none, without him; none, but by him. His infinite power, justice, wisdom, mercy, knows when and how to scourge one; to chastise a second; to warn a third; to humble a fourth; to obdure a fifth; to destroy a sixth; shortly, to break some, and move all.

O the infinite varieties and inevitable certainties of God's vengeance upon sinful nations! Doth Israel walk with God? they are the miraculous precedent of favours to all ages and people. Do they fly off in mutinies and idolatries? God hath plagues, fiery serpents, mighty enemies, to execute his wrath upon them. Doth Solomon hold right with his God? never kingdom so flourished, in plenty and peace. Is his heart turned from the Lord God of Israel? 1 Kings xi. 9. straightways the Lord stirred up an adversary to Solomon, Hadad the Edomite; verse 14: and, after him, the wicked son of Nebat, the Ephrathite; verse 26. And, which is worthy of singular observation, when that rebel Jeroboam had drawn away the Ten Tribes of Israel from their allegiance to the son of Solomon, and Rehoboam had gathered together a hundred and fourscore thousand men of Judah and Benjamin, to fight against the revolted Israelites; the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God, Speak to Rehoboam and say; Ye shall not go up nor fight against your brethren; for this thing is from me.

Lo, who it is, that moves the earth, and divides it. We may look, as human wisdom teacheth us to do, at the secondary causes, and find them guilty of the public evils: this man's illimitable ambition, that man's insatiable covetousness; the cruel oppressions of these great ones, the mutinous dispositions of those inferiors; violence in one, in another faction: But, if we look not at the First Mover of all these lower wheels, we are but μÚTES "not seeing things afar off;" we do but, as the dog, snarl at the stones, neglect the hand: we are like some fond spectators, that, when they see the puppets acting upon the ledge, think they move alone; not knowing that there is a hand behind the curtain, that stirs all their wires.

Upon the sight, we do well and wisely, by all politic provisions to meet with or prevent all those peccant humours, which may occasion a public distemper; to curb the lawless insolence of some, the seditious machinations of others; the extortious cruelties of some, the corrupt wrestling of justice in others; the giddiness of some, others' quarrelsomeness: but, when all is done, if we do not make our peace with God we do nothing; it is but a reckoning without our host, a remedy without ease.

Oh, then, in all, either our sense or fear of evils, let us have our recourse to that Almighty Hand, which ordereth all the events of heaven and earth; and work him, by our true repentance, to a gracious cessation of vengeance: else, what do we with all our endeavours, but as that fond man, who wearies himself lading out the channel with a shallow dish, while the spring runs full and unchecked? Vain Man! can he possibly hope, to scoppet it out so fast as it fills? let him take order with the well-head from whence it issues: if that be filled up, the channel dries alone.

When the Paralytic was, with much labour, let down through

the roof to our Saviour's cure, what said he? Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. Alas! the poor man came not for pardon; he came for cure: but that Great Unfailing Physician knew that he must begin here. If the sins were gone, he knew the palsy could not stay behind them. If ever we think to be rid of judgments, we must begin whence they begin. He it is, that can both strike and ease, wound and heal again: which is the next, and must be, for fear of your over-tiring, the last subject of our discourse; Heal thou the sores or breaches thereof.

IV. That great and ineffable name of God, consisting of four letters, which we now call JEHOVAH, no man knows what it was or how pronounced; but, being abridged to JAH, the Grecians have been wont to express it by IAN, which signifies to heal: the sense whereof is answered by that name, which the Heathens gave him, Jupiter, as Juvans Pater.

This HEALING, then, is a proper, kindly, and natural act of God; whereas the other, as dividing, striking, wounding, commoving, are, as it were, forced upon him by men. Surely else, he, that is essential unity, would not divide; he, that is stability itself, would not move; he, that is salus ipsa, would not wound; he, that is all mercy, would not strike: we do, as it were, put this upon him; and, therefore, he cries out, Why will ye die, O house of Israel? but, when we shall return to ourselves and him, and be once capable of mercy and cure, how doth he hasten to our redress! The Sun of Righteousness shall arise, with healing in his wings; Mal. iv. 2. Lo, here is healing for his act, and wings for his haste.

Those breaches, which are made in the earth by the shaking of it, are as so many wounds, gashes, or sores in a vast body: and both of these resemble those, either Divisions or Calamities, which fall out in the bodies of Churches or States: the hand, that made them, must, can, will only heal them: Heal thou the breaches.

1. And how doth he heal them, IN MATTER OF CALAMITY? By removing the grounds of it. Surely, the great and true sores of the land are the sins of the land, which till it please him to heal, by working us to a serious repentance, in vain shall we complain of our breaches which follow them. These are ἕλκος κακὸν καὶ πονηρόν, α noisome sore and grievous; Rev. xvi. 2: not only in the knees and legs; but in the very bowels and vitalest parts, as Jehoram's was; 2 Chron. xxi. 19. Woe is me, how full we are of these sores;. Longæ pacis mala! What an ulcerous body are we grown; like to that great pattern of misery, that was totus ulcus," all but one botch!" I would not be querulous, but I must say so. What shall I say of our blasphemies, profanenesses, uncleannesses, drunkennesses, oppressions, sacrileges, lawless disobediences, contempt of God's messengers, and all that rabble of hellish enormities enough to shame heaven and confound earth? These are sores, with a witness. Alas! these, like to David's, run, and cease not. They are, besides their noisomeness, Dana on, “sure and old sores."

But yet stay, my Brethren: we are not come to that pass, that Jehoram was, that the wound is incurable; or to the state of the Sareptan's son, that there was no breath left in him: but, like Eutychus rather; bruised, but yet breathing. And still, still there is balm in Gilead: let our wounds be never so deep, repentance may, can, will recure them. Let not us think onwards to heal God's people with good words: this is the way to fester them within. No; let us, who are God's chirurgeons, make use of the probe of wise, austere judgment: let us gauge the sore to the bottom; and tent it home, with the applications of the Law: let us take off the proud flesh, with the corrosiving denunciations of vengeance to the impenitent sinners; and then, when it is thoroughly drawn, let us lay on the sovereign emplaisters of the most precious and meritorious mercy of our Blessed Redeemer.

Thus, thus must all our spiritual sores be healed: and oh, that we could obtain of our own hearts to address ourselves to a saving use of these sure remedies: how happy were it both for our souls and for our land, whose sores yet lie dangerously open! how soon would our justly provoked God take off his heavy judgments! Is it an Enemy, that would afflict us? He can put a hook into the nostrils, and a bridle into the lips of the proudest Assyrian, at pleasure. Is it a Pestilence? He can call in the destroying angel, and bid him smile no more. Is it a Famine? He can restore to us the years, that the locust hath eaten, the canker-worm, and the caterpiller: The floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats overflow with wine and oil.

2. IN MATTER OF DIVISION, the way to his cure must be, by composing all unkind differences, and uniting the hearts of men one to another. The hearts even of kings, much more of subjects, are in his hand, as the rivers of waters; and he turns them which way soever he pleases: sometimes, dreadfully forward, to a right down opposition; sometimes, sideways, to a fair accommodation; sometimes, circularly, bringing them about to a full condescent and accord

ance.

But, as we commonly say the chirurgeon heals the wound, and yet that the plaister heals it too; the chirurgeon, by the plaister: so may we justly here. It is God, that heals; and the means heal: God, by the means; and the means, by and under God. And, surely, when we pray or expect that God should heal either of these breaches, we do not mean to sue to him to work miracles: this were, as St. Austin said truly in the like case, to tempt God: but we beseech God to give and bless those means, whereby those breaches may be made up. As for the calamitous breaches, those we wish may be healed, so far as the arm of flesh can reach, by the vigilance and power of sovereignty; by the prudence of wise statesmen; by the sage Council of the State and Kingdom; by wholesome provisions of good laws; by careful and just executions. As for quarrellous and discontented breaches, there are other remedies to heal them: the Remedies must be, as the causes of them, from within.

(1.) Let the first, be a resolution of confining our desires within the due bounds; not affecting mutual encroachments, or unnecessary innovations.

Not Encroachments, first. Good Lord! what a stir these two great wranglers, meum and tuum, make in the world! Were it not for them, all would be quiet. Justice must do her part betwixt them both; holding the balance even, with a suum cuique; and says, with the Master of the Vineyard, pov To cov; Take that which is thine own, and go thy way; Matth. xx. 14: remembering, in all states, that heavy word of the Apostle; But he, that doth wrong, shall receive for the wrong which he hath done; and there is no respect of persons; Col. iii. 25. It is but right, that wrong should receive a payment, in whose hands soever it be found: and, if this retribution fail sometimes with you Men of Might, whom earthly greatness may perhaps, for a time, bear out in hard measures to your impotent inferiors; yet, there is no respect of persons above, except this be it, potentes potenter punientur.

Not Innovations, secondly. It is that, which Job finds out as one of the heinousest sins of his time, Some remove the landmarks; a thing, which God hath given strict charge against; Deut. xix. 14: and we, from Moses, fetched it into our Lenten Curses; Cursed be he, that removeth his neighbour's landmarks; Deut. xxvii. 17. Even in this case, rà aqxaïa is a sure rule. The old way, saith the Prophet, is the good way: every novelty carries suspicion in the face of it. It was a good question of the Church in the Canticles, Why should I be as one that turneth aside to the flocks of the companions? The wisdom of great statesmen has still taken it for a just principle, that of Plato, anívyτa μý níverv. Ye have heard of landmarks; but ye see how it is with seamarks, if they should be changed: it is the wreck of every vessel: either rocks would dash them, or shelves swallow them. And, as innovations do not well, in way of change; so, not in way of addition. That, which Tertullian said of faces, Í may say of main truths, A diabolo sunt additamenta: and, if Terpander do but add but one string more to his harp, the instrument is broke, and he censured. In regard of both; if it be the great and glorious stile of God, that in him is no shadow by changing; surely, those well settled Churches and States come nearest to his perfection, that alter least. And, if, with Lipsius, we shall say, Quid si in melius? I must answer, that in every change there is a kind of hazard. It is a wise word, therefore, of our Hooker, That a tolerable sore is better than a dangerous remedy.

(2.) The second remedy, must be a discreet moderation in the pursuance of our apprehended right. How many good matters have been marred with ill handling! The debtor did owe to the rigorous steward a hundred pence: no doubt the debt was due: he might justly claim it; but, to lay hands on the man, and to offer to pluck it out of his debtor's throat, this is justly taxed for afoul cruelty. Many an honest Corinthian was injured by his wrangling neighbour, and had justissimam causam litigandi; yet, for Christians to go to law before infidels, this the Apostle taxes for a sinful piece of jus

tice: Why rather suffer ye not wrong, saith the Apostle? "This is durus sermo;" says some brangling parishioner, that fetches up his poor Minister, every Term, for trifles: yet, in St. Paul's judgment, A slight injury is better than a scandalous quarrel.

(3.) The third, is a meek complying with each other; relenting, so far as we may with all possible safety, on either part, if the difference be between unequals; charitable and merciful, on the superior's part; humble and submiss, on the inferior's.

Abraham and Lot fall upon a difference. Abraham is the better man he is the uncle; Lot, but the nephew: yet Abraham seeks the peace, and follows it with him; whom, one would think, he might have commanded. Good David had done his master and father-in-law no wrong; unless it were, tu pugnas, ego vapulo: and yet, after good demonstration of his loyalty, how humbly doth he beg a reconcilement at the hands of Saul! Wherefore doth my lord the king pursue after his servant? Now, therefore, let my lord the king hear the words of his servant: If the Lord have stirred thee up against me, let him accept an offering. Harsh contestations never did good. The ball rebounds from the floor, to the face of him, that throws it; whereas, a lock of wool falls without noise, and lies still. Those, that would take birds, imitate their language; do not scare them with shouting. Bitter oppositions may set off; but cannot win, either a hollow friend, or a known enemy.

(4.) The fourth and last, must be a charitable construction of each others' acts and intentions. There is nothing in the world, which may not be taken with either hand; whether the right hand of favour, or the left of malice. We see the Son of God himself, in whom the Prince of this World could find nothing, yet was exposed to mis-construction. Doth he dispossess devils? it is by magic; by Beelzebub, the prince of devils. Doth he frame himself, other than his fore-runner, to a sweetly-sociable conversation with men for their conversion? behold a glutton, a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners; Matth. xi. 19. Doth his Chosen Vessel, St. Paul, desire to comply with the Jews, in purifying himself with the votaries in the Temple? he is cried out on, for an enemy to the Law; for a profaner of the Holy Place; Acts xxi. 28. Away. with him; he is not worthy to live.

Good Lord! what uncharitable censure are men apt to pass upon. each other! Let a man be strict and austere, in moral and divine duties; though never so peaceable, he is a Puritan; and every Puritan is a Hypocrite. Let him be more free, and give more scope. to his conversation: though never so conscionable, he is a Libertine: let him make scruple but of any innovated form, he is a Schismatic let him stand for the anciently-received rites and government, he is a time-serving Formalist. This is a Diotrephes; that, an Arius: this, a scorner; that, a flatterer.

In the mean time, who can escape free? Surely, I, that tax both, shall be sure to be censured of both: shall be? yes am, to purpose; and therein I joy, yea and will joy.

"What!" a 66 neuter!" says one: "What! on both sides!"