Preparation for sufferings. Or The best work in the worst times Wherein the necessity,…

Now though we have no ground to expect such extraordinary warnings; yet we have the most apparent and certain signs of approaching calamities, after which if they surprise us, the fault must lie in our own inexcusable negligence; for we have a standing Rule to govern ⟨p. 16⟩our selves in this matter, and that is this: When the same sins are found in one Nation, which have brought down the wrath of God upon another Nation, it is an evident sign of Judgment at the door; for God is unchangeable, just and holy, and will not favour that in one people which he hath punished in another, nor bless that in one Age which he hath cursed in another. Upon this very ground it was that the Apostle warned the Corinthians by the example of the Israelites, whose sins had ruined them in the Wilderness, 1 Cor. 10.6. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted: as if he should say, look upon those dead bodies which are as it were cast up upon the Scripture shore for a warning to you; follow not the same course, lest you meet in the same curse; if you tread the same paths, expect the same punishment; God is as righteous now as he was then, he hates, and will punish sin in you, as much as he did in them.

Now though we have no ground to expect such extraordinary warnings; yet we have the most apparent and certain signs of approaching calamities, after which if they surprize us, the fault must lie in our own inexcusable negligence; for we have a standing Rule to govern ⟨p. 16⟩our selves in this matter, and that is this: When the same sins are found in one Nation, which have brought down the wrath of God upon another Nation, it is an evident sign of Judgment at the door; for God is unchangeable, just and holy, and will not favour that in one people which he hath punished in another, nor bless that in one Age which he hath cursed in another. Upon this very ground it was that the Apostle warned the Corinthians by the example of the Israelites, whose sins had ruined them in the Wilderness, 1 Cor. 10.6. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted: as if he should say, look upon those dead bodies which are as it were cast up upon the Scripture shore for a warning to you; follow not the same course, lest you meet in the same curse; if you tread the same paths, expect the same punishment; God is as righteous now as he was then, he hates, and will punish sin in you, as much as he did in them.