Destruction of that once famous City of Jerufalem, because of the irreclaimable Infidelity and Wickedness of almost all its Inhabitants; fo that only a fmall Remnant escaped in that difmal Confufion and Depopulation.

For when a City, Nation, Kingdom, or World, fhall by their Wickedness and Infidelity bring themselves into fo defperate a Cafe, it must be a Mercy that God, who has the Difpofal of all Men's Lives in his own Hands, fhould rather by a total Overthrow of them at once put a Period to their farther Violences, than any longer permit their outrageous Proceedings against one another, together with the incensed Fury of their Enemies, to extinguish their Race.

Thus the Overthrow of Sodom and Gommorrab by Fire, was a Punishment become neceffary, to put a Period to their farther Iniquities and irreclaimable Wickedneffes; but till that was not fent or order'd by God, to gratify or please his arbitrary Authority; nor are we to imagine, that the whole Inhabitants of those Cities were from thence fent to fuffer his eternal Vengeance; we may more readily conclude, that GOD even hereby fent this temporal Punishment upon them, while there was Room to fee, that there were many of them at least, that might thereby be deliver'd from eternal Sufferings; for tho' they did not regard the Prediction pronounced by Lot against them, yet upon feeing the Destruction coming upon them, which, in all Probability

they

they might forefee as we do a Tempeft, but found no Means to escape it, that this wou'd fhock them with a fudden Horror, and raise in them a fort of Repentance, which, though but short and confufed, yet it wou'd be the beft they cou'd then make, and without which they might never have made any at all; and may we not hope that it might leave Room for the Exercife of God's Mercy and Forgivenefs in their future State, when they had suffered here for the Fruits of their Wickedness, and that in this Execution of their temporal Deftruction, Mercy was thereby intended, which wou'd certainly be extended to all fuch, as by that Punifliment were become qualify'd to receive it?

This we may obferve from our bleffed Saviour's own Words, when he pronounced Woes to Chorazin and Bethfaida, who, after they had feen his miraculous Works, and muft thereby be inwardly convinced of the Truth of his Miffion, yet rejected the Offers of his Mercy, and chofe, against clear Conviction, maliciously to oppose them, and outwardly to maintain their Infidelity, for fear of becoming cenfured by one another, for their open Profeffion of their inward Belief: Upon which Account Chrift tells them, that "it "wou'd be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon

in the Day of Judgment than for them; "for, faid he, if the mighty Works which "have been done in you, had been done in

Tyre and Sidon, they wou'd have repented

long

long ago in Sackcloth and Ashes." Matt. Ch. xi. Ver. 21.

So alfo Ver. 23. "Had the mighty Works "which were done in Capernaum, been done in "Sodom, it wou'd have remained to this Day."

Thus Pharaoh and all his Hoft, who perished in the Sea, was an Example of God's Juftice and Judgments to make his Power known throughout all the Earth; but, as I faid, from the fudden Executions of temporal Deftructions, we are not to infer that these Sufferers are therefore to be deliver'd over to eternal Sufferings, because they have been made Examples for their Wickedness; I fay, we cannot infer, that because God has here inflicted temporal Deftruction upon a wicked Nation, &c. that therefore that Nation or People fhall be the eternal Monuments of his Wrath, and fuffer eternal Torments.

The Wrath and Vengeance of God, fo frequently mention'd in the Scriptures, is chiefly eftablished in the Courfe of Nature, which God has fo fitly framed to be the Reward of Virtue, or Punishment of Vice, from the very Nature of the Confequences that attend their original Eftablishment: And as God has eftablished this Order to fucceed in the common Course of Nature, to preferve a due Oeconomy therein, fo it is common amongst Men, and according to our Way of reafoning, to afcribe the Punishments which fall upon the Wicked, to the Wrath and Vengeance of God; and especially when fuch Punishments happen

amongst

?

amongst them, wherein the common Course of Nature feems not to be concerned: But, as I faid, God acts not thro' any wrathful arbitrary Power, nor can any Delight or Satis faction accrue to him in either the judicial or natural Punishments, which he appoints or fends, but they must be with a View to preferve the Sufferers from future Punishments; and where they cannot take this Effect upon them, we may conclude that their future Sufferings will be adequate to their contracted Habits of Vice unrepented of, as an infeparable Confequence thereof, established in the Order of natural Caufes, which neceffarily flow from fuch Effects; fo that when Vice becomes irreclaimable by Corrections or Punishments in this Life, it will carry that everlafting Sting in the Soul, that the Terrors thereof cou'd hardly be augmented by future real Inflictions."

God has in this Life therefore fo ordered it, that Vice fhall always carry a Sting to return into the Bofom of every Practicer of it, and that Virtue shall please and delight the Minds of those who purfue it; that we may be deterred from the Practice of the one, and encouraged in the Practice of the other: But where Vice is not hereby reftrain'd, and also becomes every way irreclaimable through the Inhabitants of a whole City, Nation, Kingdom, or World, then it becomes neceffary, and is a Mercy from God, to put a stop to their future Proceedings, and by fome natural, or fupernatural Destruction, to make them

Examples to others, and alfo to reclaim as many as fhall poffibly be thereby reclaimable, from eternal Torments.

8. Thus when the Wickedness of the Antediluvian World was become irreclaimable by ordinary Methods, God, in Mercy, by one total Overthrow of the whole human Race, except Noah, &c. as above, puts a Period to their inhuman Violences and Ufages of one another: And tho' Noah had forewarned them of this threatened Destruction, and they regarded it not, yet may we not reasonably conclude, that upon the Approach of the Deluge they would be infallibly convinced of their former Folly, Infidelity, and wicked Practices; and find Time no longer for any Thing but Remorse, and fuch a Repentance which they could then, in Confufion, exercise under their Struggle with Death?

And thus their Spirits being forced out of their Bodies in fuch Disorder and Confufion, we may reasonably conclude, that upon their Entrance into the fpiritual World, they would be filled with Surprize and Amazement, by finding themselves in another State, which they had caft off the Belief and Expectation of, as well as of the Promife of a Redeemer, who would himself be Juft, and yet die for the Unjuft.

And as they died alfo without this Knowledge or Expectation, fo muft they be deftitute of the Hopes of Redemption from that State, which this Death had delivered them over to, in their then Separation of Soul and

Body:

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