Viewing now the court assembled, let us hear,
II. The pleadings opened —
[Here is evidently an accusation implied ; namely, God has both injured us, and even " wearied" us, by his oppressive conduct: and to this the Almighty, standing as a defendant before the court, answers, by challenging inquiry; and, with conscious rectitude, he says, in the face of his accusers, "Testify against me." Declare wherein I have injured you : " declare it, that ye may be justified g."
Have I injured you by any undue strictness in my laws ? Point out one that could have been dispensed with, or one that could have been lowered. They are all reducible to love : they
a Isai. i. 2. b Rom. ix. 20, 21. c Jer. xviii. 6.
d Matt. xx. 15. e Job xxxiii. 13. f Isai. v. 3.
s Isai. xliii. 26.
require nothing, but that you should " love God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength ; and, that you should " love your neighbour as yourselves." Wherein could any abatement have been made ? Point out, in any one particular, wherein these requirements are too strict; or whether they be not, in every respect, " holy and just and goodh."
'Have I injured you at all in my providential dealings ? You may not be so elevated in rank and affluence as others : but the human race is a body ; and the body cannot be all eye, or all ear: it must have hands and feet ; and every member must have its proper office : every member, too, must seek its happi- ness in the good of the whole ; and be as willing to contribute, in its place, to the welfare of the rest, as to have its own welfare furthered by the rest. But it may be, that you have been peculiarly afflicted, in mind, or body, or estate. Be it so: but have you been afflicted beyond your deserts? "Can a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins'?" Hadst thou had thy desert, thou wouldst long since have been " in hell, without so much as one drop of water to cool thy tongue :" and thy sufferings are infinitely short of that ; yea, and are mitigated also by numberless consolations. And art thou aware of all the ends for which these afflictions are sent? What, if they have been sent to call thee to repentance, and ultimately to save thy soul? Thou shouldst, then, be rather adoring me for them with the liveliest gratitude, than be complaining of them as injuries wantonly inflicted on thee.
' Perhaps it is of the sanctions of my law that thou corn- plainest : they disquiet thee ; they appal thee ; the dread of them makes thy life a burthen to thee. But what less than heaven wouldst thou appoint for the reward of my faithful ser- vants ? or what less than hell for the punishment of those who rebel against me? The object both of the reward and of the punishment is the same — to make thee flee from sin, the only true source of misery ; and to make thee follow after righteous- ness, which is a certain prelude to glory. Both sanctions are intended equally for good : the one, to operate on thy hopes ; the other, on thy fears: and both together to secure thine ever- lasting happiness. But it is of the threatening only that thou complainest : thou thinkest it hard that such a punishment as death, eternal death, should be annexed to one transgression of my law. But I have told thee, that " the wages of sin is death k." The provisions which were the payment of a Roman soldier were surely no very extravagant remuneration for his services : nor is eternal punishment an undue recompence for sin : the penal evil of damnation does not in the least exceed
h Rom. vii. 12. l Lam. iii. 39.
k Rom. vi. 23. oi^wvia, the provisions given to the soldiery.