by fending more grievous and dreadful Calamities, and fometimes by utterly fubverting their State and Polity: And it is obfervable, that in fuch Cafes God is represented in Scripture as having a Refpect to the Sins of former Generations as well as the present; fince it is the fame Nation or Body politic which ftill fubfifteth in thefe different Generations; and when the Iniquities of that Body are grown up to fuch a Height, and have continued fo long, that he doth not fee fit to bear with them any longer, the Measure of their Iniquities is faid to be full, the Time is come for executing a severe Vengeance upon them, and the Punishment falls the heavier for having been fo long delayed.

It doth not at all caft a Reflection upon the Righteousness of God, that it frequently happeneth, that those whom he maketh use of for executing his Judgments upon guilty Nations, are themselves chargeable with Injuftice and Cruelty, and have nothing in View but the gratifying their own Ambition, Avarice, and Luft of Power. This doth not hinder, but that those Evils and Calamities which they are the Inftruments of inflicting, are just and right, as proceeding from the fupreme Governor of the World. And it is ufually fo ordered, that they who have been Inftruments in

punishing

punishing others, are afterwards, at that Time which appeareth fitteft to infinite Wisdom, juftly punished in their Turn for their Vices, their Pride, their Violence and Injustice. Thus God threatens, that after the Affyrian, whom he calls the Rod of his Anger, had performed his whole Work upon Mount Zion, and on Jerufalem, he would punish the Fruit of the flout Heart of the King of Affyria, and the Glory of his high Looks. Ifa. x. 5, 6, 7, 8, 12. And this was fignally verified in the Event; firft, in the fudden Ruin of Sennacherib's mighty Army, and afterwards in the utter Deftruction of that haughty Empire, and laying waste Nineveh, the Seat of it. The fame Obfervation holdeth concerning Babylon, which for a while triumphed over all Oppofition, and erected a most potent and wide extended Monarchy, but at length paid dear for her Infolence, Oppreffion, and Violence. Her Foundations are fallen (faith the Prophet Jeremiah) ber Walls are thrown down; for it is the Vengeance of the Lord: Take Vengeance on her; as he hath done, do unto her. Jer. 1. 15. This Vengeance began to be executed upon Babylon, by Cyrus the Founder of the Perfian Empire. And when afterwards the Perfians became infamous for their Pride, Oppreffion, Luxury, and all manner of Diffolutenefs, their Empire was, through

the

1

the righteous Judgment of God, totally fubverted by Alexander the Great. And that mighty Conqueror himself was soon after cut off in the midft of his Years and of his ambitious Projects; and his Empire was divided by furious Contenders, and at length the feveral Parts of it swallowed up by the Power of the Romans. This People by their Juftice, Fortitude, and Temperance, their Contempt of Luxury, and Zeal for the public Good, had rifen, through the favourable Interpofition of Divine Providence, from very fmall Beginnings, till they formed the mightiest Empire that ever was upon Earth. But when they fell from thefe Virtues, and became unjuft, perfidious, oppreffive, and abandoned to Diffolutenefs and Corruption of all Kinds, they were first, through the juft Judgment of God, torn afunder by bloody inteftine Wars; and afterwards deprived of their boafted Liberties by domestic Tyrants; and at length their Empire, which feemed to be fo ftrongly established, that nothing could overturn it, was fubverted by an Inundation of barbarous Nations, who were the Inftruments in the Hands of God for executing his Judgments upon them for the Wickedness, the Vices, the Cruelties, and Oppreffions of fo many Ages.

What

What hath been hitherto offered, relateth chiefly to civil Communities. Many Obfervations might likewise be made concerning God's providential Dealings to¬ wards Churches, or religious facred Societies. I fhall content myself with a few general Hints on this Subject.

It was a moft fignal Act of Divine Providence, and which I had Occafion to take fome Notice of before, that when the primitive patriarchal Religion, or the true Worship of God which had been derived from the Beginning, was in Danger of being loft among Men, and the World became generally involved in the groffeft Superftition and Idolatry, it pleafed him to fingle out a whole Nation from the reft of Mankind, and to erect them into a facred Polity, fet apart by their fundamental Conftitution for the Profeffion and Worship, the Faith and Obedience of the one true God, and him only, in Oppofi→ tion both to the worshipping Idols or false Deities, and to the worshipping the true God by Images, or in an idolatrous Way. The more effectually to awaken the Attention of Mankind, and to give the more illuftrious Confirmation to that Church-conftitution, it was wifely ordered, that in the founding and establishing of it there were many fignal and amazing Exertions of the divine Power. And the whole of that Dif

penfation

penfation was admirably so contrived, as to prepare the Way for a more fpiritual and perfect State of the Church, which was tofucceed it, and was to be more univerfally diffused; in the founding of which, Providence interpofed in a yet more remarkable Manner, by a Series of the most marvellous and extraordinary Events that ever the World faw.

And not only in the firft Erection and Establishment of the Jewish and Christian Church, but in God's fubfequent Dealings towards them, a confiderate Mind may obferve and trace the remarkable Footfteps of a moft wife Providence.

The Providence of God hath been often manifested in engaging the Powers of this World, and even those who feemed to be in a great Meafure Strangers to true Religion, to befriend his Church. Inftances of which we have in what was done by Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, towards re-establishing the Jewish Worship and Polity. But especially it hath eminently appeared in the Deliverances vouchfafed to his Church and People, even when their Cafe feemed to be defperate, and there scarce remained any Hope of Deliverance: As in the bringing back the Jews from the Babylanish Captivity, and in the wonderful Restoration of that Church, when it feemed to be utterly fubverted by Antiochus Epiphanes,