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 difcharge of his wrath, but did with wonderful patience expect a change in the offenders, waiting to be gracious, as the Ifa. xxx. Prophet fpeaketh; 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 prefervation.

3. That their inflictions themfelves, 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 those cases, confeffeth) they were less Ez. ix. 13. than their iniquities deferved. That (as it is in the Pfalm) He did not fir up all his wrath; which would Pf. 1xxviii. 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 lefs truly than earneftly difclaims having any Lami. pleasure in their death, that he afflicted willingly, grieved the children of men; and charged their difafters upon themselves, as the fole causes of them.

or

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

xxxiii. 11.

33. Hof. xiii. 9.

13.

I.

SER M. mischiefs d; were kept from the inconveniences, fe, cured from the temptations, the violences, the allurements, the contagions of the prefent evil ftate; according to that reafon alledged for punishments of Deut. xvii, this kind: All the people shall 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 treafuring up, as the Apoftle fpeaketh) farther degrees of wrath, as obdurate and incorrigible people will furely do: (Why, faith the Prophet, fhould ye be xxvi. 10. 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, how fhall I give thee up, O Ephraim? Yea farther.

Ifa. i. 5.

Hof. xi. 8.

20.

Gen. vi. 3.

6. That, during their fufferance, God did bear Ifa. Ixiii. compaffion toward them who underwent it. His 9, 15. bowels, as we are told, founded and were troubled; his Jer. xxxi. heart was turned within him; his repentings were kindled together; in all their afflictions himfelf 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. ciii.

39.

Hab. iii. 2. 7. That God in his wrath remembered mercy, (as the prophet Habakkuk speaks,) mixing gracious intenGen. vi. 3. tions of future refreshment and reparation with the Jer. xxix. present executions of justice. 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. 'Avde. '.

Ὁμοῦ καὶ δικασὴ, καὶ ἰατρὸς καὶ διδάσκαλός ἐσιν ὁ Θεός. Ibid.

• Ἐπιτίθησι τιμωρίαν, οὐ τῶν ἀπελθόντων απαιτῶν δίκην, ἀλλὰ τὰ μέλ λοντα διορθέμενος. Chryf. tom. 8. p. 99.

truth.

truth. And, For a small moment (faith he again in SER M. Ifaiah) have I forfaken thee; but with great mercies I. will I gather thee. And, Ye shall be comforted con la. liv. 7. cerning the evil that I have brought upon Jerufalem-Ezek. xiv. and ye shall know, that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it; faith the Lord (he faith fo in Ezekiel) without cause, that is, without a beneficial defign toward them.

23.

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 Pf. ciii. 9. always chide, neither will he 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 tookeft8. vengeance of their inventions.

These particulars, if we attentively furvey thofe dreadful examples of divine feverity forementioned, (the greateft 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 circumftances obfervable in the historical narrations concerning them; fo that even the harfheft inftances of God's wrathful dealing with fome men, may well ferve to the illuftration of his mercy and goodness toward all men; may evince it true, what our Lord affirms, that God is, xensòs ini ἀχαρίσες καὶ πονηρές, kind and beneficent even to the Lukevi. 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) against the moft plaufible exceptions, I fhall examine the particulars in the following difcourfe.

SERMON

The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works.

I SHALL now more particularly confider the fe- s ER M.

veral inftances before mentioned.

I. The punishment inflicted on mankind for the firft tranfgreffion containeth in it much of depth and myftery, furpaffing perhaps all capacity of man to reach; its full comprehenfion being by divine wifdom, I conceive, purposely concealed from us; fo that I cannot pretend thoroughly to explain it; and shall not therefore fpeak much about it.

This indeed is clear, that God did in his proceedings, occafioned thereby, intend remarkably to evidence his grievous refentment and indignation against wilful difobedience; yet in the management thereof we may observe, that,

1. After the provocation (in itself fo high, and liable to fo great aggravations) God did exprefs his refentment in fo calm and gentle a manner, that

f Vid. Chryf. Ανδρ. ζ'. Οὐ γὰρ εἶπε, καθάπες εἰκὸς ἦν ὑβρισμένον εἰπεῖν, ὦ μιαρὲ καὶ παμμίαρε, &c. Ibid.

Adam,

II.