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unpunished ? ye shall not be unpunished.' If God had begun so roughly with his own people, they must look as surely and sorely to suffer at last. Thus it will hold good.
(2.) This argument may be formed thus : If good men suffer here, and the ungodly have the upper hand, and have liberty and power to vex them with all manner of grievances, it showeth that there is a righteous judgment to come, wherein the godly shall obtain the reward, and the ungodly cannot avoid punishment ; for no righteous governor will suffer his disobedient subjects to persecute those that most care- fully obey him, if he hath power to remedy it ; and therefore, though he permit it for a time, yet he will call them to an account, and then amends and satisfaction shall be made them that have suffered wrong- fully. So their enduring many persecutions and tribulations was an €vSeiy/jua, a perfect document and demonstration of a judgment to come. This I take to be the argument here, for the apostle's intent is not to humble but comfort these Thessalonians ; and our great conso- lation is taken from the day of judgment, when our final redemption draweth nigh and is accomplished. The former consideration tendeth more to humiliation and caution, and tendeth more to the establish- ment of the punishment of enemies, but this to the reward of friends, when God's faithful servants shall be restored to their due honour and glory.
Secondly, How it is a demonstration of a future judgment. That it may the more sink into your minds, I shall deduce it at large.
1. There is a God. This is the supreme primitive truth, which lieth at the bottom of all religion : Heb. xi. 6, ' He that cometh to God must believe that he is.' And it is evident to reason ; for if there be not a first and fountain-being, how did we come to be ? for nothing can make itself ; or how did the world fall into this order wherein now we see it ? Indeed we cannot open our eyes but some object or other is presented to our view, which loudly proclaimeth that there is an infinite eternal power which made us and all things else. It were to light a candle to the sun to prove this.
2. That this God is just ; for all perfections are in the first being. To deny him to be just is to deny him to be God and the governor of the world. The perfection of his nature includeth his justice, for he is infinitely righteous, both in himself and all his dealings with the crea- tures : Jer. xii. 1, ' Eighteous art thou, 0 Lord.' So doth the eminency of his office : Eom. iii. 5, 6, ' If God were unrighteous, how then shall he judge the world ? ' that is, he were then incapable of governing mankind.
3. That this holy just God is the governor of the world ; for man being his creature, doth thereby become his subject, obliged to obey him. He is a rational free agent, placed among occasions of good and evil ; and though he be bound to obey, yet might continue in his obedience or disobey God, as the woful event showed. God is called the judge of the earth, to whom reward or vengeance belongeth, Ps. xciv. 1, 2.
4. It is agreeable to the justice of his government that it should be well with them that do well, and ill with them that do evil ; or that he should make a difference by rewards and punishments between
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the obedient and the wicked. Conscience and natural reason owneth this truth : Rom. i. 32, ' They know the judgment of God, that they that do such things are worthy of death.' It seemeth uncomely when it is otherwise : ' As snow in summer and rain in harvest, so honour is not seemly for a fool,' Prov. xxvi. 1. When the wicked are exalted, men look on it as an uncouth thing, as a blemish whenever it is done. Well, then, God is a rewarder of good, a punisher of evil.
5. This reward and punishment is not fully administered in this world, even in the judgment of them who have no great knowledge of the nature of sin, and the punishment which is competent thereto ; yea, rather the best go to the wall, and are exercised with poverty, disgrace, scorn, and all manner of troubles, when the wicked live a life of pomp and ease, and often have their will upon the godly, and oppress them at their pleasure. Hence come the complaints and expostulations of the saints, when they have stumbled at this stumbling-stone, Ps. lxxiii., Jer. xii., Hab. i. And indeed how shall we reconcile these things with the notions we have of God ? Surely there is a God, and it is as sure that he takes notice of human affairs, and will judge accordingly. What is the reason then of this disproportion in his dealings between the good and the bad ? No satisfactory account can be given, but that the wicked are reserved to future punishment, and the godly to future reward.