[3.] When judgments fall upon them in the very act of their pro- vocation. Thus many are taken away by a violent death in the very heat of their drunkenness. Zimri and Cozbi lost their lives in the
216 SERMONS uroN rsALM cxix. [Ser. CXXIX.
very instant when tliey were unloading their hisis, and many times we see punishment treads upon the heels of sin.
[4.] When they are autliOrs of their own destruction. Not only in such a sensible manner as Saul, Achitophel, and Judas, that nnu- dered themselves ; but thus, when men are given up to their headlong counsels, to break themselves : Trov. v, 22, ' His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.' Wicked men are often whipped with their own rods; and Ps. ix. 15, IG, 'In the net which they hid, is their own foot taken. The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth : the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgajon, Selah.' When by their own errors, mistakes, and fuiious passions they untlo themselves.
[5.] When evil men are brought down, wonderfully, sudtlenly, con- trary to all apparent likelihood and the course of second causes : Vf>. Ixiv. 7, ' God shall shoot at them with an arrow, suddenly shall they be wounded ; so they shall make their own tongue to fall upon them- selves.' And Ps. Iviii. 7, unto the 11th verse, there is this consolation given to the church, that enemies shall be destroyed before the pots feel the thorns. AVhen they are contriving and boiling somewhat in their minds, before the pots feel the thorns, God takes them away suddenly in an instant, and then men shall say, Verily there is a re- warder of evil.
[6.] When God's judgments are executed by unlikely means and instruments. Sisera, a great captain, destroyed by Jael, Judges iv. 21 ; Adrian the pope strangled by a gnat ; Arius voiding his bowels in a draught after his perjury ; Com, Dathan, and Abiram, when the earth clave to receive them that had made a rent in the congregation ; and Herod was eaten up with the lice.
[7.] When such accidents bring a great deal of glory to God, and peace and tranquillity to his people ; as hanging Haman with his sous upon his own gallows, Esther vii. 9, and viii. 17.
[8.] AVhen Cod supplies the defects of man's justice, and their iniquity finds them out, when they think all is forgotten, and shall bo no more heard of : Ps. ix. 12, ' AVhen he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them ; he forgetteth not the cry of the humble.' There are many instances how God finds out men that seem to escape well enough from man's hands, when they could not be found out by man. Zeph. iii. 5, the prophet tells us, ' Every morning he will bring his judgments to light.' There is some sinner or other which God notably ])unisheth, that men may own his providence.
[9.] When the word Kara to prj-rov, in the express letter, is made good upon men : Hosea vii. 12, ' 1 will chastise them, as their congre- gation hath heard.' The word doth fully take effect, and what they would not believe they are made to feel. By these rules we may observe God's judgments with profit. To quicken you to do so, con- sider—
(1.) It would be a mighty cure to atheism. There are a sort of men ' settled on their lees, that say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil,' Zeph. i. 12; that think God is so shut up within the curtain of the lieavens, that he takes no notice of what is done below. These vain conceits would soon vanish if men
VeU. 118.] SERMONS UrON PSALM CXIX. 217
would but turn students in God's providence ; they would soon cry- out, Verily there is a reward for the ricjliteous ; verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth: they would say, There is a ruler of the affairs of the world, and a righteous judge that takes care of all things here below. Usually men think amiss of God, as if good and evil were of no respect with him, but all things were governed by chance ; as Job's wife said, ' Dost thou yet retain thy integrity ? Curse God and die.' Mai. ii. 12, ' Ye have wearied the Lord with your words, yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him ? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them ; or, Where is the God of judgment ? ' We do not see his justice, and so have atheistical and evil conceits of God. When we fancy evil men are in esteem, and the good neglected and despised, it is a tempta tion to men to think there is no ])rovidence — no God. So when the nocent are prospei'ous, and the good vexed with all manner of dis- pleasure ; as Claudian the poet much doubted whether there were any such thing as providence, that had a care of sublunary things ; but at length, when he saw Rufiinus was only lifted up that his fall might be the greater, then he no more calls in question God's providence, or taxes him of indififerency to good and evil.