for the righteous Psal 58.11 and that verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth But the latter dispositions and deportments are recommended to us by the Examples of the best men and most eminent of Saints When Jobs friends had dealt so uncharitably with him he tells them what a different usage they should have found from him if their souls had been in his souls stead and assures them that though he could in such a case have spoken as they did to him now and heaped up words against them and shaken his head at their calamity as they used him yet he would have strengthned them with his mouth and the moving of his lips should have asswaged their grief Job 16.4 5. And when Davids very bitter enemies that insulted over his calamity were sick he cloathed himself with sackcloth Psal 35.13 and his prayers though ungratefully received by them and thrown back in scorn into his bosom whence they proceeded were heartily and sincerely from that bosom poured out to God for them And our Saviour the most perfect of men to the many sufferers under Gods hand whom he relieved was generally so compassionate that he took on him by a merciful Sympathy all the Infirmities that he cured and bare all his Patients sicknesses Mat. 8.17 Yea he could not forbear weeping over the very prospect of those Tragedies he foretold himself against Jerusalem though the Shambles of his Prophets and his own Slaughter-house Luke 19.41 And God expects as well as the sufferers themselves that to him that is afflicted pity should be shewn Job 6.14.19.21 22. especially if the hand of the Lord hath touched him and dislikes that men in their brethrens calamities should persecute like him i. e. take the same liberty of harsh and severe usage towards them as God does as if they could do it with like right and justice as he In a word it is his express command that to shew our selves to be of the same mind one towards another we not only rejoyce with them that rejoyce Rom. 12.15 16. but weep also with those that weep And thus I discharge this sixth Head also VII Come we now to the seventh and last to draw such Inferences from this whole discourse as may be of use and advantage to us 1. And first I infer the great Reason that there is for a general Judgment in another world For seeing God is known by the Judgment that he executeth and all that which he executeth here extends but to a few offenders and it may be the notice taken of those Executions that are made reacheth but a small part of Mankind it stands with the highest Reason that there should be a Time wherein all the world may see even those that while his hand was lifted up on earth would not see that just and true are his Judgments Isa 26.11 Besides by the rareness of the Judgments he executeth here instead of being known as he ought he is by many apt to be misunderstood whilst they are generally stumbled at his letting so many notorious offenders escape for one that he punisheth and those that escape heâ—e many times are the greatest and most prosperous of men that even dare his justice by setting their mouths against the Heavens themselves Psal 73.9 Wherefore that he may make it known that he spareth not so many high and mighty offenders either through impotency or partiality it is easie to infer that there must be such a day wherein all men whether they be small or great shall stand before him Apoc. 20.12 and be judged according to their works 2. I infer that those men do God great disservice who either carelesly overlook or designedly endeavour to suppress and keep from the notice of the world these remarkable Divine Judgments or when by reason of their own publique circumstances they cannot but be taken notice of by others attempt to slur and stifle as much as they can the evidence of those particularities which so much conduce to the preserving and propagating the knowledge of God in the world Those of the former sort are injurious in an high degree to God who when he exposeth his glorious Attributes to view as on a Theater will not vouchsafe to be spectators of them But those of the latter rank are prodigiously wicked And yet too many even of these are to be found in all ages of the world who study to darken Gods glory in such remarkable Judgments and to lead the apprehensions that people naturally are apt to have of them as far from God and Providence as they can find any colour to do Thus the Egyptian Magicians encouraged by a prophane Atheistical King as well as prompted thereto by their own malice emulated the miracles that Moses did and by frequent attempts to do the like endeavoured to persuade the People that there was nothing in them beyond the power of created beings to effect till God at last in the plague of the Lice drew from them an unwilling confession that neither they nor their master the Devil could imitate it Exod. 8.19 and that therefore it was the finger of God And it seems to me that the Priests and Diviners of the Philistines were willing when they were called into consultation what to do with the Ark of God to have carried on as bad a design and to have persuaded both themselves and the people that it was a disputable case whether the God of Israel had inflicted those Judgments upon them 1 Sam. 6.9 which they had suffered or whether it were a meer chance that had befaln them And therefore though they speak some good words concerning the God of Israel and give their advice that if they returned the Ark they should make him some Presents too it may be forced thereunto as Caiaphas prophesied by a Divine impulse yet they contrive to put the determination of that great Question upon the issue of such an odd Experiment as without a miraculous influence of the Lord of all the Creatures upon those that they imployed would in all rational probability have determined it against God For it was ten thousand to one odds but that the Kine being milch Kine and their Calves newly taken from their sides and shut up in their sight just as they were put into the Cart that was by their advice to carry the Ark being let loose without a driver had turned as nature would prompt them the same way their young ones had gone rather than towards the Land of Israel And a foul scandal it is to the Christian Name that too many of those who bear it do herein act as if they joyned in design with the fore-mentioned Heathens For besides the downright Atheists too many of whom pass muster now adays under Christs colours whom I have before confuted the sottish and prophane generation of men are desirous to look beside God in all such strokes lest by
is almost spent to recall it again to your thoughts in a more serious and edifying way lest it should die as to its best use among you as nine days wonders according to the Proverb are wont to do And partly that seeing the apprehensions of men have been so different and their discourses so various about it most men judging of it according to their particular Tempers and Humours in compliance with the Principles they are governed by I might so far as such works of God the main springs whereof are concealed in his own breast may be understood by us help you in some competent measure so to understand it as to turn it to your greatest benefit and advantage And lastly that having now gained the sight of a just and impartial Narrative of that sad Story from a Reverend Person of great Integrity and a diligent enquirer into all the circumstances thereof to most of which he was an eye and ear-witness I might dispose you to receive it when it comes to publick view with more readiness and give it the better entertainment being instructed before how to make use of it And the Text I have chosen for this purpose is part of a Verse made remarkable by two unusual words in the close of it which though Interpreters agree not in the expounding of them yet they generally concur in this that they have something extraordinary in them viz. Higgaion Selah For whatever the latter may mean or whether it be a bare Note in Musick which is an undetermined dispute the former of them by the signification of the * Ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 locutus est ore vel corde meditatus est root whence it is derived evidently recommends to us a matter of serious meditation And such indeed the Verse is being a solemn and weighty attestation of the holy Psalmist to the Divine Providence upon occasion of some remarkable appearance of it on the behalf of his Church against some of their heathen Enemies which is the subject of the preceding part of the Psalm the account whereof he seals up with this Epiphonematical Instruction to all the world The Lord is known by the Judgment which he executeth and especially by this oftentimes most remarkable circumstance accompanying it that he makes offenders themselves the executioners thereof upon themselves and ensnares them in the work of their own hands From the former part of which Divine Testimonial as I may properly call it I intend on this occasion to handle this plain observation That Gods publick signal Judgments upon any offender or offenders are evident Testimonies by which he is known to mankind Doct. In the handling of which Observation I shall endeavour these seven things 1. To shew you what I mean by these publick signal Judgments of God upon offenders 2. To evince by such evidence as I hope will be satisfactory to all rational men that there are some such penal strokes inflicted by God on offenders in this life as deserve the name of signal Divine Judgments and that such events are not as Atheists pretend the meer products of chance or casualty 3. To prove that God is or ought to be known by such Judgments as these 4. To explain what of God it is which may be and usually is made known by them 5. To give you the proper Characters by which such Divine Judgments are differenced from like Providences befalling men on other accounts 6. To direct you in the application of such Judgments to particular persons and cases so as that you may not offend against Justice or Charity 7. And lastly to close up this whole Discourse with some useful practical Inferences 1. First To shew you What I mean by these publick signal Judgments of God on offenders And here you are first to understand that Gods Judgments in the notion of the Holy Scriptures are of two sorts to wit His Judicia Judicantia Judicata 1. His Judicia Judicantia or Judgments pronounced in the Sentence of his Law dooming offenders to such penalties for their offences against it And it is usual with the Scripture to call the Laws of God on this account his Judgments and to joyn them with Statutes as words of like import as I could shew in very many places 2. His Judicia Judicata or Judgments in the phrase of the Text executed which are the former dooms actually inflicted and are therefore called by the name of those according to which they do befall men Now though it be true that no evil of suffering befalls any sinner but what to speak properly is such a Judgment of God because all evils penal are before denounced in Gods Law which every sinner breaks yet the Scripture is not wont to call them all by that name For that is usually applyed to those penal strokes of God which have some special Characters of his Vindictive Justice upon them to wit something in the nature of them that is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 common to men or in the Circumstances something of surprizing suddenness from the unexpectedness or unlikelyhood of their befalling men in respect of the Time Place Condition Imployment Company c. or something unusual in the Instruments by which or manner in which they are inflicted c. and especially if there be any thing in them that appears to be either above or contrary to or but besides the wonted course of Nature and so is either miraculous or prodigious Now these Two are either inflicted on sinners in a private way so as few or none know of them but such as feel them and those who are intimately conversant with them or else they are laid on them in a publick notorious manner as the Judgments amongst us pronounced upon great offenders are wont to be executed so as to call in and invite Spectators to behold them And such Judgments as these last the Text must be meant of and of such I desire to be understood in what follows on this Argument And this shall suffice for my first undertaking II. The second deserves to have more Time spent on it because it contains the main foundation of the whole following Discourse For if there be no such Judgments executed by God at all Eccles 9.11 but Time and Chance in this case as well as others not only happen to all but govern all too then there can be no knowledge of God drawn from them Yea if there be no such things as Divine Judgments then the very God they are supposed to attest to which is that the Atheist would have may for all their Testimony not be Whereas if we evince by Reason that any though never so few of those Events cannot be produced but by a Divine Providence we do both prove the being of such a Providence and withal vindicate Religion from the imputation of being superstitious in attributing all others of like nature to the same cause And therefore on this Head I take
general Curses and denunciations of his wrath against the Transgressors of his Laws So that men are hereby convinced that his Judgments are not only righteous but true Apoc. 15.3.16.7.19.2 5. His Omniscience or certain knowledge of all the Words and Actions of men though never so much concealed in all imaginable secresie and yet oftentimes by the process of his Judicial Providences he brings them to light For 1. by them he sometimes draws out of the bosoms of offenders by their own Confession as in the cases of Achan Jonah and others those things which were not otherwise discoverable And 2. by strange and unusual accidents he sets the inquisitive humor of men on work to lay odd and uncouth passages and circumstances together till at last they make a sufficient concurrent Evidence to convict Malefactors of secret and unknown Crimes than which there is nothing more usual in ordinary Courts of Justice So that it comes frequently to pass as Zophar observes that the Heavens first reveal mens iniquities Job 20.27 and then the earth rises up against them 6. And lastly not to multiply more particulars on this Head his Infinite Wisdom and most Prudent Counsel whereby he manageth those penal Providences so as to out-wit the wisest of men when they imploy all their Policy to secure themselves by which he shews himself wonderful in Counsel and gives the world daily occasion wisely to consider his doings Psal 64.9 to find out the admirable contexture of the wheels and springs by which that great Engine is moved which takes the wise in their own craftiness Job 5.13 and snares the wicked as the following part of my Text expresseth it in the work of their own hands And in many of those great works when Ages have studied them all they can yet still there is something remaining undiscoverable to exercise the wonder of the most curious Enquirers and make them cry out with the holy Apostle Rom. 11.33 O the depth How unsearchable are Gods Judgments and his ways past finding out And this shall suffice to be spoken to my fourth Head V. The fifth follows to wit To give you the best account I can of The distinguishing Characters by which such Divine Judgments are differenced from like Providence befalling men upon other Accounts The reason of which disquisition is because God many times either actively inflicts or at least passively permits great afflicting evils to befall men yea the best men which are not to be ranked by us under this Head of Judicial Executions as being intended by God to promote holy Designs of his own of quite a different Nature and tendency Now in the pursuance of this great Enquiry I shall first adventure to your consideration some general observations concerning Divine Judgments which may conduce to the governing our selves in it with due caution and then give you the Characters I promised 1. The general observations are these 1. That such publick signal Judgments as my Text and Doctrine suppose are a sort of Divine Providences which God doth more rarely than is ordinarily believed exhibit to the world For he himself calls the execution of Judgment in such publick and notorious manner Isa 28.21 his strange work And speaking after the manner of men tells us Lam. 3.33 't is that which he doth not willingly i. e. not of his own natural propension but upon the urgency of some special occasions which indispensably require it Wherefore it is that the obliging Instances of his Mercy and Bounty his Patience and long suffering and other expressions of his Goodness his most natural Attribute are the daily and hourly exercise of his Providence but those other harsh aad unwelcome Issues of it like unnatural Births are produced but now and then And that 1. partly because this world is not properly seculum Mercedis Rom. 2.9 the season for the revelation of the righteous Judgment of God wherein to render to every man according to his works but that business is reserved for the world to come and the Day in which he hath appointed to judge the world by the man whom he hath ordained Acts 17.31 and he thinks it therefore not fit to lessen the expectation thereof by a seeming anticipation of the imployment proper thereunto and 2. partly because he is desirous to keep up the just value of such great occurrences by the rarity of them which if they were common would grow into like disesteem with other things that come under daily observation and 3. partly because as a bountiful Benefactor he is not willing to streighten his liberality to the very worst of men but to give them a plentiful share of the good things of this life whose portion is laid out here Luke 16.25 And lastly Psal 17.14 because it conduceth to the glory of his Justice in another world to give bad men of themselves inclined to grow insolent upon his forbearance the occasion of hardening their hearts in evil by not executing Sentence against every wicked work speedily Eccles 8.11 2. That it is highly probable that these sorts of unusual Providences are yet rarer in the latter Ages of the world than in the earlier and under the Gospel and among Christians then under the Law and among the Jews Because there was in those times more occasion for them and use of them than now there is Before the Scripture in any part was written Tradition with the reliques of the light of Nature sometimes assisted with extraordinary Revelation was the Rule whereby the world was governed But because the two former were much corrupted and the third afforded but now and then to a few eminently good men the generality had need to be often taught their Duty as Gedeon taught the men of Succoth with thorns and briars sharp and severe Providences Judges 8.16 And even after so much of it was written as served to govern the Jewish Church under that Administration God was pleased to keep up still in great part the same Method of administring his Kingdom upon earth by exemplary Providences As probably considering 1. that what was so written was to be kept among them to whom it did principally pertain Rom. 9.4 and that the rest of the world was to be left generally in the same condition they were in before And 2. that by the difference put betwixt the Jews and them by a peculiar discriminating Religion the rest of the world were generally like to be exasperated against them so that had they not been kept in awe by such penal Providences now and then they would continually have been attempting the extirpation of a sort of men so odious and had not the Jews themselves been encouraged in their singular Religion by such frequent miraculous appearances of God for the punishment of their persecutors they would have been the more tempted to have purchased their peace with their Neighbours by waving their Religious observations
others amongst men that love cursing do but once or twice in an Age meet with a sutable stroke of Divine severity and cursing come into the cursers bowels like water Psal 109.18 and as oyl into his bones a considerate Christian will take heed Ps 39.1 that he offend not thus with his tongue and by a solemn purpose as with a bridle keep his mouth from transgressing in that manner In a word when all the places of Execution in a Nation become Pulpits whence the miserable Malefactors from their own woful experience preach Recantation Sermons wherein they renounce the evil Principles they have lived by and warn all men of the dangerous consequences of licentious and debauched Courses and the same Doctrine be also as frequently preached from the death-beds of other sinners wherein the curses written in Gods book are verified in the eyes and ears of all men except they wilfully shut them both who but a desperately forlorn wretch will dare say in his heart I shall have peace Deut. 29.19 20. though I walk in the imagination of mine own heart i. e. gratifie my own sinful inclinations to satiety as one that adds drunkenness to thirst Against such an one surely if any such there be the anger of the Lord and his jealousie may well smoke yea and burn as he elsewhere threatens to the lowest Hell 32.22 the place appointed for them says the Verse following my Text that under such evident tokens to remember him by forget God Ps 9.17 And justly may God make them Examples themselves whom the Examples of others will not amend as being guilty of tempting his Justice beyond all possibility of forbearance by the ungrateful abusing of that Patience that should have led them to Repentance of daring presumption upon that lenity and goodness which only hath given them that merciful reprieve Ps 66.9 by which their forfeited souls are held in life of monstrous hardness and impenitency of heart whereby they treasure up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2.5 and the revelation of the righteous Judgment of God and lastly of prodigious madness and desperate foolhardiness when as notwithstanding the fearful Instances in all Ages by which God hath taught the world that none ever hardned himself against him Job 9.4 and prospered yet as if they would wrestle a fall or fight a duel with the Almighty they run upon him even on his neck Joh 1 15.25 26. and on the thick bosses of his bucklers Believe it sinner believe it for Truth it self hath spoken it though God spare thee a while Eccles 8.11 Neh. 9.17 and execute not sentence speedily against thy wicked works Rom. 9.22 though he be slow to anger and endure with much long-suffering the Vessels of wrath fitted for destruction 2 Pet. 3.9 as not being willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance yet will he not finally suffer his holy spirit to be vexed his patience to be trampled upon his word and its warnings to be despised and his Exemplary Executions to be entertained only as news without any farther effect but if the wicked turn not he will whet his Sword Psal 7 1â—.13 he will bend his bow and make it ready and prepare for him the Instruments of death and when he hath stirred up all his wrath Psal 78.38 which yet in his great compassion he forbears he will wound the head of his Enemies Psal 68.21 and the hairy scalp of all such as go on still in their trespasses and either here or hereafter make them feel by experience who without feeling would not believe it what a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God Heb. 10.31 From which doleful experience God keep us all for Jesus Christ his sake Amen FINIS A Just NARRATIVE OR ACCOUNT Of the Man whose Hands and Legs rotted off In the Parish of KINGS-SWINFORD IN STAFFORD-SHIRE Where he died June 21. 1677. Carefully Collected by JA. ILLINGWORTH B. D. An Eye and Ear-Witness of most of the material Passages in it LONDON Printed by A.C. for Henry Brome at the Gun at the West-end of St. Pauls 1678. To the Reverend S. FORD D. D. Rector of Old-Swinford in Worcestershire SIR BEing importuned by divers Gentlemen Ministers and others of our Neighbourhood to draw up a full Narrative and Account of that late sad Providence which hath filled the hearts and mouths of the Country round about us the same whereof is also spread into remote parts I was at last prevailed with to endeavour their satisfaction And the rather because of a general rumour in the Country that the man had declared several things to me of near concernment to himself which he concealed from all other Visitants That I might not therefore suffer such Reports to pass uncertain nor be wanting in that which was by some urged as my duty I did by travelling at several times above sixty miles in the parts adjacent enquire into divers particular circumstances which I was not before fully clear in and have now at last set all down in plain words sutable to such an account that the meanest concerned to know and make good use of the providence might at first reading clearly understand it Sir That I address this to you is that I may take an opportunity to make my hearty acknowledgments for your learned and useful Discourses in the Pulpit upon this occasion to the general satisfaction of your Hearers and I must in my own name and many of theirs intreat you would make the substance of them more publick from the Press that the Readers may learn not to be too censorious in things of this nature not yet to pass by so signal a Providence without that just Observation it deserves and due reverence toward that God who is known by the Judgments which he executeth as you have fully shewed us I hope Sir I invite you to nothing but what your own Judgment accounts worthy your labour and I am confident it will be no mean addition to your former elaborate services of God and his Church In which that you may be long continued for his Glory and the good of his People shall be the hearty Prayer of Reverend Sir Your most affectionate though unworthy Friend to honour and serve you J. ILLINGWORTH A just Narrative or Account of the Man whose Hands and Legs Rotted off in the Parish of Kings-Swinford in Staffordshire where he Died June 21. 1677. RIchard Duncalf of Godsal Parish not far from Wolverhampton in the County of Stafford dying many years since and his Wife also left behind them many Children and but slender provision for them One of their Sons John Duncalf bound himself an Apprentice to Thomas Gibbons of Kings-Swinford in the same County Wheelwright When he had served his Master two years and seven months or thereabouts he and his fellow Apprentice stealing