The Crisis, or the Uncertain Doom

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The Crisis, or the Uncertain Doom of Kingdoms at Particular Times

A sermon by Samuel Davies, preached at Hanover, Virginia, October 28th, 1756, being the day appointed by the Synod of New York, to be observed as a general fast on account of the present war with France.

"Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger—that we do not perish?" Jonah 3:9

A state of uncertainty, a suspense between hope and fear, about a matter of great importance, is a very painful and anxious state. And by how much the more important and interesting the matter—by so much the more distressing is the uncertainty. Now what can be more important, what more interesting, than our country?

Our country is a word of the highest and most endearing import: it includes our friends and relatives, our liberty, our property, our religion; in short, it includes our earthly all. And when the fate of our country, and all that it includes, is dreadfully doubtful; when we are tossed and agitated between the alternate waves of hope and fear; when, upon taking a view of the present posture of our affairs, we can only ask with painful solicitude, what will be the end of these things? and when even the consideration of the divine mercy upon our repentance cannot give us any assurance of deliverance in a political capacity—but only a perhaps, who can tell but God will turn and repent! When this, I say, is our situation, every mind that has the least thought, must be agitated with many eager, dubious expectations. This is the present situation of our country; and this was the state of that populous and magnificent city of Nineveh, when the words of my text were first spoken.

Nineveh was the metropolis of the Assyrian empire: and how prodigiously populous it was, you may calculate from hence, that it contained more 120,000 children, that were so young that they could not distinguish the right hand from the left; and the number of adults, in proportion to these, must be vast indeed. Its extent was more than three days journey. Secular authors tell us, it was forty-seven miles in circumference; and that, notwithstanding its vast extent, it was surrounded with lofty walls and towers. The walls were two hundred feet high, and so very wide, that three chariots might drive on them abreast; and the towers two hundred feet in height, and fifteen hundred in number. But what became of this mighty Nineveh at last? Alas! it was turned into a heap of rubbish! Divine patience was at length wearied out; and though the vengeance denounced by Jonah was suspended—yet that vengeance foretold by Nahum was dreadfully executed!

And what was the cause of this execution, and that denunciation? The cause of both was SIN! National, epidemic sin, against anunknown God, the God of Israel. I say, against an unknown God; for Nineveh was a heathen city, not favoured with the knowledge of the true God by supernatural revelation; much less with the gospel, that most perfect dispensation of divine grace towards men. The Ninevites could not sin with such horrid aggravations as we can sin. And yet even they could sin to such a degree, as to become utterly intolerable to God. They sinned against the light of nature, and that sufficed to bring down remediless destructionupon them.

This is mentioned as the cause of the divine displeasure in Jonah's commission. "Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh! Announce my judgement against it because I have seen how wicked its people are!" Jonah 1:2. Their wickedness has reached to heaven; and can no longer be endured by God. But before the fatal blow falls—let them have one warning more—Oh! how astonishing are the grace and patience of God towards a guilty people! Even when their wickedness has scaled the heavens, and come up before him—he condescends to give them another warning, and suspends the blow for at least forty days longer, to see if they will at length repent.

Jonah, having tried in vain to flee from his divine commission, is at length constrained to undertake it; and with the solemn gait of a prophet, he walks from street to street, making this alarming proclamation: "Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!"Jonah 3:4. This was the substance of his sermon: but no doubt he spoke much more than is here recorded. No doubt, he produced his credentials from the God of Israel, and gave them the history of his reluctance to accept the commission; of the storm that pursued him, while attempting to make his escape; of his miraculous preservation in the belly of a fish, and his deliverance thence. No doubt, he also let them know what was the cause of the divine displeasure against them, namely, their national vicesand impiety; and he perhaps intimated, that repentance was the only possible method of escaping the threatened destruction. It is plain, however, they understood him in this sense; for they actually did repent.

It appears that God thought it most proper to be upon the reserve upon this point; and that he did not reveal to Jonah his gracious design to pardon them upon their repentance; nor Jonah to the Ninevites. That God did not reveal it to Jonah, seems probable from hence, that he had some expectation the city would be destroyed, though he saw their repentance; and hence he waited for the event, and was greatly chagrined when disappointed. He seemed indeed to have presumed what the event would be, from the known mercy and patience of God, (4:2,) but this implies that he had no express revelation for it. That Jonah did not reveal this to the Ninevites appears from my text, where they speak of the event as dreadfully uncertain, even though they should repent.

And now, while the prophet is delivering his message, their consciences tell them how ripe they are for this dreadful doom; and the Spirit of God no doubt concurs, and impresses the conviction upon their hearts. Now, methinks, I see eager, gazing crowds following the prophet from street to street; paleness in every countenance, and horror in every heart! Now the man of businessremits his eager pursuits! Now the man of pleasure is struck with an obstacle in his thoughtless career! Now pride and grandeurlower their haughty airs! Now a general horror spreads from the cottage to the throne!

The people agree upon a public fast: and when the emperor hears of the solemn message, he issues forth his royal edict, requiring a universal abstinence from food, and a deep repentance and reformation. He enjoins all to put on sackcloth, the garb of mourners and penitents in those ages and countries; and laying aside his royal robes, and descending from his throne—he puts on the mortifying dress himself, and lies in the dust!

That the humiliation might be the more moving and affecting, he orders, according to the custom of the time upon such occasions, that even the beasts, the flocks, and herds, should be restrained from food, and compelled to join, as it were, with more guilty men—in the general humiliation, and in deprecating that vengeance which was about to fall upon man and beast!

We have now a very moving sight before us; a mirthful magnificent city—in mourning; thousands mourning in every street; king and subjects, high and low, old and young, all covered in sackcloth and rolling in ashes. And their repentance does not wholly consist in these outward ceremonies; the royal proclamation further requires them to cry mightily unto God; and turn every one from his evil way. They are sensible of the propriety and necessity of prayer, earnest prayer to God, and a reformation of life—as well as of afflicting themselves with fasting. The light of nature directed them to this as the only method of deliverance, IF deliverance was possible. The case of such a people looks hopeful. That so many thousands should be brought to repentance byone warning, the first and only warning they had ever received from a prophet of the true God; a prophet that was a contemptible stranger from the despised nation of the Jews; this certainly appears promising.

Alas! friends, we are not so easily brought to repentance! No, this is not an easy thing among us. Ten thousand warnings, not only from conscience, from divine providence, from this very Jonah, and the other prophets of the Old Testament—but also from the gospel, that clear and perfect revelation; I say, ten thousand warnings, thus peculiarly enforced, have not so much effect upon our country, this 'Christian' country, as one short warning from the mouth of Jonah had upon a city of heathens and idolaters!

All along, as I have been considering this case, I could not cast out of my mind that dreadful declaration of Christ, "The people ofNineveh will rise up against this generation on judgement day and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And behold, someone greater than Jonah is here—and you refuse to repent!" Matthew 12:41.

Nineveh never had such loud calls to repentance, and such a rich plenty of all the means of grace, as Virginia. The least in the kingdom of heaven, that is, the least Christian under the full revelation of the gospel—is greater in spiritual knowledge, not only than Jonah—but than John the Baptist, the greatest prophet that ever was born of a woman. And therefore, I may accommodate these words to us, "Behold, someone greater than Jonah is here!" Here are clearer discoveries of the will of God, and stronger motives and encouragements to repentance, than ever Jonah could afford the men of Nineveh!

But alas! where is our repentance! Where are our humiliation and reformation! Shall one warning from a prophet—bring the heathen to their knees before God; and shall not the gospel, and all its loud calls, have that effect upon a 'Christian' land! Shall Nineveh repent in sackcloth and ashes; and shall Virginia sin on still, impenitent, thoughtless, luxurious and mirthful? Alas! what will be the end of this?

The case of the Ninevites, who were brought to repentance so readily, and so completely, looks hopeful, and seems to promise them an exemption from the threatened vengeance. And yet, so sensible was the king of Nineveh of their demerit, and the insufficiency of their repentance to make atonement for their sins—that he is doubtful, after all, what would be the consequence. "Who can tell," says he; "who knows, if God will turn and repent, and turn away from the fierceness of his anger, that we do not perish!" That is, "Let us humble ourselves ever so low, we are not assured that we shall escape! Divine vengeance may, after all, seize us—and we may be made monuments to all the world of the justice of the King of kings, and the dreadful consequences of national impiety and vice!"

His uncertainty in this matter might proceed from the just sense he had of the intolerable height to which the national wickedness had arrived, and of the strictness of the divine justice. He knew, that even in his own government, it would have very bad consequences, if all crimes should be 'simply forgiven', or pass unpunished, upon the mere repentance of the offender; and he forms the same judgement concerning the divine government.

Indeed, it is natural to a penitent, while he has a full view of his sins, in all their aggravations, and of the justice of God—to question whether such sins can be forgiven by so holy a God. He is apt even to fall into an extreme in this respect. It does not now appear so easy a thing to him to obtain a pardon, as it once did, when he had no just views of his guilt. Now his sin appears a great thing indeed; so great, that he can hardly think it possible.

Or the uncertainty of the king of Nineveh, in this point, might proceed from Jonah's being so reserved upon it. He might have had no commission from God to promise them deliverance upon their repentance; but he was to warn them, and then leave them in the hands of a gracious and righteous God, to deal with them according to his pleasure. This tended to make them more sensible that they lay at divine mercy, and that he might justly do what he pleased with them.

The event indeed showed there was a condition implied in the threatening; and that God did secretly intend to spare them, upon their repentance. But this was wisely concealed, and it was sufficient that the warning alone, should make it known.

It is certain that national as well as personal repentance, may sometimes come too late; and that sometimes the punishment may fall by way of chastisement; even when the repentance is sincere, and the sin is forgiven, so that it shall not bring on the destruction of the sinner in the eternal world.

But we may well suppose a heathen monarch, who probably had no instruction but from Jonah's short warning, would be much at a loss about these things. From this uncertainty of his about the fate of his empire, we may infer this truth which I intend to illustrate with regard to ourselves, namely: That sometimes a nation may be in such a situation, that no man can tell what will be the outcome; or whether it shall be delivered from the threatened vengeance—or destroyed.

But though the king of Nineveh was uncertain about this; yet, there was one thing that he was very certain of, namely—that if there was any possibility of escape, it was to be hoped for only in the way of earnest prayer to God, general humiliation and reformation of life. This is evident from the connection of the context. "Let man and beast," says he, "be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God, yes, let them turn every one from his evil way; who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we do not perish!"

That is—"Who can tell, but that God MAY turn away from his fierce anger—if we turn from our evil ways, and humble ourselves before him? If we do not reform and humble ourselves, the case is dreadfully plain; anyone can tell that we cannot escape; there is not so much as a 'perhaps' for it; unavoidable destruction will be our doom, beyond all question! But if we repent—who knows what God MAY do? Who knows but God may repent, and turn from the fierceness of his wrath! If there is any hope at all—it is in this way!" This he learned from the light of nature, if not from Jonah's preaching.

And this suggests another seasonable truth, which, if my time will allow, I shall also illustrate, namely: That when a nation is in such a state that no man can certainly determine what its doom will be—if there be any possible hope—it is only in the way of general humiliation, earnest prayer, and public reformation.

To prevent mistakes I have one thing more to observe upon the text; and that is, that when God is said to repent, it only signifies that the visible conduct of divine Providence has some resemblance to the conduct of men when they repent; and not that he is capable of repentance in a proper sense, or of that changeableness, imperfect knowledge, sorrow, and self-accusation, which repentance among men implies. When men repent that they have made a thing—they destroy it; and therefore, when God destroyed man by a deluge, he is said to repent that he made him; and when he deposed Saul, it is said, "he repented that he had made Saul king."

When men do not execute their threatenings, it is supposed they repent of them; and hence, when God does not inflict the threatened evil, he is supposed to repent of the evil. That is, he acts as men do—when they repent of their purposes. Though when he made the denunciation, he well knew the outcome of the event, and determined not to execute it—upon the repentance of the offenders.

So with regard to Nineveh, there was no proper repentance in God—but a uniform, consistent purpose. He purposed to denounce his vengeance against that city; and he did so. He purposed and foresaw their repentance; and it accordingly came to pass. He purposed to spare them upon their repentance—and he did so. All this is very consistent, and implies no proper repentance in God; for in this sense, "God is not a man that he should repent," Numbers 23:19; but "he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desires—even that he does." Job 23:13.

I now enter upon the illustration of the first reference upon the text, namely:

I. That sometimes a nation may be in such a situation, that no man can tell what will be their doom; whether the threatened vengeance will fall upon them, or whether they shall escape.

This, we have seen, was the situation of Nineveh, though now lying in deep repentance, and not in present danger, as far as appears from any visible cause. Thousands were now mourning, praying, and reforming; and we have no account of an enemypreparing to invade them.

And if Nineveh, in this situation, which seems so promising, was, notwithstanding, in such danger that no man could determine what would be their doom, alas! what shall we say of Virginia and the kingdoms to which we belong, when they are neither penitent before God, nor safe from the arms of a powerful and victorious enemy? If the repentance of the Ninevites gave them no assurance of escape—but only a 'perhaps', "Who can tell if God will turn from his fierce anger?" Certainly our doom must, at best, be equally uncertain, when, instead of repentance, reformation, and mighty crying to God—we see the generality impenitent, unreformed, and prayer-less still.

I would not dampen you with unmanly fears—but I cannot help saying that our doom is dismally uncertain. I know not what aperpetually provoked God intends to do with us and our nation. I have my hopes indeed; but they are balanced, and sometimes over-balanced, with fearful and gloomy apprehensions. But,

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