but that the Children must some way or other feel the effect of it; and for the fame reason, we are

not to wonder that the Brutes of humanity, who are connected with us, and dependent upon us, and who live as it were under our roof, are many times unhappily involved in the calamities which befal Mankind. And if this be an Evil, to the fcore of finful. Men be it charged; and not to any wrath or displeasure in GOD towards the innocent and unfinning BRUTES, any more than to the innocent and unfinning BABES; for Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right? Gen. xviii. 25.

Be this then, the general anfwer to all objections of this

kind.

Yet fee the perverfeness

and unreasonablenefs of finful

Men. We first call down the Vengeance of Heaven, by our fins, to confume us in his wrath, and then we arraign the Mercy of GOD, because those that are connected with us, perish in the flame which our own follies have kindled. But if it be true, that the Innocent muft fuffer with the Guilty, it maketh Sin to be more exceeding finful; and this confideration ought to make us more careful how we offend, because when we fall, we fall not alone, for in our skirts is found the blood of the fouls of the poor innocents*; and we aggravate our own fins, by the miferies which we know * Jerem. ii. 34.

the

the just punishment thereof must bring upon others.

And yet the Mercy of GOD towards the innocent may fometimes be traced even in his judgments upon the wicked. For though the idea of Death may be terrible to the Living, yet, in itfelf, it hath no Sting but for the Sinner; nor hath the Law any Strength but for the Tranfgreffor. In the hands of GOD alone are the iffues of Life and of Death, of Bleffing and of Curfing; and he knows beft how long he shall continue to any creature the blesfing of Life. But, when the day of the LORD is near, or the voice of the day of the LORD, a day of wrath, a day of trouble and diftrefs, a day of wafteness

wafteness and defolation; when be will bring diftrefs upon men,—because they have finned against the LORD;and when the whole land fhall be devoured by the fire of his jealoufy*; it is in his Mercy that by the medium of inftant death, he taketh away the Innocent from the evil to come: or if fome Innocents should be reserved, to procraftinate the day of vengeance for a time (as in the cafe of Ni-: neveh), and at laft to fall in the general wreck, to make the calamity the more exemplary and more affecting to others; yet, though they fall with the guilty, they fall not as the victims of Vengeance. To the unfinning BEAST, to the fpotlefs BABE, and Zeph. i. 14-17.

to

to the righteous MAN, Death is no further an Evil, than as it is the Period of Life; and when Life would become a Burthen, Death becomes a Bleffing to all but to the Sinner.

Suppose we now the day of diftrefs at hand, and the Bleffing of Death decreed. The unoffending BRUTE muft die: and what matters it to him, whether in the earthquake, or in a deluge, or in a flaughter-houfe? The helpless CHILD muft die: for fhould it furvive the fall of its parents, it would be expofed to all the miseries of cold and famine; the tongue of the fucking child would cleave to the roof of its mouth for thirst; and the young

children