your inhabitants unprovided with arms; everything in a defenceless posture; but few Abrahams to intercede for you; but few to stand in the gap, and make up the breach, to prevent the eruption of vengeance; but few mourning for the sins of the land!

"The Lord, the LORD Almighty, called you to weep and mourn. He told you to shave your heads in sorrow for your sins and to wear clothes of sackcloth to show your remorse. But instead, you dance and play; you slaughter sacrificial animals, feast on meat, and drink wine.

'Let's eat, drink, and be merry!' you say. 'What's the difference, for tomorrow we die!" And shall I not weep for you, O my country? Yes! when I forget you, O Virginia, "let my right hand forget her cunning, and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth." Psalm 137:5. "Oh, my anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain. Oh, the agony of my heart! My heart pounds within me, I cannot keep silent. For I have heard the sound of the trumpet; I have heard the battle cry!" Jeremiah 4:19.

And now to whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken, "I have listened attentively, but they do not say what is right. No one repents of his wickedness, saying, 'What have I done?' Each pursues his own course like a horse charging into battle. Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons, and the dove, the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration. But my people do not know the requirements of the LORD!" Jeremiah 8:6, 7. Nor do they discern the signs of the times. What, then, can I do for you, O my country? What but weep over you, pray for you, and warn your careless children? To give this seasonable warning is my present design.

There are two things mentioned in this chapter, as glaringly absurd, and highly provoking to God:

The one is, that in the military preparations which the Jews made, they had no proper regard to the Supreme Ruler of the world.

The other is, that instead of making proper preparations for their own defence, and humbling themselves before God, they were sunk into security, luxury, and wickedness.

They had made some military preparations. Thus far had I studied my discourse, before I was alarmed with the melancholy news that struck my ears last Thursday. Now every heart may meditate terror indeed: now every face may gather blackness; now I may mingle darker horrors in the picture I intended to draw of the state of my country. For what do I now hear? I hear that our army is defeated; our general killed; our sole defence demolished; and what shall we now do? Whence shall we derive our hope? Our militia has hitherto been a mere farce, and most of the inhabitants know little or nothing of the art of war: they are generally unfurnished with arms. What effect the present alarm will have upon them, I cannot yet determine; but I am afraid they are armored against even this, and will still dream on in security.

They seem to have this brand upon them, of a people given up to destruction; they cannot realize a danger at the distance of two or three hundred miles, though it is making quick approaches towards them; or, if they are alarmed at length, it will be apt to throw them into an inactive kind of consternation and terror; for it is natural to the presumptuous and secure to fall into this opposite extreme, when the danger they would not fear comes upon them, and this throws them into such hurry and confusion, that they can neither contrive nor prosecute measures for their own defence; so that we have little ground to hope for relief from ourselves--as for the neighbouring colonies, they can do no more at best than provide for themselves.

Our mother-country is at a great distance, and before we can receive help from thence, our country may be overrun, and fall a helpless prey to our enemies. Our mother-country may also be engaged in war at home; and consequently unable to spare us much assistance so far abroad. To all this, I may add, that we are prodigiously weakened, and our enemies strengthened, by the loss of our fine train of artillery; and the Indians will probably break off their alliance with the English and join the victorious party; and what barbarities we may expect from these treacherous and revengeful savages, I cannot think of without horror.

Now what shall we do in these dangerous circumstances? May we not address the throne of grace in the language of Jehoshaphat: "We have no might against this multitude; neither know we what to do--but our eyes are upon you!" 2 Chron. 20:12. A guilty, obnoxious people cry to you in helpless distress, O you Ruler of heaven and earth! Spare us a little longer, and surround us with your salvation as with walls and bulwarks. We ought not indeed to content ourselves with lazy prayers; it is our duty also to take all the measures in our power to prevent or escape the impending ruin of our country; but it is certainly our duty to humble ourselves before that God whom we have offended, and to cry mightily to him, if perhaps, he may yet have mercy upon us that we do not perish.

After this digression, occasioned by so melancholy a report, I shall return to, and prosecute, my intended method.

I was observing, that the Jews had made some preparations for their own defence. They had furnished themselves with weapons out of the armoury called the house of the forest. Isaiah 22:8. They had broken down the houses of Jerusalem, that with their materials they might fortify the wall, and stop its breaches. Isaiah 22:10. They had made ditches to convey the waters of two pools into the city, to furnish them with drink in the siege. Isaiah 22:9, 11. These preparations they made; and on these they depended, and not on the Lord God Almighty. "You did look in that day to the armour of the house of the forest; but you have not looked unto the Maker thereof, neither had respect unto him that fashioned it long ago." Isaiah 22:8, 11. And hence all their preparations were in vain.

I leave it to be considered, whether we and our country have not been guilty of this piece of practical atheism-- whether we have not incurred the curse of those who trusts in man, and makes the arm of flesh his confidence --whether we have not boasted and trusted in our experienced officers, our veteran soldiers, and our fine train of artillery, and had little or no regard to the Lord Almighty. It is he, my friends, who manages the affairs of men. This world is a territory of Jehovah's universal empire; and not a sparrow can fall to the ground in it without him. He does what he pleases among the inhabitants of the earth; and they shall all know it, sooner or later--they shall know it to their cost, if they cannot be made sensible of it by gentler measures.

Another sin charged upon the Jews was this, that, instead of making proper preparations for their own defence, and humbling themselves before God, they were sunk in security, luxury, and wickedness. Weeping, mourning, baldness, and girding with sackcloth, were the usual signs and ceremonies of fasting and deep humiliation under the law of Moses, and they are naturally expressive of great distress, sorrow, and lamentation. To such humiliation, repentance, and sorrow, God called them by his prophets, and by the threatening posture of their affairs. But, alas! instead of this--you see what we have been grieved to see in our country, nothing but feasting and diversion, luxury, and pleasure! "But instead, you dance and play; you slaughter sacrificial animals, feast on meat, and drink wine!" What audacious conduct is this! What is it but to insult Jehovah, and defy all his threatenings!

They acted upon that epicurean maxim, "Let us eat and drink--for tomorrow we shall die!" Let us take our pleasure while we may, for there will soon be an end of us! This may be looked upon either as the language of despair--let us be merry now, for we expect shortly to be cut off by our enemies. Or it may be a sneer upon the threatenings of God by his prophet, as if they had said, "We are to die, it seems, tomorrow, according to the denunciation of this precise fellow; let us then enjoy life when we can, regardless of the consequence. Shall this melancholy, timorous creature frighten us out of our pleasures? No! let him say what he will, we will eat, and drink, and be merry!"

What effect the present near approach of danger may have upon the inhabitants of our guilty land, I have not yet had time to know; but I am sure, (and it has often sunk my spirits, and alarmed my fears,) this has been the general conduct through our country under all the past threatenings of divine providence; and if this still continues--I must give you up, O my beloved land! I must give you up for lost! God cannot always bear with such daring impiety in us, any more than in the Jews. It was revealed to me by the Lord Almighty, says the prophet--this dreadful secret was communicated to me: Surely, this iniquity of despising my threatenings, and refusing to humble yourselves before me, shall not be purged from you until you die, until you are cut off by your enemies, says the Lord Almighty. Isaiah 22:14. How much reason we have to fear such a doom, I need not tell you--your own hearts suggest it to you from the present aspect of your affairs.

My design in the prosecution and improvement of this subject is, to
point out the causes of the present danger, and
the most promising methods to prevent or escape it.

I. I shall mention but two CAUSES of the present danger:
the sins of the land,
our security and inactivity in times past.

1. I must begin with mentioning the SINS of the land, as the first and principal cause of our calamity and danger.

Of this I have often warned you with weeping eyes and an aching heart. Some of you, I hope, have regarded the warning, and forsaken your sins; but to many, I have seemed as one that mocks, or an officious disturber of their security and pleasure. But now, when they are likely to have such dreadful confirmations of this melancholy truth; now, when God seems about to make good the charge against you by the terrors of his judgements, now I hope for a solemn hearing without contempt or ridicule.

The Lord Almighty (I repeat it again) is the supreme Ruler of the kingdoms of the earth, and by an irresistible, though invisiblehand, he manages them according to his righteous pleasure. It belongs to him in that character to punish guilty, impenitent nations in this life; I say in this life; for in the world to come, men do not exist in a civil capacity as societies or nations--but are rewarded or punished as individuals according to their personal works. But in this world there are various connections and relations between them as members of civil society; and when, in that capacity, they become ripe for temporal punishment, and their iniquities are full--it is the usual method of Divine Providence to chastise them severely, or entirely cut them off.

And where is there a more sinful, obnoxious spot upon our guilty globe--than our country? It is the remark of strangers, and of those who have an extensive knowledge of Virginia, that this county is distinguished from the rest by the appearance of religion and good morals. But, ah! what ground have we of complaint and lamentation. And if this is the best part of our country, alas! what shall we say of the rest!

Recollect what you have known of your own conduct, and the conduct of the generality, and take a survey of the practice of the inhabitants; and what a dismal scene opens to your eyes! What numbers of drunkards, swearers, liars, immoral wretches, and such like, burden our land! Nay, how few comparatively are they who do not, at least occasionally, fall into one or other of these gross vices? What vanity, luxury, and extravagance, in gaming and other foolish or sinful diversions and pleasures, appear among people of high life and affluent fortunes? And is it not fit that they should now feel the lack of these mercies which they squandered away? What carelessness and unfaithfulness; what ignorance and laziness; nay, what gross vice and impiety, in sundry of the clergy, whose office it is to teach and reform the world! I must speak out in the present situation of my country, however unwilling I am to touch the sacred character.

O Virginia! your ministers have ruined you! I speak not of all; some of them, I hope, are an ornament to their profession, and a blessing to their country. But can the most generous charity, pretend they are all such? And those who are faithful, are considered the pests of society. Can religion flourish, when inculcated by such unclean lips? Can the world be reformed by such as so much lack reformation themselves!

There are some, indeed, who make it the great business of their lives to make men virtuous and godly; but alas! we have all been too cold and inactive in this noble work; and we desire to join in the general repentance on this account. How is the house of God forsaken! and what carelessness, vanity, and worldly conversation appear in those that attend! Alas! are these assemblies met to worship the great God, and prepare themselves for their everlasting state? But who would suspect it from their conduct? How is the table of the Lord, the memorial of our dear dying Redeemer, neglected by multitudes, or profaned by daring, profligate sinners? What a general neglect of family-religion prevails through our country? How few are the houses that devoutly call upon God!

But, alas! I cannot enumerate particulars. I may say all in a word. "There is but little, very little, practical piety to be seen in our land." Do but form an idea of Christianity from your Bible, and compare with that rule the professors of that religion; and how few can you pronounce real Christians? I speak this in the anguish of my heart; and you may be sure it is extorted from me; for in the whole course of my ministry among you, you have never heard so much of this kind of speech from me before.

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