Two treatises the first of fear, from Isa. 8, v. 12, 13, and part…

SECT. II.

And if we enquire for what End God gives such warnings to the world, and premonishes them from Heaven, of the judgments that are coming on the earth, know that he doth it upon a threefold account. 1. To prevent their Execution. 2. To leave the Careless inexcusable. 3. To make them more tolerable and easy to his own people.

ANd if we enquire for what End God gives such warnings to the world, and premonishes them from Heaven, of the judgments that are coming on the earth, know that he doth it upon a threefold account. 1. To prevent their Execution. 2. To leave the Careless inexcusable. 3. To make them more tolerable and easie to his own people.

1. Warning is given with design to prevent the execution of judgments; this is plain from Amos 4. 12. Therefore will I do this unto thee; there is warning given; and because I will do this, prepare to meet thy God O Israel: There is the gracious design of preventing it, by bringing them seasonably upon their knees at the foot of an angry God: You see the Lord expects it from all his Children, that they fall at his feet in deep humiliation, and fervent intercession whenever he goes forth in the way of judgment. What else was the design of God in sending Jonah to Nineveh with that dreadful message but to excite them to repentance, and prevent their ruin? This Jonah guessed at, and therefore declined the message to secure his credit, well knowing, that if they took warning and repented, the gracious nature of God would soon melt into compassion over them: Free grace would make him appear as a liar among the people; for to that sense his own words sound,