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“Why should any living man complain when punished for his sins?
活人因自己的罪受罚，为何发怨言呢？
Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the LORD.
我们当深深考察自己的行为，再归向耶和华。
Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in Heaven.” Lamentations 3:39-41
我们当诚心向天上的神举手祷告。”耶利米哀歌 3:39-41
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“They provoked the LORD to anger by their wicked deeds, and a plague broke out among them.
他们所行的惹耶和华发怒，便有瘟疫在他们中间发作。
But Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was checked.” Psalm 106:29-30
那时非尼哈站起，判断善恶，瘟疫这才止息。”诗篇 106:29-30
Preface to the Reader:
致读者前言：
I have considered the sore judgment with which we have been visited lately, which so evidently declares God’s wrath against us.
我思量了我们近来所遭遇的严厉审判，这审判如此清晰地显明了神对我们的忿怒。
So I believe this work is an essay which is very acceptable to God, and profitable to ourselves.
因此，我相信这篇著述是神极其悦纳的，也是于我们有益的。
I did the best I could to make the voice of the rod of God articulate for you.
我竭尽所能，为你们阐明神管教之杖的声音。
In the print of this book it lashes us, not only by God’s wrath, but the sin he scourges us for, and the duty he would drive us to.
在这本书的字里行间，它鞭策我们，不仅因神的忿怒，也因祂为之鞭打我们的罪，以及祂要驱使我们去履行的责任。
I hope all this is found in legible characters easily understood on the page.
我盼望这一切都以清晰易懂的文字呈现在书页上。
When I looked on affliction as a medicine for a distempered Nation, I thought it was exceedingly necessary, in order for it to work in us, to tell the nature, importance and use of it; and to give directions how it ought to be received.
当我视苦难为一个病态国家的良药时，我认为为了使它在我们里面生效，极其有必要阐明它的性质、重要性和功用；并指导我们当如何领受它。
I acknowledge myself the meanest of ten thousand to accomplish such a great work.
我承认，在万千人中，我是最卑微的一个，去完成如此伟大的工作。
When I saw, or heard, of nothing so particular and distinct as I thought this important matter required—I humbly depended on, and implored Divine assistance to make this attempt.
当我看到或听到，没有任何事物如我认为这重要之事所要求的那样具体和清晰时——我谦卑地倚靠并恳求神圣的帮助来进行这一尝试。
In this while I have guided myself by the Physician’s own rules, and an impartial consideration of the nature of the patient.
在此期间，我以大医治者祂自己的规则，以及对病人本质的公正考量来引导自己。
This was my great desire and hope of this undertaking: to work together with God’s providence for some good to the Nation.
我这番努力的极大愿望和盼望是：与神的护理同工，为国家带来一些益处。
And surely no man has cause to be angry with this intention, or with anything that flows sincerely from it.
当然，无人有理由对这一意图，或任何真诚由此而生的事物感到愤怒。
Imagine a man was the meanest among the people in the time when Nineveh was threatened with destruction.
试想，在尼尼微城面临毁灭威胁之时，有一个人是百姓中最卑微的。
What if he had given a catalogue of those sins they were guilty of?
倘若他列出了他们所犯的那些罪行的清单呢？
Such sins had to be removed which could prevent their ruin.
这些罪必须被除去，才能阻止他们的毁灭。
I am persuaded that if a man did this, that the Prince, his Nobles, and the people would have been grateful to him, even though he would have spoken to them all with more plainness and boldness than I have done in this treatise.
我深信，若有人这样做，君王、贵族和百姓都会感激他，即使他对他们所有人的说话，比我在这篇论著中更为直率和大胆。
I confidently dare to expect the same from you.
我自信地敢于期望从你们得到同样的对待。
If our fasting and prayers are just for fashion’s sake, they are useless.
倘若我们的禁食和祷告只是为了装点门面，它们便是无用的。
They must be in good earnest as the people of Nineveh.
它们必须像尼尼微人那样真心实意。
I was fearful of two great miscarriages that I might be guilty of, which I have especially consulted against.
我曾担忧自己可能犯下两大过失，对此我已特别警惕防范。
The first, of being swallowed up so much with a sense of suffering in sin, as to be indisposed for all profitable reflections on it.
其一，是过分沉溺于罪中受苦的感觉，以致无心对其进行有益的反思。
I would gladly turn men’s eyes and thoughts from off this—to the sin that brought it.
我乐意将人们的目光和思绪从此移开——转向那招致苦难的罪。
I wish them only to consider the suffering, so much as to inform themselves more clearly of the evil of the sin.
我愿他们只思想苦难，好让他们更清楚地认识罪的邪恶。
O what out-cries we may hear up and down: What doleful times these are!
哦，我们到处可以听到怎样的呼喊：这是多么悲惨的时代啊！
So many thousands dead this week—and so many last week!
这周死了几千人——上周也死了那么多！
The plague got to this town—and then to that town!
瘟疫蔓延到这个镇——然后又到那个镇！
All business, as well as people, dead and gone!
所有的生意，和人一样，都死寂了，消失了！
But were people formerly in this way affected, while we were bringing this on ourselves?
但是，当我们自招这一切的时候，人们从前是否也这样受影响呢？
Did they cry out then?
他们那时呼喊了吗？
O how many thousands of oaths are sworn in a week!
哦，一周之内发了多少万个誓言！
And how many lies are told!
说了多少谎言！
How many thousands are now drunk, and how many commit lewdness!
现在有多少万人醉酒，又有多少人行淫乱！
If we had weekly bills of such sins brought in to us, they would far have exceeded the largest sums that ever yet mortal men have made.
倘若我们每周收到此类罪行的账单，它们将远超凡人所曾犯下的最大总数。
But alas!
但是，唉！
The idea of sin with most people, is a light matter.
对大多数人来说，罪的观念是件小事。
There are not half so many groans and tears for sins, nor any such complaints of them.
为罪而发的呻吟和眼泪，远不及此数的一半，也没有任何对此类的抱怨。
Nor did any consideration of them make any sensible alteration among us.
对罪的任何思考，也未在我们中间造成任何明显的改变。
Now this I would gladly obtain, to have those days of sinning thought as much worse than these days of suffering; and those sins as much worse than these sufferings.
现在我乐意达成这一点，即让人们认为那些犯罪的日子比这些受苦的日子更坏；那些罪比这些苦难更坏。
The disease is worse than the medicine.
疾病比药物更坏。
In the same way, a child’s disobedience to his parents is worse than his being whipped.
同样地，孩子不顺服父母比他被鞭打更坏。
And he who should weep out of pity to the child, when he sees the child whipped, and yet could be content to hear him revile and abuse his father—I should think such a person of more sentimentality, than one of discretion.
而那人，当他看见孩子被鞭打时，本应出于怜悯而哭泣，却又能甘心听见孩子辱骂虐待他的父亲——我认为这样的人，多愁善感有余，而审慎不足。
He is more concerned for the child’s pain, than the parent’s honor.
他更关心孩子的痛苦，而非父母的尊荣。
This argues about him, that he has no true love for either.
这表明他对于两者都没有真正的爱。
Let me also give a caution, namely, that no man disclose so much folly as to argue that because in mercy God may abate and remove his heavy judgments, before many, or perhaps any of these sins I have mentioned are put away from among us, because we may have our former health and plenty restored.
让我也提出一个警戒，即无人显露如此愚昧，以至于辩称因为神出于怜悯，在我们所提及的这些罪中许多，或者或许任何一个，尚未从我们中间除去之前，就可能减轻并挪去祂沉重的审判，因为我们可能恢复从前的健康和丰裕。
It is much to be feared that you will see drunkards, and hear swearers, after the plague is be ceased.
极可忧惧的是，在瘟疫停止之后，你们仍会看见醉酒的人，听见起誓的人。
And will you think, therefore, that these, and the same wickednesses, did not provoke God to afflict us first?
因此，你们会认为这些，以及同样的邪恶，起初并未激怒神来折磨我们吗？
Stay, if you are in doubt, until the great reckoning day, until you have heard all men’s accounts cast up, and those actions which are then approved confidently pronounced as no sins.
且慢，倘若你心存疑虑，就等到那大清算的日子，直到你听见所有人的账目都结算清楚，那些届时被认可的行为被自信地宣告为无罪。
I tell you that all those who survive here under the heaviest judgments on earth, which may be sent from God to punish and reform those that were guilty of them—will not escape final judgment.
我告诉你们，所有那些在地上最沉重的审判下存活下来的人——这些审判可能是神差来惩罚和管教那些犯了罪的人的——都无法逃脱最终的审判。
Hardened sinners may frustrate some ends of an affliction, and all wicked sinners are not followed here with sore judgments, as Pharaoh was for a time.
顽固的罪人可能会挫败苦难的一些目的，并非所有邪恶的罪人都会在此遭受严厉的审判，如同法老曾一度经历的那样。
No, I say, do not justify all such sinful actions, though you hear them openly defended and applauded.
不，我说，不要为所有这类罪行辩护，即使你听见它们被公开地辩护和称赞。
And don’t believe that men were punished under the plague simply because the world said they opposed their practices.
也不要相信人们在瘟疫下受罚，仅仅是因为世人说他们反对他们的行为。
This lower world is full of such mad mistakes and confusions.
这个低下的世界充满了这类疯狂的错误和混乱。
But I tell you, all this will shortly be set straight.
但我告诉你们，这一切很快都将被纠正。
The other miscarriages that I feared men would be apt to run into, and which I have labored to provide against—was that though they might be convinced that sin in general was the cause of all our miseries—yet hardly that it was their sin, or their friend’s, but somebody else’s that they don’t love.
我所担忧人们易于陷入的另一过失，并且我努力防范的——是即使他们可能确信罪总体上是我们一切苦难的原因——却几乎不认为是他们自己的罪，或他们朋友的罪，而是某个他们不喜欢的人的罪。
They shift it off to this or that party—whom they would have punished had they been in God’s place.
他们将其推卸给这个或那个党派——倘若他们在神的位置上，他们本会惩罚这些人。
There is such a strong self-love in every man, that his imagination shapes God very much in a likeness to himself.
每个人里面都有如此强烈的自爱，以致他的想象力将神塑造得非常像他自己。
Even the vilest sinners, Psalm 50:21, thought God such an one as themselves.
即使是最卑鄙的罪人，诗篇50:21，也认为神与他们一样。
And consequently they account themselves, and all their concerns dear to God.
因此，他们认为自己以及他们所有关切的事，对神而言都是宝贵的。
They would interpret all his providences in favor of them, to right their quarrel, and to avenge them of their enemies.
他们会把祂所有的护理都解释为对他们有利，为他们的争执辩护，并为他们报复他们的敌人。
For in this way they would direct God to act, if they were ever called to his counsel.
因为倘若他们曾被召到祂的谋略中，他们便会这样指导神行事。
All would gladly say that God is of their party, and against those whom they are against.
所有人都乐意说神是他们那一边的，并反对那些他们所反对的人。
Every man will be more inclined to accuse others, than himself.
每个人都更倾向于指责他人，而非自己。
No, and here it often happens, that those who have espoused any sin, will be so far alone from thinking ill of it, that they would rather accuse the contrary virtue.
不，而且在此常发生的是，那些拥护任何罪的人，远非认为它不好，反而会指责相反的美德。
Just so, godliness itself may sometimes bear the blame, or even the most godly and unblamable men.
正因如此，敬虔本身有时可能承担责备，甚至是最敬虔和无可指摘的人也是如此。
The pillars of a land sometimes are accounted its pests—on which while some men blind with rage, lay their hands to pluck them down, they are about to do themselves.
一个国家的柱石有时被视为其祸害——当一些被愤怒蒙蔽的人，伸手要将它们拔除时，他们也正要伤害自己。
Ahab will sooner count Elijah rather than himself, a troubler of Israel.
亚哈宁可算以利亚为以色列的搅扰者，而非他自己。
Those who were the salt to savor a corrupt world—are accounted the filth and off-scouring of all things.
那些曾是败坏世界的盐，使其有味的人——反被视为万物的污秽和渣滓。
And when any mischief befalls the Empire, then the poor Christians must be thrown to the lions.
当任何灾祸降临帝国时，那么可怜的基督徒就必须被扔给狮子。
In this way I fear among us, many bitter and undeserved censures will be passed by one against another.
因此我担心在我们中间，许多尖刻和不应得的指责将会由一方施向另一方。
Such a great sin, I have done my best to consult against—while I have chiefly labored to bring every man to a reflection on himself.
这样一个大罪，我已尽力警惕防范——同时我主要致力于引导每个人反思自己。
I have studied faithfully to deal, both to this man and that, his share in procuring our miseries.
我忠实地研究了如何处理，无论是这个人还是那个人，他在招致我们苦难中所应分担的责任。
I have made the divisions and parties that are among us which occasion this censoriousness, one great cause of our sufferings.
我已将我们中间造成这种苛评的分裂和党派，视为我们苦难的一大原因。
Know this: it is only against sin that I have a quarrel.
要知道：我只与罪有争执。
If any guilty person (as the Pharisees when Christ preached) shall think I mean him in this work, let him once again know, that it is not against a man small or great—but the sins of all who I am entered into this list.
倘若任何有罪之人（如同基督讲道时的法利赛人）认为我在这部著作中指的是他，让他再次知道，我并非针对任何大小人物——而是针对所有人的罪，我已将这些列入其中。
I hope they will rather see to forsake their sins, than vindicate them.
我盼望他们宁愿设法离弃他们的罪，而非为之辩护。
I dare undertake to evidence, that sin is that which brings suffering, and that those things I have mentioned as the sins of our Nation, are indeed such.
我敢承担责任来证明，罪是招致苦难的根源，而我所提及的那些作为我们国家之罪的事物，确实如此。
Yes, and if it is not thought immodest to stall the reader’s judgment for a second, I dare add, that I have spoken very great truth and reason in the matters that people will find most liable to exception, notwithstanding all the weaknesses and disadvantages in the represented material, which I readily acknowledge to be many and great.
是的，倘若不被认为是不谦虚而稍缓读者的判断，我敢补充说，在人们会发现最易于提出异议的事情上，我已讲说了极大的真理和道理，尽管所呈现的材料中存在着所有的软弱和不足，我欣然承认这些是多而大的。
But I have already exceeded the due bounds of a Preface; therefore, let me conclude.
但我已超出了前言应有的篇幅；因此，让我作结。
So far as I know my own heart, I have spoken nothing with a design to exasperate any, or to humor and gratify one faction by disgracing or inveighing against another.
就我所知我自己的心，我所说的一切，都无意激怒任何人，或通过羞辱或抨击另一派来取悦和满足某一派系。
It has been my care to speak the honest truth, according to the infallible Word of God, and the clearest apprehensions of my own soul.
我一直谨慎地宣讲诚实的真理，依据神无谬的圣言，以及我自己灵魂最清晰的领悟。
I did this with a sincere desire to discover what indeed those sins are, which we especially suffer for—that the inconsiderate and ignorant may be informed, the guilty humbled, wickedness rooted out, God appeased, and all our mercies, both spiritual and temporal, restored and continued.
我这样做，是出于真诚的愿望，要揭示我们究竟因哪些罪而特别受苦——好让轻率无知的人得以知晓，有罪的人得以谦卑，邪恶得以根除，神的怒气得以平息，我们一切属灵和属世的怜悯得以恢复和延续。
These designs shall be followed with my prayers—and I hope with yours also who read this little work.
这些意愿将伴随着我的祷告——我亦盼望伴随着阅读这本小册子的你们的祷告。
How far the success may answer, either I must leave to the reader’s improvement, and God’s blessing on my well-intended, though weak endeavors.
其成效如何，我必须交由读者的长进，以及神对我用心良苦、虽则微弱努力的祝福。
Yours in the service of the Gospel,
在福音事工中属您的，
Matthew Mead, 1665
马太·米德，1665年
Table of Contents
目录
Preface to the Reader
致读者前言
- Sin and Suffering
一、罪与苦难 - Solomon’s Instruction
二、所罗门的教训 - Why Does God Contend with Us?
三、神为何与我们相争？ - Putting Away Sin
四、除去罪恶 - Exposing Blatant Sin
五、揭露公然的罪 - Trampling God’s Mercies
六、践踏神的怜悯 - Duties of Private Christians, and to Ministers
七、平信徒的责任，及对牧师的责任 - A Word to the Reader
八、致读者一言 - A Word to Those Who Truly Love Christ
九、致那些真心爱基督的人