A SERMON Preached at the ASSIZES Held in WARWICK, April the 1st. 1690.  
By JOHN wiles, D. D.  
Published at the Request of the High Sheriff and Grand Jury, for the County of Warwick.  
LONDON, Printed for R. Sare at Grays-Inn-Gate in Holbourn, and Published by Randal Taylor. MDCXC.   

Imprimatur,  
C. Alston. April 23. 1690.   

To the Right Worshipful THOMAS WAGST AFFE, Esq; High Sheriff of the County of Warwick; AND TO 

Sir John Mordaunt Bar.  
Sir William Boughton Bar.  
Sir William Underhill Kt.  
Sir John Clopton Kt.  
Sir William Bishop Kt.  
William Peytoe Esq;  
William Palmer Esq;  
Thomas Keyte Esq;  
Henry Parker Esq;  
Edward Boughton Esq;  
John Comb Esq;  
Edward Farmer Esq;  
Robert Boyse Esq;  
George Fullwood Gent.  
Thomas Ayleworth Gent.  
John Andrews Gent.  
and  
William Savage Gent.   Being the Grand Jury at the last Assizes.  
Gentlemen,  
THO' I was ever averse to the Printing of my Sermons, and in the very composure of them designed them only for the Pulpit, not the Press; to be heard, not read, and have therefore withstood all Importunities of this nature; yet since you are now resolved not to be denied, and have agreed in your Verdict against me, I must submit, you must be obeyed. And indeed your steady Loyalty in the most difficult Times, your indefatigable Zeal for the Church of England, your affectionate Union and Agreement amongst yourselves; and lastly, your particular Respects and Friendship towards myself, make it impossible you should be denied. A Church you reverence which doth not affect Novelties and Change, whose Doctrine is peaceable and uniform, and whose very Rites and Ceremonies are solemn and ancient. A Church, which sealed with the Blood of Martyrs, hath outlived all the Plots of Hell and Rome, and is still the envy of her Enemies. A Church which hath dashed the hopes and designs of all that hate her, and plainly showed that no Weapon formed against her shall ever prosper. And may you long live to maintain and vindicate the Honour of our Church, to preserve our County in Peace and Union, and suppress Vice and Faction. And if the Publication of this Sermon may conduce any thing to the removing of the Evils we either feel or fear; if it may help to make the Age better, or the Nation happier; if it may make but any one Person either a better Christian, a better Subject, or a better Neighbour, I shall never repent of the Commands that you have laid upon,  
gentlemans, Your most Affectionate and Obedient Servant, John wiles.   

A SERMON Preached at the ASSIZES Held in WARWICK.  Amos 3. 6. — Shall there be evil in a City, and the Lord hath not done it? 
THESE Words are part of the Prophecy of Amos, whom God called from among the Herdsmen of Tekoah, to be a special Messenger to his People Israel. For tho' God usually pitched upon Scholars to be his Prophets, and gave extraordinary Endowments to such Persons only as had made the best Improvement of their Natural ones, chose Moses for his Prophet, and St. Paul for his great Apostle, Men famous in their Generations for their profound Learning; and for a Succession of Prophets, appointed Schools and Seminaries among the Jews, where the Sons of the Prophets were bred up, and with Piety and Learning fitted for the reception of the Divine Schechinah: Yet as Princes upon great and pressing occasions, send extraordinary Ambassadors with special Credentials; so it pleased God also upon extraordinary occasions, and especially at such times as his ordinary Messengers were unfaithful, when his Priests taught for Hire, and his Prophets prophesied Lies, to inspire a Balaam, or a Saul; send down the Holy Ghost, as once he did at Pentecost, upon illiterate Fishermen, or as it is in the instance before us, call Amos from among the Herdsmen of Tekoah, to instruct Jacob his People, and Israel his Inheritance; to teach the Sanhedrim Wisdom, and correct the Priests and Prophets at Jerusalem. For so it pleaseth God sometimes, to choose the foolish things of the World to confound the wise, and weak things of the World to confound the mighty, and base things, and things that are not, to bring to nought the things that are, that no Flesh should glory in his Presence, 1 Cor. 1. 27, 28, 29.  
If Amos therefore was such an extraordinary Prophet, called by God for this particular Message, and inspired beyond the usual Methods of his Gifts and Graces, this may justly raise our Expectations, and make us very inquisitive into the business he was sent about, and the Prophecy he delivered.  
Now the principal Scope and Design of his whole Prophecy was this: Tho' the Jews had by their Sins provoked God to send many heavy Jugments upon them, yet were they still so stupid and senseless, as neither to be prevailed upon by them to amend their Lives, nor so much as once consider whence those Judgements came. If God sent Fire upon their Cities, they imputed it to a Secret Enemy, or some ill Accident. If God sent Plague or Pestilence among them, that also was ascribed only to some unhappy Contagion, or an infectious Air. If God sent Scarcity or Famine, they looked no further, but that it was for want of Rain. And after this manner all God's Judgements lost their Designs, were far above, out of their sight; God was not in all their Thoughts.  
Now when God saw all the Instructions of his Judgements neglected, and the gracious methods of his Providence designed for their Amendment, frustrated; he sent his Prophets to them, to work in them a true sense of their condition; but these also were slighted and despised. So God here tells 'em, chap. 2. vers. 11, 12. I raised up of your Sons for Prophets, and of your young Men for Nazarites; but ye have made the Nazarites drink Wine, and commanded the Prophets, saying, Prophesy not. And again, chap. 7. v. 12, 13. O thou Seer, go flee away into the Land of Judah, and prophesy there, but prophesy not any more at Bethel, for its the King's Chapel, and the King's Count  
When God saw the Disease grown desperate, and the Patient not enduring so much as the fight of a Physician, his Judgements neglected and his Prophets abused, God himself awoke like a Giant refreshed with Wine; and to make his Power known, inspired one of the Herdsmen of Tekoah, with such knowledge as was wonderful for him; and sent him to assure them all, that their Sufferings were from Heaven, that they were God's Visitation for their Sins, and that nothing but speedy Repentance could prevent their Ruin. This we find delivered here in the 4th Chapter, where God thus speaks to them; I have given you cleanness of teeth in all your Cities, and want of bread in all your Palaces; I have withheld the Rain from you, and caused it to rain upon one City and not another; I have smitten you with blasting and mildew, and sent among you the Pestilence; I have slain your young Men with the Sword, and have taken away your Horses; I have overthrown some of you as Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a Firebrand plucked out of the burning. And again in my Text the Prophet by way of question most emphatically assures them, That there is no evil in a City, and the Lord hath not done it. As if he had said, There is no such thing as Chance or Fate in all your Sufferings; Afflictions do not come forth out of the Dust, nor do troubles spring out of the Ground; but they are all the effect of God's overruling Providence, without whose Knowledge and Appointment not one Hair falls from your Head.  
And tho' this be the plain and genuine Sense of these Words, yet because there is a Race of Men in the World that can pervert every thing to a bad meaning, quote God's Word as the Devil did to our Saviour, quite contrary to the Design and Intent of it; and in this very place, from the doubtful signification of the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 evil, have made God the Author of their sins. I shall first clear these Words from this blasphemous abuse of them, and then consider them in their proper Sense and Design, as I have already explained them.  
No sooner had the first Man sinned, but he found out this excuse for himself, to lay the fault upon God, Gen. 3. 12. The Woman that thou gavest me, she gave me of the Tree and I did eat: And some of his unhappy Offspring have gone yet further, and thought God altogether such an one as themselves, Psalm 50. 21. And whoever hath worked himself up to this pitch of wickedness, will never be persuaded that God will punish any one for being like him; but, with some of the 
* See Lucian in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Terence in Eunucho August. de Civ. Dei, 1. 2. c. 7. etc.  Heathens, will be apt to justify his own Villainies, by pretending to follow so great an Example.  
To prevent this dangerous and Fundamental Error, God hath taken care throughout all the Scriptures, to work in us true and proper Notions of himself, his Justice, Holiness and Mercy, and make us such a discovery of his own Perfections, as might work us up to the highest degree of Holiness and Virtue. His Laws, which are his revealed Will, are all holy, just and good, Rom. 7. 12. and have this one principal Design in them to make us so too. All the Sanctions of his Laws are so many severe Punishments of Sin, and Rewards of Virtue; and from one end of the Bible to the other, nothing but Godliness hath the promise of this life, and that which is to come, 1 Tim. 4. 8. So that to make God the Author of Sin, is to make him act contrary to himself and his own Nature, contrary to his Justice, Holiness and Mercy, which are all essential to him; contrary to his Laws and revealed Will; and in one word, contrary to the Scope and Tenor of all Religion in the World, whether natural or revealed.  
Let not any one persuade you therefore that God is the Author of Evil in this Sense, and by his unalterable Decrees compels Mankind to that which himself hates and detests. Far be these things from God, let him be true and just and good, and every Man a Liar. I am sure St. Paul tells the Romans (8. 29.) That whom God foreknew, those he did predestinate, and so makes all God's Decrees to Punishments or Rewards to be founded upon his Prescience of our doing good or evil. And then as to God's foreknowledge, that doth not at all destroy our Freedom; God foreknew the sins of the Jews, when by his Prophet he foretold them, and yet still lays the Fault upon them that they had sinned. Christ knew from the beginning that Judas would betray him, John 13. 27. and yet Judas acted out of his own free choice, and in the bitter Agony of his Soul cried out, That he had sinned in betraying of innocent Blood, Matth. 27. 4. And indeed to what purpose are all God's Threats and Exhortations, if we are all overruled by the fatal Impulse of an irreversible Decree? To what purpose is God's Solemn Adjuration, Deut. 30. 19 I call Heaven and Earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you Life and Death, Blessing and Cursing, therefore choose Life, that both thou and thy Seed may live? Why doth God tell Israel, That his Destruction is from himself? Hos. 13. 9 and still lay the Fault upon the wicked that he is so? O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, saith Christ, how often would I have gathered you as a Hen gathers her Chickens under her Wings, and you would not. And again, Why will you die, O House of Israel? Ezek. 18. 31. Why are the wicked punished for those things they cannot help? Why were the Jews cut off for their Unbelief? Or why doth the Apostle bid the Christians take care by their Example? Rom. 11. And therefore Solomon amidst all his Knowledge concludes of this as the most certain thing in the whole World, viz. That God made Man upright, but they have sought out many Inventions, Eccles. 7. 29.  
Give me leave to add this only, that this cannot possibly be the meaning of the Prophet Amos in my Text, unless he contradicts himself, and the whole design of his Prophecy. He is here sent to reprove the Israelites for their sins, to assure them that all the Miseries they suffered were God's Visitation, and that nothing but Repentance could remove them. Now for the Prophet in delivering this Message, to tell them, that not they themselves, but God by his irreversible Decrees was the proper Author of their sins, would be so far from working in them sincere Repentance, that it would be the most probable Argument to hinder it, to make them continue in their Sins and in their Sufferings, and so he would most effectually contradict the whole Design of his Prophecy.  
And having thus far cleared the Words, I proceed to consider them in their genuine and natural Sense, as I have already explained them, viz. That there is no Evil, no Calamity or Misery in a City or Country, which God is not the Author of; and therefore in all the Judgements that befall us, we should learn to see God's Hand, and humble ourselves under his Visitation.  
And for a more distinct and methodical consideration of the Judgements and Calamities that befall a Kingdom for their sins, I shall show,  
I. That when God first made the World, he so ordered the connection and dependence of Causes and Effects in the whole course of it, as that very many sins naturally produce mischief and sorrow to the Authors of them.  
II. That when this doth not happen, and sins are great and daring, God sometimes breaks through all the course of Nature, and disturbs the Order of the World, to make his Power and his Justice known, to vindicate the Honour of his Providence, and cast Vengeance upon the Sinner.  
III. That even the effects of second Causes, and which are produced by an heap of Circumstances, which seem only casual and accidental, are directed by God to other special Ends and Designs of his Providence, and made the Executioners of his Wrath against Sinners.  
I begin with the first of these, viz. That when God made the World, he so ordered the connection and dependence of Causes and Effects in the whole course of it, as that very many sins naturally produce mischief and sorrow to the Authors of them. And here I would not be understood of the secret Lashes of a wounded Conscience, which usually pursue Sin at the Heels, and where God by his Vicegerent in us, becomes Witness, Judge and Executioner; for these things being transacted betwixt God and the Sinner, are all in secret from the eye of the World, and cannot be properly designed by the Prophet Amos in my Text; but in open and visible Judgements this is true also. Luxury and Drunkenness naturally tend to impair our Health and our Estates, and either hurry us untimely to our Graves, or else continue us here in Beggary and Want, unpitied and unrelieved. Sloth and idleness  a man with rags, Prov. 23. 21. and if you see the Field of the slothful, behold it's grown over with thorns, and nettles cover the face of it, Prov. 24. 30, 31. And all this, tho' the usual consequence of the very order of Nature, is properly ascribed to God the Author of it, who, as David observeth, Psalm 107. 34. makes a fruitful Land barren for the wickedness (for the idleness) of them that dwell therein. Of Lusts and Debaucheries St. Paul observed in his time, that they were sins against the Body, 1 Cor. 6. 18. I am sure they are much more so now; and tho' never any Man hated his own Flesh, yet too many in this Age so far poison and destroy it, till at last they become loathsome to themselves, and all about them, drop by peacemeals into their Graves, and as far as possible, become living Monuments and Examples, that the Wages of Sin is Death. A quarrelsome Temper is continually in Broils and Dangers, and he that is cruel to others troubles his own flesh, Prov. 11. 17. So that without a Prophetic Spirit, from the natural course of things we may say with David, Psalm 55. 23. A bloodthirsty man shall not live out half his days. An old Liar is sure to get this by it, that no body will believe him; and an old Knave this, that no body will trust him▪ He that soweth Discord among others, must not expect to live at home in peace, and the Slanderer usually gets himself a Blot. Envy is the rottenness of the Bones, Prov. 14. 30. And of these and many other Sins the Wise Man pronounceth, that they who are guilty of them sin against their own Souls. For in all these Cases the Punishment is the natural effect and consequence of the sin, he sows iniquity, and reaps vanity, Prov. 22. 8. And what is more natural than for the Harvest to follow Seeding? He conceives mischief, and brings forth vanity, saith Job, 15. 35. and Sin when it's finished brings forth Death, James 1. 15. And what is more natural than that the Birth should follow Conception? Yea, so close is the connection betwixt Sin and Punishment, that in most Languages they have, as in my Text, some one common Name to signify both of them; and even those Names which signify them distinctly, are in 
* Zech. 14. 9 2 Cor. 5. 21.  Scripture observed to be very often put for one another.  
And thus I have showed, how in many Cases God's Judgements are the natural consequence of sin, how the very course of things makes the Sinner hated and despised, as if God, when he made the World, had given Commission to all his Creatures in their proper Sphere and Order, to be the Instruments of his Anger, and the Executioners of his Wrath against Sinners.  
II. When this doth not happen, and sins are great and daring, God sometimes breaks through all the course of Nature, and disturbs the order of the World, to make his Power and his Justice known, to vindicate the Honour of his Providence, and cast Vengeance upon the Sinner. Not that God hath any delight to hurry the World into Confusion, and destroy his own Creatures; but when the Cry of our Sins, like the Voice of Abel's Blood, goeth up to Heaven, and the Souls from under the Altar cry loud for Vengeance, it's necessary for God to make himself known by the Judgements that he executeth, Psal. 9 16. and by the out-going of his Power, vindicate the Honour of his Justice. It was this that moved God to open the Windows of Heaven, and bring in a Flood upon the Ungodly. It was this that moved the Lord to rain down Fire and Brimstone out of Heaven. They were the sins of Corah, Dathan and Abiram that provoked the Lord to make the Earth open her Mouth, and swallow them quick into the Pit. When the Assyrian Armies reproached the Power of the God of Israel, God sent his Angel against them, and in one Night destroyed one hundred eighty five thousand of them. When Belshazzar drinking with his Princes, his Wives and his Concubines, in the Vessels of the Sanctuary, which his Father carried from Jerusalem, began to magnify the Gods that himself worshipped, and triumphed over the sacred Vessels of a conquered God; God wrote his Doom upon the Wall, struck that haughty Monarch with trembling and confusion, and deprived him of his Throne, and his Life too the very next Night. And when the Worshippers of Bel at Babylon thought to get a Victory over the Almighty, and had outlawed Daniel and his God; then the Lord broke in with Vengeance upon them, reversed the Decree, which according to the Laws of the Medes and Persians, they thought unalterable, and tore in pieces the Precedents and Princes with those very Lions they had prepared for Daniel. Egypt for a long time lived securely, and her Magicians flourished; but when they began to vie Miracles with Moses, and set themselves up against God, than God arose in his Wrath, and to throw contempt upon them, made the Flies, the Lice, and meanest of his Creatures, baffle all their Magic and Enchantments, and forced them to confess before the Face of Pharaoh, That it was the Finger of God, Exod. 8. 19 And when they continued yet in their sins, and still refused Obedience to that God, whom just before they acknowledged; God spoke to the Sea and it obeyed him, and overwhelmed them all with so great, so signal, so unexpected an overthrow, that God seems to Triumph in their Destruction; and as himself saith, Got him honour over Pharaoh, Exod. 14. 17, 18. But because in these Proceed the Almighty is forced to break through the Harmony and goodness, which himself saw in his own Creation, disturb the very course of Nature, which was made good, and very good, he never makes use of them, but upon great and pressing occasions, when Sinners become daring and impudent, dafy God and his Providence, and, as it was in the time of Elijah, there is as it were a Contention betwixt Him and Ball; or in the Language of an Heathen Poet, Non Deus intersit nisi dignus Vindice Nodus.  
III. God oftentimes by his Wisdom so directs and manages the natural effects of second Causes, and which are produced by an heap of Circumstances, that seem only casual and accidental to other special ends, and designs of his Providence, and makes them become the Executioners of his Wrath against Sinners; and those Arrows of the Almighty, which to the unthinking World seem shot at Rovers, like those of Jonathan's to David, have a more particular design and signification in them. And here it must be observed, that those things which seem casual to us, cannot be so to God the Author of them. Wives and Children, Houses and Lands are a Gift and Heritage that cometh of the Lord, Psal. 127. 2. And again, 1 Tim. 6. 17. It's God that giveth us all things to enjoy. Yea, not a Sparrow falls to the ground, not an hair from your head, without your Father's knowledge, saith Christ; and the very lot that is cast into the lap hath its whole disposal from the Lord, saith Solomon, Prov. 16. 33. If we look upon the History of Joseph, his being sold by his Brethren, carried into Egypt as a Slave, and there imprisoned by Potiphar, we are apt to pity his misfortune; but yet all these black Circumstances had a natural chain and tendency in God's sight to procure his Honour and Promotion: They were these that brought to pass his Prophetic Dream, and made the Sun, Moon and Stars bow down before him. And Joseph expressly saith to his Brethren, Gen. 45. 5. Be not angry with yourselves that ye sold me hither, for God sent me before you to preserve Life. And again, Gen. 50. 20. Ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass as it is at this day to save much people alive. Tho the Patriarch Abraham was banished from Ur, for not worshipping the Idols of the Chaldeans, as many ancient 
* Judeth. 5. 6, 7, 8. Joseph. Antiq. l. 1. c. 7▪ Hieronymi quaest. in Gen. Maimon. More Nev. p. 3. c. 29. & de Cultu Syd. lib. 1.  Authors tell us, yet because God made use of that Banishment of Abraham's to other purposes and designs, the Scripture tells us, that God called Abraham thence, Gen. 12. 1. Acts▪ 7. 3. The Jews Crucify'd our Saviour, Judas betrayed him, and Pilate condemned him, and yet it was God the Father delivered him up for us all, Rom. 8. 32. It was Christ offered himself, and showed Obedience by the things that he suffered, Heb. 5. 8. it was he laid down his life, and no man taketh it from him, John 10. 18. And the Jews and Romans did no more than God's Counsel had before determined, Acts 4. 28. 
* Origen. Hom. 35. in Mat. Deus non pepercit unico filio, sed pro nobis tradidit illum, in aliis locis, Judas tradidit illum sed & Satanas tradidit eum, principes & seniores tradiderunt cum, sed non omnes eodem proposito Deus propter misericordiam, etc.  He that slew Ahab drew a Bow at a venture, 1 Kings 22. 34. but God ordered the Arrow to kill Ahab, as he had foretold by his Prophet. We read in the History of the last Siege of Jerusalem, that some Women eat their own sucking Children; and though this might seem the casual effect of a long War, yet it was far otherwise; and this was one of the Woes that Christ had before pronounced against Jerusalem, Mat. 24. 19 and is agreeable to Levit. 26. 29, 31, 32. & Deut. 28. 53. In the History of Job the Sabeans took away his Oxen, the Chaldeans his Camels, a great Wind blew down one of his Sons Houses and killed his Children, and yet all these were so peculiarly God's Visitation, that Job cries out, The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the Name of the Lord, Job 1. 21. And so generally doth God overrule all that which the World calls Chance or Fortune; that in the Law of Moses, when any one had killed another unawares, it's said, That God delivered him into his hand, Exod. 21. 13. and therefore God ordered Sanctuaries for his Refuge. From all which its evident, That God order the common Accidents of the World to proper ends and designs of his Providence; and many of those Evils which seem the effects only of Chance, are really designed by God as a Punishment for our Sins. Now in these Cases God's Hand more visibly appears to us.  
I. When Judgements are National and Public, Is there any evil in a City, and the Lord hath not done it?  
II. When Punishments carry with them a Stamp and Character of the Sin.  
I. God's Hand more visibly appears to us in public and national Judgements. When sins are personal only, and the Infection spreads no farther than their first Author, the state of Religion is not endangered, and God may let the Sinner prosper, and yet secure the Honour of his Providence; but when the Leprosy is spreading, and the Contagion dangerous, when Iniquity is established by a Law, and sins also become National, than the Lord makes his Justice known, vindicates the Honour of his Providence, and makes his Judgements National also. It's true, that there are some sins of so deep a Die, that they singly infect a Kingdom; and God order the Land to be cleansed of them, Num. 35. 33. Josh. 7. 11. And as for that Phrase so often used by God in Scripture, Shall I not visit for these things? It's scarcely ever used but when sins are national, (as Levit. 18. 25. Jer. 5. 9 etc.) If we look upon good and bad Men in their private capacities, their temporal Interests are so intermixed, that its hard to pull up the Tares, and not injure the Wheat also; but as they grow up, so are usually cut down together; and whilst they live here, partake mutually of each others happiness of Misery. We rarely find a Plague or Fire pass by the good Man's Door, but he also is involved in the punishment of his ill Neighbour's 
* Sap● Di●spiter neglectus incesto addit integrum, Hor. Carm. 2. 30.  Lot was driven out of Sodom, from his House and Home, not for his own, but their sins; and the same House that fell upon the Philistimes, killed Samson also. One guilty Ionas had well nigh drowned a Ship full of Passengers; and one Religious Paul saved all the Passengers in another from being drowned, Acts 27. 24. And in this as to particular Persons, Solomon is to be understood, when he tells us, That there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked, Eccles. 9 2. But the case is far otherwise in Kingdoms and Societies; and tho' the Neighbourhood of the good may protect single persons that are evil, yet if a whole Nation is bad, who shall intercede for them? Zoar seems to have been as wicked as Sodom, yet the Lord was entreated for it by Lot, because it was a little one; but Abraham himself could not prevail for Sodom. Now National Judgements are so peculiarly the effects of God's Wrath and Anger that in Scripture they are emphatically called His, Ezek. 14. 21. When I send my four fore Judgements, the Sword, the Famine, the noisome Beast and the Pestilence. It was God that gave the Sword a charge against Askalon and Egypt; it was God that brought Evil upon Jerusalem, and gave his People into the Hands of their Enemies. It's he that stops the Clouds from dropping their fatness on us, or sends an Army of Locusts to destroy the Plenty that he had given; yea, even Fire and Hail, Snow and Vapours, Wind and Storm fulfil his Words, Psalms 148. 4. 'Tis not Fate nor Fortune that makes a Nation happy or miserable, but the Piety or Wickedness of them that dwell therein. We need not consult the Planets to discover the rise of National Calamities, nothing but sins that are as public can be the cause of them; and if a Nation fall into Disgrace; its Sin that is the reproach of any people, Prov. 14. 34. It's this that makes God remove his Candlestick from a Country, and give his Kingdom to a Nation that will bring forth Fruit.  
II. Calamities appear to be from God, tho' in private Persons, when they bear a particular relation to, and oftentimes the very stamp and character of the sin: And as its usual for Malefactors that are punished, to have their Crimes written in a Paper and put upon their Breasts; and the Cross heretofore bore the Inscription of the Faults for which the Persons suffered; so God also many times so exactly suits the Punishment to the Sin, that all Men shall say this is God's Work. Thus when we see the Family of the Sacrilegious come to want and beggary, as it often happens; and not only other Curses, but Poverty also pursue those that thought to enrich themselves with holy things; when we see Corah's Priests, for offering strange Fire, consumed immediately with Fire from the Lord; and Jehojakim, that denied so much as a decent Burial to the Prophet he had murdered, himself buried with the burial of an Ass, cast forth out of the Gates of Jerusalem. When we see Adonibezek with his Thumbs and great Toes cut off, as he had used to serve others; and Haman hanged upon that very Gallows he had prepared for Mordecah; we must needs cry out, That it is the Lords doing, and its marvellous in our Eyes; and confess with the Angel in the Revelations, That his Judgements are righteous and true. He that reads the History of Pharaoh's being drowned, must needs reflect upon what he had before done to the Israelitish Infants: And when we find David's Concubines abused publicly by his Son, we must needs consider what he had before done to the Wife of Uriah. If the Spies bring a false Report of the Land of Canaan, after their forty days Search of it, and the People murmur against God, they must all wander Forty Years in the Wilderness, before they come to enjoy it. When the Jews served other Gods, God sent them Captives to the Nations where those Gods were worshipped, Jer. 5. 19 2 Chron. 12. 5. If they walked contrary to God, than God walked contrary to them, Levit. 26. 23, 24, 27, 28. and if they neglected to let the Land have rest in the Sabbatical Years, as God appointed, the whole Nation is sent to Babylon for 70 Years together, that the Land may enjoy her Sabbaths, Levit. 26. 34, 35, 43. 2 Chron. 36. 21. So that whereas according to the Hebrew we translate Lam. 1. 7. The Adversaries mocked at their Sabbaths, the Septuagint translate it, They mocked at their Captivity. If David's Pride make him number the People, God punisheth his Pride by sending a Plague upon his Subjects, and so making their number less; and tho' Plagues scatter a secret Infection, and the Pestilence walketh in darkness, yet it's so very obedient to God's Commission, that David of the three Evils offered him, therefore chose that, because he would fall into the hands of God. And lastly, it was David's own Observation upon God's Proceed, Psalms 109. 17. They that love cursing, it shall come unto them, and they that delight not in Blessing, it shall be far from them. And thus I have showed, How God is known by the Judgements that he executeth; and when the Footsteps of his Providence are so plain and visible, we may easily answer the Question in my Text, Are there any such evils, and the Lord hath not done them?  
Now as God makes use of a Lex talionis in his own Judgements, so he gives particular direction to his Judges after the same manner, for instance, to punish Perjury. Deut. 19 16, 17, 18, 19, 21. If a false Witness rise up against any Man, to testify against him that which is wrong, and the Judges after diligent Inquisition, shall find that he hath testified falsely against his Brother, then shall ye do unto him as he had thought to have done unto his Brother; so shalt thou put the evil away from among you, thine eye shall not pity, but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. We meet with a famous Instance of the execution of this Law in the History of Susanma, where the Elders, who by their Perjury would have taken away her Life, are themselves put to Death for it, v. 62. According to the Law of Moses they did unto them in such sort as they maliciously intended to do to their Neighbour, and they put them to death. When Ahab had by the Perjury of two Sons of Belial first took away the Life, and then possessed himself of the Field of Naboth, God sent his Prophet to him with this Message, That in the place where Dogs licked the Blood of Naboth, shall dogs lick they blood, even thine, 1 King. 21. 19  
And if Perjury be one of the crying sins of this Kingdom which hath long called for Vengeance, and for which our Land mourns, Jer. 23. 10. It's much to be lamented that the Punishment of this sin is still so slight and trivial. Why is it thought a lesser Crime to rob a Man of his Estate by two Knights of the Post at an Assize, than to do it by two High-way-men upon the Road? Why is it a lesser Crime to take away a Man's Life by a false Oath, than to do it with a Sword or Dagger? There are men, saith David, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp Sword. I can see but this only difference betwixt them, that he that doth it by Perjury is the worse, since, besides the Theft and the Murder, which is the same in both cases, he pawns his Soul, blasphemes God, and with an impudent Face defies his Vengeance, at that very time he is committing of it. I am sure if a Lex talionis be ever just, it is in this case; and whatever any one by his Perjury measures to another, it should in the same manner be measured to him again.  
And thus I have finished the several Heads I proposed to discourse of, have discovered the Rise and Origen of all our Evils, whether of Sin, or of Punishment, and shown that there is no sin but from ourselves, no punishment, but from the Lord; and that as this is always true, so especially in National Judgements, There is no Evil in a City, and the Lord hath not done it. What remains now but that we a little reflect upon ourselves, and see how far we are concerned in the Subject I have discoursed of.  
And hath not Destruction been long hover over our Heads, and a whole Cloud of Miseries been just ready to break in upon us? Have we not all the while been rather the worse than the better for them; and though God's Judgements have been amongst us, would not learn righteousness? Oh! that we would at length see God's Hand in all our Sufferings, and humble ourselves to God for them; that we would all lay our Hands upon our Mouths, and say with Daniel, (9 5, 6.) We have sinned, we have done wickedly, we have rebelled against thee. O Lord, to us belongs confusion of Face as at this day, because we have sinned against thee. Oh! that this Nation would consider at least in this their day the things that belong to their Peace, before they be hid from us. If this be the time of God's Visitation, how should we take care that we have nothing left that may offend him? How should we repent of our sins and forsake them, that God also may repent of the evils that he hath brought upon us? It's in vain for us to depend upon God's former kindness and protection▪ over us, and conclude from thence that he will always save us; God never shown greater kindness to any Nation under Heaven, than he did▪ to the Jews; and yet in all the Histories of the World we never find a Nation that suffered more. Let us not think that our being Protestants, our being of the true Religion, will secure us; so were the Jews; and if God spared not the natural Branches, when their sins called for Judgements, we must not expect that he will spare us. The longer we are suffered to abuse God's Mercies, the greater will be our ruin when it comes; and the Axe that hath been long lifted up against us, will by all these delays only fetch the bigger blow. And if we still frustrate all God's gracious designs of Mercy towards us, in staying thus long for our Repentance, and making all the Nations round us become a warning to us; we may justly expect the heaviest Judgements of all, and become ourselves a sad example to others. Behold the Figtree which Christ himself cursed for want of Fruit; look upon the Vineyard that God himself planted, exposed at last to the Wild Beasts of the Forest, because its Fruit was bad. Do but go to Shiloh, the Prophet, Jer. 7. 12. 14. and see what God hath done to that place for the sins of it. Go to Jerusalem, and see what Vengeance he hath brought upon his own People; go to the Seven Churches of Asia, and see those once glorious Churches become waste and barbarous; go to Antioch, where the Disciples were first called Christians, and see that place become an Heap of Ruins, without one Christian▪ Church in it 
* Chytraeus de statu Eccles. in Asia, p. 23, 24.  yea, go to all the Eastern and African Churches, and see there what their Sins have done to them, and then take Christ's Word for it, That except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish, Luke 13. Behold our Savious at this time of Trial now saying to us, as once he did to Jerusalem, O England, England, how often would I have gathered you as a Hen gathers her Chickens under her Wings, and you would not! I dread to add the last part of the Verse, Behold your House is left unto you desolate.  
Now one natural effect of Miseries is to make Men serious and considerate, and reflect upon the sins that they have committed. When Joseph's Brethren were in distress, though twenty years after, they cried out, We are verily guilty concerning our Brother, in that we saw the anguish of his Soul when he besought us, and we would not hear, therefore is this Evil come upon us, Gen. 42. 21. When Antiochus was upon his Deathbed, he then remembered the Evils he had done to Jerusalem, 1 Macab. 6. 12. And Joram, though a wicked King, yet when he was in distress, cried out, This Evil is from the Lord, 2 Kings 6. 33. Let us therefore conclude likewise, that all the Evils we suffer are from the Lord, and that our sins have deserved them. Let us remember now at least in this day of God's Visitation, how often we have slandered and abused the best Church in the World, even then crying out of it, Popery, Popery, when it was well known to be the greatest Bulwark in the World against it.  
And if the Lord hath at this time drawn a Sword against us, let us also proclaim War against our sins that caused him; always remembering, that as there is no Evil in a City, but from the Lord, so there is no deliverance but from him also. If therefore the Perjury, Hypocrisy, and other crying sins of this Kingdom, have almost ruined it; and nothing but a Repentance as universal as our sins, can bring deliverance: Let us turn unto the Lord with all our Hearts, and all our Souls, and he will have mercy upon us; so that if our sins have produced a Gurse, the Holiness of our Lives may now bring down Blessings on us; and if our sins have made us a reproach, our righteousness may at last exalt our Nation. Let us resolve therefore to be religious in good earnest, and by the holiness of our Lives, call louder to Heaven for Mercies, than ever our sins have done for Judgements. Let God's Righteousness go before us in all our Actions, and then shall his Glory be our Reward; then shall God again rejoice over us to do us good, and the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against us: Happy are the People that are in such a case; yea, blessed are the People who have the Lord for their God.  
FINIS.