VER. 155.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 147
watchful eye of God over the righteous, to supply their wants, to direct them in their ways, to uphold them against clangers, to comfort them in their griefs, to deliver them out of all their troubles. God hath an eye to take notice of their condition, and an ear to hear their prayers ; but his face is set to pursue the wicked to their ruin : so that this is enough to assure us that holiness is the way to live blessedly, even in this life, where misery most aboundeth, because this is a part of the care that belongeth to the judge of the world
3. Besides his general justice as the ruler and judge of the world, and the condecency that is in such a dispensation to the rectitude of God's nature, there is his covenant declared in his word, wherein he promiseth temporal happiness to the godly, and threateneth misery and punishment to the wicked. And God ever stood upon the truth of his word, to make it good in the eyes of the world ; therefore it will be with men as their condition is set forth in the word of God. A pro- mise there is as good as accomplishment, and a threatening as sure as performance ; and therefore, accordingly as the word saith of them, so is salvation far or near from them. Now search all the word of God, and see if it speak anything of hope and comfort to the wicked, or them that make a trade of provoking God. Nay, they are well enough aware of that, and therefore will not come to the light, care not to busy themselves in the scriptures ; for they say of them as Ahab of Micaiah, ' He prophesieth nothing but evil to me ;' and justly enough, for they can see nothing there but their own doom. If they are evil, it can speak nothing but evil: Isa. iii. 10, 11, ' Say ye unto the righteous, It shall be well with them ; for they shall eat of the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked : it shall be ill with them ; for the reward of his hands shall be given to him.' This is the tenor of the whole word of God : so Eccles. viii. 12, 13, ' Though a sinner do evil a hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him : but it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow ; because he feareth not before God.' It is a certain truth ; it is a certain evident truth, for it is judicium cerii axiomatis. I do know and confidently affirm that it shall be well with them that fear God ; but it shall not be well with the wicked, that is, it shall be very ill with them.
But here cometh in the great objection of sense, How can these things be so ? We see the contrary, that all things come alike to all : Eccles. ix. 1,2,' The righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God : no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them. All things come alike to all ; there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked ; to the good, and to the clean, and to the unclean ; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not : as is the good, so is the sinner ; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath/ That those outward things are given indifferently to good and bad, and the wicked are as free from temporal punishment as others, and enjoy all prosperity in this world, even sometimes to the envy and offence of God's children, and the hardening of their own hearts ; and, which is more, that often it happeneth to the just accord- ing to the work of the wicked, Eccles. viii. 14, and to the wicked
148 sermons upon psalm cxix. [Ser. CLXXIII.
according to the work of the righteous ; that is, evil to good men, and good to evil men. As to outward things, the advantage is usually on the side of the worst.
Ajis. 1. By concession; we must grant what is to be granted, that temporal things not being absolutely good or evil, the Lord taketh a liberty in the dispensation of them. The eternal promises and threat- enings, being of things absolutely good and ill, are therefore abso- lute and peremptory. None that live godly can tail of the eternal promises ; none that goeth on still in his trespasses can escape the eternal threatenings. But the temporal promises and threatenings, being of things not simply good and evil, are not so absolutely fixed, but God will take a liberty sometimes to cross his hands, out of his general indulgence to give prosperity to the wicked, and out of his fatherly wisdom to chasten the godly ; and so all things come alike to all. Is Abraham rich ? So is Nabal ; yea, so the godly may be afflicted when the wicked triumph ; as Lazarus pined with want when Dives fared deliciously every day, and Jerusalem was in a heap of ashes when Babylon flourished.