A continuation of the exposition of the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the…

3. God hath given Testimony hereunto in all the extraordinary Judgements which he hath executed since the foundation of the world. It is not for nothing that he doth sometimes, that he doth so frequently go out of or besides the common beaten tracts and paths of Providence. He doth it to intimate unto the world, that things are not always to pass at their present rate, but are one day to be called to another account. In great Judgements the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against the ungodliness of men, Rom. 1. 18. and an intimation is given of what he will farther do hereafter. For as he leaves not himself without witness in respect of his goodness and patience, in that he doth good and giveth rain from Heaven and fruitful seasons filling mens hearts with food and gladness, Acts 14. 17. so he gives testimony to his Righteousness and Holiness, in the Judgements that he executes, Psal. 9. 16. For whereas goodness and mercy are the works wherein God is ⟨p. 30⟩as it were delighted, he gives Testimony unto them together with his patience and longsuffering in the ordinary course of his Dispensations. But Judgement in severity he calls his strange work, that which he proceeds not unto, but on great provocations, Isa. 28. 21. he satisfieth his holy Wisdom with some extraordinary necessary instances of it. And thus he hath himself singled out some particular instances, which he gave on purpose that they might be as pledges of the future Judgement, and hath given us a rule in them, how we are to judge of all his extraordinary acts of the same kind. Such was the Flood whereby the world was destroyed in the days of Noah, which Peter affirms expressly was a Type to shadow out the severity of God in the last final Judgement, 2 Pet. 2. 5. Chap. 3. 5, 6, 7. Of the like nature was his turning the Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into Ashes, condemning them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly,