all upon great and high Provocations; most of them after long patience and forbearance, and with a great mixture of mercy, and a declared readiness in in God to have prevented or removed them upon repentance; all which are great Inftances of the goodness of God. But yet for the clearer manifestation of the Divine Goodness, I shall confider them particularly, and as briefly as I can.

1. As for the tranfgreffion of our first Parents, and the difmal confequences of it to all their Pofterity. This is a great depth, and tho the Scripture mentions it, yet it fpeaks but little of it; and in matters of mere Revelation, we must not attempt to be wife above mhat is written. Thus much is plain, that it was an act of high and wilful Difobedience, to a very plain and easie Command; and that in the punishment of it, God mitigated the extre mity of the Sentence (which was prefent death) by granting our firft Pa rents the Reprieve of almoft a thoufand Years; and, as to the confequen ces of it to their Pofterity, God did not, upon this provocation, abandon his care of Mankind; and tho he re

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moved them out of that happy state Vol. VII. and place in which Man was created, yet he gave them a tolerable condition and accommodations upon Earth; and which is certainly the moft glorious Inftance of Divine Goodnefs that ever was, he was pleased to make the fall and mifery of Man the happy occafion of fending his Son in our Nature, for the recovery and advancement of it to a much happier and better condition, than that from which we fell. So the Apoftle tells us at large, Rom. 5. That the Grace of God, by Jefus Chrift, hath redounded much more to our benefit and advantage, than the fin and difobedience of our firft Parents did to our prejudice.

2. For the general Deluge, tho it look very fevere, yet if we confider it well, we may plainly difcern much of goodness in it. It was upon great provocation, by the univerfal corruption and depravation of Mankind, The earth was filled with violence, and all flesh had corrupted its ways; the wickedneß of Man was great upon the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually; which is not

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a defcription of original fin, but of the actual and improved wickedness of Mankind; and yet when the wickednefs of Men was come to this height, God gave them fair warning, before he brought this Calamity upon them, when the patience of God waited in the days of Noah, for the space of an hun-* dred and twenty Years; at laft, when nothing would reclaim them, and almoft the whole race of Mankind were become fo very bad, that it is faid, it repented the Lord that he had made Man upon the earth, and it grieved him at his heart, when things were thus extremely bad, and like to continue fo; God in pity to Mankind, and to put a stop to their growing wickednefs and guilt, fwept them away all at once, from the face of the Earth,. except one Family, which he had preferved from this Contagion, to be a new Seminary of Mankind, and, as the Heathen Poet expreffeth it, Mundi melioris origo, the fource and original of a better Race.

3. For that terrible deftruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by Fire and Brimftone from Heaven, it was not brought upon them till the cry of their fin was

great,

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great, and gone up to Heaven, till by Vol. VII. their unnatural Lafts they had provoked fupernatural Vengeance. And it is very remarkable, to what low terms God was pleased to condefcend to Abraham for the fparing of them; if in those five Cities there had been found but ten righteous perfons, he would not have destroyed them for those ten's fake. So that we may fay with the Apoftle, Behold the goodness and feverity of God! Here was wonderful goodnes mixt with this great feverity.

4. For the extirpation of the Canaanites, by the exprefs command of God, which hath fuch an appearance of feverity, it is to be confider'd, that this Vengeance was not executed upon them, till they were grown ripe for it. God fpared them for above four hundred Years, for fo long their growing Impiety is taken notice of, Gen. 18.. 28. where it is faid, That the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full; God did not proceed to cut them off, till their cafe was defperate, paft all hopes of recovery, till the land was defiled with abominations, and furcharged with wickedness, to that degree, as to fpue out its Inhabitants, as is ex

prefly

prefly faid, Levit. 18. 28. When they were arrived to this pitch, it was no mercy to them to fpare them any longer, to heap up more guilt and mifery to themselves.

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Fifthly, and Laftly, As for the great Calamities which God brought upon the Jews, especially in their final ruin and difperfion, at the deftruction of Jerufalem; not to infift upon the known Hiftory of their multiplied Rebellions and Provocations, of their defpiteful ufage of God's Prophets, whom he fent to warn them of his Judgments, and to call them to Repentance, of their obftinate refufal to receive Correction, and to be brought to amendment, by any means that God could ufe; for all which Provocations, he at laft delivered them into their Enemies hands, to carry them away Captive; not to infift upon this, I fhall only confider their final deftruction by the Romans, which tho' it be dreadfully fevere, be yond any Example of Hiftory, yet the Provocation was proportionable; for this Vengeance did not come upon. them, till they had as it were extorted it, by the moit obftinate impenitency and unbelief, in rejecting the Coun

fel