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An Alarm to a Careless World
William Romaine (1714-1795)
It's long, Well worth the read and it's application is as much for today, being one of those timeless sermons that should never be lost nor forgotten in the mists of time.
“Prepare to meet thy God”—Amos 4:2.
The church calls upon us, by the present solemnity, to bring into our most serious thoughts, the advent of our blessed Lord in the flesh, when he came to visit us in great humility. He appeared upon earth in the character of a meek, suffering, dying Saviour. But there is another advent not far off, when all flesh shall see him in the majesty of the Godhead. His first advent was in the lowest humiliation, his second advent will be in the highest exaltation. And we wait for that great day, when he will come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, hoping to be found, when he comes, watching and praying, that we may rise with him to the life immortal.
We do not pretend to know the precise time of his coming: for of that day, and that hour, knoweth no man, but the judge himself has given us some signs and marks, by which we might be as certain, that he is nigh and standeth before the door, as that summer is nigh, when the fig-tree putteth forth her green figs. And whenever we see these scripture signs and marks, it is our office and duty, as faithful watchmen, to give you notice, that you may be ready, lest your Lord should come in a day, when ye look not for him, and in an hour that ye are not aware of, and should cut you asunder, and appoint you your portion with the hypocrites, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. On this account, the subject appointed by the church for this day, falls in seasonably with these remarkable providences, which have been lately manifested in this, and other countries. And I have therefore chosen a scripture proper to awaken your attention to the second advent of Christ. It is exceedingly awful and solemn. The very reading of it must make a deep impression upon every serious mind. “Prepare to meet thy God,” the eternal and almighty God, who is coming in all his glory to judgment, and if the righteous scarcely be saved in that great day, where shall the wicked and infidel appear? They will then have no excuse for their sins— self-condemned they will stand with guilt and horror before his tribunal, to hear their sentence of condemnation past, which is never, never to be reversed. So that unless an eternity of pain and misery be the best thing we can work out in our short life, we should now think of making some provision for an eternity of happiness. We should now be preparing to meet our God. As we must meet him soon, it should be our whole business to get ready and to be prepared, that whenever he comes, we may enter in with him into the joy of our Lord. This is the instruction which I shall draw from the text, “Prepare to meet thy God.”
First, We here learn that God our Saviour, who once came in great humility to visit us, is now preparing to meet us in judgment. And
Secondly, We should therefore be prepared to meet him, And,
Thirdly, I shall endeavour to stir you up to the true gospel preparation, that whenever our Saviour comes, you may lift up your heads with joy, knowing that your redemption draweth nigh. And
May the ever blessed Spirit, from whom the preparation must come, assist us with his grace, that our meditation first upon our Saviour’s preparing to meet us in judgment, may be the means of preparing us to meet him. “Prepare to meet thy God.” The suffering Jesus was united to the eternal God, and so united, that as the reasonable soul and flesh are one man, so God and man are one Christ. At his first coming he visited us in great humility, and the Godhead was veiled under a covering of flesh, but at his second coming, all flesh shall see that Jesus is God indeed. Every eye shall then behold the divine glory of the suffering Saviour, and they who once pierced him at his bitter passion, or since with their horrid blasphemies, shall then confess to their everlasting shame, that he is the almighty God of heaven and earth. On this account, we should be prepared to meet him. At the time appointed he came to suffer for the sins of the world, and at the time appointed he will come to Judgment. His second advent is as certain as his first. It was foretold in the Old Testament, and promised in the New, and the scriptures cannot be broken. God had revealed it in the clearest manner to the patriarchs, so that Enoch, the 7th from Adam, prophesied of it, saying—“Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” The father of the faithful knew that he was to come to execute judgment upon all, and speaks with confidence, “shall not the judge of all the earth do right?” And Job had the same holy confidence, when he made his supplication to his judge, and the solemnity of his coming to judgment; Solomon being a prophet, foresaw and has plainly described it in these words—“God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” And the judge himself has given us a very circumstantial description in three of the evangelists, of the process of the great day, and has called upon us again and again, to be always ready and prepared for it. His apostles argue from the certainty of our appearing before the judgment seat of Christ, and frequently make use of these terrors of the Lord to persuade men to faith and repentance. And there is a very remarkable circumstance, which gives great weight to these authorities; when our Lord is describing the general judgment, he confirms his account with a promise, that he would come to judge the Jewish nation, before that generation should pass away. Accordingly he came; and there has not a tittle failed of what he foretold concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, or concerning the dispersion of the Jews over the face of the earth. It is then a matter of fact, that he has already acted as judge, and he will come to complete his office. It is not more certain that the sun will rise tomorrow, than that he who judged the Jewish nation, will soon come to judge the whole earth. His second advent is fixed and determined to the fulness of time, as well as the first was. He will come in his glorious majesty at the last day. And in the mean time, he comes with many signal strokes of vengeance to awaken a careless sleepy world. He visits the inhabitants of the earth with his judgments, that they may learn righteousness, and he has lately visited us with some of his heaviest judgments, and I hope many of you have been stirred up by them to prepare to meet your God.
And it is high time we should be all prepared: for the marks and signs of his second advent are fulfilling daily. His coming cannot be far off. The day, indeed, and the hour, are not known, but if you will compare the uncommon events, which our Lord says were to be the forerunners of his coming to judgment, with what has lately happened in the world, you must conclude, that the time is at hand. He foretells us, that there should then be wars, and rumours of wars and are there not wars, and rumours of more wars? There were to be pestilences, and we have had the pestilence for more than ten years in this kingdom. There were to be great earthquakes in divers places, and there have been earthquakes lately in many parts of the world, and in a far greater number than they ever were in any other age. And these earthquakes were to be attended with fearful sights; and did not many fearful sights in the element attend the two last earthquakes we had in this city? But the worst sign of all is the present decay of religion among us; this renders the rest more terrible, and makes it to be feared, that as we are ripe for destruction, so we may soon expect to have our candlestick removed: “for when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith upon the earth?” says Christ. There will be so little, that he shall scarce find any. The true saving faith will be diminished from among the children of men! and it has for some time been vanished out of the popish countries, and the reformed churches have lately fallen sadly from the faith, and have preserved very little more of Christianity than the mere name: and in our own church we have kept up the form of godliness, but we are so far from having the power, that we deny any person can have it, and the few, who say they have it, are treated as madmen and enthusiasts. These are some of the infallible signs of our Lord’s second advent. From them we are assured that it is not a great distance. When we behold the fig-tree, and all the trees shooting forth, then we know that summer is near; and so likewise, when we see these things come to pass, we know that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. It will not be long before the Son of man will come in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory, and because we are assured that he will come soon, and yet know not the day nor the hour, we should therefore be always waiting with watchfulness and prayer. Our Lord required us to be always in this devout frame of mind, when he closed the volume of revelation with these words, “surely I come quickly”—surely, says the almighty Judge, I come quickly to judgment—to which the faithful reply, “Amen, even so, come Lord Jesus.” Happy would it be for us all, if we were so well prepared to meet our God, that when we see the signs of his coming speedily, and hear him promise, surely I come quickly, then we might give our “Amen, even so, come Lord Jesus.” And are you then, my brethren, not only ready, but also praying for his coming? Do you wait for it with faith, and are you looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ? If you are in this happy state, then you can cry out with joy, Lord we believe the promises, and we see the signs of thy speedy coming, even so, come Lord Jesus.
William Romaine (1714-1795)
It's long, Well worth the read and it's application is as much for today, being one of those timeless sermons that should never be lost nor forgotten in the mists of time.
November 30, 1755
(Note: In this sermon, Romaine is referring to the Great Lisbon Earthquake which took place on November 1, 1755. Contemporary reports state that the earthquake lasted nearly six minutes, causing gigantic fissures 15 feet wide. Approximately forty minutes after the earthquake, an enormous tsunami engulfed the harbor and downtown. It was followed by two more waves. In the areas unaffected by the tsunami, fire quickly broke out, and flames raged for five days! Tsunamis as tall as 66 feet swept the coast of North Africa, and struck Martinique and Barbados across the Atlantic.)
“Prepare to meet thy God”—Amos 4:2.
The church calls upon us, by the present solemnity, to bring into our most serious thoughts, the advent of our blessed Lord in the flesh, when he came to visit us in great humility. He appeared upon earth in the character of a meek, suffering, dying Saviour. But there is another advent not far off, when all flesh shall see him in the majesty of the Godhead. His first advent was in the lowest humiliation, his second advent will be in the highest exaltation. And we wait for that great day, when he will come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, hoping to be found, when he comes, watching and praying, that we may rise with him to the life immortal.
We do not pretend to know the precise time of his coming: for of that day, and that hour, knoweth no man, but the judge himself has given us some signs and marks, by which we might be as certain, that he is nigh and standeth before the door, as that summer is nigh, when the fig-tree putteth forth her green figs. And whenever we see these scripture signs and marks, it is our office and duty, as faithful watchmen, to give you notice, that you may be ready, lest your Lord should come in a day, when ye look not for him, and in an hour that ye are not aware of, and should cut you asunder, and appoint you your portion with the hypocrites, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. On this account, the subject appointed by the church for this day, falls in seasonably with these remarkable providences, which have been lately manifested in this, and other countries. And I have therefore chosen a scripture proper to awaken your attention to the second advent of Christ. It is exceedingly awful and solemn. The very reading of it must make a deep impression upon every serious mind. “Prepare to meet thy God,” the eternal and almighty God, who is coming in all his glory to judgment, and if the righteous scarcely be saved in that great day, where shall the wicked and infidel appear? They will then have no excuse for their sins— self-condemned they will stand with guilt and horror before his tribunal, to hear their sentence of condemnation past, which is never, never to be reversed. So that unless an eternity of pain and misery be the best thing we can work out in our short life, we should now think of making some provision for an eternity of happiness. We should now be preparing to meet our God. As we must meet him soon, it should be our whole business to get ready and to be prepared, that whenever he comes, we may enter in with him into the joy of our Lord. This is the instruction which I shall draw from the text, “Prepare to meet thy God.”
First, We here learn that God our Saviour, who once came in great humility to visit us, is now preparing to meet us in judgment. And
Secondly, We should therefore be prepared to meet him, And,
Thirdly, I shall endeavour to stir you up to the true gospel preparation, that whenever our Saviour comes, you may lift up your heads with joy, knowing that your redemption draweth nigh. And
May the ever blessed Spirit, from whom the preparation must come, assist us with his grace, that our meditation first upon our Saviour’s preparing to meet us in judgment, may be the means of preparing us to meet him. “Prepare to meet thy God.” The suffering Jesus was united to the eternal God, and so united, that as the reasonable soul and flesh are one man, so God and man are one Christ. At his first coming he visited us in great humility, and the Godhead was veiled under a covering of flesh, but at his second coming, all flesh shall see that Jesus is God indeed. Every eye shall then behold the divine glory of the suffering Saviour, and they who once pierced him at his bitter passion, or since with their horrid blasphemies, shall then confess to their everlasting shame, that he is the almighty God of heaven and earth. On this account, we should be prepared to meet him. At the time appointed he came to suffer for the sins of the world, and at the time appointed he will come to Judgment. His second advent is as certain as his first. It was foretold in the Old Testament, and promised in the New, and the scriptures cannot be broken. God had revealed it in the clearest manner to the patriarchs, so that Enoch, the 7th from Adam, prophesied of it, saying—“Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” The father of the faithful knew that he was to come to execute judgment upon all, and speaks with confidence, “shall not the judge of all the earth do right?” And Job had the same holy confidence, when he made his supplication to his judge, and the solemnity of his coming to judgment; Solomon being a prophet, foresaw and has plainly described it in these words—“God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” And the judge himself has given us a very circumstantial description in three of the evangelists, of the process of the great day, and has called upon us again and again, to be always ready and prepared for it. His apostles argue from the certainty of our appearing before the judgment seat of Christ, and frequently make use of these terrors of the Lord to persuade men to faith and repentance. And there is a very remarkable circumstance, which gives great weight to these authorities; when our Lord is describing the general judgment, he confirms his account with a promise, that he would come to judge the Jewish nation, before that generation should pass away. Accordingly he came; and there has not a tittle failed of what he foretold concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, or concerning the dispersion of the Jews over the face of the earth. It is then a matter of fact, that he has already acted as judge, and he will come to complete his office. It is not more certain that the sun will rise tomorrow, than that he who judged the Jewish nation, will soon come to judge the whole earth. His second advent is fixed and determined to the fulness of time, as well as the first was. He will come in his glorious majesty at the last day. And in the mean time, he comes with many signal strokes of vengeance to awaken a careless sleepy world. He visits the inhabitants of the earth with his judgments, that they may learn righteousness, and he has lately visited us with some of his heaviest judgments, and I hope many of you have been stirred up by them to prepare to meet your God.
And it is high time we should be all prepared: for the marks and signs of his second advent are fulfilling daily. His coming cannot be far off. The day, indeed, and the hour, are not known, but if you will compare the uncommon events, which our Lord says were to be the forerunners of his coming to judgment, with what has lately happened in the world, you must conclude, that the time is at hand. He foretells us, that there should then be wars, and rumours of wars and are there not wars, and rumours of more wars? There were to be pestilences, and we have had the pestilence for more than ten years in this kingdom. There were to be great earthquakes in divers places, and there have been earthquakes lately in many parts of the world, and in a far greater number than they ever were in any other age. And these earthquakes were to be attended with fearful sights; and did not many fearful sights in the element attend the two last earthquakes we had in this city? But the worst sign of all is the present decay of religion among us; this renders the rest more terrible, and makes it to be feared, that as we are ripe for destruction, so we may soon expect to have our candlestick removed: “for when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith upon the earth?” says Christ. There will be so little, that he shall scarce find any. The true saving faith will be diminished from among the children of men! and it has for some time been vanished out of the popish countries, and the reformed churches have lately fallen sadly from the faith, and have preserved very little more of Christianity than the mere name: and in our own church we have kept up the form of godliness, but we are so far from having the power, that we deny any person can have it, and the few, who say they have it, are treated as madmen and enthusiasts. These are some of the infallible signs of our Lord’s second advent. From them we are assured that it is not a great distance. When we behold the fig-tree, and all the trees shooting forth, then we know that summer is near; and so likewise, when we see these things come to pass, we know that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. It will not be long before the Son of man will come in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory, and because we are assured that he will come soon, and yet know not the day nor the hour, we should therefore be always waiting with watchfulness and prayer. Our Lord required us to be always in this devout frame of mind, when he closed the volume of revelation with these words, “surely I come quickly”—surely, says the almighty Judge, I come quickly to judgment—to which the faithful reply, “Amen, even so, come Lord Jesus.” Happy would it be for us all, if we were so well prepared to meet our God, that when we see the signs of his coming speedily, and hear him promise, surely I come quickly, then we might give our “Amen, even so, come Lord Jesus.” And are you then, my brethren, not only ready, but also praying for his coming? Do you wait for it with faith, and are you looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ? If you are in this happy state, then you can cry out with joy, Lord we believe the promises, and we see the signs of thy speedy coming, even so, come Lord Jesus.