THE Discourse that I shall make to you upon this Text, (as I suppose you will easily ghess, if I should not tell you) is occasioned by as remarkable an In­stance of Gods just Providence, (which most of you know to have lately faln out in our neighbourhood, and that so notoriously, as to fill all mens Tongues and Ears with the discourse of it, and the Eyes of many hundreds, if not thou­sands of them with the beholding it;) as it may be, in all the circumstances, is hardly to be parallei'd in any History.

And that which induced me to make such a dis­course on this occasion, was, partly, because I thought it needful (at this convenient distance of Time where­in the common talk concerning it as News, is almost spent) to recall it again to your thoughts in a more serious and edifying way; lest it should die, as to its best use among you, as nine days wonders, (according to the Proverb) are wont to do? And partly, that (seeing the apprehensions of men have been so different, and their discourses so various about it, most men judging of it according to their particular Tempers and Humours, in compliance with the Principles they are governed by;) I might, so far as such works of God, the main springs where­of are concealed in his own breast, may be under­stood [Page 2]by us, help you in some competent measure so to understand it, as to turn it to your greatest be­nefit and advantage: And lastly, that having now gained the sight of a just and impartial Narrative of that sad Story from a Reverend Person of great Integrity, and a diligent enquirer into all the cir­cumstances thereof, (to most of which he was an eye and ear-witness) I might dispose you to receive it when it comes to publick view with more readi­ness, and give it the better entertainment, being in­structed before how to make use of it.

And the Text I have chosen for this purpose, is part of a Verse made remarkable by two unusual words in the close of it; which, though Interpre­ters agree not in the expounding of them, yet they generally concur in this, that they have something extraordinary in them, [viz. Higgaion, Selah.] For, whatever the latter may mean; or whether it be a bare Note in Musick, which is an undetermi­ned dispute: the former of them, by the significa­tion of theAb [...] locu­tus est ore; vel corde, medita­tus est. root whence it is derived, evidently recommends to us a matter of serious meditation.

And such indeed the Verse is, being a solemn and weighty attestation of the holy Psalmist to the Di­vine Providence, upon occasion of some remarkable appearance of it, on the behalf of his Church against some of their heathen Enemies; which is the subject of the preceding part of the Psalm: the account whereof he seals up with this Epiphonemati­cal Instruction to all the world, [The Lord is known by the Judgment which he executeth] and especial­ly, by this oftentimes most remarkable circum­stance accompanying it, that he makes offenders themselves the executioners thereof upon them­selves, and ensnares them in the work of their own hands.

From the former part of which Divine Testimonial, [Page 3](as I may properly call it) I intend, on this occa­sion, to handle this plain observation.

That Gods publick signal Judgments upon any offen­der or offenders are evident Testimonies by which he is known to mankind. Doct.

In the handling of which Observation, I shall endeavour these seven things:

• 1. To shew you, what I mean, by these publick signal Judgments of God upon offenders.
• 2. To evince, by such evidence, as I hope will be satisfactory to all rational men, that there are some such penal strokes inflicted by God on offenders in this life, as deserve the name of signal Divine Judgments; and that such events are not (as Atheists pretend) the meer products of chance, or casualty.
• 3. To prove, that God is (or ought to be) known by such Judgments as these.
• 4. To explain, what of God it is, which may be, and usually is made known by them.
• 5. To give you the proper Characters, by which such Divine Judgments are differenced from like Pro­vidences befalling men on other accounts.
• 6. To direct you in the application of such Judg­ments to particular persons and cases, so as that you may not offend against Justice or Charity.
• 7. And lastly, to close up this whole Discourse with some useful practical Inferences.

1. First, To shew you, [What I mean by these publick signal Judgments of God on offenders.] And here you are first to understand, that Gods Judg­ments in the notion of the Holy Scriptures, are of two sorts, to wit,

His Judicia

• Judicantia, &
• Judicata.

1. His Judicia Judicantia; or Judgments pronoun­ced in the Sentence of his Law, dooming offenders to such penalties for their offences against it. And [Page 4]it is usual with the Scripture to call the Laws of God, on this account, his Judgments, and to joyn them with Statutes, as words of like import, as I could shew in very many places.

2. His Judicia Judicata; or Judgments (in the phrase of the Text) executed, which are the for­mer dooms actually inflicted; and are therefore called by the name of those, according to which they do befall men. Now, though it be true, that no evil of suffering befalls any sinner, but what (to speak properly) is such a Judgment of God, be­cause all evils penal are before denounced in Gods Law, which every sinner breaks: yet the Scripture is not wont to call them all by that name. For that is usually applyed to those penal strokes of God, which have some special Characters of his Vindi­ctive Justice upon them; to wit, something in the nature of them, that is not [...], common to men; or in the Circumstances, something of surpri­zing suddenness from the unexpectedness or un­likelyhood of their befalling men, in respect of the Time, Place, Condition, Imployment, Company, &c. or something unusual in the Instruments by which, or manner in which they are inflicted, &c. and especially, if there be any thing in them, that appears to be either above, or contrary to, or but besides the wonted course of Nature, and so is either miraculous, or prodigious.

Now these Two, are either inflicted on sinners in a private way, so as few or none know of them, but such as feel them, and those who are intimately conversant with them: or else they are laid on them in a publick notorious manner, (as the Judgments amongst us pronounced upon great offenders are wont to be executed) so as to call in, and invite Spectators to behold them. And such Judgments, as these last, the Text must be meant of; and of [Page 5]such I desire to be understood, in what follows on this Argument.

And this shall suffice for my first undertaking.

II. The second deserves to have more Time spent on it, because it contains the main foundation of the whole following Discourse. For, if there be no such Judgments executed by God at all;Eccles. 9.11. but Time and Chance, (in this case as well as others) not only happen to all, but govern all too: then there can be no knowledge of God drawn from them. Yea, if there be no such things as Divine Judgments; then the very God they are supposed to attest to, (which is that the Atheist would have) may, for all their Testimony, not be. Whereas, if we evince by Reason, that any, though never so few, of those Events, cannot be produced but by a Divine Provi­dence; we do both prove the being of such a Provi­dence, and withal vindicate Religion, from the imputation of being superstitious, in attributing all others of like nature to the same cause.

And therefore on this Head, I take my self to be obliged to make good these Two things.

• 1. That there are some penal Events which can by no rational Person be justly attributed to meer chance or ca­sualty, or any like cause not capable of choice or design, in its actings.
• 2. That such penal Events, as these, must therefore be the effects of a Providence, and that Providence Divine.

I. The first of these Propositions, I prove by the following Arguments.

1. There are some penal Events befalling men in this world, which have been punctually threat­ned and foretold, as they have in the Issue faln out: and many of them so threatned and foretold in the very Circumstances, with which they were accompa­nied in the Event. As for instance,

• (1.) In reference to the generality of Mankind. So in the first Threatning annexed to the Law given to our first Parents in Paradise;
  Gen. 2.17.
  the daily experience of all Humane Nature, (taken notice of by Heathens themselves) shews it to have been punctually ful­filled, in the corruption and calamities generally be­falling the whole race of Men. And that other, in the Law given to Noah,
  Gen. 9.6.
  that whosoever sheds mans blood, by man shall his blood be shed; is continually (in the almost miraculous discoveries of Murders, and bringing Murderers to condign punishment) verified in the observation of the generality of Mankind to this very day. As also is that, of the wonderful ways by which Conspiracies against Sove­reign Princes are brought to light, according to the notable threatning to that purpose, Eccles. 10.20.
• (2.) And in reference to particular Persons, and Nations.
  See, and compare Num. 20.12, 27, 28.24.27.12.15. Deut. 32.49.34.5.
  So in the exclusion of Moses and Aaron from Canaan, it is taken notice of expresly in the account given of their deaths, (of Aarons, by Mo­ses, his own Brother, and of Moses his own, by him that fills up his Story after his decease) that it fell out to both of them according to what God had denounced. And it were easie to add many more of the same kind, to particular Persons. But,
  1 Kings 13.
  that of the old Prophet to the disobedient Prophet at Bethel;
  2 Kings 7.19, 20.
  that of Elisha to the incredulous Lord in Sama­ria; those of Elijah and Micaiah to Ahab and Jezebel,
  2 Kings 21.19.23.22, 28.
  shall suffice, instead of all the rest, whereof the Hi­storical part of Scripture is full, because they are so notoriously evident, to all that know the Bible.

And as to Nations. To omit the long Catalogue of all the plagues of Egypt, threatned and inflicted in the circumstances mentioned in the relation of them: that one great Instance of the often foretold Cap­tivity of the whole Jewish Nation; is so observable, and so attested beyond all exception by the publick [Page 7]Records of that Nation held to this day by all their Posterity in veneration, that there is no more (nay not so much) cause to doubt it, then there is, that England was conquered by William the Norman.

I shall close this Argument with two Instances, so punctual in a circumstance of all others most unlike­ly to be lighted on by chance; that I know not what can be objected against them to invalidate the force of them, but an Exception against the Records themselves, whence they are taken: to which I shall therefore add a word or two anon.

The one, is that of the Judgment denounced against Jeroboams Altar, 1 Kings 13.2. and the Priests that offered on it, to be executed (as it was) by Josiah, 2 Kings 23.16. men­tioned by his very Name, about 300 years before the performance.

The other, is that of the destruction of Babylon (in order to the restitution of the Jewish Nation;) wherein Cyrus is also, by his very Name,Isa. 44. ult. & 45.1, 2. foretold to be the Person that (as he did) was to effect it. Which Prophesie, by the learned Grotius his com­putation, was uttered 170 years, and by that of Junius and others, above 200, before he accom­plished it, or probably was in being. And the very manner how he was to take that great Imperial City, (to wit, by the turning away and drying up Euphrates) is so lively described by the Prophet Jeremy; that the Heathen Authors, (Herodotus, Jer. 50.38.51.31, 32. and others) who give us an account of the event, justifie the verification of the prediction the same way.

Now in these and the like Predictions of future Events, with such circumstances, there is no man but must allow a greater certainty, (with respect to the causes on which they depend) then there can be in any products of meer Casualty. Which is my first Argument.

2. The second is this. There are Instances of some penal Events, that have been brought upon offenders in a way of formal Proceeding; yea, such as is usual even in Humane Judicatures. For In­stance. When Joshua had forbidden the embezel­ling any part of the spoil of Jericho under the pe­nalty of a Divine Curse, Josh. 6.18.7 16, 17, 18. Achan, the offender, falls under the danger of it: Upon the discomfiture of the Host before Ai, enquiry is made after the un­known Transgressor of that Law. Then he is found out by the direction of a four-fold Lot, that brought all the people (down to his very family) under a scrutiny, till the Lot takes him. Then follows his Examination, Confession, Judgment, and Execution. And not much unlike was the Process, Jon. 1. by which Jonah was cast into the Sea, and there imprison'd in the belly of a Whale, till his Repentance procured his Release. Now, abating the extraordinary way of discovery in these two cases; the rest of the Procedure in these Judgments in formed Methodically, according to the order of Humane Justice. And must these proceedings (in so exact a Method too) be attributed to meer Ca­sualty? May not the persons who have the confi­dence to assert this, as well affirm that Malefactors are hanged at Tyburn by meer Casualty, when they have been seized by order of Law, committed to Newgate by warrant, tryed at the Sessions-house, and having received their Sentence upon the Verdict of a Jury, been conducted to the place of Execution, and there turned off the Cart, by the known Offi­cers thereunto by Law appointed?

3. My third Argument is this. In the actual pu­nishing of offenders, many times the Instruments made use of have been irrational Creatures; and yet have by an unknown Influence been directed to act, as if they were governed by Principles of Justice, [Page 9]as well as Reason: as putting an evident discrimina­tion and difference betwixt them and the innocent, when both of them have equally been within their Power. In the famous case of the plagues of Egypt, how came the Frogs, the Flies, the Hail, and the Plague, &c. to seize only the Houses, Cattle, bodies of Egyptians, and not touch an Is­raelite, or any of his concerns, when (as it ap­pears, by the order for the sprinkling of the Jews houses with the blood of the Paschal Lamb for distin­ction) they lived, for the most part,Exod. 12.22. and conversed intermixedly each with other? How was it, that the waters of the Red Sea stood as a wall on both sides, whilst the Israelites were marching through it; and returned to their course,Exod. 14. so soon as they came on dry land, to overwhelm Pharaoh and his Host, who were in pursuit of them? When the three glorious Confessours were adjudged to the fiery Furnace by Nebuchadnezzar, whence came it that the fire (so ragingly hot as it was) abstained from touching so much as one hair of their heads, or singing their Garments, and to burn only their bonds asun­der, and set them at liberty to walk in it,Dan. 3.22. to 27. who were cast in bound: and yet to lick up and devour (even without the mouth of the Furnace) those who cast them in? And when Daniel himself was cast into the Lions Den, and lodged among them in the bottom of the Den, one whole night, whence was it, that the hungry and cruel beasts did not the least hurt to him; and yet the very same Lions, when his Accusers and their Relations were cast in thither, had the mastery of them, Dan. 6.22, 23, 24. and brake all their bones in pieces, before they came to the bottom of the Den? Lastly, (to name no more Examples of this na­ture) when the Lion, according to the prediction of the old Prophet at Bethel, 1 Kings 13. slew the Man of God that against Gods Commandment had eaten and [Page 10]drunk there; was he directed by meer chance so to do? Did he (being hungry, and seeking for Prey) light on him casually only? If so, why (according to the usual wont of such beasts of prey, as they ob­serve who have been in those Countries, to for­bear falling on Men, but when they can light on no other food) did he not seize on his Ass rather; but kill him, and not touch his Ass, that (as un­concerned in the danger) was afterwards found standing by his side? Verse 28. Why did he only kill him, and not devour him, and then withdraw to his Den: but rather choose to stand by him, as resolved to avouch the fact: and that all the while the news was carrying to the City, and came by report to the old Prophet, and his Horse sadling, and he and his company travelling to the place of that sad spectacle? And when they came, why did he suf­fer them to carry away his prey so tamely as it seems he did? Do these things look like meer Casualties? Is it not rather evident, that such Agents acting so differently from their own nature and inclination, (so as to punish only the guilty, and single them out among others equally within their reach) were directed by an Intelligent Cause, by whose order and Commission they made this difference? And this is our second Proposition to be proved upon this Head; [That seeing these things cannot fall out by meer chance, or any thing else of like nature, they must be governed by Divine Providence] which I make good by these steps of rational Argumentation. Such E­vents as fall not out by chance, fall out according to choice or contrivance. That choice and contrivance (in matter of punishment) must either be the choice and contrivance of the Sufferer or Inflicter. Sufferers are not wont to choose and contrive their own harms: but rather to avoid, and use what means they can to guard themselves from them. [Page 11]If the Inflicter (then) choose and contrive the punishmenes mentioned; then, as the contrivance argues him to be a rational Being; so the bringing his contrivances to pass by such Instruments as have been mentioned, and with such certainty, argues him to be such a Being, as hath a predominant power over Nature it self: which can be no other then Di­vine; and these effects mentioned, and the like, can be no other then the products of his Infinite Power and Wisdom, as you will see more anon.

Against the force of these Arguments, I cannot imagine how the Atheist can guard his Principles, but by excepting against the Evidence of the matter of fact in the Instances before mentioned: Seeing there is no clear proof of them, in most of the cases, but from the H. Scriptures; which, though we own and reverence, yet he looks on with con­tempt and scorn, as not owning the Authority we allow them.

But he ought to consider, that it is not in this whole process of Argumentation in Question before us, whether these writings be divinely inspired or no? There is, herein, no other esteem required to be gi­ven them, by him, but only what is due to credible Histories. And it is enough for our present purpose, if they can justifie themselves to be true Records of those matters which fell out in those Ages which they undertake to account for. And so much I can hardly imagine, how any man can have the forehead to deny: considering that they have all those Motives of credibility for them, (with the ad­vantage of indisputable Antiquity, and the having been owned by so great a part of the World for so many Ages) which other Histories whatsoever can pretend to. Whence it must appear to all unbiassed Judges, that he that will allow (upon the Motives mentioned) Plutarch, and Thucydides, and Livy, [Page 12]and Tacitus, and other such Historians to be compe­tent witnesses of the matters of fact related by them; must needs be governed by prejudice rather then Reason, if he deny the same to Moses and other Jewish Historians, concerning the matters falling out among them, who are, and have been always in greater esteem in their own Nation, (who best knew their own story) then those mentioned ever were either in Greece or Rome.

But if yet (notwithstanding all that hath been said to the contrary) the Atheist will still persist in denying the matters of fact upon which the former Arguments are bottomed, because they are (for the greatest part) only recorded in that book, which it is the Interest of his Irreligion to disbelieve: What will he say to two Instances, (which I have pur­posely reserved to this place, because they are so great, as to prove themselves to be the effects of a Divine Providence;Vid. H. Grot. Annot. ad libros suos de ver. Rel. Chr. and because they are confirmed by several Heathen Authors too, as well as related in the Holy Scripture) I mean the universal Deluge, and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah? For if these Instances de facto be true; to which there is such a concurring Evidence; he will find it very difficult to persuade himself, (that I say not o­thers) that so vast a quantity of waters as so covered all the face of the earth, and overflowed the highest Mountains, could be collected by any power less then Divine; and much less, come together by chance: and will be no less puzled, to shew by what inferior Agent such a fire as burnt those Cities could be kindled; and burn with that vehemence, as to preserve its remembrance without altera­tion in a Lake of sulphurous water for so many thousand years; (though that Lake continual­ly for so long together hath swallowed all the Streams of so great a River as Jordan falling into [Page 13]it) which is the constant wonder of all Travellers to this day.

And so I discharge my second undertaking, to prove, [That there are some such Judicial Providen­ces that have been executed by God.]

III. I come now to the third, to shew, [That God is, or ought to be, known by them] as he that works them upon that design. And here I shall be but brief, as indeed I need not to be large in a mat­ter so plain and evident both from Reason and Scripture.

• For (1.) in Reason, what can be the end of Sovereign Providence in such extraordinary ap­pearances, but to manifest it self and its Author? An end, for which even men are wont to do those great things which at any time they have attained to, in publick Theaters, or other great concourses of people, as our Saviours kindred tell him.
• (2.) And the Scripture also declareth no less in other places.
  Jo. 7.4.
  So, when the Royal Psalmist prophetically impreca­teth those dreadful Judgments which make up the greatest part of the 83. Psalm; in the last Verse he assigns the intended use of them to all the world; to wit, That men may know that he alone whose Name is Jehovah,
  Psal. 83. ult.
  is the most High over all the Earth? And God himself is elsewhere brought in, upon the De­solations which he had made by his penal Providences in the Heathen world for oppressing his people, as calling on all men to behold those his works, and be still, (i. e. to cease from farther hostilities against his In­terests) as knowing by experience already dearly bought, that he is God, and (will they, nill they) resolved to be so,
  Psal. 96.8, 9, 10.
  and to be exalted in the earth.

In a word, (to add no more Texts for proof of that which almost every Page in the Bible attests unto) the whole Church are by the Author of the A­pocalyps represented (upon such notable Judicial Pro­vidences) as singing the Song of Moses and the Lamb, [Page 14](i. e. a Christian Song, like that of Moses after the drowning of the Egyptians) and therein instructing all the world in this Duty.Rev. 15.3, 4. Who (say they) shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorifie thy Name; for all Nations shall come and worship before thee, for thy Judgments are made manifest? Even as Moses and the Israelites in the Song to which this is parallel, infer from the Judgments of God on Pharaoh and his Host, Who is like thee, O Lord, among the Gods? Who is like thee, Exod. 15.11. glorious in Holiness, fearful in Prai­ses, (or the Actions whence thou gatherest thy Praise) doing Wonders? And this opens the way to my sourth Head.

IV. The Enquiry concerning [What of God it is, which is known or to be known by these signal Judg­ments?]

And to this Enquiry I answer Two things.

• 1. His Being, and Existence. [That there is a God.] For he that executeth Judgment so, as no finite li­mited Being, no created Power can, must needs be a Supreme uncreated Being; that is, God. And this is an Argument so strongly conclusive against the Atheist, that he is forced (to secure his Principles) to fly to that sorry refuge of lyes, which I have be­fore refuted; to buoy up his reputation among those who know not the difference betwixt Reason and Noise, and judge no disputant baffled, that hath any thing to say, though what he says be next to nothing. For, as he that is a meer stranger in England, if yet he see Courts of Judicature, con­stantly kept in the Kings Name, and Criminals con­tinually punished by a Power deputed and commis­sioned by him; cannot rationally doubt, whether there be a King in England: so neither can any man, with any colour of Reason; seeing Gods Ju­dicial Providences continually executing his known Laws, make it a Question, Whether there be a God [Page 15]that judgeth the Earth. Thus is Jehovah known by his Judgments, to be Jehovah.
• 2. His eminent Divine Perfections and Glorious At­tributes are illustriously manifested by his Judgments executed. As for Instance,
  • (1.) His Justice; Which in these remarkable Pro­vidences always justifies it self; as ordinarily light­ing upon those offenders, concerning whom not only their own Consciences, (as in the confession of Pharaoh himself, crying out [The Lord is righ­teous, and I and my people are wicked.] Exod. 9.27.) but also the whole world are, or may be, abundant­ly satisfied they have deserved it: yea, and among them, even they who not only commit those crimes which they see punished in others, but promote them, by shewing the pleasure they take in those that do them, yet know that they who do such things are worthy of death;
    Rom. 1. ult.
    and approve the Judgment of God, even in those Sentences and Executions wherein they themselves are implicitly con­demned.
  • (2.) His Mercy and Goodness; In many particu­lars.
    • As 1. when he spares so many for every one that he smites, though equally criminal: and is as remarkable in his patience and long-suffering to some, as he is in his severity to others.
    • 2. In pu­nishing less then mens iniquities deserve,
      Ezra 9.13.
      by how much the greatest temporal suffering, that can be, is less than Hell.
    • 3. In making the greatest evils men suffer here, occasions and means to preserve them from greater Judgments hereafter.
    • 4. And lastly, in making his severities to the worst of men the means of signal preservations and deliverances to those that are eminently good; and shewing there­by, that he as well knows how to deliver the righteous,
      2 Pet. 2.9.
      as to punish the wicked.
  • [Page 16](3.) His Omnipotent Power, and Sovereign Greatness, whilst
    • [1.] he reacheth those Malefactors that are too high for Humane Justice, and pride themselves in their uncontrolableness by Humane Laws. Thus, by his dealing with Pharaoh,
      Exod. 5.2.
      who would own no Lord but himself, he draws an acknowledgement from Jethro, that he was greater than all Gods, be­cause in the thing wherein the proud Tyrant and his people dealt proudly,
      Exod. 18.11.
      he was above them. And
    • [2.] whilst he summons in the posse of the whole Creation to bring such over-sized Malefactors to Execution, and arms the very meanest and most contemptible of them, (as flies, and lice, and frogs) with weapons to subdue and conquer them. And
    • [3.] lastly, whilst he sometimes makes a kind of new Creation, to serve his just ends, by altering the very course of Nature. as in the general deluge, when the very Fountains of the great Deep were broken up, i. e. The waters which were in the bowels of the Earth, with those of the vast Ocean it self, left their proper seat naturally ap­pointed for them, and came up to cover the face of the Earth.
      Gen. 7.11.
  • (4.) His Verity or Truth; Often, in the perfor­mance of particular threatnings and predictions in particular cases, as those before mentioned: and always, (even in them too) in fulfilling the general Curses and denunciations of his wrath against the Transgressors of his Laws. So that men are hereby convinced, that his Judgments are not only righteous, but true.
    Apoc. 15.3.16.7.19.2.
  • (5.) His Omniscience, or certain knowledge of all the Words and Actions of men, though never so much concealed in all imaginable secresie: and yet oftentimes by the process of his Judicial Providen­ces he brings them to light.
    • For (1.) by them he sometimes draws out of the bosoms of offenders, by their own Confession, (as in the cases of Achan, [Page 17]Jonah, and others) those things which were not otherwise discoverable. And
    • (2.) by strange and unusual accidents he sets the inquisitive humor of men on work, to lay odd and uncouth passages and circumstances together, till at last they make a suf­ficient concurrent Evidence, to convict Malefactors of secret and unknown Crimes; than which there is nothing more usual in ordinary Courts of Justice. So that it comes frequently to pass, as Zophar ob­serves, that the Heavens first reveal mens iniquities,
      Job 20.27.
      and then the earth rises up against them.
  • (6.) And lastly, (not to multiply more particulars on this Head) his Infinite Wisdom, and most Pru­dent Counsel; whereby he manageth those penal Providences so, as to out-wit the wisest of men, when they imploy all their Policy to secure them­selves: by which he shews himself wonderful in Counsel, and gives the world daily occasion wisely to consider his doings,
    Psal. 64.9.
    to find out the admirable contex­ture of the wheels and springs, by which that great Engine is moved, which takes the wise in their own craftiness,
    Job 5.13.
    and snares the wicked (as the following part of my Text expresseth it) in the work of their own hands.

And in many of those great works, when Ages have studied them all they can, yet still there is something remaining undiscoverable to exercise the wonder of the most curious Enquirers, and make them cry out with the holy Apostle,Rom. 11.33. O the depth! How unsearchable are Gods Judgments, and his ways past finding out! And this shall suffice to be spoken to my fourth Head.

V. The fifth follows, to wit, To give you the best account I can, of [The distinguishing Characters by which such Divine Judgments are differenced from like Providence befalling men upon other Ac­counts.]

The reason of which disquisition is, because God many times either actively inflicts, or (at least) passively permits great afflicting evils, to be­fall men, yea, the best men; which are not to be ranked by us under this Head of Judicial Execu­tions, as being intended by God to promote holy Designs of his own of quite a different Nature, and tendency.

Now in the pursuance of this great Enquiry, I shall first adventure to your consideration some general observations concerning Divine Judgments, which may conduce to the governing our selves in it with due caution: and then give you the Characters I promised.

1. The general observations are these.

[1.] That such publick signal Judgments as my Text and Doctrine suppose, are a sort of Divine Providences which God doth more rarely than is ordinarily believed, exhibit to the world. For he himself calls the execution of Judgment in such publick and notorious manner,Isa. 28.21. his strange work. And (speaking after the manner of men) tells us,Lam. 3.33. 'tis that which he doth not willingly, i. e. not of his own natural propension, but upon the urgency of some special occasions, which indispensably require it. Wherefore it is, that the obliging Instances of his Mercy and Bounty, his Patience and long suf­fering, and other expressions of his Goodness, (his most natural Attribute) are the daily and hourly exercise of his Providence: but those other harsh aad unwelcome Issues of it (like unnatural Births) are produced but now and then. And that

• (1.) partly, because this world is not properly seculum Mercedis,
  Rom. 2.9.
  the season for the revelation of the righteous Judgment of God, wherein to render to every man ac­cording to his works; but that business is reserved for the world to come, and the Day in which he hath [Page 19]appointed to judge the world by the man whom he hath ordained:
  Acts 17.31.
  and he thinks it (therefore) not fit to lessen the expectation thereof, by a seeming anti­cipation of the imployment proper thereunto: and
• (2.) partly, because he is desirous to keep up the just value of such great occurrences by the rarity of them; which if they were common, would grow into like disesteem with other things that come un­der daily observation: and
• (3.) partly, because, as a bountiful Benefactor, he is not willing to streigh­ten his liberality to the very worst of men; but to give them a plentiful share of the good things of this life, whose portion is laid out here:
  Luke 16.25.
  And lastly,
  Psal. 17.14.
  be­cause it conduceth to the glory of his Justice in ano­ther world, to give bad men (of themselves in­clined to grow insolent upon his forbearance) the occasion of hardening their hearts in evil, by not executing Sentence against every wicked work spee­dily.
  Eccles. 8.11.

[2.] That it is highly probable, that these sorts of unusual Providences are yet rarer in the latter Ages of the world, than in the earlier: and under the Gospel, and among Christians, then under the Law, and among the Jews. Because there was in those times more occasion for them, and use of them, than now there is. Before the Scripture in any part was written, Tradition, with the reliques of the light of Nature, sometimes assisted with extraor­dinary Revelation, was the Rule whereby the world was governed. But because the two former were much corrupted, and the third afforded but now and then to a few eminently good men; the gene­rality had need to be often taught their Duty, as Gedeon taught the men of Succoth with thorns and briars, sharp and severe Providences.Judges 8.16. And even after so much of it was written, as served to go­vern the Jewish Church under that Administration, [Page 20]God was pleased to keep up still, in great part, the same Method of administring his Kingdom upon earth by exemplary Providences. As (probably) considering,

• (1.) that what was so written, was to be kept among them to whom it did principally pertain;
  Rom. 9.4.
  and that the rest of the world was to be left generally in the same condition they were in before. And
• (2.) that (by the difference put be­twixt the Jews and them, by a peculiar discrimina­ting Religion) the rest of the world were generally like to be exasperated against them; so, that had they not been kept in awe by such penal Providen­ces now and then, they would continually have been attempting the extirpation of a sort of men so odious: and had not the Jews themselves been en­couraged in their singular Religion, by such frequent miraculous appearances of God for the punishment of their persecutors, they would have been the more tempted to have purchased their peace with their Neighbours, by waving their Religious observa­tions to purchase their good will. And
• (3.) that this Law, to the Jews themselves, was for the most part like a book sealed; in that the greatest encou­ragements to obedience, (the great Promises of the Gospel) were obscured under dark expressions, and typical shadows,
  2 Cor. 3.14.
  till the vail on Moses his face was taken away by Christ, and life and immortality by him were brought to light:
  2 Tim. 1.10.
  and therefore even they had still much need to be quickned to their duty by sensible Motives, And
• (4.) lastly, that they were, by the very constitution and temper of the Nation, a very stiff-necked and unmanageable People; and so not easily to be kept in obedience by bare written Rules, without a Rod of severe Temporal Judgments, frequently laid on the backs of some amongst them­selves, to keep the rest in awe.

And if we also consider these Particulars, (as God probably did) and some others that might be suggested of the like nature; we may very well (I think) be satisfied, that if we do not now hear of such frequent notorious Executions of Divine Justice as then were the state of the Church since Christ, and that Church spread over all the world; the clearness and perspicuity of his Doctrine in the main induce­ments to a good life; and the more plentiful effu­sions of the Holy Spirit upon all flesh to produce a more filial obedience thereunto; render it less neces­sary that we should do so: Especially, seeing we have all those great Instances of Divine severity which were exhibited in those ancient Ages, deli­vered down even to us upon whom the ends of the world are come, 1 Cor. 10.11. by holy Pen-men in writing, for our admonition.

[3.] That the certain Interpretation of such rare Judicial Providences, when they now adays fall out, is to us in these latter Times more difficult, that it was to the men of those days, in which they were more frequent. The Reason whereof is, because God, since the Scriptures were compleated, and generally received, hath put a stop to that Spi­rit of Prophesie, which in former Times raised up Prophetical Men, to predict and threaten Judg­ments before they came, and interpret them infalli­bly when they came. So that the most perfect Judg­ment we can now make of them, though we use all the means left us to that purpose with the greatest and most conscientious exactness, will fall very short of Infallibility, and amount, at most, only to a great Moral certainty, in most cases of that na­ture.

[4.] That it is therefore very easie to mistake in this affair, and be deceived by the making such In­terpretations of Divine Providences of this nature [Page 22]as Phancy and Passion, (continually ready herein to interpose) may be apt to suggest to us: and the most of men (and too many good men too) are very prone to be misled by them themselves, and to mislead others.

[5.] That such errours and mistakes, are not more easie and frequent, than (as they are com­monly made use of) sinful and dangerous. Be­cause, by our aptness to avouch them, and (in a sort) impose them on the belief of others, we too often render our selves guilty of prophaning Gods Name, (of which his great works are a considera­ble part) by stamping our own fond conceits with his Image and Superscription, which is no less a crime in this case against God, than the minting and ven­ding adulterate Coin in worldly dealings and payments is to the temporal Prince, under whom we live.

[6.] And yet, lastly, (notwithstanding all that hath been said to beget a new caution in us in a matter of so great an import) I must avouch, that I do not believe God hath altogether tyed up his hands from executing signal Judgments, even in these days, or in those Regions where the Gospel is prea­ched with greatest clearness and most powerful Evi­dence: Especially, in case the substantial corru­ptions of so pure a Religion be at any time so gross, or the general debauchery of mens lives under such excellent Instructions be so foul and scandalous to the holy Doctrine of our Saviour, as to call for them: and when any new Impieties of the largest dimensions, and prodigious Immoralities, become bold and audacious beyond the examples of the former Ages of Christianity, (with impunity, if not countenance and encouragement, from those that ought to suppress them) among those that are the noted Professors of it. Nor do I think that we [Page 23]are, in such cases, so destitute of direction, partly, from parallel Instances of Scripture; and partly, from the general motions of Mankind in all Ages concerning such Providences; and partly, from the concurring Evidence of the circumstances of them when they so fall out, &c. but that we may, even in these days, by the ordinary assistance of Gods Spi­rit (even without a Revelation) discern suffi­cient marks and tokens of Divine Judgments upon many of them, to lay a foundation for the improve­ment of them to the ends which God generally de­signs by them, both to our selves and others. For a moral certainty, in such matters wherein a Duty is to be inferred from the various accidents of this life, hath (to us) the force of a Divine Command. A Principle, which if it be not owned, we must necessarily be endangered to be governed, in most of the ordinary actions of our present callings and imployments, by that wild and extravagant Rule of exspecting special Scripture-determinations in all the particularities of our worldly conditions; which no sober man will own as the measure to go­vern his Actions by.

2. And such (in the second place) as I have described, I hope, will the characters of remarkable Divine Judgments be, that follow.

(1.) The greatness and publickness of a Divine stroke, beyond what is common to men; especially, if so great, as in common repute to be above the power of man to inflict, (as I have before intima­ted) gives the first glimpse of light in this Case. Which puts us, (as it lawfully may, nay, more in duty ought where the concern is some way our own) upon enquiry into the Nature of it. For we are wonted to do so in Humane Societies. If a stranger come by a Gallows or a Whipping-post, and see a man hanged, and drawn, and quartered at the [Page 24] one, and another severely whipped at the other; he will presently be enquiring, wherefore such persons are handled with such severity in so notorious a man­ner? And when severities, it may be far greater from God, befall any with as publick circumstan­ces, it is equally rational for the spectators, and much more the sufferers, to enquire what he means by them; and even to suspect the worst, that they may be Judicial Executions, till he be informed otherwise. Yea, God himself intimates his appro­bation of mens inquisitiveness, in such cases: when he tells the Jews, that he would inflict such sore plagues on them, as should move all Nations to ask, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this Land? Deut. 29.24. What meaneth the heat of this great Anger?

(2.) But this alone, is not a sufficient character to warrant us to pronounce such a stroke to be a Divine Judgment, how severe soever it be; except there appear as evident and notorious a crime in conjunction with it. For the judging by the for­mer mark singly, misled Jobs friends in his Case: and the men of Melita in the censure they passed upon St. Paul, Acts 28.4. when they saw the Viper hanging on his hand. And it may mislead us in like cases. For if we interpret all such great and remarkable seve­rities, on whomsoever they fall, to be Divine Judgments, we shall be often endangered unjustly to condemn the Generation of Gods best Children. Psal. 73.15. But where both these in the same persons meet, with equal Evidence; we can hardly be mistaken, (ex­cept all Mankind be supposed to be so too, who commonly argue in such cases from this character) in calling such Providences Judgments of God: or, if we be mistaken, it is (in a sort) a safe errour; as that which (if we make a religious use of our apprehensions about it) will mislead us only [Page 25]into such affections and actions as tend to Gods glory, and our own benefit and advantage.

(3.) And a far greater evidence is given in this Case many times, to make Divine Judgments ma­nifest, by the fair and legible Impression and Image of the very offence it self, upon the punishment in­flicted.Exod. 14. The drowning of Pharaoh and the Egypti­ans in the Red Sea, was a punishment so like their sin in drowning all the male Children of the Israelites in the River: Exod. 1.20. Levi [...]. 10.1, [...]. the burning Nadab and Abihu with a strange fire from Heaven, was a Divine stroke so aptly suted to their offence in offering Incense with strange fire to Heaven: the incestuous defilement of Davids Concubines by Absalom, 2 Sam. 12.11. had so express a signature of the defilement of Ʋriahs wife by Da­vid: and (to mention no more Examples at pre­sent) the cutting off the Thumbs and great Toes of Adonibezek himself,Judges 1.7. was so signal a requital of the like cruelty shewed by him to 70 Kings before: that no man needs to doubt the lawfulness of cal­ling them by the Name they have always born, that of remarkable Divine Judgments. And it can rationally be no matter of scruple to any one, to give Providences of the like stamp the same name still.

(4.) And it makes much to the strengthning the Evidence in such matters, when such remarka­ble Divine strokes tread close upon the heels of some notorious offence, as oftentimes they do: yea, so close, as to surprise the offender in the very Act.Gen. 19.11. The striking the Sodomites blind in the very attempt of a foul sin not to be named; and the firing of the whole City the next morning with a storm of flaming Brimstone;Num. 16.32. the cleaving of the Earth to swallow Korah and his company, even whilst they stood daringly in the face of God and the Congre­gation, to avouch a foul Rebellion against Moses, [Page 26]and a sacrilegious usurpation of Aarons Priesthood; the running through of Zimri and Cosbi,Num. 25.8. in the ve­ry act of bold and audacious uncleanness; the slaying of Belshazzar the very night following his pro­fane debauch, acted by the abuse of Gods Consecra­ted Vessels to drunkenness, Dan. 5.30. at an Idols feast; the turning of his Grandfather Nebuchadnezzar a-gra­zing among oxen, when that vaunting brag was scarce out of his mouth,Dan. 4.31, 32, 33. Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the Kingdom, by the might of my power? Acts 5.5, 10.12.22, 23. the smiting Ananias and Saphira dead, with a lye in their mouths to cover their sacrilege; the eating up Herod by worms, so closely attending upon his owning the blasphe­mous flattery of the people: and many more like Instances to these, none ever gave a softer Title to, than that of Divine Judgments. And where­fore the drunkards breaking his neck in his drun­kenness, and the hectoring challengers being slain in a Duel, and the perjured persons being smit­ten dumb or dead in his perjury, and the like penal events befalling other sinners in the very act of other sins of as hainous a nature; may not still, by a parity of Reason, pass for Providen­ces of the same denomination, I cannot ima­gine.

(5.) When such penal Providences are the evi­dent and notorious consequents of provoking and daring Appeals, Applications, or Addresses to God of any kind; or of contests with him: there is all the Reason in the world why we should take them for Divine Judgments, extorted by an impious im­portunity, or provoking Insolence.

• 1.) In case of Appeals to God, implicit or ex­plicit. When the bitter water, under the Law, envenomed by the imprecation of the disloyal wife against her self, in case she was guilty of the fact [Page 27]she was suspected of, caused her belly to swell, and her thigh to rot;
  Num. 5.22.
  the implicit Appeal to Gods De­cision in this case, made the event evidently to be a Divine Judgment. When Korah and his Com­plices dare put it to a Divine determination,
  Num. 16.5.
  whe­ther they had not as much right to offer Incense as Aaron and his Sons: The Event in this Case declared that God judged the cause in which he was thus ap­pealed to against them? And when the wicked Jews by tumultuous out-cries call on Pilate to cru­cifie Jesus for a Malefactor, and encourage him, when his Conscience boggles at so foul an act of Injustice, with this fearful imprecation, (in the nature of such an Appeal) that if he were not guilty, God would lay his blood on them and their children; and the Event of so many Ages hath declared the said guilt not to be yet washed off from their whole Posterity: None but an hardened Jew will ever doubt, whether there be a Divine Judgment in this case or no. Lastly, When holy Job (against the unjust charges of his censorious friends, who among other crimes, taxed him with breaking the arms of the fatherless:
  Job 22.9.
  i. e. That by his power he had so crushed them that they were disa­bled to maintain their right against him) had appeal­ed to God for his vindication, and imprecated against himself, that if he were guilty of this Crime, his Arm might fall from his Shoulder-blade,
  Job 31.21, 22.
  and be broken from the bone; i. e. That the flesh might rot from the bone, till his Arm fell from his Shoulder; if a lit­tle after, that Arm had dropped off according to ☜ his Execration, and some concurring evidence withal had appeared to prove him guilty of the fact which he so disclaimed, (I say, if it had so faln out, which it did not, because he was innocent) had not his friends been justified, if they had cryed out in the words of the Psal­mist, [Page 28] Behold! the Lord is known by the Judgment that he executeth!
• 2.) In case of Address or Application to him, in matters of another nature. As in promissory Oaths, (or which in substance is all one) Imprecations of Gods vengeance, upon non-performance of what men undertake to do. Which Addresses are either serious or customary. And in both sorts, Gods Judg­ments may be manifested, as the circumstances may be.
  • (1.) In serious addresses of this kind. As in the Case of the Children of Israel, when they were obliged to say Amen to the fearful Curses an­nexed to the Law;
    Deut. 29. from 15. to 26.
    they did therein implicitly ad­dress themselves to God, and pray, that all those curses, in case of disobedience to that Law, might befall them; which Curses are therefore called the Curses of the Covenant,
    Deut. 29.21.
    because they covenanted with God upon that penalty to keep his Command­ments there mentioned. And therefore, after­wards, when God had executed those severities upon them, which made all the Neighbour-Na­tions to enquire, [Wherefore the Lord had dealt so with them.] Men are directed by God to answer, Because they have forsaken the Covenant of the Lord,
    Ver. 25. to 29.
    the anger of the Lord was kindled against this Land to bring upon it all the curses written in this Book. And he moreover tells them, that they need not fear offending by a rash censure, where Gods Judg­ments with the Causes of them were so manifest. For though secret things belong to God; i. e. in dark cases, we must not be too forward to pass our sentence upon Gods providential proceedings; yet things revealed, (as such Judgments inflicted upon such a forfeiture by Covenant betwixt God and a People are) belong to us and our children, to inter­pret and improve them. And the like may be the [Page 29]case of particular persons, when they vow and so­lemnly Covenant with God to leave such vices, and amend their lives; and to bind themselves the more firmly, imprecate such evils upon themselves, in case they fail in performance. Of which there is a notable Instance in one of our late Writers, of Sir Jervase Ellowis,
    Wilson Hist. of K. James.
    (as he calls him) who at the place of Execution took notice to all the people pre­sent of Gods just Judgment that brought him to that end: for that he had solemnly (being given to gaming) upon some special occasion, prayed to God, That if he did so any more, be might be hang'd: and having broken promise with God, he had brought his own wish upon him.
  • (2.) In customary Addresses of that nature; when men upon every slight occasion imprecate in the form of a customary wish, (as a vain Parenthesis in discourse, with some persons too frequent) any evil upon themselves, to back every slight purpose or trivial Promise that drops unadvisedly from their lips: These men, though they use not Gods Name explicitly in such forms of discourse, (and yet too often even that is done, [I wish to God, &c.] is too frequent a Phrase) yet they do imply it, and it hath the force of an application to God, to inflict such an evil on them. Now, if when men fail, as too often they do, in those unadvised promises of theirs, and God brings the calamity they wished upon them; I should not scruple in such a case to look on it as the execution of a Di­vine Judgment, to warn people, how they use any expressions wherein Gods Name is concerned, in a slight and customary manner. And I am per­swaded, if it were well observed, God doth to very many persons of lewd Tongues, perform in earnest, what they so often inconsiderately impre­cate in this world: and doubt the doth so to many [Page 30]more in another world, where their [God-damn­me's] and [The-Devil-take-me's] and the like familiar forms of customary discourse, with pro­phane men, are (with the stinging attestations of their own Consciences to Gods Justice therein) sadly verified upon them to all eternity.
• 3.) In case of Contests with God, Gods Judgments are often manifested and made known to be what indeed they are. As,
  • (1.) When they light upon the furious main­tainers of a false Religion against the true: espe­cially, if in a publick and notorious competition, God be (as it were) challenged to appear in the vindication of his Truth. Which was the case of Baals Priests in their notable contest with Elijah, where­in God brought them to publique Execution,
    1 Kings 18.
    by a miraculous Confutation in the presence of all Israel.
  • (2.) When such Divine severities befall the pro­fessours and propugners of Atheism and Irreligion, in opposition to all Religion. If such persons die not the common death of other men, the common vote of Mankind pronounceth them to be execu­ted by a Divine Judgment.
    Vid. Cic. de N [...]t. Deor m. I. 1, & 2. L [...]ert in vit. Prot. Aristip. Epic. B [...]nis. Athen. I. 13. Aelian. I. 4.
    As appears, by the censures passed by Heathens, themselves upon the strange ends of Diagoras, Protagoras, Bion, Theo­dorus, Epicurus, Pherecides, and others, who ei­ther were, or were generally reputed, Atheists among them: And by those of the Holy Scri­ptures on Pharaoh: and of the Ecclesiastical Wri­ters on Caligula, Maximinus, Julian, and many o­ther Atheistical and prophane promoters of Irreli­gion.
  • (3.) When the like severe Providences befall such, as though they profess the true Religion, yet because they make use of that Profession only as a mask, to cover those designs against it, (which they dare not carry on with open face) God [Page 31]fore-dooms in the Scripture (as guilty of most pernicious opposition against it) to a notable and signal Ruine and Destruction. As in the case of the great Antichrist; when God, having revealed that wicked one fully, shall finally destroy both him, and his Seat, where sitting in the Temple of God, he acts the Devil in Gods Name,
    2 Thes. 2.4. to 12.
    by Satanical signs and lying wonders:
    Apoc. 15.2, 3, 4, 19.1, 2.
    both the Church Militant and Tri­umphant are called on to acknowledge and rejoyce in the just Judgments of God executed on him and his Adherents.

(6. It is no slight Evidence to a Divine Judg­ment, when (as it often falls out) an offenders Conscience under such a remarkable stroke of Gods Hand, owns it as the just punishment of such a particular noto­rious Crime: and gives glory to God, (with Achan) by confessing it before the world. When Adonibe­zek, convicted by his own Conscience, cryes out,Jud. 1.7. as I have done, so hath God requited me: and Jo­sephs Brethren, in the danger they were in to be exe­cuted for Spies in Egypt, charge themselves with the guilt of their envy and cruelty against their Bro­ther;Gen. 42.21. and acknowledge, that therefore that di­stress came upon them: And when Malefactors at the place of Execution; and debauched livers in some notable Calamities, and especially in the near prospect of Death and Eternity under some sig­nal stroke of Gods Hand, accuse themselves, and attribute those severities to their particular Crimes: What Reason hath any man to give their sufferings a milder name than they give them themselves?

And thus have I given you the best Characters I could, by which to discern Divine Judgments from Providences of a like severity, befalling men on other accounts: my fifth Head.

VI. The sixth follows: to wit, [To give you di­rections in the making application of Divine Judgments [Page 32]to particular Cases, without offending against Justice or Charity.]

The Reason why such directions are needful, is very evident. For we are forbidden by our Sa­viour,Mat. 7.1. to judge our Brethren, lest we also be judg­ed. And in the noted Cases of those on whom the Tower in Siloe fell, Luke 13.1, 2, 3. and those whose blood Pilate mingled with their Sacrifices; our Lord seems to take the part of the Sufferers against their Censures. And the miscarriage of Jobs friends in their deal­ings with him,Iob 42.7. is by God himself expresly con­demned. Wherefore, it is meet this Case should be carefully stated, that we may (in the present Ar­gument) be satisfied, how far we may lawfully go in applying Gods Judgments, so as to preserve our selves from such Errours. And in Answer to this Case, I shall (as I did on the former Head) first premise some Grounds to proceed on; and thence proceed to the direct solution of it according to them.

[1. The Grounds which I shall premise, are these.

1.] That it follows from what was said on the former Head, that in such Applications of Divine Judgments to particular Cases, we are to be very cautelous and circumspect.

2.] And yet it does not follow, that we are totally obliged to forbear them. Yea, rather, there are divers Arguments from Scripture, which give great countenance, and (in some Cases) great encouragement, to the making of them.

(1. As first, the Text it self, which asserts such Judgments to be means whereby God is made known, will necessarily infer, that in order to the making this use of them, we must be allowed the liberty of discreet and considerate Application of them. [Page 33]For to suppose a notable Judgment executed with signal manifestation of a Divine Hand therein, and of purpose designed for men to take notice of it: and yet, not to allow them to observe it in those circumstances which render it most ob­servable, (all which circumstances are necessarily annexed to particular Cases) implies a contra­diction.

(2. The Scripture tells us of Holy Men who have made such particular Applications, and have not been blamed, but rather commended for it: and their examples left on sacred Record for the imitation of future Times. It is given as an ho­nourable character in general of good and holy men, that because they have pleasure in that im­ployment,Psal. 111.2. they seek out the great works of the Lord, of which these judicial Providences are a special part. And holy David propounds himself in par­ticular, as an encouraging example to patient ex­pectation of the Issue in that stumbling Case of Divine Providence, [The notable prosperity of some notorious wicked men] telling us, that he himself had seen some such in great power, Psal. 37.35, 36. (probably Saul and his profane Courtiers and Favourites) flou­rishing like a green Bay-tree; whom yet he observed in the Issue notably extirpated, so that they could not be found. And that notable speech of Hezekiah to the Levites, is recorded to his commendation, (as a considerable part of that which gave him just Title to that honourable character, that he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David bad done) wherein he observes particularly, (though with reflection up­on his father Ahaz) that the Lord had lately deli­vered Judah to trouble and astonishment, 1 Chron. 29.2, 6, 7, 8, 9. and hissing and that their fathers fell by the Sword, and their sons, and daughters, and wives, were yet in capti­vity, [Page 34]for the neglect of Gods House; which he thence quickens the Priests and Levites for the future to take more care of.

(3. Good men in general are encouraged with the promised prospect of Divine Judgments on some notorious wicked men. When the wicked (such whose prosperity was a tentation to good men to fret and be envious against them) are cut off, thou (says the Psalmist to the man whom he en­courageth to wait on the Lord and keep his way) shalt see it, Psal. 37.34. i. e. so as to take notice of it to thy great satisfaction and encouragement to depend on God for the future. And elsewhere, the righ­teous is told, that when the notorious oppres­sing Judges, against whom that Psalm is dire­cted, shall be taken away as with a whirlwind li­ving, and in Gods wrath, i. e. brought in the prime of their prosperity to a sudden and vio­lent end;Psal. 58.10. that he shall rejoyce when he seeth the vengeance: and wash his feet in the blood of the wicked, i. e. in a kind of holy Triumph for the manifestation of Divine Justice, shall even tram­ple upon them when they lye in their blood, with­out fear of defilement, (to which in other cases the Jews by the Law for touching any thing of a dead Corps were liable) any more than if they had washed their feet in water.

(4. And sinners are blamed, for not drawing Arguments of caution and reformation from the particular Instances of Gods Judgments in their days. As Belshazzar, for that when he saw and knew how God had dealt with his proud Grand­father Nebuchadnezzar, Dan. 5.18, 19, 20, 21, 22. he notwithstanding lifted himself up against the same God, before whom he ought on that consideration to have been hum­bled. And the remaining Tribes of Judah and Benjamin are severely taxed, for that when they [Page 35]saw that God had rejected and sent into Captivity the Ten Tribes, their brethren, for their Idolatry; yet they feared not, but went on confidently in the same provoking sin themselves And it is not to be understood how any persons can be obliged to take warning from particular Examples, if they be not allowed to apply such Providences of God to them, in those particulars from whence that caution is to be gathered.

3.] Wherefore we must find out some other In­terpretation of those Scriptures, which seem total­ly to prohibit all applications of Divine Judg­ments to particular Cases: and particularly of those before mentioned. And that (as to them at least) is a matter of no great difficulty. For the first of them forbids one Christian indeed to judge another: Mat 7.1. but it is only a rash and a harsh censuring Christian brethren (as the Pharisees were wont to do) even for the smallest faults; and that when the censurers themselves, it may be, (as they) indulge themselves in greater, (such as are like beams to the others motes, as appears, v. 2.) that is there forbidden.Luke 13.1, 2. And the blame which in the second Text, the relaters of the fall of the Tower of Siloe, and the mixing the blood of the Galileans with their Sacrifices by Pilate, did incur; was not barely for taking notice of these Events as Divine Judgments, but for judging the persons (in a like Pharisaical pride) grea­ter sinners than others, and than themselves in par­ticular; having no other evidence to ground that censure, than that what they suffered was more severe than what usually befell others; which in­deed was none at all. And Jobs friends (the third Text) were censured by God for making the like uncharitable and unwarrantable Inference from his Providential severities upon Job. So [Page 36]that all these Scriptures thus interpreted, (as in­deed they must be) make nothing against the law­fulness of a modest, sober, prudent, and dis­creet application of Divine Judgments to parti­cular cases; seeing in an application so qualified, we shall be secure from offending against Justice or Charity.

[2. And therefore I proceed, in the next place, to give you the Directions promised you to preserve you from so offending, in like applications of Di­vine severities.

(1. First then, Privately and in our own bosoms, we may with more freedom and latitude make such applications, than we may discourse them withal to others: if withal we take care to turn our inward sentiments only to those uses, which reflect Glo­ry to God, and benefit to our selves; without gratifying any unlawful Passion, apt on such oc­casions to be stirred towards our suffering brethren, and neighbours. And yet,

(2. When Gods Providence it self makes any Case notorious by producing an offender, as it were, and chastising him upon a publick Theater, the case being clear and evident of it self in the eyes of all men; no man is then bound up from bear­ing his part in the publick discourse: but (as he hath a call either by office, or occasional chari­ty to the souls of men to take notice of it) every one may, nay ought, to serve Gods de­sign therein, by making use of it for others, as well as his own, edification. And it is related as a thing imitable in the primitive Chri­stians, that they interpreted the sudden deaths of Ananias and Saphira, as remarkable Judg­ments of God, and not only were possessed with great fear themselves on that occasion,Acts 5.11. but also derived that fear to many others, by pub­lishing [Page 37]it, so that they feared likewise as many as heard of it.

(3. We are not so much in danger of offending against Justice or Charity in the application of Di­vine Judgments, when they befall great Commu­nities and Societies of men, as when they light only on particular Persons, or smaller Parties. For when Nations and other great Communities fall under great Epidemical calamities, wherein every member some way or other suffers, or at least is endangered to suffer; there God himself expects his hand should be publiquely acknowledged, and due means used by religious Addresses to him so­lemnly and generally made for the removing of them; and in them requires that each Member bear a part, and accuse himself and be deeply humbled, as being a partaker in that guilt which procured them: So that what every one is obliged to own, is without injury or breach of charity im­putable to them all. Whereas there are very few private Cases, wherein the Persons suffering can be convincingly brought by others under a like obliga­tion, to own and acknowledge the particulars char­ged on them by their Censurers, as the Causes for which they so suffer: and so we are endangered to charge them at adventure, and therein to be unjust and uncharitable.

(4. We run less hazard of violating Justice and Charity, in applying such Divine strokes, as Judgments to some persons, than to others. For whereas there are some notoriously bad men, Isa. 3.9. who publish their sin as Sodom, and proclaim them­selves to have no fear of God before their eyes, Rom. 3.18. Psal. 14.3. be­ing altogether become filthy or stinking (as the Margin hath it) in the nostrils of all serious and sober persons; so that no Charity, be it never so large, (except it be wilfully blind withal) can [Page 38]judge better of them: when any remarkable hand of God finds these persons out, to seize them for publique Exemplary punishment, I cannot see, why we may not, without any hesitation in a case so plain, think and say, This is a remarkable Judgment of God; and a fair warning to all men to avoid such courses. And especially if such per­sons have arrived to that height of professed wic­kedness as to glory in their shame at that rate,Phil. 3.19. Psal. 1.1. as to set themselves down in the seat of the scornful, and scoff Religion and Vertue out of counte­nance, as a thing despicable and contemptible; and to own themselves in all companies, as the publique Hectors and Champions of prophaneness and impie­ty, and professed persecuters of all persons that dare appear on the side of God and goodness. For in such cases, as I told you before, the opinion of all the world justifies us, in making the severest refle­ctions upon their sufferings.

But when sufferers, though the hand of God lie heavy upon them, are either eminently good men, or such as in the judgment of rational cha­rity we are bound to think well of for the main, though they have their allay of humane frailty, and are Gold, though mixed with dross; yea, or such, as there is hope they may become bet­ter, because there is nothing that declares them desperately and incorrigibly bad: We are towards all these sorts of men to proceed in censuring with far greater Caution, and the better they are, the more must be observed; according to the fol­lowing measures.

1.) That we endeavour to be as sparing in applying these sorts of Divine Providences, to the cases of particular persons under the former cha­racters as God is in inflicting them; and appear as loth and unwilling to do the one, as he to [Page 39]do the other. For it is very uncharitable for any man to be over-forward in crying out, upon eve­ry unusual stroke upon another, A Judgment, a Judgment; because thereby he cruelly vexeth his brothers sores; a thing which is done by no­thing more than by exaggerating his calamities with the representation of Gods displeasure te­stified in them. Besides, that the hastiness of men in such applications, looks too much like that disposition which Charity disclaims,1 Cor. 13.6. of rejoycing in iniquity, i. e. in the opportunity of coloura­ble laying a criminal matter to ones brothers charge, without staying to examine what ground there is for it: as on the contrary, to rejoyce in the Truth, i. e. to be glad when by the discovery of the truth, our own and others suspicions or misappre­hensions concerning him are removed, and he vin­dicated, is a charitable Temper, as the Apostle de­scribes it.

2.) That we do not first fancy a Divine Judg­ment in our own thoughts to have befaln such a Person or Party as we do not affect; and then search out iniquities, Psal. 64.6. (in the Psalmists Phrase) or make a strict Inquisition, to find out criminal mat­ters in him to apply it unto, for the justification of our own censure. For this is a preposterous inverting of the Rules of Justice, which is ne­ver wont to pronounce sentence first at all ad­venture, and then examine the Cause, or ra­ther, whether there be any cause: and a great breach of Charity also, as implying a malicious design against our brother, which we seek an opportunity to execute.

This seems to be the fault of those Disciples themselves, who enquired of Christ concerning the man that was born blind: for they first resolve upon it, that this was a Judgment of God on him for [Page 40] some sin; and then they came to our Saviour to resolve them,Joh. 9.2. for whose sin it was, his own, or his Parents? And it seems evident, by the whole car­riage of their discourses, that Jobs friends, though they unanimously first conclude among them­selves, that his sufferings were Divine Judgments upon him for some foul crime; yet they are at a loss what crime of that nature to find him guil­ty of, and therefore they tax him at all adven­ture, with all the horrid Crimes they can imagine, to draw a confession from him at least of some of them, for the justification of their own uncharita­ble censure.

3.) That we do not hastily call such severe Providences of God towards such particular Per­sons, Judgments, whom we can charge with no­thing that is notoriously sinful, in the general Judgment of all Mankind, or at least, of all Chri­stians. For it is a great piece of uncharitable­ness, as well as injustice, which is too ordinarily practised in such places where the common Chri­stianity is crumbled into Sects and Parties; for dissenters of all sides to impute the sufferings befalling their opposites, to Divine displeasure a­gainst them for holding such opinions as differ foom theirs, or practising in some particulars o­therwise than they do. Now this ariseth ordi­narily from a partial fondness which every one hath for his own opinion or way: which inclines him to think God hath as great a kindness for it as himself, and his Party have: and to conclude all his Providences to be accordingly engaged to serve under those banners of distinction, under which he hath listed himself: whence such per­sons find it easie (upon every unusual stroke of God upon any that are not every way agreeable to their humour) to conclude, that the very [Page 41]point in difference betwixt them is judged by God and their opposites, confuted from Heaven by a Demonstration of Divine displeasure against them. And such an unhappy Paralogism as this, we are told by our Historians, it was, which in the dark times of Popery gave the cause, in the opinion of an whole Synod, against the married Clergy, when the side of the Room where the maintainers of it sat fell down, killing some, and burting others. For thereupon they that were for Priests single life, cryed down the Cause of the faln Party with them, as witnessed against by God himself; and by that sorry Argument and Noise prevailed. Now against this great mi­stake (by the way) we shall never be sufficiently armed except we govern our Apprehensions by these Two Principles.

• (1.) That God never appointed the dark Rule of Providence (to us it is no other) to judge Can­ses by, whether right or wrong, good or bad.
  Judg. 20. 21, 25.
  Of­tentimes, for secret ends of his own, he blasts a good, and prospers a bad cause, as the had Cause of the Benjamites, in two set Battels, against the good Cause of the Eleven Tribes: and the horrid and blas­phemous Imposture of the Mahometans hath now for many Ages, by the permission of Providence, prospered wonderfully against the greatest part of the Christian world.
• (2.) That Gods great and signal Judgments, of which we are discoursing, are now adays rare­ly inflicted, but for such Crimes as are generally condemned in the Judgment of all Mankind, or at least, the generality of Christians, according as he designs the notice of them to be spread in a greater or narrower compass. And the Reason is evident, to wit, because it cannot otherwise be rationally expected, the Justice of them should [Page 42]be clearly and convincingly owned, and so the good they are intended for must needs be hazar­ded to so many as are dissatisfied in the merit of the Cause that is taken to procure them. But when a Divine severity justly makes an example of any person in the general opinion notori­ously criminous; they are all inexcusable, who thenceforward do the same things they condemned in another,
  Rom. 2.1.
  (as the Apostle saith) and confess Gods Judgment to have righteously befaln him for.

4.) That we publish not on the house tops (in our Saviours phrase on another occasion) that which is,Mat. 10.27. it may be, whispered in our ears only; and few, possibly no other persons know of. For it may so fall out, that our intimate acquaintance with some men, and their circumstances, may give us knowledge of their particular vices, secret as to all the rest of the world; and of Gods secret strokes befalling them in their persons or private concerns, which we in our own thoughts may rationally conclude to be Divine Judgments in­flicted for them. Now in such Cases, though we may with great charity declare our apprehen­sions hereof to the parties concerned themselves, and admonish, and exhort them on that occa­sion; yet it were great uncharitableness to pub­lish to others either the one or the other.

For, when God intends (as appears by his way of proceeding therein) only a private correction; it must proceed from a defect of charity in us, if we by divulging it, turn it into a publique Exe­cution, to the exposing our Brother to an open shame. And the very justice of every petty School may convince us of the evil of so doing; where­in the corrections given within those walls are forbidden to be divulged, under a like penalty [Page 43]to that which the disgraced School-fellow suf­fered.

5.) That we apply not the severe strokes of God upon our neighbour to the satisfaction of our private spleen and revengeful Humour: which is too ordinary when we think such as lie under them have wronged us, (or it may be they re­ally have so) and we conclude, their sufferings are Divine Judgments befalling them on our Quar­rel. This was the uncharitable Consure of Shimei against David, when he tells him that God had avenged on him the blood of the House of Saul, by the Rebellion of Absalom. For it is plain by the Text,2 Sam. 16.5, 6, 7, 8. that Shimei was of the very family of Saul: and it may be looked upon himself, as in some probable vicinity to the Crown, if the succession of it had continued in that family. At least 'tis probable, that by the translating it from thence, he found his hopes (as to those preferments and other advantages which usually are attained at Court by those of the Royal Blood) blasted and defeated. It is true indeed that Gods Justice doth sometimes appear in the remarkable vindication of eminently good mens, and his useful Instruments. Causes: but for every ordinary person upon every petty trifling injury, to expect that he should do the like for him, or suppose he doth it, is too great a Presumption.

6.) That we judge not our Brethrens estate towards God, and much less their future estate from the most evident Judgments temporally befalling them.

(1.) Not their present estate towards God. For a sore Judgment may befall a man greatly in Gods favour, for a foul Crime; as in the case of the Death of Davids child, inflicted, even after his Repentance, for those hainous sins of Adultery [Page 44]and Murder; because he had by them caused the Enemies of God to blaspheme; 2 Sam. 12.14. doth evidently ap­pear.

(2.) And much less must we thence judge their future estate in another world. For there is no sufficient cause to judge even Nadab and Abihu, Lev. 10.3. 1 Sam. 6.19. 2 Sam. 6.7. the inquisitive Bethshemites, Ʋzzah, and others, damned; though God smote them dead in unwarrantable actions. Yea, even Moses and Aaron themselves died by a Divine Sentence in the Wilderness for their sin at Meribah: and yet one of them (Moses) we have sufficient evi­dence is in glory:Mat. 17.3. and have no reason to doubt the case of the other. Yea, men may be judged of the Lord, (in the Apostles supposition) when chastened with sickness and death extraordinary, that they may not be condemned with the world: 1 Cor. 11.30, 31, 32. 1 Cor. 5.5. and an offender delivered even to Satan, may suffer to the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord, i. e. in the private Judgment which he undergoes from the Lord at his death.

7.) That we assign not particular sins as the special Causes of a Divine Judgment too perem­ptorily; except where the circumstances notorious­ly evince it by the Rules before given, or some of them at least. For if we be therein mistaken in our Judgment; yea, if there be no moral cer­tainty that we are not mistaken, (such as may rationally convince the persons concerned and others thereof) the end which we are supposed to design by such application, (to wit, to ren­der the particular sin to which we attribute the procuring that Judgment more formidable) is lost upon those whom we particularly intend to benefit by it, and others too: and we our selves are liable to be censured, for putting an [Page 45]uncharitable brand upon our brother without a cause.

8.) That we vaunt not, or magnifie our selves against our suffering Brother, by comparing our selves with him, as if we were therefore the bet­ter men, because we fare better at Gods Hands he. This is one property of Charity, (among the many excellent characters given it by the A­postle) that it vaunts not it self, 1. Cor. 13.4. (i. e. with the diminution of a mans brethren, for else it were rather a description of Humility than Charity) nor is, upon such an account, puffed up. And the most uncharitable account upon which any man can vaunt to the lessening of his brother; is, when it is done meerly upon the difference that Gods only pleasure makes betwixt the one and the other. This (among many others) was one great piece of uncharitableness in Jobs friends, that having in his sad sufferings taxed him with being of the number of those whom God had signally branded with remarkable Judgments, and a partner in guilt with those of the old world whose foundation was overflown with a flood, Job 22.15, 16, 20, 21, 29, 30. though he were differenced in his punishment, being a sufferer by the contrary Element of fire; they in the mean while boast, that their substance was not cut down, as being men more acquainted with God, more humble, more innocent; as they imply, when they advise Job upon their experience to be­come so too.

9.) That we make no mans religious living for­merly, or eminent profession of it, (no not though we have some cause to think him declined from it now) by objecting it to him under suffer­ing, a part of his calamity: nor occasion him whilst he suffers under Gods hand to suffer for his sake too: A thing too usual, when bad men apply the [Page 46]Judgments of God (or those which they inter­pret to be such) to good men, or those who have had a reputation to be such, beyond their neigh­bours. For this is to give them (as the Persecu­tors did to our Saviour) gall and vinegar to drink, when they have already bitterness enough upon their spirits from the Cup of their Cross, that God appoints them to drink off. This was to Da­vid, as he tells us, like a Sword in his bones, when profane men said to him in his affliction, Where is now thy God? Psal. 42.10. and when they cast in his Teeth, (as their successors did afterwards in our Saviours) his former trusting in God, as if it had either been Hypocritical,Psal. [...]2.1, 8, 9. or (if real) misplaced on one that had thus forsaken him. Now to deal thus with our neighbour, is at all times greatly un­charitable. For it either argues an hard censure of him that he is an hypocrite; or a greater and fouler affront, if we do not so esteem him; for then we turn (as the same Psalmist elsewhere taxeth men of the same uncharitable temper) his glory into shame, Psal. 4.2. and endeavour to make that a matter of disgrace to him which is really most com­mendable.

10.) In a word: That we do not rejoyce, in­sult, or triumph over any man under Gods hand, upon any account; much less revile, and reproach him; but really pitty, bewail, and condole with him rather; and (as we have opportunity) in­struct, admonish, comfort, and pray for him. For to do the former, is the constant guise of those that (in the character of Gods Holy Spirit in the Scripture) are marked for wicked men. The Heathen Edomites were such;Obad. 1 [...]. and they rejoyced in the day of Judah's distress. Davids Enemies, (be­ing so to him on Gods account) were such; and in his adversity they rejoyced. Psal. 35.13. Our Saviours Persecu­tors [Page 47]were such; and as they judged him smitten of God, they shaked their heads at him upon the Cross,Isa. 53.4. See Mat. 27.40, 41, 42, 43, 44. Mark 15.29, &c. and reviled him with most unsavoury and reproach­ful speeches.

And although there be several Passages in Scripture which seem to propound Gods Judg­ments as a glad spectacle to good men, and a matter of rejoycing, when they befall those that are notoriously wicked: As when it is prophesied, That the righteous shall rejoyce when he seeth the vengeance, &c.Psal. 58.10. And when God calls on all the Saints even in glory,Apoc. 18.2. (the holy Prophets and Apo­stles especially) to rejoyce and triumph over Anti­christian Babylon.

Yet it is to be observed, that these and the like Texts relate only to such as were Gods pub­lique and notorious enemies: and the joy and triumph required or allowed, in their destruction, is only upon account of the success of his cause against them, and the vindication of his Glory and In­terests. As appears remarkably in the Psalm quoted, wherein he tells us, how the obser­vers should express their joy, to wit, by taking notice, that verily there is a reward for the righ­teous, Psal. 58.11. and that verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.

But the latter dispositions and deportments are recommended to us by the Examples of the best men, and most eminent of Saints. When Jobs friends had dealt so uncharitably with him, he tells them what a different usage they should have found from him, if their souls had been in his souls stead; and assures them, that though he could in such a case have spoken as they did to him now, and heaped up words against them, and shaken his head at their calamity, as they used him: yet he would have strengthned them with his mouth, and [Page 48]the moving of his lips should have asswaged their grief. Job 16.4, 5. And when Davids very bitter enemies, that insul­ted over his calamity, were sick, he cloathed him­self with sackcloth, Psal. 35.13. and his prayers, though un­gratefully received by them, and thrown back in scorn into his bosom, whence they proceeded, were heartily and sincerely from that bosom poured out to God for them. And our Saviour, the most perfect of men, to the many sufferers under Gods hand whom he relieved, was generally so com­passionate; that he took on him, by a merciful Sym­pathy, all the Infirmities that he cured, and bare all his Patients sicknesses. Mat. 8.17. Yea, he could not for­bear weeping over the very prospect of those Tra­gedies he foretold himself against Jerusalem, though the Shambles of his Prophets, and his own Slaugh­ter-house. Luke 19.41. And God expects, (as well as the suf­ferers themselves) that to him that is afflicted pity should be shewn; Job 6.14.19.21, 22. especially, if the hand of the Lord hath touched him: and dislikes that men (in their brethrens calamities) should persecute like him, i. e. take the same liberty of harsh and severe usage to­wards them, as God does, as if they could do it with like right and justice as he. In a word, it is his express command, that to shew our selves to be of the same mind one towards another, we not only rejoyce with them that rejoyce, Rom. 12.15, 16. but weep also with those that weep. And thus I discharge this sixth Head also.

VII. Come we now to the seventh and last, to draw such Inferences from this whole discourse as may be of use and advantage to us.

[1. And first, I infer the great Reason that there is for a general Judgment in another world. For, seeing God is known by the Judgment that he exe­cuteth; and all that which he executeth here, ex­tends but to a few offenders; and it may be, the [Page 49]notice taken of those Executions that are made, reacheth but a small part of Mankind: it stands with the highest Reason, that there should be a Time wherein all the world may see (even those that while his hand was lifted up on earth would not see) that just and true are his Judgments. Isa. 26.11. Besides, by the rareness of the Judgments he executeth here, instead of being known as he ought, he is by many apt to be misunderstood; whilst they are generally stumbled at his letting so many notorious offen­ders escape for one that he punisheth: and those that escape he [...]e, many times are the greatest and most prosperous of men, that even dare his justice, by setting their mouths against the Heavens them­selves.Psal. 73.9. Wherefore, that he may make it known, that he spareth not so many high and mighty offen­ders, either through impotency, or partiality; it is easie to infer, that there must be such a day, wherein all men, whether they be small or great, shall stand before him, Apoc. 20.12. and be judged according to their works.

[2. I infer, that those men do God great disser­vice, who either carelesly overlook, or designedly en­deavour to suppress and keep from the notice of the world, these remarkable Divine Judgments: or (when by reason of their own publique circum­stances they cannot but be taken notice of by o­thers) attempt to slur, and stifle as much as they can, the evidence of those particularities which so much conduce to the preserving and propaga­ting the knowledge of God in the world. Those of the former sort are injurious in an high degree to God; who, when he exposeth his glorious At­tributes to view as on a Theater, will not vouch­safe to be spectators of them. But those of the lat­ter rank are prodigiously wicked. And yet too many even of these are to be found in all ages of [Page 50]the world, who study to darken Gods glory in such remarkable Judgments, and to lead the ap­prehensions that people naturally are apt to have of them, as far from God and Providence as they can find any colour to do. Thus the Egyptian Magicians (encouraged by a prophane Atheistical King, as well as prompted thereto, by their own malice) emulated the miracles that Moses did, and by frequent attempts to do the like; endea­voured to persuade the People, that there was no­thing in them beyond the power of created be­ings to effect; till God at last in the plague of the Lice, drew from them an unwilling confession, that neither they nor their master the Devil could imitate it,Exod. 8.19. and that therefore it was the finger of God. And it seems to me, that the Priests and Di­viners of the Philistines, were willing (when they were called into consultation what to do with the Ark of God) to have carried on as bad a design, and to have persuaded both themselves and the people that it was a disputable case, whether the God of Israel had inflicted those Judgments upon them,1 Sam. 6.9. which they had suffered; or whether it were a meer chance that had befaln them. And therefore, though they speak some good words concerning the God of Israel, and give their ad­vice, that if they returned the Ark, they should make him some Presents too, (it may be forced thereunto, as Caiaphas prophesied, by a Divine impulse) yet they contrive to put the determina­tion of that great Question upon the issue of such an odd Experiment, as without a miraculous in­fluence of the Lord of all the Creatures upon those that they imployed, would in all rational probability have determined it against God. For it was ten thousand to one odds, but that the Kine (being milch Kine, and their Calves newly [Page 51]taken from their sides, and shut up in their sight, just as they were put into the Cart, that was by their advice to carry the Ark) being let loose without a driver, had turned, as nature would prompt them, the same way their young ones had gone, rather than towards the Land of Israel. And a foul scandal it is to the Christian Name, that too many of those who bear it, do herein act, as if they joyned in design with the fore-mentioned Heathens. For, besides the downright Atheists, (too many of whom pass muster now adays un­der Christs colours) whom I have before confu­ted; the sottish and prophane generation of men are desirous to look beside God in all such strokes; lest by confessing his hand in them, they should be obliged to be more Religions, than sutes the Interest of their Lusts. Whence, in the calami­ties which at any time befall themselves or others, those of them who pretend to but the least smat­tering in Philosophy, seek for causes to assign them to, either in the general order of Nature, moved when once set a going, without any special hand of God governing the motion of it self; or in the Influence of superiour Bodies upon the inferiour, by the Conjunctions and Oppositions, or other Aspects of Planets, in imaginary Houses, which the inventions of jugling Astrologers have built for them in the Heavens to consult and quarrel in, about the government of the lower world; or to the distempers at some seasons naturally cor­rupting the Elements, and by them the bodies, yea and the very minds of men. Others of a lower rank in their Intellectuals, through an ig­norant malice suspect the evil Tongues of some persons who have some way or other (and often undeservedly) gotten an evil Name among their Neighbours; or it may be, accuse the Devil him­self [Page 52]for paying them some ill turns he owed them, though they were never known to have carried themselves so towards him as to deserve any such usage from him. In all which, and the like con­jectures, it is the main business of the champions of Ignorance and Prophaneness, to cast a mist be­fore their own eyes and other mens, to obscure the Providence of God in those Judgments which he executeth, lest he should be known by them. Which certainly is a crime of the greatest magnitude: for it argues an envy at the glory which Gods wonderful Providences are wont to procure him in the world: than which there can hardly any attempt be conceived more Sa­tanical.

[3. We may hence infer, How great Reason there is, that such Judicial Providences should be exactly taken notice of, and with all the notable circumstances which most manifest God, recorded, and transmitted to Posterity. The learned and judicious Lord Verulam takes notice of it as a de­fect in the historical part of Learning,De aug. [...]. ent. l. 2. that there is not extant an impartial and well-attested Hi­storia Nemeseos, (as he calls it) an account of the most remarkable Judgments of God on notorious offenders; and complains of it. And it were to be wished, that God would put it into the heart of some supreme Magistrates to promote so god­ly a Design by their Authority, that the great Judgments of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords might be preserved in publique avowed Records, as their own Judgments are. For certainly it would be a great check to the Atheism that so reigns in the world at this day, to have such publique te­stimonies preserved against them to stop their prophane mouths withal, when they take liber­ty to cry down God and Providence. And such [Page 53]a work cannot be done effectually to such a purpose, but with their encouragement and as­sistance, who are able to oblige the Relators of such signal Providential strokes, by the sacred tye of an Oath, to speak the Truth, all the Truth, and nothing but the Truth, in Gods cause, as well as mens: and severely to punish those persons, who shall appear upon due examinati­on to lye for God, or against him. But seeing such a design is rather to be wished, than ho­ped to be carried on, in such an Age as this; I forbear to insist longer on this Point; and in the fourth place infer,

[4. That those private Persons, in the defect of more publique endeavours in this kind, do God good service, and much oblige Posterity; who take what honest pains they can, in so profita­ble a discovery, by enquiring into, and infor­ming themselves and others from good Evi­dence, of such Instances of Gods just Provi­dence, as their Ages and the places they live in afford. For however some Atheistical spirits are, according to their wont, apt to slight and despise them: yet, abundance of serious and considering Persons, do, and 'tis to be suppo­sed, will, in after-Ages, make great advantages by them.

[5. And yet this must be attempted with great care and caution, as a thing which we cannot lay out too much circumspect diligence and industry. Which also follows from my Text and Doctrine. For those Judgments by which the Lord is known, must be first known to be, and to be his Judg­ments; that is, it must be known that such things, as to matter of Fact, are certain; and that they are accompanied with such circum­stances as carry in them a moral certainty also, [Page 54](as I before told you) that they are in­flicted by God upon such an account: be­cause if there be a rational doubt of the one, or the other, there must be an equal uncer­tainty in the conclusions drawn from such un­certain Premises.

Wherefore, it is certainly a foul and hai­nous crime, and a thing highly injurious both to God and man, for any Person or Persons, either out of a misguided zeal for God, or out of a particular fond affection to any Party in Religion, and much more, upon the account of any more unjustifiable Passion; to become a for­ger of Divine Judgments: or a busic reporter and spreader of such Forgeries. For this is to speak wickedly for God, Job 1 [...].7. and talk deceitfully for him; which Job chargeth with great abhorren­cy upon his friends; as judging it a most un­becoming thing to endeavour to prop up the Cause of the God of Truth with falshoods. Nor indeed is it less mischievous, than it is unsutable, to the interest it pretends to defend. For though one or two such pious frauds may prove at the first, (in some juncture of Time where­in simple and well-meaning devotion prevails over the inquisitive humour of Mankind) to be some way serviceable to the Design they were coined for: yet in process of Time, as the state of Religion alters, and men (having it, may be discovered the fallacy) grow more nice of belief in such matters; the case is quite dif­ferent. For then strikes in (ordinarily) the subtil Atheist or misbeliever, and aggravates the flaws he finds in such stories, as are really ob­noxious, to the blemishing the Reputation of the most undoubted Records of Christianity it self. And it can hardly be imagined what a [Page 55]foul imputation upon that holy Religion of our blessed Saviour amongst Atheists and other Infidels, those Cart-loads of Monkish stories in the Romish Church have occasioned; wherein the Miracles of their fictitious Saints, and the Judgments of God upon their pretended Adversaries, are equally nume­rous; and yet both so grosly contrived, that the un­skilfulness of the bungling Inventers saves the con­futers of them the pains of any studied Arguments to disprove them. And yet with such a fottish credulity are the generality of that Religion pos­sessed, that there is hardly any one who was emi­nently instrumental in the Reformation, but they can tell you of some miraculous Judgment of God that brought him to his End; which they believe with equal faith to what they have for the Gospel it self: even that of Luthers body being carried away out of his Coffin by the Devil, which he himself lived to disprove by his own Pen.

And it were well if it could be said of them only, that they prop up a cause with lying wonders (as is prophesied of them) that needs it:2 Thes. 2.9. and that the indiscreet zeal of others, who would be thought to have better Consciences, as they have (wherein they differ from them) a better Cause, did not make use of their Example too much, and treat their Bre­thren of different Judgments in the petty disputes that divide them into Parties, in the same unchari­table manner. At least it were to be desired, if such hot spirits will needs continue (with Solo­mons Mad-man) to cast Fire-brands one at another;Prov. 26.18. that they would not (with the Poets Prometheus) steal fire from Heaven to kindle them withall, by forging miraculous Providences to blast the Reputa­tion of those Causes they are prejudiced against, in the Persons of those that defend them.

[6. Lastly, we may learn hence, on all hands, to make a more beneficial use of Gods Judicial Provi­dences: to wit, that of the Text, to endeavour to advance in the knowledge of God by them. Which Duty (according to the usual extent of that Phrase in Scfipture) includes many particulars.

(1. As first, If any of us be sufferers under any such strokes, as our own Consciences suggest to us are Divine Judgments: we are betwixt God and our own souls to endeavour to take up the Contro­versie which he seems to have with us betimes: and in order thereunto to acknowledge and bewail those known sins which we are convinced of; and in a more special manner, those which our own hearts seize on in fresh pursuit as the particular causes of that displeasure from God, under which we lie: to humble our selves under his mighty Hand, and remove by serious reformation and amendment of life, out of his sight, whatever is offensive to those pure eyes which cannot behold evil, Hab. 1.13. or look on iniquity.

And if it be not clear to us what particular quar­rel God hath with us; or that he hath an especial cause given him beyond the ordinary frailties of humanity; so that (as to any known great crime) we are as clear as Job himself; yet we are (as he is well advised, and also of himself resolves before that advice) to say to God, Job 10.2.34.31, 32. shew me wherefore thou contendest with me: and that which I see not, teach thou me: and if I have done iniquity, I will do so no more.

This is to be done betwixt God and our own Consciences, if none but God and they be ac­quainted with our circumstances.

But if our Cases and our Crimes too be already by Gods Providence exposed to the publique notice, it is our duty in this Case to go farther; and to evidence our true Repentance to the world, by a [Page 57]true, free, and ingenious acknowledgement, ju­stifying God, and giving glory to him, Ps. 51.4, Josh. 7.19. as David and Achan did; and warning others not to offend him in like manner, by our Example.

And in all these cases, if the present Judgment be upon such courses taken, removed; and Gods Hand turned away from us: we are our selves to take heed we sin thus no more, lest a worse thing come unto us: and not provoke him,John 5.1 [...]. (by a feigned humi­liation whilst we are under his correcting hand, de­stitute of real amendment) to do as he threatens, i. e. punish us seven times more, and augment his se­verities, till our wound become incurable, Lev. 26. Jer. 15.18. 2 Chron. 26.16. and past remedy.

(2. If we be (as in Epidemical Judgments) sufferers in common with others; our duty is, (in­stead of shifting off the blame upon others) each man in particular to own his own share in the com­mon guilt,1 King. 8.38. (as knowing the plague of his own heart) and by true Repentance and amendment to lessen the publique Load which he hath contributed to greaten; and call on others, as he hath opportuni­ty, to do the like: and lastly, when he hath ren­dred himself fit for that charitable office to the pub­lique, by having recovered his own Innocence, to intercede earnestly and affectionately, (using his renewed Interest with a reconciled God) for the society to which he doth belong.

(3. If we be bare hearers or beholders of Gods great severities upon others, and our selves free; we are then,

(1.) Wisely to consider his doings: Ps. 64. [...]. so as to ob­serve carefully what of God more than ordinary ap­pears in them: that we may give him the glory of those perfections, which he hath thereby rendred most conspicuous, for which those that have plea­sure in his works specially study them.

(2.) And particularly, to endeavour to reduce Gods Providences of this kind (as well as all others) to the Rule of his written word; and observe the correspondency they bear each to other. For this will serve us to very great purposes, in order to a firm faith in him, and fear of him, when we can say,Lev. 10.3. (with Moses in the case of Nadab and Abihu) This is that which the Lord hath said.

(3.) To lay them up in memory as a choice trea­sure, to be made use of when occasion serves. For God expects his great works should make deep Im­pressions in the minds of men. And therefore some Interpreters read that clause of Psal. Psala 111. A. Vers. Tig. 111. which we render, He hath made his wonderful works to be remembred, [Memorioe consecravit] he hath de­voted or consecrated them to remembrance. Where­in they imply, that it carries in it a kind of sacri­lege, to let them slip through our memories as com­mon and inconsiderable things. And he takes no­tice of it himself as a great crime in the Israelites, That they remembred not his hand, Psal. [...]8. [...] 43. how he wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan.

(4.) And to improve that remembrance, as occa­sion is offered, by applying it to our selves and o­thers, according to the sutableness that those Pro­vidences bear to the cases to which they are applicable. So when the Israelites were apt to be afraid of the mighty and numerous Enemies they were to en­counter, at their entrance into Canaan; God su­tably recalls to their memories,Dent. 7.16, 17. what he did to Pha­aoh and all Egypt. And when our Saviour would fortifie his Disciples against the Tentations to com­pliance with the obstinate and unbelieving Jews, in holding out the siege of Jerusalem, out of affection to their concerns there; having before told them of that great day of the Revelation of the Son of Man in his Judgments on that City,Luke 17. and that there [Page 59]wanted nothing to compleat its destruction in pro­portion to Sodom, but only the removing the Chri­stians thence,29, 30, 31, 34. (as they went afterwards to Pella out of the City) in conformity to Lots going out of Sodom: he bids them to remember Lots wife, whose tenderness of her concerns in Sodom, made her look back, and therefore by Gods just Judgment, in the very place, she was turned into a Statue of Salt. And the Psalmist comforted himself against Gods present Enemies, and their outragious inso­lences; by remembring Gods Judgments of old. Psal. 119.52.

(5.) And to be sensible of the special Mercy and Goodness of God to us, whom, it may be he hath as signally delivered when we were in equal guilt and danger with others, who no less signally perished: yea, possibly, when our own Consciences told us, that we our selves better deserved to have been made Examples of Divine severity, than they that were so.

Thus the returning Jews acknowledge with gra­titude the Mercy of God to them, that in the com­mon destruction of Jerusalem, Ezra 9.8. he had left them a remnant to escape; and to give them a nail in his holy place, i. e. a little, though but a weak fastning there. And so ought all those whom Gods Judg­ments have left, in publique calamities especially, like a few gleaning grapes after the Vintage, Isa. 27.6. as Isaiah expresseth the said Remnant of returning Jews.

(6.) To possess our hearts with a reverend and awful fear of that God,Ps. 66.5. who is terrible in his doings toward the children of Men. This use David made of Gods stroke upon Ʋzzah; 2 Sam. 6.9. he was afraid of the Lord that day. And the whole Christian Church, yea, the generality of men that heard of the un­usual deaths of Ananias and his wife, Acts 5.11. (as I before observed) were surprised with a great fear. When God as a Lion, does but roar in his threatnings, who will not fear? says Amos, and much more,Amos 3.8. [Page 60]when (as his contemporary Prophet expresseth it) he tears like a young Lion, Hos. 3.14 does he expect, certainly, that all men should serve him with fear, Ps. 2.11. and even those that rejoyce before him, (in the most festival exercises of Religion, wherein joy was part of the service required) should do it with trembling? Thus are Christian Gentiles taught, upon consideration of the noted severities of God towards his former people the Jews, Rom. 11. [...]. not to be high-minded, but fear; as also the Christian Jews, upon the remembrance of the severities of God towards their fore-fathers un­der the Law, in the very delivery whereof Moses himself said, I exceedingly fear and quake; are cal­led on by the same Apostle, to serve him with reve­rence and godly fear: as considering, that not only Mount Sinai, but Mount Sion also had its thun­drings, and the Gospel its terrours, as well as the Law: So that offenders against him that speaks from Heaven, shall not escape, more than they that de­spised him that spake on Earth; nay, shall rather be punished with more severity, because the God of Christians, Heb. 17. [...]1. to v. 2 [...]. as well as Jews, is, if provoked, a con­suming fire; and not to be met (as Isaiah expres­seth it) by thorns and briars set in array against him, [...]. 27.4. left he go through them, and burn them together.

(7.) Lastly, to improve that fear for our future Caution; that taking warning by his noted severi­ties towards others, we give him no occasion, by the same or like provocations, to take us in hand next. But especially, are we to take heed of those sins in particular, against which we are evidently convinced God hath given publique Testimonies by any remarkable Judgments. Which is the use the Apostle tells us we ought to make of the great Judg­ments of God, against the old Israelites left us up­on Record in Scripture. [...] Cor. 1 [...]. [...]om 6. to 11. All those things (which there he reckons up) befell them, says he, for ex­amples, [Page 61]and were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come: to the intent, as he implies it in several Instances, that we should not lust, or commit Idolatry, or Fornication, or tempt Christ, or murmur, as they did, for fear of the same or like Judgments.

And the like End surely God aims at, in those Judgments, which fall out in any Age or part of the world, to admonish men to repent of, and for the future, abstain from those Courses which (as it were) after violence to his Patience and long-fussering, and extort those notable severities from him, by the audacious importunity of their noto­rious Impieties.

And in all such cases the wise man (in Solomons Phrase) will hear and increase in learning, Prov. 1.5. by forti­fying himself against all Tentations to those sins, against which he seeth the Hand of God so nota­bly lifted up. So that if among all the jolly crew of sottish drunkards, but now and then one break his neck in his drunkenness, or by a cup-quarrel lose his life; (though withal many such should escape such ends, even so many as to give countenance to the profane Proverb, that drunken men come by no harm) yet the prudent man will lay those few contrary Instances to heart; and say in himself, Why should I not fear, if I despise such warnings, that I may be made the next Example in that kind? If there be a signal Instance in his Age, and within his observa­tion of a noted cruel oppressor, upon whose estate and house the curse of God remarkably descends, so that his posterity are either all buried in death, i. e. die obscurely,Job 27.15, &c. so as to be missed by scarce any body: or if any of them survive, they are not sa­tisfied with bread; but the great estates gotten by unlawful means, melt away like wax before the Sun, e're inherited by the third Generation; Prov. 3.31, 33. the [Page 62]serious observer will learn, not to envy him, nor choose any of his ways.

If the Examples should be more rare, than in these days they are,Luke 15.30. of a debauched Prodigal, spen­ding all his living with harlots, and by means of whorish women reduced from an ample Estate to a piece of bread: Prov. 6.26. or of some sinners in the same kind,Prov. 5.11. whose flesh and body are consumed with a loath­som disease, thereby receiving in themselves (in the Phrase of the Apostle, concerning uncleanness in another kind) that recompence of their errour which was meet: Rom. 1.27. the considering man will say with him­self, What security have I, that the same sin, if I follow it, will not reduce me to the same Case? If but the field of a sluggard be overgrown with thorns, and nettles cover the face thereof, &c. (i. e. his worldly estate goes backward for want of honest Industry) a wise Solomon will consider it, Prov. 25.32. and receive instruction. If the daring and audacious Appeals of a bold sin­ner to God in fearful Curses upon himself; or profane affectations of a new uncouth way of gal­lantry, by inventing new Imprecations against him­self: or the malicious shooting of bitter words as arrows in evil wishes against others; amongst men that love cursing, do but once or twice in an Age meet with a sutable stroke of Divine severity, and cursing come into the cursers bowels like water, Psal. 109.18. and as oyl into his bones: a considerate Christian will take heed,Ps. 39.1. that he offend not thus with his tongue; and by a solemn purpose, as with a bridle, keep his mouth from transgressing in that manner.

In a word, when all the places of Execution in a Nation become Pulpits, whence the miserable Ma­lefactors from their own woful experience, preach Recantation Sermons, wherein they renounce the evil Principles they have lived by, and warn all men of the dangerous consequences of licentious and de­bauched [Page 63]Courses: and the same Doctrine be also as frequently preached from the death-beds of other sinners, wherein the curses written in Gods book are verified in the eyes and ears of all men, except they wilfully shut them both: who, but a despe­rately forlorn wretch, will dare say in his heart, I shall have peace, Deut. 29.19, 20. though I walk in the imagination of mine own heart: i. e. gratifie my own sinful inclina­tions to satiety, as one that adds drunkenness to thirst? Against such an one, surely, (if any such there be) the anger of the Lord and his jealousie may well smoke, yea and burn (as he elsewhere threatens) to the lowest Hell; 32.22. the place appointed for them (says the Verse following my Text) that under such evi­dent tokens to remember him by, forget God. Ps. 9.17. And justly may God make them Examples themselves, whom the Examples of others will not amend: as being guilty of tempting his Justice beyond all pos­sibility of forbearance, by the ungrateful abusing of that Patience that should have led them to Repen­tance; of daring presumption upon that lenity and goodness which only hath given them that merciful reprieve,Ps. 66.9. by which their forfeited souls are held in life; of monstrous hardness and impenitency of heart, whereby they treasure up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath, Rom. 2.5. and the revelation of the righteous Judgment of God; and lastly, of prodigious mad­ness, and desperate foolhardiness, when as (notwith­standing the fearful Instances in all Ages by which God hath taught the world that none ever hardned himself against him, Job 9.4. and prospered, yet) as if they would wrestle a fall, or fight a duel with the Al­mighty, they run upon him even on his neck, Joh 1 15.25, 26. and on the thick bosses of his bucklers.

Believe it, sinner, believe it, (for Truth it self hath spoken it) though God spare thee a while,Eccles. 8.11. Neh. 9.17 and execute not sentence speedily against thy wicked [Page 64]works; Rom. 9.22. though he be slow to anger, and endure with much long-suffering the Vessels of wrath fitted for destruction; 2 Pet. 3.9. as not being willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance: yet will he not finally suffer his holy spirit to be vexed, his pa­tience to be trampled upon, his word and its warn­ings to be despised, and his Exemplary Execu­tions to be entertained only as news without any farther effect; but if the wicked turn not, he will whet his Sword, Psal. 7.1 [...].13. he will bend his bow and make it ready, and prepare for him the Instruments of death: and (when he hath stirred up all his wrath, Psal. 78.38. which yet in his great compassion he forbears) he will wound the head of his Enemies, Psal. 68.21. and the hairy scalp of all such as go on still in their trespasses; and either here or hereafter make them feel by experience, who without feeling would not believe it, what a fear­ful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God, Heb. 10.31. From which doleful experience God keep us all, for Jesus Christ his sake. Amen.