694 The Goodnefs of God. Vol,la of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the Cities about thetti, by Fire and Briniflone from Heaven ; the cruel extirpation of the Canadnites by the exprefs command of God ; and laftly, the great,Calamities which betel the yewifh Nation, efpecially the final ruin and difperfion of themat the deflruelion of gerufalem. Thefe, and the like inftances of God's Severity, feem tocall in queftion his Goodnefs. Againft thefe fevere and dreadful Inflancet of God's feverity, it might be fufi cient vindication of his goodnefs, to fay in general, that they were all upon greatand high Provocations ; moll of them after longpatience and forbearance, and with a great mixture of mercy, and a declared readinefs in God to have pre- vented or removed them upon repentance ; all which are great Inflances of the Goodnefs of God. But yet for the clearer manifeflation of the Divine Goodnefr, I fliall confider them particularly, and as briefly as I can. z. As for the tranfgreffion of our firft Parents, and the difmat confequences of it to all their Poflerity. 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 muff' not attempt to be wife above what is written. Thus much is plain, that it was an ad of high and wilful Difobedience, to a very plainand eafy Command, and that in thepunifhment of it, God mitigated the extremity of the Sentence (which was prefent death) by granting our firft Parents the Reprieve of almoft aThou fand Years ; and, as to the confequences of it to their Pofterity, Goddid not, upon this provocation, abandon his care of Mankind; and tho' he removed them out of that Happy State and Place in which Man was created, yet he gave them a tolerable Condition and Accommodations upon Earth; and which is certainly the .moff Glorious Inftance of Divine Goodnefs that ever was, he was pleafed to make the Fall and Mifery of Man the happy occafion of fending his Son in our nature, for the recoveryand advancement of it to a much happier andbetter condition, than that from which we fell. So the Apoftle tells us at large, Rom. S. That the Grace of God, by Jefus. Chrift, bath redounded much more to our benefit and advantage, than the fin and difobedience of our firfl Parents did to our prejudice. z. For the general Deluge, tho' it look very fevere, yet if we confider it well, . we may plainly difcern much of goodnefs in it. It was upon great provocation, . by the univerfal corruption and depravation ofMankind, The earth was filledwith violence; andall AA had corrupted its ways ; the wickednefs of Man was great upon the earth, and every imagination of theThoughts ofhis Heart was only evil continu- ally ; which is, not a defcription of original fin, but of the aímual and improved wickednefs 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 Ged waited in the days of Noah, for the fpace of an hundred and twenty Tears at !all, when nothing would reclaim them, and almoft the whole race of Mankind were become fo verybad, that it is faid, it repented the Lord that he had made Manupon the earth, andit grieved him at his heart, when things were thus extremely bad, and like to continue fo ; God in pity to Man- kind, and to put a flop to their growing wickednefs and guilt, (wept them away all at once from the Face of the Earth, except one Family, which he had pre- ferved from. this Contagion, to be a new Seminary of Mankind, and, as the Hea- then Poet expreffeth it, Mundi mellon s origo, the fource and original of a better Race. ;. For that terrible deffruáion of Sodom and Gomorrah by Fire andBrimllone from Heaven, it was not brought upon them till the cry of their fin wasgreat,and gone up toHeaven, till by their unnatural Lulls they had provoked fupernatural' Vengeance. And it is very remarkable, to what low terms God was pleafed to condefcend to Abraham for the fparing of them ; if in thofe fiveCities there had' been found but ten righteous perlons, he would not have defhoyed them for thefe ten's fake. So that we may fay 'with the Apoftle, Behold the Goodnefs and feverity of God ! Herewas wonderful goodnefs mixed with thisgreat feverity. 4.. For the extirpation of the Canaanites, by the exprefs command of God, which bath fuck an appearanceof feverity, it is tobe confider'd, that this Ven- geance
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=