preme moderator and governor of the world, if the world fhould not hear of him, when there be high exorbitancies.

5. The variety of things, and changeable conditions are as requifite to maintain virtue and holiness a mong mankind, as the winds, which occafion ftorms and tempefts, which put the air and fea into motion; and fo keep them from french and putrefaction. In nature, we do obferve that all things are, continued, and preferved in their purity, by motion. And where there is not motion, there is putrefaction. Now fince the world rational is as fubject to corrupt as the world natural is, therefore it is fitting the world of mankind fhould be put upon motion and activity; as it is requifite for the world natural to be put upon motion, by the winds fanning the air, and putting the fea into motion, and thereby pre-. ferving them. This I obferve, a great many scrip. tures impute creatures degeneracy to their living at cafe, Amos vi. 1. Jer. xlviii. 11. Zech. i, 15. And I am fore difpleafed with the heathen that are at &c. So Luke xii. 19. and I will fay to my foul, foul, beathen that are at case, thou haft much goods laid up for many years, take thy eafe, eat, drink, and be merry. Upon this account the leffer evils, fuch as are the evils of fmart, are· preventive of the greater evils; fuch as are rancor, malignity, and naughtiness of mind; and this tends to prefervation. And here is the account of God's punishment; not that he loves punishment; but as becoming a governor, and maintaining right, and for the good of his creatures,

A

And

And thus have I given you a juft account of what is in these words intimated and fuppofed, that fin is the procuring cause of punishment; and that God doth regularly and usually controul and punish finners. A word of inference.

1. It is good service to mankind to restrain evils and hinder them James iv. 1. This the magistrate may do this the preacher of righteoufnefs, it is proper for him to do; this, the holy liver, by his good example, doth constantly do. The great evils that do infect and disturb the world, they have their being and foundation in fin: and therefore whofoever prevents iniquity and fin, he doth the work of a Saviour in the world, and a preferver. The world would be another thing, were it not for the iniquity that prevails in it.

2. Then let us not forfake our own merey, but favour ourselves, not expofe ourselves to ruin, by cause-. lefs and unprofitable commiffion of fin. Here I would take up St. Peter's counfel, and it's excellent good in this cafe. Matt. xvi. 22. Be it far from thee, &c. Do not yourselves fo great harm, for that that will not profit: do not do yourselves mifchief upon fo eafy an account. Every thing of fin is irrational and unprofitable, and a man offers violence to himself when he doth it, and doth himself wrong. Therefore, favour yourselves, do not do yourselves wrong, upon terms fo unreasonable, and fo unprofitable.

3. Since iniquity doth fo much prevail in the world, let God be excufed from our charge of his ufurpation over his creation. Not he that brings on

the harm, but he that is the peccant party, doth the mifchief. As in war, not he that raiseth the first army, but he that gives the firft offence, is the cause of the war. Therefore let us not think that God doth ufurp, or gratify any thing in himself, when he doth punish: no, the true and proper cause is the delinquent party; he that gives the first offence.

4. When the judgments of God are upon us in pursuit of fin, let us then do as Joshua did, let us fearch out the provoking cause, to use Daniel's word, the abomination of defolation, that is, the abominable thing that doth provoke God to defolate. Let us

remove that that is the cause, and doth contain the

disease.

DISCOURSE VI.

The fecret BLASTING of MEN.

PSALM Xxxix. II.

When thou with rebukes doft correct man for iniquity, thou makeft his beauty to confume away like a moth ; furely, every man is vanity. Selah.

I

Have already spoken to what in these words is intimated, that iniquity is the procuring cause of punishment; and alfo to that that is here fuppofed, that it is regular and ordinary, that God should give teftimony against iniquity, that he should challenge finners. Of thefe two I have given an account. In III. Place

the

III. Place I come to, that that is proposed in these words, that is, that these rebukes of God do blast men, and cause them to wither. When thou with rebukes doft correct man for iniquity, thou makeft his beauty to confume away like a moth. This is the main point of the words, and that which I mainly thought upon, when thefe words came first into my mind. When God takes a finner in hand, and fets himself to reverse what the finner hath unduly done, he fails and comes to nothing; he cannot bear up against God. Thou makeft his beauty to confume away like a moth. I might enlarge these words to take in all the judgments of God upon a finful world, which are as fo many teftimonies of God against iniquity, fuch as are the confufions that are made by war; fuch as are the defolations that are made among men by famine, plague, and peftilence, and all other judgments, wherein there is a common suffering, which all men acknowledge to be the hand of God; and in respect to these, God is known by the judgments he doth execute. But, not excluding thefe, I shall only take notice of the words, as to what may pafs immediately between God and the finner in fecret, and are not so visible to the eyes of the by-ftanders, and that for these confiderations. Confidering the Hebrew words used in the text for rebukes, import fuch rebukes, reproofs, as carry with them a notion, reafon, and argument of conviction, and felf-condemnation.* They fignifie corripere, erudire ; to re

* Increpationes hic reales intellige, h. e. pœnas, quæ funt vice increpationum, & quafi advocati, feu inter

prove, and teach by inftitution, rules, law, and difcipline as Gideon is faid to have taught the men of Succoth, with briars and thorns; together with his remembring them of their fcorn put upon him. That is, when thou doft fecretly call him to account and reprove him by reason, by arguments of conviction, and by felf-condemnation; thou makeft his beauty, &c. Here is another word confiderable; the effects and iffue of thefe ftrokes do terminate upon things that are most valuable, precious, and desirable,† by which a man doth prefer himself and efteem himself; fuch as his health and strength, his wealth, his friends, the use of his parts, his wit and his brain his reafon and underftanding, his internal joy, mental fatisfaction, and self-enjoyment: these come to nothing, when God rebukes; these confume and melt away, as the word fignifies. The iffue expreffed by the verb, is no fudden, violent motion, but that which we call a dying life, or a lingring death, as the fcripture otherwhere ufeth it; and as it is ufed Joshua v. 1. when the kings of the Amorites, and the kings of the Canaanites heard that the waters of fordan were dried up before the children of Ifrael, their hearts melted away: and Pfal. cvii. 26. their foul melted away, because of trouble. So when God

pretes (ut Hebræi loquuntur,) inter Deum & homiV. fynop. crit.

nem.

Ejus defiderium. Defiderabile ejus. Quicquid in eo eft defiderabile. Things of value and esteem. Dan. x. 3. Panis defideriorum. Pleafant bread, things neareft, and dearest, most valuable, defirable by the perfons fuffering.

comes