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.
Judex est jus dicens a Judge is a person sentencing or pronouncing Law our Judge is jus constituens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Law-giver the Law-maker as well as the Law-dispenser 2. Here 's an universal Judge Judge of all the earth Earth doth not so much denote the round heap on which we tread as the Inhabitants that live and walk on it Men neither may we take the term of Universality as exclusive All the earth and no more Heaven and Hell are under the same Dition God is Judge of Men and Devils quick and dead good and bad all must pass his Judgment of Discussion and receive a Sentence either of Absolution or Condemnation 3. Therefore here is a just Judge shall not such a Judge do right Particular or subordinate Judges are accountable to their Superiours this Judge onely doth all and what he will and ows Account to none In inferiour Judges Justice is Virtus executiva ministrans it serves and executes the Laws in the supreme it is Architectonica imperans praecipiens quod justum est it founds and forms and prescribes what is just If by the Philosophers description a Man-judge must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jus Animatum Souled or Living Justice much more must God the Judge be infinite everliving everlasting justice yea norma justitiae the absolute rule the total summ the entire essence of justice And being such a Judge shall he not exercise or do right And what 's that To adjudicate and distribute aequalia aequalibus in an equality of proportion to give to all what belongs to them to manage and dispose all persons things and passages according to the righteousness which is in himself and his own will Secondly the Phraseology or manner of Enuntiation of the words is not to be omitted 't is Expostulatory by way of Interrogation it is Interrogatio Affirmantis The Question carries in it the weight of a vehement Affirmation Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right Yes he shall he must he will he cannot but do right See here It is an infallible grand Truth That God the universal infinite Judge is most righteous in all his doings and dispensations If the Earth should be silent or perverse in hiding or blemishing this Truth the Heavens will speak it out they will declare Gods righteousness and say God is Judge himself judex ipse or as some render it judex summè the judge or the judge in chief Psal 50.6 The best of men have been large and loud in celebrating of Divine Righteousness Moses with some of his last breath which savours most strongly of Heaven sings it out sweetly Deu 32.4 He is the rock strong and immutable his work is perfect whatever he doth he doth it purely and fully without default or defect all his ways are judgment a God of truth and without iniquity just and right is he And with him tunes the Sweet-Singer of Israel in several places of his sacred Hymns take one instead of many Psal 145.17 The Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works Ways are his dispositions Works his doings In all of these from the first to the last from the greatest to the least righteousness and holiness perspicuously shine forth and bear sway But what need I heap up Scriptures as if it were difficult to persuade your consent to this truth Surely they who do not now believe it will one day fee to their smart and confusion that God is just Yet give me leave to lay down two grounds of proof to render this more evident to you and to set it home upon your Spirits First in our Judge there are all the Properties that may speak him righteous There are three principal requisites in a just Judge Zelus rectitudinis Potestas Prudentia Zeal of right Power and Prudence These are truly and eminently in God 1. In God is a Zeal a strong Propension and Affection to right and justice The righteous God loveth righteousness Psal 11.7 It suits his nature pleases his heart corresponds to his will advances his glory All the world therefore cannot biass or bend him besides the streight line of righteousness Fabritius among the Romans was famous for justice Pyrrhus would fain have won him to his Party to that end one day he offered him heaps of Treasure on the next he brought him into a room where a huge Elephant was hid behind the Hangings On a sudden the Curtain was drawn the Elephant appeared and smote the man on the head with his Trunk With an unchanged Countenance he told Pyrrhus Yesterday thy Gold did not move me nor to day thy Beast Oh for such men nowadays 'T is much to find this in a man but neither Flatteries nor Frowns nor any respects whatsoever can move the Lord from the love and practice of Justice 2. In God there is Authoritative Power who dares deny or question his Sovereignty All power is primitively in him and derivatively from him Kings though they be mens Sovereigns yet are they Gods Subjects He is God of Gods and Lord of Lords a great God a mighty a terrible and therefore regardeth not persons nor taketh rewards but executeth judgment exactly Deut. 10.18 Arise O God judge the earth saith David Psal 82.7 for thou inheritest all nations Whoever hath the Nations God owns them they are his propriety Usurpation seldom or never goes without male-administration but Right and Mght-meeting in God to the full dispose him to absolute and exact Justice 3. In God is all-seeing unerring Wisdom he clearly and certainly discerns all persons and cases not a Creature can creep out of his sight All things are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do Heb 4.13 not onely uncloathed but unskinned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word is borrowed say some from Wrestlers who take their Adversaries by the Neck cast them on their Back and so their Faces are upward and their Dimensions discernible Others think the term to be taken from Anatomists who strip off the Skin open the Bulk look into the Bowels into the Intrals c. So narrowly and thorowly doth our God search us He is a most prudent piercing quick-sighted Judge His eyes behold his eyelids try the children of men Psal 11 4. He hath Eyes beholding ten thousand times clearer than the Sun from eternity and every moment having before him all Generals at once Eyelids contracted and diving into the closest and narrowest particulars Power without Prudence is bruitish Force prone to be injurious but our God is great in counsel as well as mighty in works Jer. 32.19 and therefore completely apted to be a righteous Judge Secondly the high things that God hath to discern dispose and do necessarily require a perfect righteousness to manage them God's doings or dispensations towards the Creature are threefold viz. Providential Gracious and Judiciary 1. The charge of all things for their being continuance and
THE Righteous Judge A SERMON PREACHED At Hertford-Assize March 10. 1682. By Edward Hickes D.D. PSAL. 145.17 The Lord is Righteous in all his Wayes and Holy in all his Works LONDON Printed for Benj. Tooke at the Ship in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXXII To the Right Worshipful Sir NICHOLAS MILLER Knight High Sheriff of the County of Hertford Justice of the Peace and one of his Majesty's Deputy Lieutenants for the said County Honoured SIR I Never pretended to be good at any thing of this I am sure I am now bad at Limning my old Pencil and decay'd Colours will not do and besides I have no daring hand so that should I offer at a Picture I should wrong the Person Really Sir It is the sense of my own Weakness that frights me from attempting to celebrate your Worth and the Truth is it is in vain to light a Candle before the Sun it is lost Labour to praise him whom all admire it is ill spent pains to gild a Diamond or paint a Ruby red This I can truly say That since I had the Happiness to know you I have had an Ambition to serve you and 't was that which made me not dispute but readily obey your Commands when I understood you designed me for the Pulpit the last Assize What I then preached I am by unanswerable Importunity even forced much against my own Genius to print Censures I expect to meet with why should I think to fare better than my Betters but I shall not much regard them for my Comfort is that no one can have meaner Thoughts of me than I have of my self and being already on the Ground I can fall no lower than the Grave which by reason of my many Indispositions I daily expect That your worthy self your truly vertuous Lady and the two young Gentlemen your hopeful Sons may have all the Happiness that Heaven can give both here and hereafter is the hearty Prayer of Buckland March 29. 1682. Honoured Sir Your most obliged Servant E. Hickes THE Righteous Judge GEN. 18. v. 25. pars ult Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do Right IN this Chapter the Sacred History sets before us an amicable Congress and Conference between the Lord and Abraham the great God dissimulata majestate veiling his Majesty under a humane Shape with two attendant Angels in the like form gives him a friendly visit re-assures to him that high Mercy before-mentioned a Son a Son by Sarah a Son of Promise and of Blessing in whose Off-spring all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed And withall being upon an Expedition of Judgment the overthrow of Sodom he acquaints him with his Purpose and Process therein In this Discovery the Lord 1. Consults for his own Glory he reveals his Design to his Servant who would diligently and duely observe and improve it would be a faithful Register and Relator of it The Lord doth his wonderful Works that they may be remembred Psal 3.4 The World is much mistaking or oblivious of God's Judgments those dreadful of late among us yea still incumbent are but Wonders for a few days We are apt to forget the Smart so soon as the Rod is from our Backs 2. God hath here a Tryal and Task for Abraham's Graces his Charity his Compassion his Faith O quanta justi fiducia imo O quanta animi compassio 1. His deep Compassion stirs up in him the Spirit of Supplication when he hears of destroying he falls a deprecating Though Sodom were exceeding wicked yet he cannot behold the Ruine of it without Remorse When God casts abroad the Thunder of his Vengeance how can we but tremble at it though it touch not us It is a sign of a savage Spirit to look upon Executions with Delight though of Malefactors or Enemies And if it be an Office beseeming a Saint and grateful to God to intercede for a Sodom who would not lay out all his Intersses in Heaven and draw out his Soul to the utmost for a Sion Abraham's principal drift and care was for the righteous supposed to be in Sodom for them he buckles and bestirs himself that they might not be involved in that direful Calamity and for their sakes he begs if not a total Exemption yet a protraction or mitigation of the Judgment to the whole 2. Consider how nobly his Faith works and acts it self in his wrestling with God He closes with him and comes in upon him with reiterated Instances humble Importunity that will brook no denial When he hath got something of God he doth as I may so say incroach upon his Concessions and must have more He brings down God from fifty to ten and that gradatim in six several steps of descent 'T is impossible for us to outbid Gods Bounty by our cravings when they are right and ordinate his Condescensions will be as large as our Ascensions when they are most elevated the more we ask the more he grants still yea he doth and giveth exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think Why Abraham went not beneath the number of Ten cannot be determined Conjectures of Jewish Authors are light because say they there were Eight in the Ark which saved not the old World from drowning and with them Ten is the least number to make up a Congregation under which there could be no Church-Assembly amongst them 'T is certain though God doth not stint himself to a proportion for such a number of just ones to spare such a multitude of wicked ones yet as we may conclude from Abraham's Petitions and Gods Concessions for the righteous sake though but a few temporal Indulgence is afforded to the vast heaps of the wicked This is well observed by S. Ambrose Vides quantus murus sit patriae vir justus c. You see what a Wall a righteous a good man is to his Country c. But to proceed the main Medium or Argument of persuasion used and urged by Abraham to prevail with God to spare those Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah is drawn ab aequo from just and right God delights to be minded of his Attributes his Glory to be put in mind of his Mercy his Faithfulness his Justice as here The force of the Argument is knit up close together in the few words of my Text. From the Hypothesis the particular instance or case of Justice Not to slay the righteous with the wicked to make the righteous as the wicked the Holy Man ascends to the Thesis the general Assertion of Gods Justice Thou art Judge of all thou must do justly Shall not the Judge of all the earth do rigbt In the words you may be pleased to abserve I. The Matter II. The Manner of their Expression First In the Matter or Substance are observable 1. A Title of Office given to God Judge 2. The Extent of his Jurisdiction All the earth 3. The Justice of his Administration Do right 1. Here 's a Judge and among men