II. How it will he exercised by God —
God is the Sovereign of the universe : and though he bears long with his rebelhous subjects, he often executes vengeance upon them in this world, as pre- paratory to the judgments he will inflict upon them in the world to come. In a peculiar manner, as our text expresses it, " he returns their wickedness upon their own head,"
1. Here —
[Sometimes indeed sinners are left, as it were, wholly to themselves in this world: but even this is a mark of God's displeasure against them: " Ephraim," says he, " is joined to idols; let him alone s." They harden themselves against him, and he gives them up to judicial hardness, as he did Pharaoh of old'^. " They will not believe his word, that they maybe saved; and he gives them up to believe their own lie, that they may be damned\" " They will not hear him when he speaks to them ; and he turns a deaf ear to them, when in the day of their calamity they cry to him ; " thus leaving them to be " filled with their own devices'^."
But in temporal judgments he often marks his indignation against them, and shews them their sin in their punishment. How strikingly was this shewn in the judgments inflicted on Adoni-bezekM and how awfully was Da\dd made to behold his crimes in the matter of Bathsheba and Uriah, in the ravishment of Tamar by his son Amnon, in the defilement of all his concubines by his son Absalom, and in the murder of Amnon bv Absalom! Thus we see now that multitudes are punished in a way so suited to their crimes, that they may even read their crimes in their punishment: their wicked examples are imitated by their children ; and they are made to feel the bitterness of their own sins from the sins and cala- mities of their dearest relatives.
In all such instances we may behold the retributive justice of God. And though it would not be right for us to be hasty in putting this construction on the judgments inflicted upon others, we shall do well to examine how far our own trials may be so interpreted ; and to take occasion from our afllic- tions to put away the sins which they are intended to chastise.]
2. Hereafter —
[Whether God overlook or punish our sins in this world, he will proceed according to strict equity against us in the world to
g Hos. iv. 17. ^ Isai. vi. 9, 10, i 2 Thess. ii. 10 — 12.
^ Prov. i. 24—31 . > Judg. i. 6, 7.