USE, I. This truth may afford us help to unfold that Riddle of Divine Providence: at the which many are ready to stumble, viz. That Godly men are often suddenly and strangely taken away, when wicked men are let alone, and suffered to live. It is the Wise Man's observation, Eccles. 7. 16. There is a Just man that perisheth in his Righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his Life in wickedness. Let none suppose that God therefore discountenanceth his Servants, and approves of ungodly men: no, th• one is taken away in mercy to himself, though in judgement to the World, the other is spared to his greater misery, either here or hereafter: ⟨p. 155⟩Godly men, when ever they die, are then certainly happy; and at sometimes it is a peculiar privilege for them to die, that they may get away from the sight and report of these direful dispensations of divine displeasure that are coming upon a surviving Generation. The Philosopher saith every thing hath two handles, a right and a wrong, and most men take Providence in some cases by the wrong handle; they interpret many dispensations to be Judicial, and so indeed they may be; but their folly is, that they interpret them so to be in respect of the persons suffering them, when as it is indeed to themselves: when Solomon had with some consternation viewed these things, he recollects himself, and draws this safe conclusion, Eccles. 8. 12. Surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God: and so it shall; but woe to the World when holy Men flock to their graves as Doves to their Windows before a Storm: and they may when they are departing▪ speak to surviving Mourners in the Language of our Saviour Christ to those weeping Women, Luk. 23. 28, 29, 30. Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but for your selves, and for your Children, &c.
USE, I. This truth may afford us help to unfold that Riddle of Divine Providence: at the which many are ready to stumble, viz. That Godly men are often suddenly and strangly taken away, when wicked men are let alone, and suffered to live. It is the Wise Man's observation, Ec•les. 7. 16. There is a Just man that perisheth in his Righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his Life in wickedness. Let none suppose that God therfore discountenanceth his Servants, and approves of ungodly men: no, th• one is taken away in mercy to himself, though in judgement to the World, the other is spared to his greater misery, either here or hereafter: ⟨p. 155⟩Godly men, when ever they die, are then certainly happy; and at sometimes it is a peculiar priviledge for them to die, that they may get away from the sight and report of these direful dispensations of divine displeasure that are coming upon a surviving Generation. The Philosopher saith every thing hath two handles, a right and a wrong, and most men take Providence in some cases by the wrong handle; they interpret many dispensations to be Judicial, and so indeed they may be; but their folly is, that they interpret them so to be in respect of the persons suffering them, when as it is indeed to themselves: when Solomon had with some consternation viewed these things, he recollects himself, and draws this safe conclusion, Eccles. 8. 12. Surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God: and so it shall; but woe to the World when holy Men flock to their graves as Doves to their Windows before a Storm: and they may when they are departing▪ speak to surviving Mourners in the Language of our Saviour Christ to those weeping Women, Luk. 23. 28, 29, 30. Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but for your selves, and for your Children, &c.
