ن tues of good men with afflictions and sufferings, and suffer bad men to take their course for a while, and walk in their own ways, without continual checks, by frequent and remarkable judgments upon them fo often as they offend. 3. If there be another life after this, wherein men shall be judged according to their works, then this objection vanisheth; for that great day will fet all things straight, which seem now to be so crooked and irregular. The deferring of rewards and punishments to the most convenient season, is so far from being a reflexion upon the justice of God, that it is highly to the commendation of it. What Claudian fays of Ruffinus, a very bad man, whose long impunity had tempted men to call in question the justice of God, is confiderable in this cafe; Abftulit hunc tandem Ruffini pæna tumultum, "The punishment which overtook him at last, "did quiet those tumultuous thoughts, and absolved "the gods from all blame." When men look but a little way, and consider only the present state of things, they are ready to quarrel at the justice of them; but if they would look at the end of things, and have patience to stay till the last, to fee the conclusion and winding up of things, they would then acquit God in their thoughts from all those imputations of injustice, which, from the inequality of prefent dispensations, rash and inconfiderate men are apt to charge him withal. II. Objection. From the translation of punishments, the punishing of one man's fin upon another, as of the fathers upon the children, which God threatens in the second commandment, and did, in some fort, fulfil in Ahab, in bringing the evil he had threatened him withal in his son's days, 1 Kings xxi. 29. The punishing the fin of one person upon a peo-. ple, as that of Achan upon the whole congregation, Josh. xxii. 20. Did not Achan the son of Zerah commit a trespass in the accursed thing, and wrath fell fell on all the congregation of Israel? and that man perished not alone in his iniquity. And the sin of David upon the people, 2 Sam. xxiv. when seventy thousand died of the plague, for David's fin in numbering the people? Now how is this agreeable to justice? Is it not a known rule, Noxa caput sequitur? Mischief pursues the finner. What can be more reasonable, Quam ut peccata fuos teneant authores? Than that mens faults should be charged upon the authors, and punishment fall upon the guilty ? For answer to this, 1. It is not unreasonable that one man should bear the punishment of another's fault, if he be willing and content to bear it: Volenti non fit injuria; There is no wrong done to those that are willing to undergo it, though they be innocent; which was the cafe of our blessed Saviour fuffering for us, the just for the unjust, as the scripture expresseth it. 2. Where the perfon upon whom the punishment is transferred, is likewise a sinner, and obnoxious to God, there can be no injustice, because he hath deferved it upon his own account, and God may take what occafion he pleaseth to punish them that deserve to be punished. 3. In punishing the iniquity of the father upon the children, the guilty person, that is, the father, is punished in the calamity of his children; for a man's children are himself multiplied: and therefore it is very remarkable, that in the fecond commandment, God promifeth to shew mercy to thousands of generations of them that love him, but he visits the iniquities of the fathers upon the children but to the third and fourth generation, that is so far as a man may live to see them punished, and suffer in their punishment. 4. As to the punishment of the people for the fins of their princes and governors, and one part of a community for another, supposing all of them to be finners, which is the true cafe, God may lay the punishment where he pleaseth; and there is no more injuftice than when a man is whipt on the back for the the theft which his hand committed, a community being one body: Besides, the Prince is punished in the loss of his people, the glory of a King confifting in the multitude of his subjects. The objection with respect to the other world, the punishment of temporal evils with eternal, is elsewhere answered. The use we should make of this whole discourse is, First, If God be just and righteous, let us acknowledge it in all his dispensations, even in those, the reason whereof is more hidden and obfcure : Nehemiah ix. 33. speaking of the great afflictions that had befallen God's own people, yet this he lays down as a firm principle, Howbeit, thou art just, in all that is brought upon us. Secondly, This is matter of terror to wicked men. God doth now exercise his milder attributes towards finners, his mercy, and patience, and goodness: but if we despise these, that terrible attribute of his justice will display itself; and this the scripture describes in a fevere manner; The Lord revengeth, and is jealous; the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries, and referveth wrath for his enemies. Thirdly, This is matter of comfort to good men, that the righteous God governs the world, and will judge it: The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice, Pfal. xcvii. 1. and he gives the reason of it in the next verse; Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne. Though he be omnipotent, we need not fear; for his power is always under the conduct of eternal righteousness. Fourthly, Let us imitate this righteousness; let us endeavour to be righteous as he is righteous; let us give to God the love, reverence, and obedience which are due to him; and in all our dealings, what is just and due to men. This duty hath an immutable reafon, founded in the nature of God. SER430 I SERMON CXLI. The truth of God. DEUT. xxxii. 4. A God of Truth. N speaking to this attribute, I shall, 1. Shew you what we are to understand by the truth of God. II. Endeavour to prove that this perfection belongs to God, that he is a God of truth. III. Answer some objections that may be made against it; and then make some use of it. I. What we are to understand by the truth of God. I shall take it as the scripture useth it in a large fenfe, so as to include not only the veracity of God, but his faithfulness. Hence it is that, in fcripture, truth and faithfulness are so often put together, and frequently put one for another: Ifai. xxv. 1. Thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth. Rev. xxi. 5. These words are true and faithful. And the faithfulness of God in performing his promises, is frequently called his truth. And because the fcripture useth them promiscuously, we need not be very follicitous to find out distinct notions of them: but if you will, they may be diftinguished thus: the truth or veracity of God hath place in every declaration of his mind; the faithfulness of God, only in his promises. For the first, The veracity or truth of God: this hath place in every declaration of his mind; and fignifies an exact correspondence and conformity between his word and his mind, and confequently between his word and the truth and reality of things. The correfpondence of his word with his mind, depends upon the rectitude of his will; the conformi ty ty of his word with the reality of things, not only upon the rectitude of his will, but the perfection of his knowledge, and the infallibility of his understanding: so that when we say God is true, or speaks truth, we mean thus, that his words are a plain declaration of his mind, and the true representation of things, in opposition to falfhood, which is speaking otherwise than than the thing is; and hypocrify, that is, speaking otherwise than we think. For instance; when God declares any thing to be so, or not to be so, to have been thus, or not to have been thus; the thing really is so, and he thinks so; when he expresseth his defire of any thing, he does really defire it; when he commands any thing, or forbids us any thing, it is really his mind and will that we should do what he commands, and avoid what he forbids; when he declares and foretells any thing future, it really shall come to pass, and he really intended it should; if the declaration be to be understood absolutely, it shall abfolutely come to pass; if the declaration be to be understood conditionally, it shall come to pass, and he intends it shall, if the condition be performed. Secondly, The faithfulness of God. This only hath place in his promises, in which there is an obligation of justice fuperadded to his word; for God, by his promife, doth not only declare what he intends, and what shall be; but confers a right upon them to whom the promise is made, so as that the breach of his promife would not only cast an imputation upon his truth, but upon his justice. II. That this perfection belongs to God. And this I shall endeavour to prove, First, From the dictates of natural light. First, From the dictates of natural light. Natural light tells us, that truth and faithfulness are perfe&ions, and confequently belong to the divine nature; and that falfhood and a lie are imperfections, and to be removed from God. There is nothing that is esteemed amongst men a greater contumely and reproach, than to give a man the lie, to call him a liar, because it is an argument of so much baseness, VOL. VI. and |