ferred or chose the latter, which is not at all implied in the Text; fince he that perishes by the Famine, doth equally fall into the Hands of God with him that dies by the Peftilence; but he prays that God would turn away the Sword from him, and then punish him as it fhould please him: Whereupon God proportioning his Punishment to the Quality of his Sin, fent upon him the Peftilence, to deftroy and blaft that Arm of Flesh, in which he had so vainly put his Truft.

(2.) THE Second Inftance that I fhall mention, fhall be that Solemn Denunciation of Judgment, Ifa. 3. 16. against the Pride of the Daughters of Jerufalem. He fays, v. 17. God shall fmite with a Scab the Crown of their Head: So the Word * was un- * derftood by Vatablus, Pifcator, Junius and Tremellius, rendring it by Lepra vel Scabie inficiet; and after he had threatned them, v. 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23. to take away their Ornaments in which they fo prided themfelves, he adds, v. 24. that God would inftead of a Sweet Smell punish them with a Stink; or (as the Word † feems rather to import) + with Rottennefs: So it was understood by Montanus, Pifcator, Junius and Tremellius; and fo its radix (because the Word it felf PPA L is found but in one other Place throughout the whole Scripture) is rendred Pfal. 37. 5. Zech. 14. 12. by The, Tw, and fute, in the LXXII. And instead of a Girdle, there shall be

*

a Rent (as we render it ;) or (as the Word * may be rather underftood) a rotting or decaying in the Parts of the Body; for

E 4

tho'

tho' the Word it felf occurs no where elfe in the whole Scriptures, yet fuch is the Signification of its radix importing, to break or shake a thing, till its Parts be feparated one from another; in which Sense it is particularly ufed, Ifa. 24, 13. expreffing the fhaking of an Olive-Tree, in order to fhake off his Fruit: Not meaning (as is commonly thought) a Rent of their Clothes, but the breaking and confuming of their Bodies; which it is very probable muft proceed from Ulcers and corrupted Sores, from whence proceed Putrefactions and Gangreens, which must be followed by Excifion of the Flesh or Members of the Body, God punishing them in the Deftruction of that Flefh or Body, which they had fo inordinately loved. It is an ingenious Conjecture of a learned Man, that by thefe Expreffions, a Stink, and a Scab, v. 17. and 24. are emphatically meant the Lues Venerea; and that it feems peculiarly adapted to the Word when complicated with at Confumption, which is thence by fome Writers call'd the Venereal Confumption; a Diftemper,which, tho' it be the Natural Effect and Punishment of The Luft of the Flesh, and therefore may be thought more properly reducible to that Head; yet may not improperly be taken notice of in this Place, as being by its noifomnefs and filth a proper Punishment of The Pride of Life. This (as the Learned too well know) is at this time commonly complicated with other Difeafes; as Scurvy, malignant and hectick Fevers, Vertigo, Falling-Sickness, Catharrs,

Fluxes,

Fluxes, Ulcers, and other cutaneous Diftempers.

(3) THE Third Inftance shall be that of Antiochus Epiphanes, 2 Macc 9. who in the Pride of his Heart (Δια * ύπερ ἄνθρωπον αλα Loviav) i. e. fo proud was he above the Condition of a Man) threatned that he would come to Jerufalem, and make it a common burying Place for the Jews; but v. 5. The Lord God Almighty, the God of Ifrael, Smote bim with an invisible and incurable Plague; for a Pain in the Bowels, which was remedilefs, came upon him, and fore Torments of the inward Parts; fo that he who a little before thought he might command the Waves of the Sea, and weigh the high Mountains in a Balance, was now caft on the Ground, and carried in a Horfe-litter; fhewing forth unto all, the manifeft Power of God. So that the Worms rofe up out of the Body of this wicked Man; and whilst he lived in Sorrow and Pain, his Flesh fell away, and the filthiness of bis Smell was noifom to all his Army: And the Man that had thought a little before, that he could reach to the Stars of Heaven, no Man could endure to carry for his intolerable Stink, 2 Macc. 9. 5, 8, 9, 10, II. The confideration whereof, brought him at length to this pertinent Reflection, v. 12. It is meet to be fubject unto God, and that a Man that is Mortal, fhould not proudly think of himself, as if be were God.

(4.) THE Fourth Inftance fhall be that of Herod, Act. 12. haranguing the People, whereupon they cried out, That it was the Voice of a God, and not of a Man; and immediately the Angel of the Lord Smote him,

V. 23.

v. 23. because he prided himself in their **Aver blafphemous Flattery *, and gave not God in dane the Glory; and being eaten up of Worms, he gave τω δόξαν up the Ghoft. God convincing him hereby Ot. of his Folly and Madness, in arrogating to himself the Perfections of God, who could not preferve himself from being a Prey to fuch mean Infects as the Worms that arofe out of his own Body.

AND to fhew (Fifthly) how natural a Connexion there is between this Sin, and this Punishment; the Prophet Jeremiah, Chap. 9. threatning the Jews with dreadful Defolations by the means of a Pestilence (as it appears plain to me, notwithftanding what Grotius and others have faid to the contrary; compare v. 10, 12, 21, 22. of which more hereafter. For the Mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the Inhabitants of the Wilderness a Lamentation, because they are burnt up, so that none can pass through them, neither can Men bear the Voice of the Cattel, both the Fowl of the Heavens, and the Beast are fled, they are gone. V. 12. Who is the wife Man that may understand this, and who is be to whom the Mouth of the Lord has Spoken, that be may declare it, for what the Land perifheth, and is burnt up like a Wilderness that none paffeth through? And v. 21. Death is come up into our Windows, and is entered into our Palaces, to cut off the Children from without, and the young Men from the Streets. V. 22. Speak, thus faith the Lord, even the Carcaffes of Men fhall fall as Dung upon the open Fields, and as the bandful after the Harvest-man; and none fhall gather them.) The Prophet, I fay,

after

after he had threatned them with the dreadful Effects of this Peftilence, he comes, v. 23, and 24. as it were to point out the Caufe of it, and to fhew them how they Thould escape it. Thus faith the Lord, let not the wife Man glory in his Wifdom, nor let the mighty Man glory in his Might, let not the rich Man glory in his Riches. But let him that glorieth, glory in this, that be understandeth and knoweth me, &c. Plainly intimating, that as their exceffive Pride and Self-love had brought thofe Calamities upon them, fo there was no ways to escape them, but by Repentance, Self-denial, and Humility.

$6. THE Reader will, I hope, pardon The matemy dwelling longer than ordinary upon the rial or innext Head, confidering that the prefent frumental Causes of commonnefs of the Distemper, may juftifie thefe Dimy being more particular upon the com-ftempers. mon and ordinary Caufes of all infectious and peftilential Difeafes; which may, in general, be reduced to thefe two: 1. The evil Influences of the heavenly Bodies, and the Irregularities of Seafons. 2. Noxious and hurtful Exhalations from the Body of the Earth. The former fort were called by the Greeks Νόσοι Επιδημικοί, as being of a more univerfal Contagion than the other; as we may conceive the Influences darted from thofe Bodies (fpecially when their Pofitions are fo, as that many of them concur in the fame Influences and Operations) to be of a greater and more extenfive Force, than any Halitus, or Vapours, arifing from the Earth; because the Heat of thefe heavenly Bodies, which is the Medium whereby

they