in our miseries And therefore if it were not he that smote us why should we turn unto him Why should we forsake a beloved sin to seek a Lord who doth neither good nor evil Whereas God owns the works of natural causes as well as those whose speed and greatness discover his immediate hand The Plague of Locusts was confessed to be as much an effect of his indignation on Egypt as any of the other prodigious Punishments for they desired Moses to intercede for their removal Exod. 10.13 19. yet it is said that an East wind brought them and a West wind carried them away But when God hides himself behind a traverse of immediate Instruments and wraps up his all-disposing hand in a cloud when as the Psalmist saith Psal 97.2 Clouds and darkness are round about him we seldom consider the Righteousness and Judgment which are the habitation of his Throne Thus while God God suffered the Devil to rival him in power so that the Magicians could vie wonders with the servants of the most High Pharaoh concluded the Lord's hand was not in the Plagues he discredited the Credentials of Moses which were his Miracles as the issues of some common art and rejected the Embassie for it is said Exod. 7.23 That he turned and went into his house neither did he set his heart to this also 2. Sometimes though men acknowledge the evil which befalls them was the Lords doing and through a cloud of tears behold the brightness of Gods power yet they render Judgments ineffectual to their amendment by assigning them as vengeances for other mens sins and punishments for the abominations of those who differ from them from whence they conclude Repentance to be the duty of others and there needs no change in themselves The several parties of men do in common miseries as routed Souldiers in a defeat transfer the blame from themselves and lay the cause of an overthrow upon anothers shoulders How often have ye heard every one of those Judgments which have faln upon this Land by men of different Parties charged upon the sins of their contrary Faction This side thinks the Rebellion of the other and the innocent bloud they have shed did cry so loud for vengeance that the Almighty could not rest till he arose to avenge it on the Inhabitants of the earth That side imagines the Luxury profaneness and impieties of their Opposites to wearie the patience of God till he take away our comforts and strip us of all our glories One Sect believes that all the sad Providences under which we groan are but the inseparable concomitants of a war which God now wages against Antichrist whom they think is to be seated among those who are dissenters from them The other is as firmly perswaded that the Schisms Haeresies Blasphemies of the Holy Spirit the neglect of Publick worship the malicious and designed Disbedience to lawful Magistrates the Vncharitableness and Envy of their fellow Subjects which the others are infamous with have justly provoked the God of pure eyes to make his anger smoak against such an infatuated and perverse Generation as this is Thus every Party confines Gods love and hatred by their own measures and are so far in love with what is theirs that they think God doats upon their Cause as much as they do themselves and therefore suppose he calls others only to return their business is to stand still Whereas all and every Party yea the best of men have sins enough to justifie Gods greatest severity his indignation calls for all our tears and his Judgments make no difference In the Pestilence we saw the same pit devour the spotted Carkasses that had before ranged themselves under contrary Perswasions nor was the destroying Angel more tender of one Congregation than another The late Fire preyed upon the stock and dwellings of the Orthodox and Fanatick and the houses of private Meetings together with publick Churches were mingled in the ashes And should our provoked God give us over into our Enemies hands they would spare no Sect that had wherewithall to gratifie their lust and rage Therefore in such Common Judgments we can never do our duty till every one be affected as the conscious Prophet and take up his confession Jon. 1.12 I know that for my sake this tempest this misery is come upon you And could we be so happy to attain to a common repentance and walk by the same rule in turning to the Lord it would remove that other Judgment of our Divisions which is pregnant with many mischiefs for the Apostle assures us Phil. 3.15 If in any thing else ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal this even unto you 3. Some men by their very deliverance from a Judgment through a prodigious folly become impenitent after it accustomed dangers harden the escaped fool oftentimes to a stupidity the ruder Mariners that have weathered out several storms will steal blaspheme and be drunk in the next tempest Dion Cassius tells us That Catiline being accused for the murders and rapines committed on those whom Sylla had proscribed and escaping the condemnation under which others fell for the same crimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dio. Rom. Hist l. 37. did from this grow much worse and by this did at last perish So we often see him that hath come off safe from one Judgment careless to avoid another by the amendment of his life especially if he can any way fancie that he owes his deliverance to some poor Art of his own for then he promises himself that without the austerities of Repentance or making himself any longer a burden to Providence the same Arts or the like shall be his constant refuge And wicked men are alwaies confident in their own counsels The Prophet charges the impenitencie of the scornful men of Jerusalem upon the confidence of their own Arts Isa 28.15 For they said We have made a Covenant with Death and with Hell are we at agreement when the overflowing scourge shall pass through it shall not come nigh us c. Besides this the prospect of some advantages which a deliverance represents takes off all thoughts of repenting in those that are escaped and employs them to gather up the relicks of anothers ruine the spoils of a common wrack to repair the breaches of their own fortunes or encrease their estates So that they conceive a publick Judgment to lose its nature as to them and that it was but a kindness of heaven to advance their private interest and therefore they interpret those loud Calls to repentance to signifie in their sense invitations to eat drink and be merry because they have more goods laid up for them Thus the men of Samaria turned not to him that smote them because they saw an advantage arise from the blow Isa 9. 10. For they said in the pride and stoutness of their hearts The bricks are faln down but we will build with hewn stone the Sycomores are
the labours of men to secure themselves from indignation and escape the wrath of an incensed God being forced at last to submit to the execution and end their daies with horrour and lamentation he who had an experience that there was no safety but in righteousness Gen. 7.1 that it alone had made an Ark for a Sanctuary to his Father and his Family yet even this man entred upon the new world with all the sins of the old and revived those impieties and injustices for which God before had cut men off from the face of the earth The Israelites were as it were pulled up by the roots from the Land of their Fathers carried in chains to Babylon and there made to serve so heavie a service as rendred the Egyptian bondage inconsiderable Jer. 23.7 8. and was imbittered with the various reproaches of their God Yet this very people when they were delivered in so miraculous a manner that they could scarce believe their own happiness and doubted their freedom to be but a day-dream Psal 126.1 and their safety too great for a reality yet soon declared by their practices that they had left nothing but their chains at Babylon and came home loaded with their old crimes of Violence Oppression and Uncleanness for which God before had made their Land to mourn It is needless to recite more instances what hath been already done may be done again It deferves our consideration to enquire into those dreadful causes that bring this possibility to an actual existence that render ineffectual to the reforming of our lives the Judgments of God either as threatned or executed 1. The bare threatning of Judgments is one of those methods the Divine wisdom thinks fit to use to draw men off from their sins to warn before he strikes and to brandish his Sword over our heads before he wounds them that if by this means men would be brought to repent of the evil of their doings he would repent of the evil he had spoken against them This was he pleased to do in the Old Testament very particularly He sent his Servants the Prophets to such and such a Nation or People that they should deal clearly and plainly charge them with their sins denounce Judgments in proportion to them and in particular determine the limits of the time wherein they should come to pass as within three years Isa 16.14 Jon. 3.4 as years of an hireling within forty daies And yet many of these were not regarded so that the threatnings being despised the execution took place on them In the times of the New Testament though God is not so particular yet is he as positive Rom. 1 13. For the general declarations of his wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness attested unto by so many several instances of such that have faln under this wrath leave every man to conclude God's anger against his own particular sins as certainly as if a Prophet had been sent on purpose unto him For it is not the appearance of a Prophet nor his particular application that makes the threatnings of God effectual because then all would have been prevailed upon to repentance to whom the Prophets did address themselves which it is plain they were not Or more certain for no one particular Prophet can possibly have so many evidences of his being sent by God as there are of the whole Scripture of Jesus himself and all the Prophets which spake by his Spirit So that whosoever is not moved at all by these threatnings of God in his Word though general the same person would also despise a Prophet had he no other business from Heaven but to forewarn him what should be the issue of his sins Besides these general denunciations may by prudent observation be fixed to particular Times and Persons Our Saviour told the Jews it was as possible for them to know the signs of the times Mat. 16.3 Luk. 12.56 that is the approach of Judgments as to tell what weather the face of the skie will wear-the next day For there are some previous Circumstances in the state of affairs in the lives and conversations of men by which wise persons may gather Publick cālamities and ruines are hard at hand such as are the general debaucheries of mens manners the impudence of sins obstinacie in the prosecution of our lusts contempt of the worship of God either cherishing or chastising us By these and the like the approaches of common distress and troubles are as conspicuous as a following storm or tempest is in the gathering together of the blacker clouds 2 Chro. 25.14 15 16. When Amaziah the King of Judah was so strangely infatuated as to forsake the God who had given him a wonderful victory and to worship those of his defeated enemies which could not deliver their own people out of his hand and was so obstinate in his follie as to terrifie the reproving Prophet the Prophet concludes from thence that his destruction was nigh for it is said that he forbare and said I know that God hath determined to destroy thee because thou hast done this and hast not hearkened unto my counsel Nor are such Conclusions to be drawn from mens practises by Prophets only Macchiavel who was conceived to be no great admirer of God's waies of Providence yet being true to his own observations sets this down as a rule of Augurie of the state of Nations Disc l. 1. c. 12. Nissuno maggiore inditio si puote havere dalla rouina d'una provincia che redere dispregiato il culto divino We cannot have a greater sign of the ruine of a people than to see the Worship of God despised Thus many men prudentially comparing together the Word of God with his most usual Providences and applying them to the times and lives of men have been able to foresee and declare those future events which have as certainly come to pass as if a present Inspiration had enabled them to prophecie So that the threatnings of God how general soever they are may yet be brought home to the hearts and consciences of particular persons to move them to a serious repentance without the expectation of Prodigies or some portentuous Signs from Heaven which are dark and ambiguous in their event But if these prove ineffectual to this great end the fault is not to be imputed to any defect in the Divine goodness as having waved his former methods of long-suffering and patience and intending to surprize us but to the various and strong corruptions of men which truly are those hardening causes that make them not hearken unto God And such are these 1. Some harden themselves by Infidelity and that wisdom of the World which is now in Vogue Not to believe any thing but what brings a demonstration to our reason or satisfies our sense to an assent therefore because things future are not to be demonstrated nor
cut down but we will change them into Cedars By these and several such like follies do many men transform their deliverance it self to a greater Judgment and make the saving of some temporal concernment the occasion of their spiritual ruine Lastly Corruptions and Lusts having got strength by frequent satisfactions and by a constant practice arrived to habits of sin are not to be taken off by common and ordinary means but are as the Leprosie when got into the walls Lev. 14.45 that was not to be removed but by pulling down the whole house The instances of impossibilities are used to express the difficulty of reforming a customary sinner Jer. 13.23 Can the Aethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots Then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil It is a miracle of Mercy and an extraordinary triumph of Grace if ever an habitual sinner be changed or altered For sin by wilful and habitual enterprises having gotten dominion makes the soul of man naturally uncapable of the means of Repentance The Scripture tells us what strange monsters men become by constant practises of Iniquity Zech. 7.12 Their heart is as an Adamant and exceeds the hardness of rocks their foreheads are as brass Jer. 6.28 that cannot blush at the reproaches of any wickedness The Historian observes Tac. An. l. 110. of those that are grown to the height of impiety Novissima voluptas est infamia Infamy is their last pleasure their understanding which is naturally impaired by frequent acts of sin is debased to the narrowness of sense and therefore to the most stupid Creatures doth the Holy Ghost compare them as to the Oxe Isa 1.3 the Asse the wild-Asses Colt the deaf Adder Job 11.12 Psal 58.4 Hos 7.11 the silly Dove and the wandring Sheep and the advantage lies on the side of the beast In this condition they will blindly charge through a legion of destroying Angels to come to their sinful enjoyments and to attain their wicked hopes In such persons all the gracious methods to repentance are disappointed For the Prophet observes Isa 26.10 that Let favour be shewed to the wicked yet will he not learn righteousness So that goodness prevails not nor is wrath more succesful for it is added Ver. 11. Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see All Corrections and Chastisements bestowed upon these are like blows spent upon wilde beasts which do rather more enrage than tame them These are the dreadful causes which make good the supposition in the Text that bring the possibility into an actual being and therefore require all our industry and caution to avoid them lest they betray us to the sadness of the inevitable consequence Which is next to be considered it being The second part of the Text Then will I punish you seven times more for your sins Wherein the Consequent which is Punishment and the necessity of the Consequence I will punish do first require your contemplations 1. That punishment should follow sin there seems to be a necessity of nature For were sin rightly considered and did it appear as hateful in our eyes as it is in the eyes of God and good men we should see so much misery in it self separated from the horrid train of its effects and merits that we should deem it torment enough to satisfie any revengeful Adversary without the superadditions of his fierce anger Men reckon for punishments not only the loss of Life or Limb or Estate but put into the Catalogue a forfeiture of priviledges the degrading from honours and the imposition of base and servile offices All this is Sin in it self for it is a renouncing of all our rights to the Divine Goodness a laying aside our robes of righteousnes a stripping and making our selves naked of innocency which is the glory and honour of the Creature and it is also a drudging and service of the soul to the carnal appetite which was appointed to be her slave This seems to be so accounted by God for he is said to hide his face from the sinner which though it admit many other senses yet may be also true in this that he doth as a Father who is unwilling to see his child carried about as a publick shame or behold him panting upon a Wrack And pious men apprehend it no otherwise for the transgression exacts more tears and groans from them than the terrours of a pursuing anger There is indeed a different respect betwixt sin and punishment as commonly apprehended because that is our own choice when this is accounted the effect of anothers displeasure yet the event diminutio capitis a real loss is the same in both which in one comes forth by way of emanation in the other waits the formality of a Judge and Sentence But this may be thought a notion too nice for our grosser apprehensions and indeed God's Justice is not satisfied in it as not fully answering his ends in punishing For it is not enough for the correction of the sinner who by his sin being grown more sensual must be afflicted there where he is most delighted Nor is it enough for the terrour of others who cannot survey and be warned by our spiritual losses Therefore he hath established between them a 2d Consequence as from a necessary cause to the effect all the effects of sin being afflicting and consuming For wickedness burneth as the fire Isa 9.18 it devours the briars and thorns Iniquity preys upon the Transgressour if it be let alone till it hath consumed him For every sin doth in its way and measure either waste the body fill it with diseases abate its strength shorten its day obstruct its lawful delights and keep off the solid comforts of life or it impairs the reasonable Faculties weakens the Vnderstanding confines it to poor and low cares limits and restrains the Will cloggs it in its brave essaies pinions it as to noble flights discomposes the passions with sad apprehensions or frolicks of madness Or else it plainly wastes his Estate brings the sinner himself from a plentiful Table to a morsel of bread and sends his Children to seek their meat in desolate places Or else it corrupts his Fame makes his Memory an execration and his Name an astonishment These are real punishments which thus afflict the Transgressour and raise an horrour in those that are about him God having put a kind of Nemesis a vindicative Justice in the course of things and chained Sin and Punishment together as the Romans did their Malefactors to the Souldiers that were to be the Keepers or Executioners But this is not all for there is a 3. Necessity of the Consequence which is that of Justice to the Merit From sin immediately flows guilt which is an obligation to punishment answerable unto it and the execution of it depends not upon the bare efficacy of sin but upon the Rectitude of some Cause without who as a Judge or