A Discourse of the Judgments of God, Chapter 16
CHAP. XVI. A Recollection of this Diſcourſe to its proper purpoſe.
THis Diſcourſe of the efficacies of Judgment, we have ſo placed, that it is moſt applicable to particular perſons; but when they have a due effect there, …hey do from ſingle breaſts conſpire into a general air, eſpecially when they affect the hearts of perſonages that are of power and example, from them they reſult upon whole bodies of people, and give at leaſt ſome tincture to the ſtate of times, that they become more ſober, and of a better inclination. For there is apparently a Genius and temper of an Age, even as there is of perſons, and a common conſtitution of a Nation, as of one man, which is alſo capable of ſuch kind of alterations in Morality, as in ſingle men, which are produced by the Cardinal changes that fall out in and upon them.
Yet ſeeing no man can determine what this will be (that is) whether the Age he lives in will be reformed by Judgments, when it hath ſo far corrupted, as to make it ſelf the ſeat of them: ſeeing theſe general amendments grow not upon private men, nor ſo much as upon leſſer fraternities, except as they meet in greater incorporations, or ſpring from the higheſt branches of Principality, which as in the tree inverted, are indeed the roots of all publick aſſociations, and moſt often of their manners.
That being then incertain to us that is out of our power, it is good for every man to look well to the ſtate of his own Soul; that if he find not any exemption from the common evil, yet he may be inrolled in eternal mercies, which is a Cabinet always removed from the poſſibilities of danger: and indeed theſe powerful operations of Grace are moſt deſigned to the eternal happineſs of man, even when they paſs through theſe auſterer methods, wherein God is very good; for if he takes the preſent ſtate, and moulds it any way for our everlaſting peace and life, it is an act of infinite mercy. All true goodneſs hath its preſent uſe in this world; it honours God, makes the beſt compoſure of the Soul, offers a bleſſing to the world now; but it doth not like the creatures of time, determine it ſelf here: It doth not as thoſe faint things breathe out and dye, but ſhines a light in the world, keeping the moſt perverſe and crooked generation from utter darkneſs, and is at laſt tranſlated from hence to a higher Orbe of Glory and eternal luſtre, but never ſuffers extinction.
No man then loſes by his reformation, or the good effect of evil, though through general obſtinacy in wicked ways, the Judgment goes on, and he dyes in the common calamity; for to fit men for enjoyment of proſperity here, is but a contingent end of affliction, eternal bleſſedneſs is only certain to it.
While good men are thus provided for, the refractorineſs of the Age or other particular perſons, is no diſproof of the uſefulneſs of Judgments, any more then that many dye under the methods of Phyſick, is an argument againſt ſo worthy a Science. When men under the hand of God have nothing worthy repentance riſing in them, 'tis deadly. As when a Phyſitian purges, yet the diſtemper continues, and the blood is ſtill impure after frequent Phlebotomy; for it argues all is diſcuſt, the whole maſs is corrupted, and nothing to be purged, but what is it ſelf; for impurity ſtill ſwims up after all evacuations. God is weary of ſtriking impenitents in order to a cure; they muſt dye as thoſe in whom Nature hath no reſiſtance to make againſt the prevailing diſtemper; the whole head is ſick, and the whole heart faint, and thoſe powers periſhed, that ſhould be aided by medicine: The principles of recovery that are as the handles by which God apprehends the Soul, are loſt by great obdur…cies in ſin, & men dye like beaſts under thoſe ſtrokes, of which they underſtand no more, then that they oppreſs them.
This is that irremediable malady of ſin, whereof Nations and perſons dye, and are written upon, as Ahaz that treſpaſſed more under Gods hand, This is that King Ahaz.