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
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.
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.