particular interest or concernment, God Almighty fhould be, as it were, engaged to put forth a miracle, or little less than a miracle; and the reafens hereof are,

1. Because under the Evangelical Di penfation, the rewards of goodness, piety, and obedience, are of another kind, and of greater moment, namely, eternal happinefs, and not exemption from temporal calamities. If Almighty God grant fuch an exemption, it is of bounty and abundance, not of promife. It is true, under the Old Covenant with the people of Ifrael, their promises were in a great measure of temporal benefits, and the administration of that church, as it was in a great measure typical, fo the Divine Administration over them was very ufually miraculous, both in their bleffings, prefervations, and exemptions: And there was fpecial reason for it; for they were to be a monument to all mankind, and alfo to future ages, of a fpecial and fignal Divine regiment; and confequently the obedient might, upon the account of the Divine promise, expect bleffings and deliverances, even in public calamities, that might befall the people in general: But we have no warrant to carry over thofe promifes of temporal benefits and exemptions to the obedience under the Gofpel, which as it is founded upon another covenant, fo it is furnifhed with better promises.

2. Because, the best of men in this life, have fins and failings enough to justify the justice of Almighty God, in expofing them to temporal calamities; and yet his mercy, goodness, and bounty, is abundantly magnified in referving a reward in heaven far beyond the merit of their best obedience and dutifulness; fo that though they are expofed to temporal calamities, Almighty God ftill remains not only a true and faithful, but a liberal and bountiful Lord unto them in their everlasting rewards 1. What are light Afflictions, and but for a moment, in comparison to an eternal weight of glory? And the latter is the reward of their obedience under

1

2 Cor. iv. 17. Rom. viii. 18.

the

or relations.

the Gofpel, while the former may be poffibly the punishment, or at least correction, for their fins.

And therefore, although at the interceffion of Abraham, the Lord was pleafed to grant a relaxation of the destruction of Sodom, for the fake of ten righteous, it was an act of his bounty; and fo it was when he delivered Lot and his family: yet he had not been unjust if he had fwept them away in that common temporal calamity, becaufe poffibly the fins of Lot himself might have been fuch as might have acquitted the juftice of God in fo doing; for the highest temporal calamity is not difproportionate to any one fin. And although he were pleafed in mercy to fpare Lot and his two daughters, yet neither was he wholly exempted from that great calamity: for his houfe, goods, and the rest of his family, perifhed in that terrible conflagration.

And upon this confideration, we have juft caufe to blame two forts of perfons; namely, 1. The rafh cenfure of fome inconfiderate perfons, that are too ready to cenfure all fuch as fall under a commòn calamity, whether of fire, fword, or peftilence, as if so be they were therefore greater finners than those that escape: the error reproved by our Saviour in the inftance of the Galileans, and thofe upon whom the tower of Siloam fell. The mistaken apprehenfion of men concerning themselves, that upon an opinion of their own righteoufnefs or defert, think themselves exempted from the ftroke of common calamities, or are ready to accufe the Divine Justice, if they are not delivered from them. If they truly confider the just demerit of any fin, and their own fins and failings, they would both acknowledge the justice and goodness of God, if he referve an eternal reward of their obedience, though he expofe them to the worst of temporal evils.

2. Concerning perfonal evils, they are of feveral kinds. 1. Such as befall the body. 2. Such as befall the estate. 3. Such as befall the name. 4. Such as a man's friends or relations.

1 Luke xii. 1, 2. John ix. 2, 3.

1. Touching

2. Some

1. Touching the first of these evils, namely, that befal the body, they are of two kinds: 1. Some that are not fo epidemical or univerfal upon all men; fuch are casualties or accidental hurts, diseases fpringing from the particular complexion or temperament of perfons; fuch as are hereditary diseases, diseases incident to certain ages, infectious diseases arifing from contagion, putrefaction, ill difpofition of the air or waters. diseases are incident unto every man in the world. If a man lives to a great old age, his very age is a difeafe, and the decay of natural heat and moisture doth in time bring the oldest man to his end; but if he live not to the attainment of old age, moft certainly as he meets with death in the conclusion, so he meets with fome disease or other that makes way for his diffolution. So that upon the whole account, though this or that man may not meet with this or that particular disease, cafualty or diftemper, that it may be attacks another, yet as fure as he is mortal, fo fure fhall fome difeafe, diftemper, cafualty, or weakness, meet with him, that fhall bring him to the duft of death. That perfon therefore that is fubject to the universal edict and law of death, is, and muft be, fubject fooner or later to thofe diseases, fickneffes, cafualties or weakneffes that muft ufher in his death and diffolution. And although one man may efcape a chronical disease, another an acute disease; one man may escape a contagion, another a confumption; one man may escape this disease or cafualty, another that, yet most certain it is, that every man fhall meet with fome disease, diftemper, or cafualty, that shall be fufficient to diffolve his compofition, and put a period to his life.

2. Concerning Afflictions that particularly concern a man in his estate. It is very true that fome are more afflicted in this kind than others. The more wealth any man hath, the more obnoxious to loffes; and the more any man loves wealth, the deeper the afflictions of this nature wounds him: And this is generally true in all worldly matters whatsoever; the more a man's

heart

05

fi

Sr

an

tha

duc

Tet

ene

time

vale

by t

IS CE

1

heart is fet upon it, the deeper and the more bitter the cross or affliction is therein. But though Afflictions in this kind pinch fome closer than others, yet there are very few that totally escape in this kind. The poor man reckons it his affliction that he wants wealth; and the rich man is not without his affliction either in the lofs of it, or the fear of fuch loffes, which create as real a trouble as the lofs itself: Fire and fhipwreck, envy and oppreffion, falfe accufations, robbers, a prodigal heir, or a false friend, thousands of fuch like avenues there are to a rich man's treasure; and either they do actually attach it, and then they caufe forrow, or they do continually menace it, and fo they caufe fear. Nay, fometimes a rich man hath as great an affliction in his not knowing where or how to difpofe of his wealth, as he that wants it.

4. Touching Affliction in the name. Most certainly of all things in the world, a good name is most easily expofed to the injury of any person; a false accufation or falfe report, an action or word mifinterpreted. A man hath no fecurity of his wealth against invafions of others; but he hath much lefs ecurity touching his name, because it is in keeping of others, more than of the man himself; and it is vifible to every man's experience, that he that hath the greatest name is moft expofed to the envy, and therefore to the detraction and calumnies of others; and he that values his name and reputation most, is easiest blasted and deeper wounded by a calumny, though really false, than he that hath little reputation, or that esteems it lightly.

4. Touching friends. There are two things that induce the lofs of friends: 1. That which feems cafual, yet very common, whereby either friends become enemies, or at least grow into neglect; which is fometimes done by mifreprefentations, falfe reports, by prevalence of factions, by difference in matters of intereft, by the declination of a man's condition. 2. That which is certain; death takes away a man's friends and rela

tions from him, or him from them; the more friends and relations any man hath, the more loffes of them, or in them, he shall neceffarily have upon this account; because every one of them is fubject to all thofe cafualties that any of them is fubject to, whether in eftate, name, body, or death, and confequently, the more friends and relations, the more croffes and calamities; for all the croffes and loffes that befal any of my friends are communicated by me, and in a manner made mine and the greater my number of friends and relations are, the more loffes of them and in them I am fubject to; for every one of them is fubject to the fame calamities with myfelf, which come in effect mine by participation. So that the more friends and relations I have, and the dearer and nearer they are, the more crosses I have, by participating theirs and every bitter arrow that wounds any of them, glanceth upon me, and makes my wounds the more, by how much the more friends and relations I have; and makes them the deeper, by how much the nearer and dearer thofe friends or relations are to me. It is true, that in a multitude of good and dear friends and relations there is a communication of more comforts; but fince generally the scene of every man's life is fuller of croffes than comforts, troubles and Afflictions of many friends or relations out-balance and over-weigh thofe comforts.

And these croffes and Afflictions in body, estate, name, and friends, though poffibly they may not all come together, or in their perfection at one time, upon any one man; yet as no man is exempt from any of them at any time by any fpecial privilege, fo fometimes they have fallen in together in their perfection, even upon some of the best men that we read of. Witnefs that great and fignal example of Job, who at one time fuffered the lofs of all his children, of all his fervants, of all his goods, of all his great and honourable esteem among men, of his health; and befides all this, lay under fevere Afflictions in his mind, and

under