sentence of dividing the child would have thought it cruelty if he had gon away without seeing or after knowing the end and effect much more may we mistake the Allwise God if we look on his providence by piece-meals and wait not till we see the issue For thô there be sin in all and that be the only meritorious cause of death yet that is original sin that is alike in all from Adam all being equally related to him so that thence coms no distinction of this or that kind of death but as most conceive from actual transgressions Which being not discernd in infants who yet die in great variety both in regard of diseases and violent murders their death is generally laid on their parents as the widow of Sarepia cried to Elijah art thou come unto me to call my sins to remembrance and to slay my son I Kings 17. For the Jews knew well that God visits the iniquities of the fathers on the children by many Scriptures threatning it and examples of it's being executed and appears particularly in that fearfull imprecation that Christ's blood might be on them and on their children the fulfilling whereof the whole nation lie under to their confusion and the confirmation of Christianity to this day But we must take heed of applying this alike to all for where no extraordinary sins God may and somtimes doth in soveraignty take away children elder or younger as Job's for tryal and other ends more than in justice lest we judge and speake amis of God's dealings with men as Job's friends and many others are accustomed to doe For when men see any misery befall any one out of the common road of providence having natural conceptions that sin and punishment are related they presently conclude that some extraordinary sins either of them or their parents are the procuring cause on their parts and punitive justice answering to it on God's part whereof we have many narratives in Scripture to which I confine my self of Barbarians Jews and Christians but I will only mention that in John 9. at present which hath occasioned most of the thoughts I have imparted concerning these impulsive causes considering that there is the same general nature in all evils of punishment as consisting in the privation of their opposit good The disciples rightly supposed that the blindnes of the man so born was from God justly that he punishes children for their parents sins but mistook in taking it for granted that either his parents or he in his soul before his body was formed had been more than ordinary sinners or in som kind at least which was the cause of his blindnes and asked Christ whether it was who answered neither hath this man sinned nor his parents that is as they meant and their question implyed not greaters sinners than others or in relation to this as the cause to the effect But that the works of God should be made manifest in him which intimates a quite different reason from what they imagined not God's punitive justice for either of their sins but his love to Christ and his doctrine in the manifesting his power in a miraculous cure and mercy to the blind man's soul to be the chief causes Where we may observe how Christ diverts them as every where else from curious enquiries resolving this affliction as an insaelicitas or misery into Gods soveraignty that denies or gives his blessings in kind or degree to whom when and in what manner he pleases it being lawful for him to do what he will with his own and denying it to be poena from justice for any greater or particular sins as they judged thô otherwise both were sinners and so a sufficient ground in point of justice to deprive either of sight or any other blessings in life or all in death yet this difference proceeded not there-from and then directs them by the final cause to judge of the impulsive or reason of this providence and to regard the ends and consequences thereof as that which concernd them which in this case were extraordinary in respect of the miracle and ordinary in regard of the spiritual good this affliction occasiond and wrought both for himself and others Les us therfore accordingly now apply our selves to the final cause or the reasons taken from the end not in reference to the dead which in ordinary cases is a secret to us as I have shewn but the living Which we must understand not of the finis operantis or what God designs in particular thereby which is different in all and no further known to us than as manifested by the effects or in general only as tending to his glory which if we speak properly is only his end and all things whatsoever without himself but means joyntly considered tending thereto and which he uses for the same Rom. 11 36 But the sinis operis in reference to us as these providences are means fitted by him for such ends as tend to the common good of the living which is allways superior to particular sufferings And thô sad experience shews us that for the most part providences have not the effects upon us answerable to their ends yet that 's through our default as we see allso in the ordinances and if so be these moral means obtain not their primary end as medicinal to better us yet their secondary serving at least to justify God and render those that make small or no use of them or contrary than they ought wholy inexcusable and more especially those who have the word to direct them and interpret to them their end and use For the end God's word declares allways implies the use we should make of every thing both in the general and particularly according to their kind and degree But I shall pass by the general ends of afflictions and death and only speak of those more peculiar to this kind of death I am upon nor yet of many that might be drawn from the ends thereof in reference to God his son and our Savior his word ordinances and graces of his spirit the good and evil things of this life our sins and those concernd nearly and remotely but of a few that are most comprehensive suggesting the suitable use of them the end implies that my future discourse may be more practical reserving those that are more particular for the Application I Then God thus suddenly and unexspectedly takes away som that the supremacy of his providence may be more apparent and himself thereby better known and acknowledged in the world That this is the general end of God's unexspected dealings with men in mercies and judgements extraordinary and all other cases above their-thoughts and contrivances appears by hundred places of Scripture relating both to his people and heathens exprest in those phrases that ye or they may know that I am the Lord and implied in the effect which is the end accomplisht for finis in actu positus dicitur effectus and
not judge by Sence but by the light of God's Word weighing them in the ballance of the Sanctuary for Sence is altogether for present enjoyments and suggests nothing but bitterness and sorrow in their loss crying out continually can there be Mercy in such an Affliction as this can I gather grapes off these thorns or figs off these thistles These are like Samson's riddles to Sence unanswerable but by Scripture rectified Reason and Experience are unfolded so that the Wise that will observe shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord. Ps 107.43 According as the deceased were or in moral probability might have been if publick Persons Blessings or Judgements to the Church or State or if private helps or hindrances or comforts or crosses in regard of Heavenly or Earthly things more or less to us so we should account their Death at present and afterwards according to the Spiritual benefits we reap or might have reaped thereby As good Magistrates and Ministers that were and might have been more useful Instruments of publick good being cut off suddenly as Josia and Stephen were greatly lamented and Absolom and the Prophets of Baal that were quite contrary their being slain was accounted accordingly And not judge by our affection to them which is many times inordinate or theirs to us which we often prise and rely on too much for though the cross thereby becomes the heavier to us yet more necessary for us so that the Wise and Holy God designing our good bleeds us in the right vein to cure us and bring us nearer to himself As he did Jacob here in Rachel and afterwards in Joseph and David even after he had pronounced by Nathan his Sin Pardoned Punishing him for the same not only for his Spiritual but Temporal benefit also by taking away his Child by Bathsheba which would have been a perpetual reproach both to him and Religion and his beloved Absolom whom he so laments therby restoring him to his Kingdom and that to him and both to Peace But it is high time that we draw down these considerations to our present purpose And first in the Death of Infants there 's the manifestation of the truth of God's Threatnings and his Justice in executing his Sentence against Mankind for their first Trangression but whether it 's more in Mercy or Judgement to them we know not and therefore not the reason why these more than others die so soon and oftentimes suddenly but must acquiess in the Pleasure of the All-wise God If they be such as belong ro the Kingdom of Heaven it 's many ways Mercy in freeing them from the Sins and Miseries of this Life and making them sooner Happy with Himself If not there 's yet some Mercy mixt with Justice their Punishment being less in the other World And we have less reason to doubt of Mercy for Infants who die before they have done any good or evil Personally than for those that have done much evil seeing God promised Christ to mankind before he past the Sentence of Mortality but especially for those born of Believers that are within the Covenant and stiled Holy in Scripture For they are not only capable of Happyness as well as Aged Persons their Souls being alike and no such incapacity as here will be in their Bodies hereafter but also of Adoption and Justification through Christ and conformity to Him which are the absolutely requisite means thereof thô not of actual Believing I think notwithstanding the Lutheran and some others assert it unnecessarily in my Opinion because it 's only of absolute necessity to those of years that are partakers of the outward dispensation of the Covenant but not in it self in regard that Believing and the Gospel believed and outward Ordinances are not substantial parts of our Righteousness but only accidental means thereof according to the capacity of the Subject Besides this we may observe God useth not to send any extraordinary Judgements only for Origiral Sin and confutes Jonah with this Argument of his Clemency towards Nineveh that there were more than sixscore thousand Persons therein that could not discern between their right hand and their left the Parents for whose Punishment the Children are often taken away and in general Judgements with them having now Repented Though we have examples of their slaughter not only for their Fathers Sin but for peculiar reasons and ends As the Egyptians drowning the Isralites male Children God therein letting forth their Wrath to Praise him and try his People whom he had promis'd to multiply making this there last and greatest Tryal as is usual before Deliverance and an occasion of manifesting his Justice and Power in Punishing the Offenders in the same kind both in destroying their first Born whereby also he fulfilled his threatning and forced them to let Israel his first Born goc laden with their spoyls through hopes they would return and also by drowning Pharaoh and his host thereby also fulfilling his Promise to his People Like as afterwards the Babylonians who in many things resembled the Egyptians in their carriage towards the Church had their cruelty justly retalliated on their own little ones Ps 137.8 9. But however Infants be cut off whether by the hand of violence as the Bethlemitish by Herod Math. 2. prefigured as the Prophet Jeremiah declar'd or by Natural Death it 's a Punishment to their Parents and Relations the manner only augmenting it And not only a Punishment but the greatest for kind of all Temporals that befal the living Children being their greatest earthly Blessings and greater or less in degree according to circumstances as the mourning for an only Son and bitterness for the first born justly exceeds that where other Sons and that for other Chrildren by which the sorrow for Sin is set forth Zach. 12.10 But thô this proceeds from Justice for Sins past yet more from love when Sanctified to the Parents both for their greater future good which in part they shall know hereafter and happily for the preventing greater evils then they can ever know Because they neither know how their Children might prove or how their own hearts might be tempted or perplext by them For thô we always hope the best yet frequently we find the contrary and no bitterer crosses then from those we exspected greatêst comfort Children when young treading on our skirts but often when elder piering our Hearts This Punishment is generally inflicted on Mankind both Children and Parents besides their Original Sin common to all for the breach of the second Commandement in their open or heart Idolatry as is there denounced to deter Men that are so much concern'd for their Children as their desert de jure thô God reserves always liberty to himself de facto to dispence his Punishments or favours as he pleases Secondly in the sudden Death of those of riper years where God doth declare in his Word the causes thereof or manifest them by the particular ends and effects especially joyn'd
3. c. 24. several have collected examples thereof that all that know them might be affrighted from the like offences This being the end of publique punishments as scripture declares by the effect and use the living should make of them and all or those which remain shall heare and feare and shall do no more any such wickednes Deutr. 13.11 and 19 20. to which both the Greeks and Latins agree * Grotius de I. B. P. L. 2. c. 20. For by the proportion of justice doe alike and have alike as well in punishments as rewards which allways first or last hath place with God who changeth not through defect of knowledg wisdom or power as men doe frequently Not allways in this life nor in the same manner as in his miraculous judgements or in the same measure but the examples shew the desert thereof as in the decimation of an army the General 's putting som few to death to prevent future mutinies shews the rest what they have deserved and what so offending they may exspect for the future God usually reserving the wicked to the day of destruction they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath Job 21.30 and exercising riches of patience and forbearance towards them and upon their humiliation and disciplinary repentance deferring or remitting their temporal punishments even after their denunciation as in Ahab and Nineveh and others generally Jer. 18.7.8 and on the contrary where unfeigned repentance makes way for the prerogative to pardon often punishing his own people in this life more than others but allways in the world to come divine justice will render to every man according to his deeds Rom. 2.2 11. But where no extraordinary sins are manifest these examples serve 2. to caution us and restrain us that we offend not God presumtuously in any kind But that we stand in awe and sin not against him who can every moment bring us to judgement For this is the end why God doth such things that men should feare before him Eccles. 3.14 the neglect whereof becoms the cause of the sudden destruction of secure sinners For the sentence of death being past upon all sinners if the execution of it more speedily upon less offenders and the delaying of it upon greater be so abused by the wicked that therefore their hearts are set in them to doe evil yet Solomon tells us of his own certain knowledge that though a sinner do evil an hundred times and his days be prolonged so as he lives his ful time in the course of nature yet surely I know it shall not be well with the wicked as it shall be with the righteous in their future state neither shall he prolong his days which are as a shadow in regard the days of the wicked are cut off suddenly before the time of their exspectation or at least preparation for death because he feareth not before God in an awful shunning to displease him Eccles. 8 11-13 And Solomon's observation in this kind hath been made by many that those who in their health despise both God's word and warnings when death threatens them cry out oh call time again oh that I might live a litle longer oh that God would but try me once more and make great promises to God and men of their future amendment usually in their own strength which oftentimes com to litle if they recover and if they die declare their unpreparednes for death And yet better some sense of God and feare of his future judgements at the last than not at all but spend their days in mirth and in a moment go down to the grave Job 21.13 The Apostle's therefore admonition is good and holds in all examples in those of like condition not to be high minded but feare for if God spared not them take heed lest he also spare nos thee Rom. 11.20 21 and Hebr. 4.1 And 3 to cure sin in us For these are means whereby we are brought to the seare of the Lord by which men depart from evil Prov. 16.6 Thus God cured the remnant of the Jews of their Idolatry which they were so addicted to formerly and ever after detested above all others Ezech. 23. Where Jâ—dah and Israel are set forth as two spiritual adulteresses being at ease and God saith I will bring a company upon them namely the Assyrians and Chaldeans that shall stone them with stones as the Jews punisht adulters and dispatch them with their swords they shall slay their sons and their daughters c. thus will I cause lewdnes to cease out of he land that all women may be taught not to do after your wickednes that is other cities and nations compared here to women especially where his church should be planted may learne to refraine from Idolatry and if they will not to see what the cure thereof will cost them And David a type of Christ prophecies this should be a means of reforming the visible Church God shall suddenly shoot at them with an arrow suddenly shall they be wounded and all men shall feare and shall declare the works of God for they shall wiseâ—y consider of his doings Ps 64. see allso Is 25.2.3 And as in general so in particular examples this is not to be doubted of as that the sudden death of Eli hath been and is instrumental to cure the fond indulgence of many parents to their children in wickednes and of Absolon their inordinate affection If so be no sins are mentioned or more than ordinary apparent to us in any so taken away then to cure us of those sins we know our selves guilty of before God and more especially those that are relative as good Jacob's too much love and doting upon his Rachel here in the text 4. To awaken us out of our security For which end especially we have security as the fore-runner and speedy destruction that follows it joynd together by our Savior in the types he hath given us of his coming to judgment both of all in general and every one in particular As the destruction of the old world Sodom and Gomorrah and Jerusalem they were eating and drinking marrying and giving in marriage buying and selling planting and building wherby Christ declare how litle they exspected they should be forthwith speedily destroyed and that so also shall his coming be even like to lightning for its suddemnes or a thief in the night for its unexspectednes and then makes this inference watch therefore for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come calling it such an hour as they think not declaring he would honour those that made this use of it but if the evil servant say in his heart my Lord delays his coming c. The Lord of that servant will com in a day when he looks not for him and in an hour that he is not aware of Math. 24. and Luke 17. Nothing more exemplifies this than sudden death which cryes to every one behold the bridegroom cometh go ye out to