God is just and so to be acknowledged in things that are most adverse to us We are sinners and therefore must justifie God when he speaks and clear him when he judges though it be against our selves Psal 51.4 I know O Lord that thy judgments are right and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted Psal 119.75 Hypocrites will praise Gods justice when it plagues others and never blame his severity whilest it touches not their own skin We should be the sharpest Censors of our selves and then we will assert Gods faith fulness in our heaviest afflictions Indeed we are apt to grumble against God when we suffer hard things in the world unworthily and in juriously as we conceive But in that the best of men and causes go so much to the worst in the world it is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God who sways all for the present and will rectific all in due time for the good of his people 2. Thes 1.5 5. God is ever just but the discoveries and executions of his justice he reserves in his power for his own time We are too hasty with him and because judgment is not speedily executed think it will never come But will ye reproach a Workman as if he were a Bungler whilest he is hewing and squaring his pieces Stay till the whole be framed and put together and then the Artifice with appear The China Clay of which those curious brittle Trifles are composed they say is moulded in one Age and made up in another and will you not give the Lord leave with whom a thousand years are but as one day to take his own time about his own glorious Works 2. this may serve to confound the wicked Imagine what horror possesses the shackled Malefactors conscious to themselves of capital crimes when they hear of the Judges coming It is said Foelix trembled when he heard S. Paul preach of judgment to come Tremble ye sinners behold here your Judge And of all sinners these have most reason to tremble 1. Great over grown unruly sinners that out-brave their fellow Mortals and are too big to be dealt with by men here 's a Judge can hamper them at whose Bar they must hold up the hand stand naked and shivering as well as the vilest Wretch that crawls on the earth They can then have no advantage of a Jury to secure them there will beno doublt of the Evidence no question but the Bill of Indictment will be be found and Sentence pass accordingly 2. Injurious violent sinners Birds of Prey ravenous Beasts Read their doom Psal 5,6 The wicked and of all wicked ones them that love violence the Lord hates with his Soul See his special Indignation against them his dealing with them will discover his Affection to them Upon them he will rain snares Rain There 's the inevitableness of the Judgment as soon can the Earth shrink from the descending Showers as they from deserved Vengeance Snares there 's unexpected Surprizâ—… Fire and Brimstone there 's the sharpness of the tortured an horrible Tempest there 's Hellish terrour all this the portion of their Cup as proper to the as the Meat they eat the Drink they pour down their Throats 3 Enormous disorderly Sinners that heap up sins without number or measure that Bankrupt-like when they are once over shooes run into evil over head and ears never casting up an account or payment Let them know that God keeps account though they do not catalogues every act and circumstance and will one day set all in order in full weight and tale before their eyes as they are now before his own Psal 50.21 4 Cunning Sinners that over or colour Abominations as if God could not see Secrets search Hearts sift Persons and Causes to the bottom distinguish truth from sshapes though never so specious as if they would impose upon their Judge by false pleas or fair pretences Assoon can they hinder the Sun from shining upon the face of the Earth by the inter position of their Hand No no their own deceitfulness will prove their own ruine and the issue of their cunning will be that they will steal craftily into everlasting misery 5 Secure Sinners that think God like themselves regardless whilest silent that do cubile sternere potius quam tribunal erigere in their conceits rather make a Bed for God to sleep on than erect a Seat for Judgment 'T is most certain that the damnation of such slumbers not 2. Pet. 2.3 In a word All impenitent Sinners that remain in an unreconciled state obnoxious to Gods revenging justice may be as men Thunder-smitten by this truth For 1. Here 's your Judge before whose face you must appear to render a full account of all things done in the flesh and that in a cloar solemn glorious way â—ou shall not be beheaded in prison drowned in a Well smothered in a Bed made away in a corner perish in silence God takes care as for the execution so the revelation of his righteous judgment Rom. 2.5 Consider his proceedings towards Sodom he inquires charges finds guilty and then executes so that the World rings of it This is Similitudo futuri judieii Isid A little resemblance of the great Judgment When the Lots the faithful ones of God shall be conveyed to the Mountains the everlasting Hills the wicked shall be swallowed up into those black Flames that dead Sea from whence there 's no redemption 2. In all this feverity there is nothing but Justice The Judge does you right gives you your due renders to you according to your demerits this is your Wages 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Souldiers Pays proper for your Work to Men and Angels will appland the righte ousnesa and God will be eternally glorified in taking the Vengeance 2 Thess 1. 8 9 10. 3. This Doctrine of Divine Righteousness gives direction to them that are intrusted with Government and Judgment among men here 's the best of Paterns for them God the Judge the best of Rules to do right And blessed be God that we have no just cause to complain of publick wrong Have we not our Religion Laws Lives Liberties and Properties fecured to us What do we want which any Nation under the cope of Heaven can wish for Happy we did we but know our happiness Have we not a King so clement so merciful that some have been ready to think that his mency to others hath proved injutious to himself A second Titus as he hath been called who never willingly sent away any suitor sad or discontented from him and under whom the Unfortunate fall gently What Laws more good and equitable than ours What more wholesom and helping if duly executed Ancient Law-makers derived the Pedigree of their Laws from their-Gods Lycurgus father'd his upon Apolle at Delphos Numa pretended his to the Nymph Ageria If we had Laws dropt out of Heaven they would do us no good without execution I might go on and instance in every particular if the time would permit me and shew that we have all the Elements of Felicity but our unhappiness is that we cannot form them to our own content Some there are who find fault with every thing because they will be satisfied with nothing Religion is pretended but Piety in many appears to be no more than Carnal Policy and in some a misguided Zele for the Interest of their own Party Some men are so bewildered so lost in the mists of their Opinions and smoke of their passions that the Light they boast of proveâ— no better than an Ignis fatuus to lead them out of the way and into the Ditch of Ruine and Destruction Some cry out of Persecution when men are Sufferers merely because they are evil doers How many are there whose Musick confists in Discord They pretend to love Truth and yet hate Peace Like Salamanders they delight to live in the flames and are never better pleased than when they are warming themselves by a Fire of their own kindling At the time of the Battel at Trasimenum between Hannibal and the Romans there was such an Earthquake as overthrew a great part of most of the Cities in Italy yet not one of the Fighters that were at it in the heart of the Country felt the Motion Men are so fiercely intent on their own Interesses and Quarrels that they are quite senfless of publick Hazards and Ruines But these things are an apter Subject for Tears than Words here the Eye may be more liberal in its dropping Language than the Tongue in most fluent Eloquution I dare not stay you any longer from the weighty publick Affairs in a word then Lastly feeing there is such a Judge a Judge of all that doth and will do right before whose Face we must all shortly appear Let us supplicate our Judge make him our Friend agree with our Adversary quickly in the way pass our Accounts betimes assure Reconciliation in the Bloud of the Covenant engage Gods righteousness as well as his mercy for our good by believing and then the Judge will plead our Cause right our Wrongs clear up our Integrity quiet our Spirits and crown our Patience When the Faces of all wicked ones shall gather blackness when they shall implore the pity of Mountains and Rocks to fall upon them and hide them from the presence of him that fitteth on the Throne then shall we stand acquitted and accepted we shall have boldness in that day Which the Lord of his infinite mercy grant and that for the merits of his dear Son and our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and Holy Ghost be all Honour and Adoration henceforth and for ever Amen F I N I S.