G20 THE DESIGN OF IMPENDENT JUDGMENTS.
whole heart, but fcignedly, saith the Lord." See chap. iv. 18. How- beit, this reformation of Josiah was accepted with God, and had its influence into the mitigation or sanctification of the ensuing desolation. And this sort of judgment is very different from that before in- sisted on. For, —
1. It is but jidi^iiciK' there is a remnant always left among a people, that shall escape it. So was there in those days; there was an escape of it, a remnant whom God delivered and preserved ; — which were as a blessing in the cluster, on the account whereof the whole was not utterly destroyed. This the Scripture very much insists on, Isa. Ixv. 6-8 ; Zech. xiii. 8, 9 ; Amos ix. 8, 9.
2. As it is not total, so it is not final. Even in the severity of his wrath, God designed the recovery of that people again in the appointed season, — giving promises thereof unto them that feared him. And so it came to pass, in the return of their captivity. See the history hereof, Jer. xxxL 32. God may have, for our sins, detennined a de- solating calamity on this nation ; yet if there be not a judiciar}'- hard- ness upon us, it may only be partial, and recoverable ; — not as it was with Israel, 1 Kings xiv. 10. See Jer. iv. 27, v. 18, xxx.-xxxii.
3. It was sanctified and blessed unto them who were upright and sincere, and who endeavoured the removal of it by reformation, though they suffered in the outward calamity. The good figs, or those typed by them, were carried into captivity; but the dealing of God with them therein was in mercy, Jer. xxiv. 6, 7, " I will," saith God, " set mine eyes upon them for good: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the Lord: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God." Whatever was their outward condition, those internal, spuitual mer- cies and privileges made it sweet and useful unto them. The third part was brought through the fire, 2ech. xiii. 8, 9.
4. God makes this sort of judgment a means fully to reclaim and reform them, as many of those who in general sutfer under them. They are God's furnace, but not to burn ; — they purify and cleanse as silver is tried, and do not bum up as stubble is consumed. So was that church by their captivity purged from their idols for ever. And many other differences of the like nature might be assigned.
And in the consideration of this sort of judgments lies our con- cernment. Who knows but that God, for our horrible neglect and contempt of the gospel, with all the cursed immoralities and abomi- nations which have ensued thereon, and the cold, dead frame of pro- fessors under various means of instruction, hath determined to bring a wasting calamity on this nation, and that he will not tuni away from the fierceness of his wrath, but it shall overtake us? If there be a judicial hardness upon the land, so as that there is no repent-
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THE DESIGN OF IMPENDENT JUDGMENTS. G21
ance, no reformation endeavoured in this day of patience and forbear- ance which we yet enjoy, our desolation will be total, unsanctified, irrevocable ; and though another people may be raised up to profess the gospel in the land, yet shall we be unconcerned in the mercy. So hath it been before in this nation, and in all the Christian nations of Europe. Woe unto us, if we thus betray the land of our nativity, — if we thus give it up to be a hissing and astonishment ! Hearken not unto vain words ; this or that way we shall be delivered : it is the day of our trial, and who knows what will be the evening thereof ? But, on the other hand, although a public calamity should be determined iiTevocably against us, if we use the day of forbearance unto the ends of it, — in repentance and returning unto God, — we shall at length have all the advantages before mentioned. It wiU be but partial; it will be but for a time; it will be sanctified; — it will purify the church, and restore it unto a more glorious state than ever before.
Thu'dly. There are judgments which are deserved and threatened, but not decreed and determined, which may be absolutely diverted and escaped. This sort of judgments is frequently mentioned in the Scripture ; and so also are frequent deliverances from them, by the ways and means of God's appointment.
And concerning them we may observe, —
1. That this threatening of approaching judgments, which yet may be averted, is a declaration of the ordinary ride of divine justice, according whereunto a nation or people, without an interposition of sovereign mercy, ought to he destroyed.
God doth not threaten, he doth not give warnings, signs, or indi- cations of approaching judgments, but when they are deserved, and may righteously be executed; nor is there any known rule of the word to give an assurance of the contrary. All that can be said is, " Who knows but that the LoRD may repent, and turn from the fierceness of his wTath V