An excellent discourse, published, for the "religious Improvement of the present State of Affairs." Before addressing those "present affairs," Humphreys deftly contextualizes them as being a page out of one of God's three books, i.e. Nature, Scripture, and Providence.
"It is the duty of a Christian, every day, as opportunity offers, to examine these three instructive volumes of which I have been speaking. The lovely productions of one part of nature, and the more subline and magnificent productions of another, should direct our thoughts and affections to the great Author of being, and source of excellence, who adorns the garden with its various beauties, gives the fertile field its power to supply both man and beast, and imparts to the tumultuous ocean and the spangled firmament, the awful majesty and splendour they possess.
And surely, if the volume of Nature deserves to be read with diligence, the volume of Inspiration should be perused with no less care. Nor ought the dispensations of Divine Providence by any means to be overlooked by us."
Then, he goes on to observe the Providences of God as reflected in the then-active French Revolution, i.e. the Reign of Terror [1793-1794].
"Royalty bleeds, Nobility is proscribed, Ecclesiastics are banished with unrelenting severity, and the people at large are involved in calamities of the most dreadful nature. And are not surrounding nations involved in the troubles also? Britain, though her soil hath not been stained by the blood of the slain, yet suffers in her manufactures, in her commerce, in the loss of her treasures, and in that of her sons . . .
. . . Nor has American been without the tokens of divine displeasure. We were ready to congratulate our brethren across the Atlantic, on their exemption from the woes by which Europe is visited. But though they have escape the havock of the sword, they have felt the horrors of the pestilence, and thus God hath shewn them he has more arrows than one in His quiver. Surely, sirs, the judgments of God are abroadin teh earth."
"The true spirit of the British Constitution is equally repugnant to the tyranny of despots and the licentiousness of democracy."
"He therefore will be found the best patriot who exhibits the purest example of repentance, reformation, and universal goodness."
Humphreys, John. The Regard Due to Divine Judgments Considered; In a Sermon, Preached at the Lord's Day Evening Lecture, at Hare Court, Aldersgate Street; November 17, 1793. London. Printed by T. Gillet. 1794. 17pp.
Good textually, but tender with some pages loose; complete as issued, but removed from a sammelband with associated flotsam to spine. Textually nice and clear. Scarce.