hereunto also may be reduced the many Policies and curious Designs of Men of Power and great Motion in the World that amuse ordinary Beholders but all these with the Artifices of men of lower Figure are no moâ—e than greater or lesser Puppet play moving things by Wires unseen and unobserv'd but God does indeed thâ—ngs truly great and New and puts thereby a New Song of Praise into the mouths of his Servants for they are indeed Signs and Wonders and mighty Acts. And they are indeed New because as I have said they are all Peices Parcels Portions of that New Creation the New Heaven and New Earth that New World the World to come the Restitution of All things whereof we speak as is further to be shewn But at the present I rest upon that which hath been already nam'd as the steaddy Representation of a Miracle in strict speaking to us it is the Lords Creating a New Thing in the Earth I only add that proportionably to the New Heaven and the New Earth â—od makes in the Souls of his what he calls A new Creation a new Heart and a New Spâ—rit Old things passing away all becomes New 3. The more proper and Adequate Character of Miracles is that they are Pâ—rtions and Parcels Pledges and assurances of the World to come and of the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ of the New Heaven and of the New Earth of the New Creation of God whoever looks closely and Intentively into them shall find that because the Old Creation as under the Curse through Sin and Apostasy of the First Adam will not cannot serve the Ends of the Glory of God of the Creator and of Jesus Christ the Lord and Heir of All by whom and for whom they were all made and of his Body the Church the fulness of him that filleth All in All. Therefore a new Creation is to be brought in and it is to be brought in by a Dissolution of the Old a Total Dissolution of the Old Creation the World of the First Adam and a Restitution of all things and even an Exaltation into a far Higher and more excellent State than the first Now this is to be done by Immediate Power in both Parts of Mercy and Judgment else neither Could be done No Hand but that which put together this Frame can Dissolve it no Hand but that which holds it together can either let it go or stir up those Tumults and Combustions that shall bring it to its End which is a further Argument that Creation and dayly Sustentation are Miracle Effects of immediate Power for else some however unknown to us Disorders and Crâ—ss and Counter Motions of Second Causes had Defeated the Frst Creation or long since brought this Frame to Ruine if there had been none to Guide or Sustain them but themselves And hereby it is also Evident the low State in which the Creation is is Miracle or Immediate Power of Justice for else the Goodness of the Creator had undoubtedly kept it up to its first Being in all things Good and very Good Infinite Immediate Power hath let it down so low and no lower Again on the side of Mercy and Grace so far and so much as the Creation is gone down and fallen from it self through Divine Justice Retiring the Omnipotâ—nt Conserving Hand of Power that would have kept it up or suffering thosâ— Destructive Counter-Motions in the Parts of it or in the Principles of Motion Omnipotency alone can Repair and Fill uâ— those Gaps and Hollows in the Present State and effect a Restitution of All Things and Deliver the Creation now in Bondage from that Servitude under which it hath so long and yet Grones and much more That Almighty Hand alone can Raise it above what it was at First so that Miracle runs through all Now seeing such a Boâ—h Dissolution and Restitution and Exaltation of the Creation is Decreed by God It becomes him by whom are All Things and for whom are All Things and by whom and for whom this very Dissolution and Restitution is to give warning to make Credit and Assurance of These even of Both and therefore as I have already Argued and shall much further Argue in the Part of this Discourse allotted to it That Miracles are Powers of the World to come every way proper and peculiar to it 4. Miracles are therefore Conjoyned with some Eminent and Notable Appearance of the World to Come As at the bringing of the People of Israel out of Egypt and into the Land of Canaan the Promised Land and so when Christ was here in the World and the Apostles so Preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom as if it had been immediately to appear and so much more when that Kingdom shall indeed appear For else Miracles would be as Seals to a Blanck This therefore Detects all False Miracles and Lying Wonders that they are not in pursuance of the Kingdom of Christ And this is most Evident as was said before by our Saviours Inference from the Truth of that mighty work of Casting out the Deaf and Dumb Devil and that is was done by the Finger of God that no doubt the Kingdom of God was come upon them as he shews Luke 11. For Miracles cannot be without the Kingdom of God in Eminent Appearance 5. Miracles must being Parts and Peices of the World to come give greatest Assurance of themselves to be the mighty works of God this Assurance must be given to the whole man to the Mind Understanding inward and outward Senses for this is Assurance to the whole Man The Understanding is oft under Error and mistake wherein it is not Serv'd and Ministred to by Sense Sense is oft deluded when the mind does not make a Judgment When both make a full Judgment This is as great Assurance as the Intellectual sensible Being of Man is capable of and therefore Resistance to such Light is Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit which is Blaspheming against full Conviction of Divine Power and Appearance Mat. 12. 31. Mark 3 18. Luke 12. 10. The Miracles therefore proper to the Kingdom of Christ are Armed at all Points by Infallible Proofs as that grand Miracle of the Resurrection of Christ was Acts 1. 3. And thus they ought to be from their Relation to the Kingdom of Christ which shall give all assurance of it self to the whole Man and for ever remove all possibility of doubt from Saints who shall see then Eye to Eye and from wicked Men who would not see but shall see in that day CHAP. IV. Of the Reasons or ends of Miracles as they are generally Assign'd by those who have Writ upon them I Come now to shew the Ends and great Uses and Purposes of God in Miracles what he intends towards the Children of men by them And I will Argue the thing Freely both on the one side and the other because I know the generality of Christians and of the Interpreters and Teachers of the Doctrine of
High Ends to be hereafter assign'd For I have been thus large in this matter it being both so Noble a Point as also because it makes much to the True Consideration of the Chief End of Miracles 2. I come therefore to a Second Consideration of Creation and Providence as giving Space and Room for Miracles to enter and that I shall represent First In the General and then be more particular with relation to Miracles 1. When Man had sinned and forfeited the Glory of that State of the Creation that had Respect to him That all things did not immediately as I may say tumble about his Ears dash in peices upon him or fall into an Universal Hell is owing to the Mediator who therefore is said Heb. 1. to Vphold all things by the Word of his Power even he who purged our sins by his own Blood thus upholds All that the Sun shines and invigorates all the Lower Creation with its Light and Beams that the Fruitfulness of the Earth and the Courses of Water remain All is due to the Glory of the Mediator Else All had return'd to the First Tohu Bohu its first dark and desolate state And yet notwithstanding it is so ordered in the Wisdom and Righteousness of God and by the Counsel between him and the Mediator or as Zachary says between them both that there should be many Interspers'd Appearances of the Curse as we all know by abundant sad Experience which are become so setled and expectable that we call such Appearances of the Curse Nature or are so frequent as we account them at least common to Man or Humane Nature such as Sickness Death Lameness Blindness many Insults of the Enemy or the Diabolical Nature either in plainer Possessions or more secret Impressions upon the Mind and Body Now if such Appearances of the Curse had not been there had been no place for many Miraculous Appearances of God and of Christ in Mercy and Grace and so if there had not been General Judgments and more solemn Appearances of the Curse there had not been such Miraculous Acts of Grace as the Ark was to Noah Zoar to Lot Goshen to the Children of Israel Had not there been such Strokes of the Curse there could not have been such Miracles of Healing Restoring Sight Raising the Dead All these Miraculous Acts of Mercy come in by way of Relief against the Curse There could have been no change â—n Exalting the Creation if it had continued according to the First State Good and very Good Except we suppose any Openings to an higher Advancement of Adam and his Posterity in the Kingdom of the Second Adam of whom the First Adam was but a Type and the First Sabbath a Type of that Great Sabbatism of the Lord from Heaven as the Apostle expresly asserts Rom 5. â—2 Heb. 4. 7. Let us therefore I humbly beseech attend to this very thing that there are such Remains of the Excellent Frame of the First Creation Dâ—e and Acknowledgable to the Grace of the Mediator and yet such Mixtures of the Curse as give Place or Room for Mirâ—cles For if all were Judgment there were no Place for Miracles of Mercy except of a Total Restoration For All had been One Peice of Wrath and so must be wholly Restor'd or not at all Or if All had been in the First State of Integrity there had been no need of Exalting the Creation till that Glorious Kingdom I can suppose of the Mediator of Amity or Conciliation tho not of Reconciliation But as Things are now That All Things do not unite in a State of Wrath and Ruine is because the Mediator purging our sins upholds All with the Word of his Power Else as God said when Wickedness had broken into the World to so great an heighth I even I do bring a Flood upon the World So he had put an End to it at the first coming in of sin had not the Mediator come between in the Seed of the Woman breaking the Serpents Head But when Noah had offered a Sacrifice an undoubted Type of the Sacrifice of Christ God then promis'd he would not Curse the Ground so any more but there should be Summer and Winter Spring and Harvest Day and Night until the very coming in of the Restitution of All Things And God set the Rain-Bow to be a Sign of that Covenant as we find Gen. 9. 13. and Ezek. 1. 28. and Revel 4. 3. The Rain-Ron encirculed the Throne All which shews the great Prevalency of the Mediator in the upholding the World in its present State That though God the Creator be to be acknowledg'd yet Creatorship and Providence are now Vested in the Redeemer But yet still there are such legible Characters of the Curse in innumerable Kinds that they give full place to Miracles in further and higher Grace to relieve against that Curse 2. There being such a State of Mercy and Grace through the Mediator there is place also given to another sort of Miracles viz. Miracles of Greater and more Extraordinary Strokes of Wrath than generally we observe in the World wherein the Mediator so far deserts his Interposal of Mediation and then Miracle of Judgment immediately enters so far also as may appear in several Great Instances to be given And this I desire you would seriously attend to because it will be found to contribute very much to the clearing the Great Point of Miracles I begin therefore the clearing this Matter in that first Judgment of the Flood upon the Old World In which as also in the Judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah the Apostles Peter and Jude instance because as is after to be shewn they have Great Concernment in making it appear That Miracles appertain to the world to come whereof we are speaking I begin therefore with this Flood on the World of the Vngodly for which whatever Preparations there might * According to the most Learned and Ingenious Theory of Dr. Burnet be yet to shew Gods own supreme Hand in it he thus expresses I even I do bring a Flood And to shew how far the Mediator did desert and how far he did not undertake is made more manifest He did undertake for Noah and his Family Noah is therefore said to find Grace in the Eyes of the Lord an Expression proper to the Mediators Undertaking The Rest even the World of the Vngodly not finding Grace were swallowed up Lo here a Miracle of Judgment For this was beyond the ordinary proportion of the Curse upon the Fall as bounded by the Mediator a Curse on the Earth far Greater than usual Again if we consider this in relation to Sodom Gen. 19. 23. The Sun was risen upon the Earth so far the Mediator undertook for Sodom Then Lot entered into Zoar At that very same time God Rain'd upâ—n Sodom and upon Gomorrah Brimstone and Fire from the Lord out of Heaven It could not be done before For says the Angel to Lot Haste thee Escape thither
Soul an Offering for Sin This foreshewed the Dread of the Vengeance of God for sin burning upon the wicked to the Neithermost Hell setting on Fire the Foundation of the Mountains Burning up the Earth and the Works of it and the wicked becoming as Bryars and Thorns Burnt on that their own Earth For as Christ said in a Foresight of the Destruction of Jerusalem If these things were done in the Green Tree what shall be done in the Dry This ought to be carried to all Desolations and Destructions the Manifestation of the Righteous Judgment of God shall make in his Holy Indignation against the Posterity and World of the Apostate Adam not Reconciled by the Second Adam The Lord from Heaven and Father of the world to Come whereof we speak The Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ the great Miracle as all that speak of Miracle acknowledg is a Glorious Pledg of the World to Come and an entry into the very State of it This World knew no such thing before nor had any such Thing in all its Treasure Riches or Variety He was the First Born the First begotten from the Dead Such was his Ascention his Glorious Entrance into the Tabernacle made without hands not of this Building his sending down the Spirit as the Apostle hath said in the Context I am upon in divers Signs and Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will And all this in Connexion with the World to Come not in Subjection to Angels but the Kingdom of the Son of God All which comes home to this That Miracles are proper to the World to Come as the Reason and end of it Now there is nothing wherein I can more Humbly and earnestly Intreat you that Read these Things and wherein you can yeild a greater Acceptance to what I am now Discoursing than that you would Search these things and Compare them and Argue them to your selves For I know they will and must bear weight with you Argum. 2. The Second Argument I would give you is the Consideration of the way by which God will save All and every one of us whom he will save by the second Adam and fits them for that World to Come for that everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ He saves them he does all for them in a way of Miracle This I will endeavour to make plain to you by considering That God would not save Men by the First Covenant the Covenant of Creation the Law of Creation They cannot be Saved by that They must be saved by a New Covenant a Covenant that is all Miracle This I will shew you in two Parts of it 1. When God Justifies Sinners by the Righteousness of another by the Obedience and by the Suffering and by the Death of another This is Miracle and it is as great Miracle as any of the Things that Men allow to be Miracle and indeed in Regard of the Internal Excellency the Intrinsick worth of the Thing It is far greater than any Miracle except what concerns the very Excellency and Glory of the Person of the Mediator Those Wonders of Miracle if I may so speak Oh therefore that we could consider it If we are Pardoned in Christ if we are Justified by Christ If we are Saved from Hell from Wrath to come by him or from the Curse of the Law This is all Miracle For I would Ask any Man I am sure None of the Men of Reason and that seem to understand Miracle Best can deny it Is not Miracle a Lifting up of the present State of the World above the first Law and Order of the Creation sure this cannot be Denied Now that Law of Righteousness that was given to Man at first Thâ—t Law Do this and Live Be thou Holy be thou Perfect and thou shalt have the Reward of it Thou shalt Live by it This was the First Law and Constitution of God upon Mankind Now if Men were saved any way by this Law of VVorks and Righteousness in themselves Let it be what way it will Here were nothing Answering to Miracle to the Powers of the world to come only God may have Moderated the Point Take a little in the place of a great Deal Sincerity in the place of Perfect Obedience But still that great Point of Doing of Doing that is the Thing For there lies the Point of Miracle of New Creation That it is of Grace and not of Works For the Apostle hath Fixed the Firmament as I may say between Works and Grace He hath Established the two Worlds the World of the Old Adam the World to come of the Second Adam in saying If it be of Wrk s It is no more of Grace otherwise Grace is no more Grace or work is no more work Now Work was the very Foundation of the First Creation Man made in Knowledge Righteousness and True Holiness and then working according to it acting from and by himself according to the Law of his Creation I doubt not indeed that Man was made with the Knowledge of Christ the Mediator of Amity and Conciliation and Sustentation in the state wherein he was made seeing all things were made by and for our Mediator and that Adam himself was the Type of him to come and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and of the Tree of Life pointed to him and the very Image wherein Adam was made was Christ the Image of God But this being not of the present Intention I only intimate and stand not to prove it But Adam not keeping close to the Mediator was wholly upon his own Bottom of Creation and the Self Subsistence he chose out of a Mediator Whatever therefore God does in Grace through a Mediator to Man Fallen is Miracle of Grace and though it may seem in all Spiritual Concernments the Concernments of the Inward Man there is not Miracle because they do not at the present come into sense yet in regard of the present state they are of as Real Inward Deep Sense and Peace of Conscience and External Evidence in the Change of the Life and Conversation and shall in the Future State appear in Glory and illustrious Vâ—sibility and so are now by the Apostle call'd a being chang'd into the same Image from Glory to Glory as by that Spirit who is Jehovah I think This may be most justly called Miracle throughout and so great Miracle that all outward Miracles are but the Outside Case and Representations of them Now then if it come to Grace and to Faith to receive Righteousness by another it must needs be Miracle We are saved by Miracle in the pardon of sin and being accepted through the Righteousness of Jesus Christ I think the Apostle guides us to this very Apprehension For what saith he the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh God sending his own Son and for sin condemned sin in the Flesh so that it might not be imputed
indeed a Bringing down Fire from Heaven Now what was this but a denouncing the Judgments of God upon Antichristianism that shall so surely be Fullfill'd in their Season And of this there are many great Witnesses and Monuments In the Darkest Times there were those that let Fly as we speak against the Papacy who spared not to call the Pope Antichrist to his Face to Affirm Christianity was Turn'd into Paganism among them Fire went out of their mouths to this very purpose to Threaten that Antichristian Monarch and his so call'd Catholick Church with all the Vials of the Revelation the Plagues and the Curses of it to say God abhorr'd it and would Bring it into Judgment And tho the Witnesses were Slain before men as Witnesses of Lyes only by the Anathemas Excommunications Brands of Heresy Pour'd out upon them yet that Antichristian State These Witnesses of Christ had Power to Kill Ten Thousand Times more For all that they have spoken shall certainly and everlastingly be Fullfiâ—l'd upon it and it is condemn'd already by the Mouths of so many Servants of Christ of which each Particular Soul of that Antichristian Union going out of this World hath Found the dreadful effects of which the Reformation hath been the effect and stands a Monument of which many severe Judgments by Mahometans and others Many strokes from Heaven have been the Evidences and in Regard of which Threatned and Executed The Witnesses aâ—e and were accounted by the Antichristian World their Tormentors But the Illustrious Fullfilling is yet to come when that wicked one shall be Consum'd or carried off by the Breath of Christs Mouth in the Preaching the Everlasting Gospâ—l and utterly Abolished by the Brightness of his coming 2. The Second Thing in which the Spirit of God sets out the judiciary Miraculous Power of the Witnesses is They had Power to shut Heaven that it should not Rain in the Days of their Prophecy Now what was this It is taken from Elijah's swearing in the Name of the Living God There should be no Rain no Dew for three years and an half 1 Kings 17. A Symbol of these Three years and an Half of years or 1260 years For so I understand them Yet with Relation to a deâ—per Time like that of our Lord 's Lying in the Grave a part of Three Days For which Reason they are call'd Days and signify the Three Times and an Half as Days in all Languages Import Seasons Now the Doctrine of the Gospel and indeed all Instruction is Compar'd to Rain and Dew in Scripture My Doctrine shall drop as the Rain and Distil aâ— the Dew The Doctrine of the Gospel after the Ascention of Christ is expressed by Gods sending a plentiful Rain whereby he Confirm'd Strengthen'd or Refresh'd his Inheritance when It was weary Psal 68. 9. So in the Prophet the People are Call'd to to Break up their Fallow Ground Till God come and Rain Righteousness upon Them Hos 10. 12. The Shutting up of Heaven therefore in the Days of their Prophecy that It should not Rain shews 1. That there should be as is very well known was a very Dark and Barbarous Time as to all Learning and Knowledg in the Moons of the Apostasy that Chill Fruitless Planets of the Night from which the very Borrowed Beams of the Sun Fall Cold and Languid and without Vigor or Pregnancy 2. That there should be an exceeding Drought and Barrenness as to all Gospel Doctrines in their Life Purity Sweetness And how Remarkable this was all Protestants are I hope Sensible except they themselves Love still those Corrupted Pits and Cisternes of Popery or what hath the brackish Tast thereof 3. That there should be a very sad and woful Turning of the Earth or the Hearts of Men under the Name and Profession of Christianity into Iron and Brass as to all Gospel Softness and Fructification 3. And this will be yet clearer in the Third Particular They have Power to turn Water into Blood into the Blood of a Dead man as another Expression of the Revelation gives it us that is that hath no Motion Circulation Spirits Activity shewing the utter Ineptitude nay Impossibility of Popish Dâ—ctrines as of Justification by Works Transubstantiaâ—ion Pardons Indulgences Pennances Pilgrimages Worship of Saints Angels Virgin Mary Saints to be the Instruments of Conveying Life to Souls any more than the Stagnated Blood of a Dead Man to give Life or Motion to the Body in which it is so Arrested and Congeal'd But as Elijah said As the Lord Liveth there shall not be Rain nor Dew but at my word So the Witnesses may say but at our word at our Doctrine according to the Plainness Purity Sincerity of Gospel Preaching If they had stood in my Counsels They should have turned Sinners from their evil ways When men cull out the Morality of the Gospel only and our own Workings as many even of the Styled Reformed do little else Neglecting the Holding out of Christ in his Blood in the mighty Grace of his Spirit Hence the Doctrine of the Gospel becomes as the Blood of a Dead Man without Power of Conversion But it may be said would the Witnesses or should they ought they to shut Heaven or to turn VVaters into Blood I Answer The Preaching God hath given them to Preach the VVord he hath given them they must speak they must Preach If God hath given them to declare the rare and Seldom Conversions the Lowness and Penury of True Gospel Doctrine the Heavens shut during the days of the Apostasy they must Declare it their Declaring it done is the doing it what the Prophets Declare They Do as God says to Jeremy I have set thee to Build and to Plant to pull down and to Destroy So God Set these Witnesses to shut Heaven to turn Waters into Bood Again as Christ Taking to himself the Instruments of a good Shepherd condemned the Instruments of the Foolish Shepherd and so turn'd all the Preaching of the Scribes and Pharisees into Folly by Preaching himself with Authority and not as the Scribes So the Witnesses shut up Heaven and no Rain falls but at or by their Word and they turn waters into blood by Preaching Plainly and Powerfully and Sincerely the Truths of our Lord Jesus Christ And even many Souls perceive it of them as they did of Christs Preaching They find the Dullness and Deadness of other Preaching by that Thus God hath given Power to the Witnesses It is given to them to turn Waters into Blood and to shut Heaven that is to Preach sincerely themselves And to shew other Doctrines Poisonous Ruinous to the Souls of Men. Thus at this Day all the Doctrines that turn from Christ and Free Grace that is from the Spirit and Power of Christianity They are Discover'd by the Witnesses to be Destructive The Sheep that come up from the washing have Teeth white as Milk washed with the sincere Milk of the Word purified from this blood between their Teeth
for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither Why but because Lot was in a peculiar manner undertaken for by the Mediator as is signify'd in Two Expressions 1. The Lord being merciful to him and he finding Grace in his sight And 2 God Remembred Abraham with whom we know he had Established a Covenant in the Mediator v. 16. 19. 22. Behold here another Miracle of Judgment because contrary to the General Undertaking of the Mediator This was indeed a strange work of Judgment and as the Flood was of the General Destruction before the New Heaven and New Earth of the VVorld to come so was Sodom a Type of the Vengeance of the Eternal Fire that shall make that Destruction In the same manner the Plagues of Aegypt were Miracles of Judgment because the Mediator was coming in Exodus all along to Chap. 16. up against them with a Glorious Type of his Judgment on Spiritual Aegypt with his Seven Vials Revel 15. c. 16. made on purpose parallel to the Plagues of Aegypt Now the Reason was the Mediator in Grace no longer undertook for Pharoah and his Aegypt but set him up as a Rock for his Judgments to be planted against The last Miracle of Judgment I will instance in because it much declares the Nature of Miracle is that of Corah Dathan and Abiram Numb 16. 29. If these men saith Moses dye the common Death of all men or if they be visited after the common Visitation of all men Then the Lord hath not sent me But if the Lord create a New Thing and the Earth open her mouth and swallow them up with all that appertains to them and they go down quick into the pit Then ye shall understand these men have provoked the Lord. Every Miracle as hath been spoken is a New Thing This is the Nature of Miracle whether it be a Miracle of Mercy or of Judgment A New Thing of Mercy lifting up the present State settled in common by the Grace of the Mediator or a New Thing in Judgment when the Mediator deserts this State upheld by him and Judgment breaks in above Ordinary Judgments and this to shew that Desolation that shall be at last upon this World of the First Adam that the New Heaven and the New Earth according to his promise may come in Thus this Opening and Swallowng Alive is like the Opening of the Lake into which the Beast and the False Prophet those Apostate Pretenders to be Sons of Levi are cast alive Rev. 19. as the whole Antichristian Race say They are Jews but are not but do lye and so are given up to Wrath by the Mediator Thus it will be at the last Burning of the Earth and of the Wicked upon it Then the Mediator will bear up the World no longer Thus when any particular Person is destroy'd cut off by Death and cast into Hell until that very Time the Mediator undertakes Then he undertakes no longer for him To draw up then these Poâ—nts to a Sum. We find the present State in an Equipoize in an Even Ballance between the Grace of and by the Mediator and the Wrath and Justice of God keeping its Hold upon this World of Aposlate Adam And both the settlement of Things by Grace and Mercy and yet under Wrath and Justice are now Call'd and Styl'd and Deem'd to be Nature the State of Nature the Law of Nature the Course of Nature And whatever there is either in Mercy or Judgment wherein a Divine Hand a High Hand a Hand Lifted up and made Bare appears is called and styled Miracle The Light and Glory of the Heaven the Fruitfulness of the Earth the so General Health Beauty and Vigour of Body the Order Peace and Good Government we at any time observe in the World we look not upon as Miracle but as the Natural State of Things under the General Goodness of God though indeed as hath been shewn it is the Goodness of God in the Mediator But together with these we allow Storms Tempests Unfruitful Seasons Pestilence Famine Sickness Lameness Poverty Want Deformity Death agreeable to the Course of Nature also and no Miracle Yet indeed why are They not Miraculous when God made the World in such an Order of Nature if we 'll call it Nature Can we think when God made Man in that Noble State of his own Image it can be any other than Miracle of Judgment Men are left to be such Butchers one of another and that it is counted a Glory a Bed of Honour to dye so doing No undoubtedly Even that Christ shall Restore the World to as the Prince of Peace to learn War no more and to make the Battle cease to the Ends of the Earth is that which was at first the State of unfallen Nature And all the contrary State is Miracle of Judgment however because setled we do not call it so When Navies and Fleets are destroyed at Sea and Nations destroyed and desolated and all the Sinews of Government loosed we do not call this Miracle And yet from the Beginning these Things were not so nor design'd to be so much as Providentially Natural but because according to the Wisdom Holyness and Justice of God the Mediator upholds the World under this Caution and Reserve It should give Room and be as it were the Stage for these Judgments of God to have their Play in and upon They are so So though to die be now the ordinariest and most certain Thing in the World an Ordinance and a Debt to Nature as we call it vet Adam was not made to Dye and to Dye is a Miracle of Justice if consider'd according to the Original Constitution Indeed because the Mediator undertook no further but that it is as the Apostle says Fixed Determined Enacted that All Men should dye it is no Miracle nor that any of the other Unhappinesses common to Men befall Men do we account them Miracles But the Things we account Miracles are either the Extraordinary Sudden and Immediate Strokes of Wrath and Justice as those on the Old World on Sodom and Gomorrah on those Impure Men of Sodom struck with Blindness the Plagues on Pharoah on Nadab and Abihu the stroke of immediate Death by Fire from the Lord the swallowing up Corah Dathan and Abiram the striking Vzza dead the withering Jeroboam's Hand the striking Vzziah with Leprosie the striking Antiochus with an Incurable and Loathsome Disease and in the New Testament the falling backward of the Men that came to take Christ the falling down Dead of Ananias and Sapphira the sudden and immediate Blindness that fell on Elymas the Sorcerer Herod eaten with Worms These we account Miracles of Judgment On the other side the Benefits God daily loadeth the Children of Men of all Kinds with we account not Miracles but the Raising the Dead by Elijah and Elisha the Multiplying the Widows Oyl the Healing the Leprosie of Naaman the preserving Jonah from the Sea in so wonderful an Ark as