mixing terrible Frowns with fevere Strokes, we fhould justly argue, that the Father confidered his Child as having fomething in him difpleafing to him, and that he did not thus treat his Child only under a Notion of mortifying him, and preventing his being faulty hereafter, and making it up to him afterwards, when he had been perfectly innocent, and without Fault, either of Action or Difpofition hitherto.

We may well argue from thefe Things, that Infants are not looked upon by God as finlefs, but that they are by Nature Children of Wrath, feeing this terrible Evil comes fo heavily on Mankind in Infancy. But befides thefe Things, which are obfervable concerning the Mortality of Infants in general, there are fome particular Cafes of the Death of Infants, which the Scripture fets before us, that are attended with Circumftances, in a peculiar Manner, giving Evidences of the Sinfulness of fuch, and their juft Expofedness to divine Wrath. As particularly,

The deftroying the Infants in Sodom, and the neighbouring Cities; which Cities, deftroyed in fo extraordinary, miraculous, and awful a Manner, are fet forth as a fignal Example, of God's dreadful Vengeance for Sin, to the World in all Generations; agreeable to that of the Apostle, Jude, ver. 7. God did not reprove, but manifeftly countenanced Abraham, when he faid, with Refpect to the Destruction of Sodom, (Gen. xviii. 23, 25.) Wilt thou destroy the Righteous with the Wicked? -That be far from thee to do after this Manner, to lay the Righteous with the Wicked, and that the Righteous fhould be as the Wicked, that be far from thee. Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do

right?

right? Abraham's Words imply that God would not deftroy the innocent with the guilty. We may well understand innocent as included in the Word righteous, according to the Language ufual in Scripture, in fpeaking of fuch Cafes of Judgment and Punishment; as is plain in Gen. xx. 4. Exod. xxiii. 7. Deut. xxv. I. 2 Sam. iv. II. 2 Chron. vi. 23. and Prov. xviii. 5. Eliphaz fays, Job iv. 7. Who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off? We fee what great Care God took that Lot fhould not be involved in that Deftruction. He was miraculously rescued by Angels, fent on Purpofe; who laid hold on him, and brought him, and fet him without the Gates of the City; and told him that they could do Nothing till he was out of the Way. Gen. xix. 22. And not only was he thus miraculously delivered, but his two wicked Daughters for his Sake. The whole Affair, both the Deftruction, and the Rescue of them that efcaped, was miraculous: And God could as eafily have delivered the Infants which were in thofe Cities. And if they had been without Sin, their perfect Innocency, one fhould think, would have pleaded much more ftrongly for them, than thofe lewd Women's Relation to Lot pleaded for them. When in fuch a Cafe, we must fuppofe these Infants much further from deferving to be involved in that Deftruction, than even Lot himself. To fay here, that God could make it up to thofe Infants in another World, muft be an infufficient Reply For fo he could as easily have made it up to Lat, or to ten or fifty righteous, if they had been deftroyed in the fame Fire: Nevertheless it is plainly fignified, that this would not have been agreeable to the wife and holy Proceedings of the Judge of all the Earth.

Since God declared, that if there had been found but ten righteous in Sodom, he would have fpared the whole City for their Sake, may we not well fuppofe, if Infants are perfectly innocent, that he would have fpared the old World, in which there were, without Doubt, many Hundred Thoufand Infants, and in general, one in every Family, whofe perfect Innocence pleaded for its Prefervation? Especially when fuch vaft Care was taken to fave Noah and his Family, (fome of whom, one at least, seem to have been none of the best) that they might not be involved in that Destruction. If the perfect Sinlefsnefs of Infants had been a Notion entertained among the People of God of old, in the Ages next following the Flood, handed down from Noah and his Children, who well knew that vaft Multitudes of Infants perished in the Flood, is it likely that Eliphaz, who lived within a few Generations of Shem and Noah, would have faid to Job, as he does in that forementioned, Job iv. 7. Who ever perished, being innocent? and when were the Righteous cut off? Efpecially fince in the fame Difcourfe (Chap. v. 1.) he appeals to the Tradition of the Ancients for a Confirmation of this very Point; as he alfo does in Chap. xv. 7-10. and xxii. 15, 16. In which laft Place he.. mentions that very Thing, the Destruction of the Wicked by the Flood, as an Inftance of that perifhing of the Wicked, which he fuppofes to be peculiar to them, for Job's Conviction; in which the Wicked were cut down out of Time, their Foundation being overflown with a Flood. Where it is also observable, that he speaks of fuch an Untimeliness of Death as they suffered by the Flood, as one Evidence of Guilt; as he alfo does, Chap. xv. 32, 33. It shall be accomplished before his Time; and his Branch fhall not be green. But those that

were

were deftroyed by the Flood in Infancy, above all the reft were cut down out of Time; when inftead of living above 900 Years, according to the common Period of Man's Life, many were cut down before they were one Year old.

And when God executed Vengeance on the ancient Inhabitants of Canaan, not only did he not fpare their Cities and Families for the Sake of the Infants that were therein, nor take any Care that they fhould not be involved in the Destruction; but often with particular Care repeated his exprefs Commands, that their Infants fhould not be fpared, but fhould be utterly deftroyed, without any Pity; while Rabab the Harlot (who had been far from Innocence, though the expreffed her Faith in entertaining, and fafely difmiffing the Spies) was preserved, and all her Friends for her Sake. And when God executed his Wrath on the Egyptians, by flaying their first born, though the Children of Ifrael, who were most of them wicked Men, as was before shewn, were wonderfully spared by the destroying Angel, yet fuch first born of the Egyptians as were Infants, were not spared. They not only were not refcued by the Angel, and no Miracle wrought to fave them (as was observed in the Cafe of the Infants of Sodom) but the Angel deftroyed them by his own immediate Hand, and a Miracle was wrought to kill them.

3

Here not to stay to be particular concerning the Command by Mofes, respecting the Deftruction of the Infants of the Midianites, Num. xxxi. 17. And that given to Saul to deftroy all the Infants of the Amalekites, 1 Sam. xv. 3. and what is faid concerning Edom, Pfal. cxxxvii. 9. Happy M 3

Shall

fhall be be that taketh, and dafbeth thy little ones, against the Stones. I proceed to take Notice of fomething remarkable concerning the Deftruction of Jerufalem, reprefented in Ezek. ix. when Command was given to them, that had Charge over the City, to destroy the Inhabitants. ver. 1--8. And this Reafon is given for it, that their Iniquity required it, and it was a juft Recompence of their Sin. ver. 9, 10. And God at the fame Time was most particular and exact in his Care that fuch fhould by no Means be involved in the Slaughter, as had proved by their Behaviour, that they were not Partakers in the Abominations of the City. Command was given to the Angel to go through the City, and fet a Mark upon their Foreheads, and the destroying Angel had a ftrict Charge not to come near any Man, on whom was the Mark; yet the Infants were not marked, nor a Word faid of fparing them: On the contrary, Infants were exprefsly mentioned as thofe that fhould be utterly deftroyed, without Pity. ver. 5, 6. Go through the City, and fmite: Let not your Eye Spare, neither have ye Pity. Slay utterly old and young, both Maids and little Children: But come not near any Man upon whom is the Mark.

And if any fhould fufpect that fuch Instances as these were peculiar to a more fevere Difpenfation, under the old Teftament, let us confider a remarkable Inftance in the Days of the glorious Gospel of the Grace of God; even the laft Deftruction of Jerufalem; which was far more terrible, and with greater Teftimonies of God's Wrath and Indignation, than the Destruction of Sodom, or of Jerufalem in Nebuchadnezzar's Time, or any Thing that ever had happened to any City or People, from the Beginning of the World to that

Time: