xplain the disaster as a result of supernatural or divine forces. Malagrida says the destruction of property, buildings and the cause of so many deaths were a result of the offensive sins of the Lisbon people, and could not be explained any other way. "Learn, O Lisbon, that the destroyers of our houses, palaces, churches, and convents, the cause of the death of so many people and of the flames that devoured such vast treasures, are your abominable sins, and not comets, stars, vapors and exhalations, and similar natural phenomena." (An Opinion on the True Cause of the Earthquake, 72). Malagrida suggest that God intentionally produced the earthquake to purge Lisbon of its sinful doers. He says, "It is scandalous to pretend the earthquake was just a natural event, for if that be true, there is no need to repent and to try to avert the wrath of God, and not even the Devil himself could invent a false idea more likely to lead us all to irreparable ruin." (An Opinion on the True Cause of the Earthquake, 72). Malagrida also says devotion and energy should be centered on repentance. This however would be disputed by another priest of the era, who thought repentance was not enough to ward off punishment from God, instead, we had to devote a more personal and involved relationship with Him.
             This priest, Named John Wesley, asserted that God probably did intervene by sending the earthquake, however his reason for doing so was slightly different then that of Malagrida's. John Wesley wrote in his sermon, "Some Serious Thoughts Occasioned by the Late Earthquake at Lisbon, " 1755, that too many people were consumed with the false security of wealth and other behaviors like, "covetousness, ambition, various injustice, luxury...." (Some Serious Thoughts Occasioned by t
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