2. This observation must be to a good end ; not to censure others, for that is malice : to speak even to the grief of those whom God hath wounded, this is condemned, as enemies did of the people of God in their affliction, Jer. 1. 7. Neither must we do it to justify ourselves; that is pride and self-conceit, condemned Luke xiii. 5, ' Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish;' but for instruction, that we may fear for ourselves : Zeph. iii. 7, ' Surely now thou shalt fear me.' And that we may be cautioned against the like sins, that we may see what an evil and bitter thing it is to forsake the Lord, Jer. ii. 19 ; and that we may admire the Lord's mercy to us, that we are not set out as marks of his vengeance, that v/e are not in their condition, Amos vi. 2 ; that we may give to the Lord the glor}^ of his mercy, justice, and truth. Take one place for all : Kom. xi. 22, there the apostle doth sum up all these three, that we might not boast ourselves over others, that we may admire the justice of God, and mercy to us- ward, and may learn to fear him, and walk cautiously and humbly with him, lest we contract the like judgment upon ourselves.
3. In making the observation, there must be care that we do not make iH"ovidence speak a language which it owneth not, the language of our fancies, and pry into God's counsels without warrant.
[1.] When you come to observe judgment, there must be a due reasoning from the provocation to the judgment, but not e contra, not judge of the wickedness of the person by the affliction of the person. The barbarians showed little reason, and less charity, in misconstru- ing the passage of the viper fastening upon St Paul's hand. Acts xxviii. 4. The foregoing provocation must be evident before we in- terpret the judgment. The dispensations of God's i^rovidence are common, and fall alike to good and bad, Eccles. ix. 2. God by a .sudden stroke may take off the godly as well as the wicked. Good Eli broke his neck, 1 Sam. iv. 18, and Josiah died in the army in the same manner that Ahab did, by an arrow in battle after he disguised himself, 1 Chron. xxxv. 23. Therefore do not reason from the stroke of God. Shimei misinterpreted David's afflictions : 2 Sam. xvi. 7, 8, * Come out, thou bloody man, and thou man of Belial ; the Lord hath returned upon thee ail the blood of the house of Saul, in whose stead
VeR. 118.] SERMONS UPON TSALM CXIX. 215
thou hast reigned ; and the Lord hath delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son.' Job's friends thought him a hypocrite be- cause Grod smote him with boils and sore^. The best of God's children may suffer greatly from his hand ; but the judgment must not make jou. conclude a sin, but the foregoing sin must make you interpret it to be a judgment.
[2.] When the sin is written upon the judgment, and there are some remarkable circumstances wherein the sin and the judgment meet ; as Judges i. 7, Adonibezek, as he served his vanquished enemies, so was he served liimself, his thumbs and toes cut off". God's retalia- tion is very notable. Many judgments have a signature upon them, as many herbs in nature have a signature to show for what use they serve : Obad. 15, ' As thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee ; thy reward shall return upon thine own head.' When God payeth men home in their own coin — Gen, ix. 6, ' Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed — it is not only a law, what ought to be done in justice, but a rule of providence, what shall be done. Pharaoh w^as the author of the execution in drowning the Israelites' children, so Pharaoh and all his host, his nobility and men of war, were drowned in the sea. Ahab's blood was licked up with dogs in the place where they licked up the blood of Naboth. Jezebel was more guilty than he; Aliab permitted it, but Jezebel contrived it ; Ahab humbled himself, therefore his body was buried, but Jezebel was entombed in the bellies of dogs. Haman was hanged on the gallows set up for Mordecai. Henry III. of France was killed in the same chamber where the mas- sacre was contrived. Charles IX. flowed with blood in his bed. Thus God will requite men in the same kind. His own people meet with this. Jacob supplanted his elder brother, and therefore tlie elder is brought to him instead of the j^ounger. Asa put the prophet in the stocks, and he was diseased in his feet. Josepli's brethren were not flexible to his request ; afterwards, when they were in extremity, Joseph proves inexorable to them : Gen. xlii. 21, ' AVe are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us, and we would not hear ; therefore is this distress come upon us.' How comes this into their minds ? This was many years after the fact was committed, some twenty years as they com- puted. So God deals with his children in like manner as they dealt with others, that their consciences may work the more kindly. The same is observed concerning David and Absalom, 2 Sam. xii. 10-12. He took the wife of Uriah to be his wife, and Absalom took his wives before his eyes. St Paul consented to the stoning of Stephen, and assisted in the execution, ' They laid down their garments at his feet;' therefore, afterwards, Paul himself for preaching the gospel is stoned and left for dead, Acts xiv. 19, 20. Barnabas was not stoned, that assisted Paul ; both were alike offensive to the men of Iconium in preaching the gospel. Paul was sensible of this as a great part of his guilt. Acts, xxii. 20, and his conscience works upon that. Many other instances might be given, but this is enough,