Serm. CC. God'sfgnal Judgments upon others. 663 linnets to another World ; then certainly he may, without any imputation of in- juftice, defer the punifhment of fin in this World. 3. It is rafh to conclude from little circumflances of Judgments, or force fanci- ful parallel betwixt the fin and the punifhment, what pruners and what perfons in particular God deigned to punifh by fuch a Calamity. There is fcarce any thing betrays Men more to rafh andungrounded Cenfures and Determinations con- cerning the Judgments ofGod, than a fuperftitious obfervation of force little cir- cumstances belonging to them, and a conceit of a feeming parallel between fuch a Sin, and fuch a Judgment. This was the ground of Shimei's rafh determination concerningDavid, and what particular fin of his it was, for which God permitted his Son Abfalom to rife up in Rebellion againft him, a Sam. rd. 8. The Lord hath returned upon thee (fays he) all the blood of the hufe of Saul, in whofe plead thou hall reigned, and the Lord bath delivered the kingdom into the hand of Abfalom thy fan; and behold thou art taken in thy ownmifchief Here feemed tobe as handfome a parallel between this misfortune which befel David, and his carriage towards the Houfe of Saul, as can eafily happen in any Judgment. David had carried away the Kingdom from the Family of Saul his Father-in-law; and now by the Providence of God, David's own Son Abfalom feems to be stirred up to fupplant his Father, and to ravifh the Kingdom out of his hands; the fuitablenefs of the Judgment to the fuppofed fin of David, would tempt any Man that had the curiofity to pry into the Judgments of God, and a fancy apt to be pleafed with parallels, to have look'd upon this Cenfure of Shimei, as not without ground : for though Davidwas in nofault, as to Saul's Houfe, tho' in truth and reality he had the belt title to the Kingdom that could be, .it being difpofed to him by God's appointment ; yet becaufe Samu- el's anointing him to be King was a thing privately done, and fo might not either be publickly known, or not publickly believed, there feems to be a very fair colour andpretence for this Cenfureof Shimei. And therefore methinks the confideration of this one inflançe should very much deter wife Men from peremptory conclufions concerning the Judgments of God, upon fuch flight grounds as a fuppofed parallel between the fin and the punifh- ment : and yet we find all forts ofMen very fuperftitiouflyaffefed this way; all parties are very greedy to catch at any fhadow of a parallel, between the Judg- ments which befal their Enemies, and the fins which they fuppofe them to be guiltyof, and are apt to cry up fuchthings as evidentTeftimonies fromHeaven of God's difpleafureagainft thofe, whom they have a mind to make odious. In the beginning of the Reformation, whenZuingliue was flain in a Battei by the Papifts, and his Body burnt, his heart was found entire in the afhes ; from whence (faith the Hiftorian) his Enemies concluded the obduratenefs of his heart ; but his Friends, the firmnefsand fincerity of it in the true Religion. Both thefe Cenfures feem to be built upon the fame ground of fancy and imagination : but it is a wife and well -grounded obfervation, which Thuanue the Hiftorian, (who was himfIf of the Roman Communion) makes upon it, Adeo turbatie odio aut a- more animus, ut fit in Religions diifentionibue, pro ft: quifq; amnia fuperftitiosè in- tetpretatur : Thus (fays he) Men's minds being prejudiced before-hand by love or hatred (as it commonly falls out indifferences of Religion) each partyfuperflitioufly interprets the little circumflances of 'every Event in favour of it fell. Every thing hath two handles ; and a goodwit and a ftrong imagination may find fomething in every Judgment, whereby he may with fore appearance of reafon turn the caufe ofthe Judgment upon his Adverfary. Fancy is an endlefs thing; and if we will go this way to work, then he that hath the belt Wit, is like to be the bell Inter- preter ofGod's Judgments. I do not deny, (as I touch'd before,) but where the fin is evident, and the pu, nifhment is the genuine produit and natural effelt of the fin, we may, without uncharitablenefs, afcribe the punifhment to the fin, as the particular caufe of it ; as ficknefs to intemperance, and poverty to (loth and prodigality: or if a Judg- ment be remarkably inflicted upon a perfon, in the very all of forcenotorious fin:. or if when a perfon hath been guilty of a Sin, which is unqueftionably fo, and out 2 of
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