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the Reach of it, tho' 'tis only the Centre or Whirlpool itself, that actually finks and fwallows them up. But to all this it may ftill be objected, that our wife Legislature seem to have had other Sentiments of this Matter; because 'tis faid in the Act for appointing the Thirtieth of January, that The fanatick Rage of a Few Miscreants ftands charged by our Adverfaries to the whole Nation. To which I answer, that the Parliament could judge only of the outward Act, and that by this only Strangers and Foreigners ought to judge, and be determined likewife: And this was the Act only of a few. But who knows the Extent of it's Guilt, where it begins or where it ends, what previous and fubfequent Facts may be comprehended under it, and how many Confciences have been defiled or affected by it? These are Things known only to God, and which the Laws and Judgments of Men, can never fully reach or penetrate. And yet if we confider the Strictnefs and Rigour of the Gofpel of Chrift in this Respect, which brings fecret Hatred, and open opprobrious Language, within the Reach of the Sin of Murder +, we can't but fear that the Fact of this Day, was of a much more extensive Guilt, than is commonly fuppofed.

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But

however

however that be, and allowing that this was not a national Act, yet, for ought that appears to the contrary, it may truly and properly be called a national Sin, with refpect to the Perfons offending, as well as the Perfon fuffering; which is all that I endeavour to prove. And this obliges to a national Humiliation, as it fubjects all, without Exception, to the Vifitation and Vengeance of the Almighty; so that tho' we are really or perfonally innocent, we ought to humble ourselves before God, and to act the Part of publick Penitents. For in this Cafe, we are to confider ourfelves not as fingle Perfons, but as Part of a Society, that has incurred the Divine Displeasure, and fo are equally liable to the fame Inconveniencies, Dangers, and Sufferings, with the other Parts; as all that. fail in the fame Veffel, run the fame Hazard. Suppose then that they were but few to whom the Bloodguiltiness of this Day can ftrictly be imputed; yet there are Inftances more than enough in Scripture, of God's punishing or threatening a whole People or Nation for the Sins of a very few, and fometimes only of fingle Perfons. For to begin with the Inftance in the Text, was not the Ship's Crew in Danger of perifhing, for the Perverfenefs and Difobedience only of Jonah? And fo likewise in the Days of Joshua, when Achan the Son

of

of Carmi had committed a Trespass in the accurfed Thing, the Army of the Ifraelites could no longer ftand before their Enemies, till they had humbled themselves by fafting and Prayer, and removed the accurfed Thing, and punished the Tranfgreffor*: Upon this God was reconciled to them, and made them again victorious over their Enemies. So likewife in the Days of King David, God fent a Famine upon the Land for fome particular Crime, and when they enquired for what Cause it was fent, the Anfwer was, It is for Saul and for his bloody Houfe, because he flew the Gibeonites And after the Sons of Saul were put to death for this, the Anger of the Lord was pacified, and this Judgment removed. So again, when David himself had finned in numbering the People, God sent a Pestilence upon them to leffen their Number; and this Leffening would have been much greater, if he had not immediately, by the Direction of an Angel, built an Altar and offered Sacrifice: Then was God appeased, and the Plague was ftayed . Once more; That heinous Wickedness of the Men of Gibeah, in relation to the Levite's Concubine, was punished by God in a most exemplary Manner, by cutting off almost one whole Tribe from Ifrael, the

* Josh. vii. † 2 Sam. xxi. 1.
D 2

Ibid. xxiv.

Tribe

And

Tribe of Benjamin, for conniving at and not punishing the Offenders, when required by their Brethren fo to do +. that which still comes nearer to the prefent Cafe, the Day on which Gedaliah the Son of Abikam was murdered, whom the King of Babylon had made Governor over the Remnant of the Ifraelites that were left in the Land of Judea, after he had carried the rest away captive to Babylon; this Day, I fay, was afterwards religiously obferved for many Years with Fafting and Humiliation, and was called the Faft of the seventh Month. Nor do we want the Examples of Heathens in this Cafe, or with refpect to the Obligation of humbling ourfelves, as particularly of the Mariners in the Text, who, when they caft Jonah into the Sea, at his Defire, but against their own Will, implored the Divine Clemency, and prayed God that he would not lay upon them the Guilt of innocent Blood. Thus does God fend us to the Heathens to learn Inftruction in this Point, and lets us fee, by their Example, how far the Light of Nature, when left to itself, would direct Men in fuch Cafes. And are not all these Inftances fufficient to convince our Dif fenting Brethren of their Obligation in this Refpect? Efpecially if they confider, as they

+ Judg. xx.

ought,

ought, that their Forefathers might have no fmall Share in the Guilt of this Day, as they all along fided with those that oppofed the King. And tho' afterwards fome of them repented, when it was too late to ftop the fatal Blow, and protested and remonftrated against taking away the King's Life; yet neither juft after his Death, nor at any other Time ever fince, have they, by any publick or folemn Act of Humiliation, teftified their Abhorrence of that execrable Fact, or prayed God that the Guilt of that innocent Blood might not be laid to their Charge. I wish they would seriously confider this, for their own Sake, and for the Nation's Sake. 'Tis to no Purpofe for them to fay, that they cannot think themselves obliged to lament a Sin, that was committed fo many Years ago; fince God has fo peremptorily declared, that he will vifit the Sins of the Fathers upon the Children to the third and fourth Generation : And therefore a Sin committed an hundred Years ago, is the very fame in his Sight, as one that was committed but yesterday, if not repented of and atoned for. Were there Grounds for any Doubt or Scruple in this Matter, God himself has taken Care to remove all fuch, by giving very plain and pofitive Directions in fomething of a like Cafe. If one be found flain in the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee to poffefs it, lying in the Field, and it be not known who hath lain

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