I.

the earth, fo great is his mercy toward them that fear 5 E R M. him. Like as a father pitieth his children, fo the Lord pitieth them that fear him; fo David ftrives to utter it, but with fimilitudes far fhort of the truth. If Pfal. ciii. any 11, 13. will come near to reach it, it is that in Mofes and Zechariah, when they are compared to the apple of Deut xxxii. God's eye, that is, to the most dear and tender part, zech. ii. 8. as it were, about him.

2

10.

14.

We find them often ftyled, and ever treated, as John. xv. friends and as children; and that in a fenfe tran- Chron. scending the vulgar fignification of those words; for, xx. 7. what friendship could endure, could pafs over, could forget, could admit an entire reconciliation, and reestablishment in affection after fuch heinous indignities, fuch infidelities, fuch undutifulness, as were thofe of Adam, of Noah, of David, of Peter? Who would have received into favour and familiarity a Manaffes, a Magdalen, a Paul? Who would fo far extend his regard upon the pofterity (upon such a pofterity, so untoward, fo unworthy) of his friend, as God did upon that of Abraham, in refpect unto him? What great prince would employ his principal courtiers to guard and ferve a poor attendant, a mean fubject of his? Yet, The angel of the Lord en- Pfal. xxxiv. campeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth1· them; and many inftances we have of thofe glorious inhabitants of heaven by God's appointment ftooping down to wait upon, and to perform fervice to the fons of men. But upon examples of this nature, being numberless, and compofing indeed the main body of the facred history (it being chiefly designed to represent them), I fhall not infift; I fhall only observe, for preventing or fatisfying objections (yea, indeed, for turning them to the advantage and confirmation of that which we affert), that even in those cases *, where

in

* Γίνεται φιλανθρωπία ἡ τιμωρία· ὕτω γὰρ ἐγὼ πείθομαι κολάζειν Θεόν. Naz. Orat. 38.

'Eyw

1.

SER M. in God's highest severity hath been exercised, when God hath purposed to exhibit most dreadful instances of his juftice upon the most provocative occafions; we may difcern his goodness eminently fhewing itself: that even in the greateft extremity of his difpleasure, in his acts of highest vengeance, Jam. ii. 13. mercy doth xaтanavxárdal Tus neiosws (as St. James fpeaketh) boaft itself, and triumph over juftice:* that God, as the fun (to ufe Tertullian's fimilitude) when he seems moft to infeft and scorch us, doth even then dispense useful and healthful influences upon us. Even, I fay, in the most terrible and amazing examples of divine juftice (such as were the ejecting and excluding mankind from paradife; the general deftruction in the deluge; the exfcinding and extirpation of the Amorites, together with other Vide Chryf. inhabitants of Canaan; the delivering Ifrael and JuTom. 6. Or. dah into the Affyrian thraldom, the final deftruction

8. p. 63.

optime.

of Jerufalem, together with the difperfion of the Jewish nation over the world, and its fad confe quences) we may (not hardly) obferve particulars, more than favouring of great mercy and goodness.

1. That (in most of these cafes, in all according to fome account) God was not moved to the displeasure productive of thofe effects but upon very great confiderations. That he did not feek advantages, nor embrace all occafions; but was incenfed by fuperlative degrees of iniquity and impurity (fuch in their own nature, and much aggravated by their circumftances), fuch as rendered common life inconvenient, and infupportable to men; made the earth to ftink

Ἐγὼ τοσαύτην περιεσίαν εἶναι φημὶ τῆς τὸ Θεὸ κηδεμονίας, ως μὴ μόνον ἀφ' ὧν ἐτίμησεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀφ ̓ ὧν ἐκόλασεν ὁμοίως ἡμᾶς δύνασθαι τὴν ἀγα δότητα αὐτῇ δεικνύναι, καὶ τὴν φιλανθρωπίαν. Chryf. άνδρ. ζ'.

Ὁ Θεὸς ἀπαθὴς ὢν, κἂν εὐεργετῇ, καν κολάζῃ, ὁμοίως ἐςὶν ἀγαθός. Ibid.

* Tunc maxime eft optimus, cum tibi non bonus; ficut Sol tibi etiam quando non putas optimus et utilis, &c. Tertull. in Marc. ii. 2.

with their filth and corruption; to groan under the s ER M. burthen and weight of them; to pant and labour for

a riddance from them.

18,

I.

2. That God did not upon the first glimpses of provocation proceed to the execution and discharge of his wrath, but did with wonderful patience expect a change in the offenders, waiting to be gracious, as the Ifa. xxx. Prophet speaketh; affording more than competent time, and means more than fufficient of appeafing him by repentance; vouchfafing frequent admonitions, folicitations, threatenings, moderate corrections, and other fuch proper methods conducing to their amendment, and to their preservation.

3. That their inflictions themselves, how grievous foever in appearance, were not really extreme in meafure; not accompanied with fo acute torments, nor with fo lingering pains, nor with fo utter a ruin, as might have been inflicted; but that (as Ezra, in refpect to one of thofe cafes, confeffeth) they were lefs Ez.jx. 13. than their iniquities deferved. That (as it is in the Pfalm) He did not fir up all his wrath; which would Pfal.lxxviii, have immediately confumed them, or infinitely tor- 38, mented them.

4. That (confequently upon fome of those premifes) the afflictions brought upon them were in a fort rather neceffary than voluntary in refpect of him; rather a natural fruit of their difpofitions and dealings, than a free refult of his will; however con- Ezek. xviii. trary to his primary intentions and defires. Whence 23, 32. he no less truly than earnestly disclaims having any Lam. iii. 33. pleafure in their death, that he afflicted willingly, or grieved the children of men; and charged their difafters upon themselves, as the fole caufes of them..

5. That farther, the chastisements inflicted were wholfome and profitable, both in their own nature, and according to his defign; both in respect to the generality of men (who by them were warned, and by fuch examples deterred from incurring the like mifchiefs;

xxxiii. 11.

Hof. xiii. 9.

13.

I.

SER M. mischiefs; * were kept from the inconveniences, fecured from the temptations, the violences, the allurements, the contagions of the present evil state; according to that reafon alledged for punishments of Deut. xvii. this kind: All the people fhall hear, and fear, and do no more prefumptuously) and in regard to the fufferers themselves, who thereby were prevented from proceeding farther in their wicked courfes; accumulatRom. ii. 5. ing (or treasuring up, as the Apostle speaketh) farther degrees of wrath, as obdurate and incorrigible people will furely do: (Why, faith the Prophet, should ye be fricken any more? (to what purpose is moderate correction?) Ye will revolt more and more.) That he did with a kind of violence to his own inclinations, and Hof. xi. 8. reluctancy, inflict punishments on them. O Ephraim, bow fhall I give thee up, O Ephraim? Yea farther,

Ifa. i. 5. xxvi. 10.

15.

20.

6. That, during their fufferance, God did bear 1. Ixiii. 9, compaffion toward them who underwent it. His Hof. xi. 8. bowels, as we are told, founded and were troubled; his Jer. xxxi. beart was turned within him; his repentings were kindled Gen. vi. 3. together; in all their afflictions himself was afflicted; he remembered and confidered they were but duft; that they 14. lxxviii, were but flesh (that they were but of a weak and frail temper; that they were naturally prone to corruption and evil), and did therefore pity their infirmity, and their mifery.

viii. 21.

Pfal. cii.

39.

Hab. iii. 2. 7. That God in his wrath remembered mercy (as the prophet Habakkuk fpeaks), mixing gracious intenGen. vi. 3. tions of future refreshment and reparation with the Jer. xxix. prefent executions of juftice. I know (faith he in the 11. xxxiii. prophet Jeremiah) the thoughts that I think toward you ;

viii. 21.

6.

thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Behold, I will bring health and cure, I will cure them, and will reveal unto them abundance of peace and

Chryf. 'Andp..

Ομᾶ καὶ δικασὴς καὶ ἰατρὸς καὶ διδάσκαλός ἐσιν ὁ Θεός. Ibid.

† Επιτίθησι τιμωρίαν, ε τῶν ἀπελθόντων απαιτῶν δίκην, ἀλλὰ τὰ μέλα Aorta diop Sapavos. Chryf. tom. 8. p. 99.

truth.

truth. And, For a fmall moment (faith he again in SER M. Ifaiah) have I forfaken thee; but with great mercies will I I. gather thee. And, Ye shall be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought upon Jerufalemand ye fhall Ifa. liv. 7. know, that I have not done without caufe all that I have 23. done in it; faith the Lord (he faith so in Ezekiel) without cause, that is, without a beneficial design toward them,

Ezek. xiv.

8. Laftly, That he always fignified a readiness to turn from his anger, and to forgive them; and upon very equal and eafy terms to be fully reconciled to them; according to that in the Pfalmift, He doth not Pfal, ciii. g. always chide, neither will be keep his anger for ever; but upon any reasonable overtures of humiliation, confeffion, and converfion to him, was ready to abate, yea, to remove the effects of his difpleafure: Thou Pfal, xcix. waft a God that forgaveft them, though thou tookeft vengeance of their inventions.

8.

Thefe particulars, if we attentively survey those dreadful examples of divine feverity forementioned (the greatest which hiftory acquaints us with, or which have been fhewed on this theatre of human affairs), we may obferve most of them in all, all of them in fome, either plainly expreffed, or fufficiently infinuated by the circumstances obfervable in the hiftorical narrations concerning them; fo that even the harshest instances of God's wrathful dealing with fome men, may well ferve to the illuftration of his mercy and goodnefs toward all men; may evince it true, what our Lord affirms, that God is, xensòs ini axagísus xai movngès, kind and beneficent even to the Luke vi. 35. moft ingrateful and unworthy perfons. To make which obfervation good, and confequently to affert the verity of our text (that God is good unto all, and merciful over all his works) againft the most plaufible exceptions, I fhall examine the particulars in the following difcourfe.

SERMON