SERMON VII.

The Delay of God's Judgments.

ECCLES. viii. 11.

BECAUSE

WORK

SENTENCE

IS NOT

EXECUTED SPEEDILY,

THEREFORE THE HEART OF THE SONS OF MEN IS FULLY SET IN THEM TO DO EVIL.

If it were executed speedily-for instance, if

every man who committed a theft were immediately to lose the use of his right hand, there would be no such thing as theft in the world: but the honesty produced by such a measure would be of little value, because it would be the effect of force; there would be no principle in it but that of fear; which is the principle of a slave; the same with that which keeps brute beasts in order. The works of men can be

good

good or bad only so far as they are the works of the will, which is at liberty to chuse between good and evil. True religion assists the will of inan, and works with it, but does not destroy it. Therefore sentence is not executed speedily against an evil work; but the punishment of it is generally suspended for a time, and the decrees of God in that respect are left to the contemplation of faith, which sees things as yet invisible. In some cases punishment is deferred for so long a time, that men persuade themselves it will never be executed: that there is no invisible judge of human actions; if there is, that he either careth not about them, or puts off all punishment to another world and that therefore men may act as they please in this world without any fear of the consequences. These are persons of a very untoward disposition of mind, and there is little hope of doing them much good: but if it were possible to open their eyes, they might judge in a different manner. I shall therefore attempt to prove in this discourse, that although God does not punish speedily, he punishes certainly. Sin and misery do so belong to one another, that they will meet together; in many cases much sooner than people are aware of: this is

or,

at I mean to shew by arguments taken from

the

the nature of sin, from the records of holy Scripture, and from the opinions of good men.

The nature of sin is such (of some sins more than others) that it either carries its own punishment with it, or soon brings it. Among a

list of unrighteous persons St. Paul places the drunkard, the fornicator, the covetous, and assures us, that such persons shall not inherit the kingdom of God: which is certainly true, because the kingdom of God can never bear what is contrary to its nature. But follow such persons for a while, and see what becomes of them in this world. Is there any misery in poverty? How much more miserable does it soon become if you add drunkenness to it! In honest poverty there is no shame; but the but the poor drunkard is all shame: he is a nuisance to himself and to the world. If the drunkard be rich, will that save him? How many such are carried off suddenly; some. by distempers; some by evil accidents; some by fighting and contention! And they who may seem to be at a stand, as if they were in no danger, are slowly undermining their constitutions, or bringing ruin upon their affairs, and paving the way to a prison.

If you look into a jail, you see men sitting there pensive and in rags: that is their posture.

now:

now had you seen them a while ago, they were uttering shouts of riotous exultation among their profligate companions, as if no harm could possibly come to them. Then as to covetousness, which is the opposite vice, all the world agrees that it is a torment to itself, by giving to a covetous man the name of a miser or miserable one. To a man in a dropsy thirst is a tormenting part of the distemper. What he drinks never quenches it, but makes it worse such is the appetite of the miser for wealth what he gets never satisfies, but only increases the distemper of his mind. Evil trees will bear evil fruits. No thorn will produce grapes; no thistle or bramble will bear figs; so can no happiness arise out of sin. Ast men sow, they will reap; perhaps not to-day, nor to-morrow; but certainly, though not speedily; and you must have seen so many examples of this, that a doubt ought not to remain minds. Health may as well consist with poison, as peace and happiness with a sinful life and if there were nothing to prove it but the natural effect of vice, that alone would be sufficient with wise men. But as all vice is disobedience, and disobedience against God, whose laws are transgressed by it, vice is not

on your

to its natural effects, though they are sufficiently

ciently disastrous, but calls down various kinds of punishment from God. These judicial

effects of sin bring us to the examples of the fcripture, which are to be found in every part of it. Cain the first murderer was not (as murderers are now) put to death immediately; but is that man under no punishment, who is condemned to constant terror of mind, and cast out as a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; like the Jews at this day, who are under the same sentence for the same crime? Every day of their lives, they rise up in the morning with that sentence upon their heads, and carry the guilt and punishment of it with them when they go to their rest in the night. Hophni and Phinehas, the two profligate sons of Eli, whom he did not correct as he ought to have done, went on for a time in their own ways, but signal vengeance overtook them in the midst of their course in one day they died both of them by the sword of the enemy, as it had been foretold of them. David fell in an evil hour into the sins of adultery and murder: of his guilt he was for a while insensible, till he was alarmed by a message from Nathan the prophet; and from that time forward he saw no more happiness and peace in this world: his life was disturbed with tumults and rebellions;

VOL. VII.

K