groundless claim as this ? Know then, that tve have no claim on God ; and, when he shall exclude us from the inheritance of his saints, " he will be justified " in the judgment that he shall denounce against us. Indeed, in assigning us this portion, he will only give effect to our own wishes, and answer us in the desire of our own hearts : we said to him, " Depart from us ; we desire not the knowledge of thee ^; " and he will say to us, " Depart from me ; depart accursed into everlasting fire, pre- pared for the de\il and his angels s."]
The whole creation will unite in vindicating these judgments as just and good —
[Doubtless, if it were possible, sinners would urge at the bar of judgment the objections which here they presume to bring against the justice of their God. But sin will then appear in all its deformity : it will then be seen what a God we sinned against, and what mercies we despised. Even in this world, when once persons are brought to \dew themselves aright, they justify God in all that he sees fit to inflict upon them^. Aaron', Eli'', Hezekiah', David "^, all confessed, that God had a right to deal with them in the way that he had done. Much more in the day of judgment, when every thing will be seen in its true light, will the whole universe approve the sentence which God shall pass on the world of the ungodly : they will make the very punishment of the wicked a subject of their songs ; " saying, Allelujah ! salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: for true and righteous are his judgments"." Indeed the miserable objects themselves, though they cannot join in the song, will be unable to condemn the sentence. The man who was excluded from the marriage-feast for not having on a wedding garment, might have urged, that he was brought in before he had time to pro- cure one : but his plea would have been false and unavailing ; and therefore " he was speechless ";" a striking monument of conscious guilt, and an awful specimen of a condemned soul p.]
In this acknowledgment then of David we may see,
1. The grand constituents of repentance —
[Many may be sorry that they have subjected themselves
to punishment, just as a criminal may that he has forfeited his
life to the laws of his country : but no man can truly repent,
till he sees, that his whole life has been one continued state of
f Job xxi. 14. g Matt. xxv. 41.
1^ It is worthy of observation, that God's goodness to David is men- tioned as the greatest aggravation of his offence. 2 Sam. xii. 7 — 9. i Lev. X. 3. '^ 1 Sam. iii. 18. i Isai. xxxix. 8.
m Ps. xxxix. 9. n Rev. xv. 3. and xix. 1, 2.
o Matt. xxii. 12. p Rom. iii. 19.