;

overtake you, which I could not by any Warning make you careful to avoid, I fhall then be no way concern'd to Relieve you, and as little regard your Sufferings, as you did before my Counfels and Admonitions for that's the Meaning of thefe Words, that God would laugh at their Calamity, and mock when their Fear cometh. Not that He would infult over them in their Mifery, but be utterly unconcern'd for them, and fo repay them in their own Kind for flighting his Offers and Warning; the rea fon why this is exprefs'd by laughing at their Calamity being, that they laughed at his Counsel, and were mov'd by his Promifes and Threatnings no more than if they had been idle and ridiculous Sayings.

But yet this is not all that ought to be confider'd in this Matter; for they themfelves moreover, when it is too late, fhall come to be fenfible of their own Folly, and fhall importunately feek God's Favour, and cry to him for Help, but it fhall be to no purpose.

And this is that Awakening Confideration prefented in the Text I have chofen, Then (ball they call upon me, but I will not anfwer, they fhall feek me early, but they shall not find me.

Which Words feem to imply,

1. That there is a Time, when wicked Men will be overtaken with thofe Miferies that no Warning would ferve them to drevent by Repentance and Reformation.

2. That they will be one Day fenfible of their own Folly, and cry unto God for Mercy and Deliverance. But,

3. That God will not then regard their Repentance, nor be moved by their Pray

ers

Now thefe Things are to be understood with fuch Limitations as Reafon, Scripture, and Experience require; and as the nature of fuch Moral and Proverbial Sayings will admit.

And it fhall be my Bufinefs, therefore, to explain the Senfe in which every one of thefe Particulars holds True ::

Then I fhall, fhew, that in this Proceeding of Divine Juftice, there is nothing contrary to the Goodness of God.

And lastly, I fhall fum up all in a vehement Exhortation, That we would all take Warning by the Word of God, and diligently obferve thofe Rules and Ways of Arriving to True Happinefs which he hath prefcribed to us.

hall begin with explaining each particular Propofition contain'd in the Text, and fhew with what Limitations they are to be understood. t. There

1. There is a Time, when wicked Men will be overtaken with those Miseries, that they would never be warn'd to avoid by a timely Repentance.

For the understanding of This, I fhall lay down Three Things: The

Firft whereof is this, That all forts of Calamities are meant by the Wife Man, which are either the natural Effects of Sin, or other Punishments of Sin inflicted by the Divine Juftice, and that either in this World, or in the World to come.

That we are to understand the Punishments of Sin in this Life, whether natural, or inflicted more immediately by the Hand of God, is evident from the Arguing of the Wife Man in this ift Chapter, and in the 7th Chapter, and indeed from the whole Book, wherein the prefent Mifchiefs and Inconveniencies of Luft and Ungodlinefs, and all kinds of Wickednefs, are largely fhewn; and even the Senfe of these Calamities in this Life, is a Warning it felf, being fuch as a Man may recover Himself from by taking heed, yet, as he fhews, there are others of the fame kind wicked Men may fall into, out of which they can by no means extricate and deliver themfelves.

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Again, There is no reason why we should not understand the Punishments of Sin in

the Life to come, from which, to be fure, there is no Redemption after a Man is once overtaken by them: For the Good Men before and under the Law, understood the Doctrin of a Future State, which was convey'd down by Tradition from Adam and Noah to their Pofterity, but was hardly preferved any where elfe, except amongst the Children of Ifrael, not by virtue of their Mofaick Law, whereof the Belief of a Life to Come was not the Foundation, but by the Prophets and Wife Men, who ever and anon were giving Notice of it, as appears by fome Paffages in this Book of Proverbs, and yet more plainly in Ecclefiaftes, Ecclef. 11.9. 12. 14. where the Day of Judgment is not lefs exprefly foretold, than it is in the New Teftament; and therefore when the Prophets and Wife Men in the Old Teftament, fpake in general of the Miferies that incorrigible Sinners are bringing upon themfelves, their Punishments after this Life are in all reason to be understood, unless National Judgments are spoken of, or there be fomething else in the matter of the Dif courfe, that evidently reftrains it to the Confideration of temporal Calamities: So that in this Place we are to understand the Punishments of Sin both in this Life, and in That which is to Come. But,

2. This

2. This Propofition is not fo to be understood, as if all wicked Men were at last reduc'd to extreme Mifery in this Life; for theScripture doth acknowledge,that fometimes there are no Bands in their death, but their Strength is firm that they are not in Trouble as other Men, neither are they plagued like other Men, Pfal. 73. 4, 5. All that needs to be faid is this, Either that they do often fuffer thofe Punishments in this Life which their wicked Doings naturally produce; they eat of the Fruit of their own Way, and are filled with their own Devices: Or that the Juftice of God doth other ways. overtake them in Punishments that fhew the Finger of God, and a more immediate Hand of Providence : And this is a good Argument, wherewith to diffuade Men, that are flexible to Temptation, and easy to be carried away by their Lufts, that they are in very great danger of pulling down those Miferies upon their own Heads in this Life, which they are leaft able to bear, and from which they can never hope to recover themfelves; efpecially to diffuade them from those Sins, which naturally bring Mischiefs upon thofe that go on to commit them, and those which Divine Juftice is obferv'd moft frequently to declare it felf against in this World: And it is obfervable, that the Wife Man makes ufe of this Confideration to de