Christ's coming to judge the world.
2 Thess. i. 7 — 10. The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking ven- geance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ : ivho shall be punished ivith everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power ; when he shall come to be glo- rified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe.
WE cannot behold the state of the world around us, but we must feel a need of some future day of retribution. Multitudes there are, in every place, who are racked with incessant pains, or pining all their days in want and misery ; while others, in no respect superior to them in moral qualities, pass their time in ease and affluence. From hence it is reason- able to conclude, that there will be a period wherein the present inequalities in the dispensations of Pro- vidence shall be so adjusted, as to mark more clearly God's regard to equity. If we look into the Church of God, this argument receives additional strength : for there we see the holiest and best of men, men " of whom the world is not worthy/' hated, reviled, persecuted ; while their proud oppressors exult in their tyranny, and glory in their shame. Can it be imagined that God will never recompense the fidelity of his servants, or notice the impiety of his enemies ? Shall religion always suffer ? Shall iniquity always triumph ? It cannot be. The very existence of such enormities is " a manifest proof," or demonstration, that there will be a " righteous judgment of God/' wherein he will shew it to be " a righteous thing with him to recompense tribulation to the troublers