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.
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
disposition lies wholly on the head and hands of Divine Providence And what but absolute infinite Justice can sway and order such a charge Men that rule over men must be just otherwise Confusion and Ruine will break in like a Deluge Justice is the stability of Thrones the basis of Commonwealths the cement of Societies the heart and life of publick and personal good And if God were not most just that rules over all the Earth could not stand nor the Heavens move nor the Sun shine nor the Universe subsist a moment For ever O Lord thy word is settled in Heaven thy commanding ruling Word thy faithfulness is to all generations Here 's Uprightness commensurate to the Rule as large and lasting as that And for an experimental proof of this the very Earth gives it abiding in thy Establishment and all thine Ordinances thy Laws of Providence continue to this day for all are thy Servants Psal 119.89 The vast houshold of the Creatures regulated in such an admirable decorum shew that they have a righteous Master 2. In all gracious dealings God is and must be most righteous He will not lose nor abate an atom of justice in the multitude of his mercies The Lord who is merciful gracious long-suffering abundant in goodness and truth will by no means clear the guilty washes out every spot of our guilt in the bloud of his Son in him receives full satisfaction to the strictest demands of his justice on our behalf 'T is the main stay of our Faith and Comfort that God sets forth and accepts Christ a Propitiation and so declares his righteousness as well as his grace in the remission of fins is just in justifying Believers Rom. 3.25 26. is faithful and just in forgiving 1 John 19. 3. Gods judgments past present and to come particular and universal require and shew him righteous He is known to be so by the judgments he executeth Psal 9.16 If he were not righteous in taking vengeance how could he judge the world Rom. 3.5 6. If we will but open our eyes we may see the vengeance visibly just and dreadful and say Verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth O the stupendious equity of Gods retaliating justice how doth it pay Sinners in their kind plaguing Drunkenness with rage Adultery with rottenness of bone staining the glory of Pride and pouring contempt upon the Honourable of the Earth But if we could look further to that great day wherein he hath appointed to judge the World in righteousness by him whom he hath ordained could we seriously set before our view that great white Throne and him that sits upon it from whose face the Earth and the Heaven shall flee away before whom small and great shall stand and receive a righteous doom out of the Books the faithful Records of Heaven Rev 20. ult we may conclude certainly such a Judge shall do right The Truth is clear you see and it will be very useful if we can im prove it aright 1. It may serve to vindicate God 't is a sad Case when poor Mortals must plead for God Bad men are apt to conceit that God is incuriosus quasi negligens humanorum actuum Salv. regardless or neglective of humane Affairs yea scarce equal in his Ways when they transcend their Sense or cross their Humours Interesses or Ends and some of the best have been staggered and perplexed when in outward Events they see that befalling good men which they hold proper to the Wicked è contra It was thus with the Author of the 73 Psal per totum with Jer. 12.1 Righteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee says he he doth well to yield the Victory before hand to God in the Dispute yet let me talk with thee of thy Judgments yet he thinks the matter may come to a modest Parly Wherefore doth the way of the Wicked prosper Wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously And why is the Desert of the Wicked so often the Lot of the Just To stop the Mouth of the one and to satisfie the Scruples of the other let me lay before you these Considerations 1. God is just in things that we cannot see nor sound His Righteousness is like the great Mountains firm and stable when his Judgments are a great Deep not to be measured Psal 36.6 His way is in the Sea his Path in the great Waters his Foot steps are not known Psal 77. 19. yet then most pure and regular I have heard that in a Contest between a great Noble-man and a learned-Judge of this Nation the Judge urged Law the Noble-man said I thought your Laws had been consonant to Reason yes replyed the Judge so they are they are made up of the Quintessence of Reason but that comes not within the compass of every Cap. Must you see Sense and Reason of your own in gods Doings or else dispute the Justice of them Hear Salvian Summa sasticed est Voluntas Dei The Will of God is the top of Justice and his Wisdom the rule of it neither is any thing unjust that God doth Quia capere vim divinae justicae homo non valet to use his own Words because Man cannot comprehend the scope and force of God in it Learn we therefore to stoop and tremble and admire what we cannot fathom 2. God is just in all the Shuffles and seeming Confusions in the world He hath his way in the Whirlwind and the Storm Naum 1.3 The stormy Wind fulfills his Will Psal 148 8. What so turbulent tumultuous unruly as the Storm yet that varies not an hair a tittle for the Bounds of divine Command Things that seem immethodical and disorderly to us are most comely in God's Eye and Disposal A Trades-man hath the richest Market when his Wares are drawn out and scattered about the Shop he knows how and when to put them into their places so are there largest Acoruements to the glory of Divine Wisdom Power and Justice in the variety and strangness of events and passages all which God holds in his hand weighs in his balance guides with his eye and hath his times of restitution when he will set all right and in their proper places Act. 3.21 3. God is just in mens in justice Executioners are commonly the basest of the people and the Hangman ofttimes deseryes the Halter as much as he that suffers under him yet that doth not derogate from the justice of the Law or Judge Why boastest thou thy self in mischief O mighty man the goodness of God endureth contiuually Psal 52.1 Let men be never fo insolent in mischief God is constant in goodness he is faithful and just in that wherein they are false and injurious The best Antidote against â—…oison and Pestilential Diseases is made of the flesh of Vipers and hath not God the art think you to extract Honour to his Name and Healing to the Nation out of the rankest venom of wicked men 4.