and he that swcarotli, as he tliat feareth an oath.' The privileges of the saints He [notj in temporals, but in spirituals and eternals, else religion would not be a matter of faith, but sense: and men would serve God not for himself, but for the gay and gallant things of this world. 1 Bjit,
[2.] Secondly, There are as many mysteries in providences as there are in prophecies ; and many texts of providence are as hard to understand as many texts of Scriptures are. God's ' way is in the sea, his paths are in the great waters, and his footsteps are not known ;' ' His judg- ments are unsearchable, and his ways are past finding out.' And yet when clouds and darkness are round about liim, ' righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne,' Ps. Ixxvii. 19 ; Rom. xi. 33 ; Ps. xcvii. 2, and xxxvi. 6. When his judgments are a great deep, yet then his righteousness is like the great mountains. There are many mysteries in nature, and many mysteries of state which we are ignorant of; and why, then, should we wonder that there are many mysteries in ])rovidence that we do not understand ? Let a man but seriously consider how many possible deaths lurk in his own bowels, and the innumerable hosts of external dangers which beleaguers him on every side ; how many invisible arrows fly about his ears continu- ally, and yet how few have hit him, and that none liitherto have mor- tally wounded him ; and it will doubtless so far affect his heart, as to work him to conclude, that great, and many, and mysterious are the providences that daily attend upon him.^ Vives i-eports of a Jew, that having gone over a deep river on a narrow plank in a dark night, and coming the next day to see what danger he had escaped, fell down dead with astonishment. Should God many times but open to us the mys- teriousness of his providences, they would be matter of amazement and astonishment to us. I have read that Marcia, a Roman princess, being great with child, had the babe in her killed with lightning, she herself escaping the danger.^ What a mysterious providence was this 1 God's providence towards his sei'vants is as a wheel in the midst of a wheel, whose motion, and work, and end in working, is not discerned by a common eye, Ezek. i. 16. The actings of divine providence are many times so dark, intricate, and mysterious, that it will pose men of the most raised parts, and of the choicest experiences, and of the greatest graces, to be able to discern the ways of God in them. There are many mysteries in the works of God as well as in the word of God. But,
[3.] Thirdly, Sometimes God's own peo2ile sin with others, and there- fore they smart with others. Thus ]\Ioses and Aaron sinned with others, and therefore they were shut out of Canaan, and their carcases fell in the wilderness as well as others. Num. xx. Ps. cvi. 35, ' They were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works ;' ver. 40, ' There- fore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his inheritance;' Jer. ix. 25, 26, 'Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will punish all them which are circum-
' Communia cfsc voluit, et couimoda piophanis, et incomraoda suis. — Tertul.
' I have read of a father and his son, who being shipwrecked at sea, the son sailed to shore upon the back of his dead father. What a strange, mysterious providence was this ! » riin. Nat. Hist., lib. ii. cap. 51.
ISA. XLII. 24, 25.] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATIOIT. 239
cised with the uncircumcised ; Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Amnion, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness : for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in their heart ;' vide Kom. ii. 28, 29. Such as were outwardly, but not inwardly, circumcised, should be sure to be punished in the day of God's wrath, with those who were neither inwardly nor outwardly circumcised. When the good and the bad join in common provocations, no wonder if they suffer in common desolations, Ezek. ix. 6 ; Kev. xviii. 4 ; 1 Peter, iv. 17. Though gross impieties, like pitch or gunpowder, enrages the fire, yet the sins, the infirmities of God's people add to the flame. Not only Manasseh his bloodshed, but also good Hezekiah's pride and vanity of spirit, boasting and glorying in his worldly riches, brought on the Baby- lonish captivity upon the Jews, 2 Chron. xxxii. But,
[4.] Fourthly, The people of God many times suffer in common calamities, as they are parts and members of that politic body that is punished, 2 Sam. xxiv. 10-18. The sins of a city, a society, a com- pany, or a nation, may involve all the members in the same judg- ment. Though Lot was not guilty of the sins of Sodom, yet Lot was carried away in the captivity of Sodom, as cohabiting with them. Gen. xiv. 12, IG.i And so though many of the precious servants of the Lord in London were not guilty of those gross impieties that their neighbours were guilty of, yet, cohabiting either with them or near them, they were burnt up and destroyed with them. Achan's family were not guilty of Achan's sacrilege, and yet Achans family were destroyed for Achan's sacrilege. The burning of London was a national judgment, and this national judgment was a product of national sins, as I have formerly proved. Now mark, though the people of God may be personally innocent, yet because they are members of a nocent body, they are liable to undergo the temporal smart of national judgments. Doubtless a whole city may be laid desolate for the wickedness of one man, or of a few men, that dwelleth in it: Eccles. ix. 18, ' One sinner destro3'eth much good.' But,
[5.] Fifthly, When good men loho cannot he justly charged with 'public sins, do yet fall ivith loicked men by public judgments, you must remember that God has several different ends in inflicting one and the same jicdgments, both upon the good and upon the bad. The metal and the dross go both into the fire together, but the dross is consumed, and the metal refined, Zech. xiii. 9 ; Eccles. viii. 12, 13. The stalk and the ear of corn fall upon the threshing-floor under one and the same flail ; but the one is shattered in pieces, the other is preserved. From one and the same olive, and from under one and the same press is crushed out both oil and dregs, but the one is tunned up for use, the other thrown out as unserviceable. The same judgments that befall the wicked may befall the righteous, but not upon the same account. The righteous are cast into the furnace for trial, but the wicked for their ruin. The righteous are signally sanctified by fiery dispensations, but the wicked are signally worsened by the same dis-
^ Common calamities make no discrimination between persons and persons, or houses and houses. All common judgments work according to their commission and according to their nature, without distinguishing the righteous from the wicked.