THE Righteous Judge. A SERMON PREACHED At Hertford-Assize, March 10. 1682. By Edward Hickes, D.D. PSAL. 145.17. The Lord is Righteous in all his Ways, and Holy in all his Works. LONDON, Printed for Benj. took, at the Ship in St. Paul's Churchyard. MDCLXXXII. To the Right Worshipful Sir NICHOLAS MILLER, Knight. High Sheriff of the County of Hertford. Justice of the Peace, and one of his Majesty's Deputy Lieutenants for the said County. Honoured SIR, I Never pretended to be good at any thing; of this I am sure, I am now bad at Limning; my old Pencil, and decayed Colours will not do; and besides, I have no daring hand, so that should I offer at a Picture I should wrong the Person. Really Sir, It is the sense of my own Weakness that frights me from attempting to celebrate your Worth: and the Truth is, it is in vain to light a Candle before the Sun; it is lost Labour to praise him whom all admire; it is ill spent pains to gild a Diamond, or paint a Ruby red. This I can truly say, That since I had the Happiness to know you, I have had an Ambition to serve you, and 'twas that which made me not dispute, but readily obey your Commands, when I understood you designed me for the Pulpit the last Assize. What I then preached, I am (by unanswerable Importunity) even forced (much against my own Genius) to print. Censures I expect to meet with, (why should I think to far better than my Betters?) but I shall not much regard them; for my Comfort is, that no one can have meaner Thoughts of me than I have of myself, and being already on the Ground I can fall no lower than the Grave; which, by reason of my many Indispositions, I daily expect. That your worthy self, your truly virtuous Lady, and the two young Gentlemen, your hopeful Sons, may have all the Happiness that Heaven can give both here and hereafter, is the hearty Prayer of Buckland, March 29. 1682. (Honoured Sir) Your most obliged Servant, E. Hickes. THE Righteous Judge. GEN. 18. v. 25. pars ult. Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do Right? IN this Chapter the Sacred History sets before us an amicable Congress and Conference between the Lord and Abraham: the great God, dissimulata majestate, veiling his Majesty under a humane Shape, with two attendant Angels in the like form, gives him a friendly visit, re-assures to him that high Mercy , a Son, a Son by Sarah, a Son of Promise and of Blessing, in whose Offspring all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed; And withal, being upon an Expedition of Judgement, the overthrow of Sodom, he acquaints him with his Purpose and Process therein. In this Discovery the Lord 1. Consults for his own Glory; he reveals his Design to his Servant, who would diligently and duly observe and improve it, would be a faithful Register and Relator of it: The Lord doth his wonderful Works that they may be remembered, Psal. 3.4. The World is much mistaking or oblivious of God's Judgements; those dreadful of late among us, yea still incumbent, are but Wonders for a few days: We are apt to forget the Smart so soon as the Rod is from our Backs. 2. God hath here a Trial and Task for Abraham's Graces, his Charity, his Compassion, his Faith, O quanta justi fiducia, imo O quanta animi compassio! 1. His deep Compassion stirs up in him the Spirit of Supplication; when he hears of destroying he falls a deprecating; Though Sodom were exceeding wicked, yet he cannot behold the Ruin of it without Remorse. When God casts abroad the Thunder of his Vengeance, how can we but tremble at it though it touch not us? It is a sign of a savage Spirit to look upon Executions with Delight, though of Malefactors or Enemies. And if it be an Office beseeming a Saint, and grateful to God, to intercede for a Sodom, who would not lay out all his Intersses in Heaven, and draw out his Soul to the utmost for a Zion? Abraham's principal drift and care was for the righteous supposed to be in Sodom, for them he buckles and bestirs himself, that they might not be involved in that direful Calamity; and for their sakes he begs, if not a total Exemption, yet a protraction or mitigation of the Judgement to the whole. 2. Consider how nobly his Faith works and acts itself in his wrestling with God: He closes with him, and comes in upon him with reiterated Instances, humble Importunity, that will brook no denial. When he hath got something of God, he doth (as I may so say) encroach upon his Concessions, and must have more: He brings down God from fifty to ten, and that gradatim in six several steps of descent. 'Tis impossible for us to outbid God's Bounty by our cravings, when they are right and ordinate: his Condescensions will be as large as our Ascensions, when they are most elevated; the more we ask, the more he grants still, yea he doth and giveth exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think. Why Abraham went not beneath the number of Ten cannot be determined; Conjectures of Jewish Authors are light, because (say they) there were Eight in the Ark, which saved not the old World from drowning; and with them Ten is the least number to make up a Congregation, under which there could be no Church-Assembly amongst them. 'Tis certain, though God doth not stint himself to a proportion, for such a number of just ones to spare such a multitude of wicked ones; yet (as we may conclude from Abraham's Petitions and Gods Concessions) for the righteous sake, though but a few, temporal Indulgence is afforded to the vast heaps of the wicked. This is well observed by S. Ambrose, Vides quantus murus sit patriae vir justus, etc. You see what a Wall a righteous, a good man is to his Country, etc. But to proceed, the main Medium or Argument of persuasion used and urged by Abraham to prevail with God, to spare those Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, is drawn ab aequo, from just and right. God delights to be minded of his Attributes, his Glory; to be put in mind of his Mercy, his Faithfulness, his Justice, as here. The force of the Argument is knit up close together in the few words of my Text. From the Hypothesis, the particular instance or case of Justice, Not to slay the righteous with the wicked, to make the righteous as the wicked, the Holy Man ascends to the Thesis, the general Assertion of God's Justice; Thou art Judge of all, thou must do justly: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do rigbt? In the words you may be pleased to abserve, I. The Matter. II. The Manner of their Expression. First, In the Matter or Substance are observable, 1. A Title of Office given to God, Judge. 2. The Extent of his Jurisdiction, All the earth. 3. The Justice of his Administration, Do right. 1. Here's a Judge, and among men, Judex est jus dicens, a Judge is a person sentencing or pronouncing Law; our Judge is jus constituens, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Lawgiver, the Lawmaker, as well as the Law-dispenser. 2. Here's an universal Judge, Judge of all the earth. Earth doth not so much denote the round heap on which we tread, as the Inhabitants that live and walk on it, Men; neither may we take the term of Universality as exclusive, All the earth, and no more; Heaven and Hell are under the same Dition. God is Judge of Men and Devils, quick and dead, good and bad; all must pass his Judgement of Discussion, and receive a Sentence either of Absolution or Condemnation. 3. Therefore here is a just Judge; shall not such a Judge do right? Particular or subordinate Judges are accountable to their Superiors; this Judge only doth all, and what he will, and owes Account to none. In inferior Judges Justice is, Virtus executiva & ministrans, it serves and executes the Laws; in the supreme it is Architectonica, imperans & praecipiens quod justum est; it found'st, and forms, and prescribes what is just. If by the Philosopher's description a Man-judge must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Jus Animatum, Souled or Living Justice; much more must God the Judge be infinite, everliving, everlasting justice, yea norma justitiae, the absolute rule, the total sum, the entire essence of justice. And being such a Judge, shall he not exercise or do right? And what's that? To adjudicate and distribute aequalia aequalibus, in an equality of proportion to give to all what belongs to them, to manage and dispose all persons, things, and passages, according to the righteousness which is in himself and his own will. Secondly, the Phraseology, or manner of Enuntiation of the words, is not to be omitted; 'tis Expostulatory by way of Interrogation, it is Interrogatio Affirmantis. The Question carries in it the weight of a vehement Affirmation, Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? Yes he shall, he must, he will, he cannot but do right. See here; It is an infallible grand Truth, That God the universal infinite Judge, is most righteous in all his do and dispensations. If the Earth should be silent or perverse in hiding or blemishing this Truth, the Heavens will speak it out; they will declare God's righteousness, and say, God is Judge himself, judex ipse, or as some render it, judex summè, the judge, or the judge in chief, Psal. 50.6. The best of men have been large and loud in celebrating of Divine Righteousness: Moses with some of his last breath, which savours most strongly of Heaven, sings it out sweetly, Deu 32.4. He is the rock (strong and immutable) his work is perfect (whatever he doth, he doth it purely and fully, without default or defect) all his ways are judgement; a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is he. And with him tunes the Sweet-Singer of Israel in several places of his sacred Hymns; take one instead of many, Psal. 145.17. The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works. Ways are his dispositions, Works his do. In all of these from the first to the last, from the greatest to the least, righteousness and holiness perspicuously shine forth and bear sway. But what need I heap up Scriptures, as if it were difficult to persuade your consent to this truth: Surely they who do not now believe it, will one day fee to their smart and confusion, that God is just. Yet give me leave to lay down two grounds of proof to render this more evident to you, and to set it home upon your Spirits. First, in our Judge there are all the Properties that may speak him righteous. There are three principal requisites in a just Judge; Zelus rectitudinis, Potestas, & Prudentia; Zeal of right, Power, and Prudence. These are truly and eminently in God. 1. In God is a Zeal, a strong Propension and Affection to right and justice. The righteous God loveth righteousness, Psal. 11.7. It suits his nature, pleases his heart, corresponds to his will, advances his glory. All the world therefore cannot bias or bend him besides the straight line of righteousness. Fabritius among the Romans was famous for justice. Pyrrhus would fain have won him to his Party; to that end one day he offered him heaps of Treasure, on the next he brought him into a room where a huge Elephant was hid behind the Hang. On a sudden the Curtain was drawn, the Elephant appeared, and smote the man on the head with his Trunk. With an unchanged Countenance he told Pyrrhus, Yesterday thy Gold did not move me, nor to day thy Beast. Oh for such men nowadays! 'Tis much to find this in a man; but neither Flatteries nor Frowns, nor any respects whatsoever, can move the Lord from the love and practice of Justice. 2. In God there is Authoritative Power; who dares deny or question his Sovereignty? All power is primitively in him, and derivatively from him. Kings, though they be men's Sovereigns, yet are they Gods Subjects. He is God of Gods, and Lord of Lords; a great God, a mighty, a terrible, and therefore regardeth not persons, nor taketh rewards; but executeth judgement exactly, Deut. 10.18. Arise, O God, judge the earth (saith David, Psal. 82.7.) for thou inheritest all nations. Whoever hath the Nations, God owns them, they are his propriety. Usurpation seldom or never goes without maladministration; but Right and Mght-meeting in God to the full, dispose him to absolute and exact Justice. 3. In God is allseeing unerring Wisdom; he clearly and certainly discerns all persons and cases: not a Creature can creep out of his sight. All things are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do, Heb 4.13. not only unclothed, but unskinned; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the word is borrowed (say some) from Wrestlers, who take their Adversaries by the Neck, cast them on their Back, and so their Faces are upward, and their Dimensions discernible. Others think the term to be taken from Anatomists, who strip off the Skin, open the Bulk, look into the Bowels, into the entrails, etc. So narrowly and thoroughly doth our God search us. He is a most prudent, piercing, quicksighted Judge; His eyes behold, his eyelids try the children of men, Psal. 11 4. He hath Eyes beholding ten thousand times clearer than the Sun, from eternity, and every moment having before him all Generals at once, Eyelids contracted and diving into the closest and narrowest particulars. Power without Prudence is brutish Force, prone to be injurious; but our God is great in counsel, as well as mighty in works, Jer. 32.19. and therefore completely apted to be a righteous Judge. Secondly, the high things that God hath to discern, dispose, and do, necessarily require a perfect righteousness to manage them. God's do or dispensations towards the Creature are threefold, viz. Providential, Gracious, and Judiciary. 1. The charge of all things for their being, continuance, and disposition, lies wholly on the head and hands of Divine Providence. And what but absolute infinite Justice can sway and order such a charge! Men that rule over men must be just, otherwise Confusion and Ruin will break in like a Deluge. Justice is the stability of Thrones, the basis of Commonwealths, the cement of Societies, the heart and life of public and personal good. And if God were not most just that rules over all, the Earth could not stand, nor the Heavens move, nor the Sun shine, nor the Universe subsist a moment. For ever (O Lord) thy word is settled in Heaven; thy commanding, ruling Word; thy faithfulness is to all generations. Here's Uprightness commensurate to the Rule, as large and lasting as that. And for an experimental proof of this, the very Earth gives it, abiding in thy Establishment, and all thine Ordinances; thy Laws of Providence continue to this day, for all are thy Servants, Psal. 119.89. The vast household of the Creatures regulated in such an admirable decorum, show that they have a righteous Master. 2. In all gracious deal God is and must be most righteous. He will not lose nor abate an atom of justice in the multitude of his mercies. The Lord who is merciful, gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, will by no means clear the guilty, washes out every spot of our guilt in the blood of his Son; in him receives full satisfaction, to the strictest demands of his justice on our behalf. 'Tis the main stay of our Faith and Comfort, that God sets forth and accepts Christ a Propitiation, and so declares his righteousness, as well as his grace, in the remission of fins, is just in justifying Believers, Rom. 3.25, 26. is faithful and just in forgiving, 1 John 19 3. God's judgements past, present, and to come, particular and universal, require and show him righteous. He is known to be so by the judgements he executeth, Psal. 9.16. If he were not righteous in taking vengeance, how could he judge the world? Rom. 3.5, 6. If we will but open our eyes, we may see the vengeance visibly just and dreadful, and say, Verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth. O the stupendious equity of God's retaliating justice! how doth it pay Sinners in their kind! plaguing Drunkenness with rage, Adultery with rottenness of bone, staining the glory of Pride, and pouring contempt upon the Honourable of the Earth! But if we could look further to that great day, wherein he hath appointed to judge the World in righteousness, by him whom he hath ordained; could we seriously set before our view that great white Throne, and him that sits upon it, from whose face the Earth and the Heaven shall flee away, before whom small and great shall stand, and receive a righteous doom out of the Books, the faithful Records of Heaven, Rev 20. ult. we may conclude certainly such a Judge shall do right. The Truth is clear you see, and it will be very useful if we can in prove it aright. 1. It may serve to vindicate God; 'tis a sad Case when poor Mortals must plead for God. Bad men are apt to conceit that God is incuriosus & quasi negligens humanorum actuum, Salu. regardless or neglective of humane Affairs, yea scarce equal in his Ways, when they transcend their Sense, or cross their Humours, Interesses or Ends: and some of the best have been staggered and perplexed, when in outward Events they see that befalling good men which they hold proper to the Wicked, & è contra. It was thus with the Author of the 73 Psal. per totum, with Jer. 12.1. Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I plead with thee, (says he) he doth well to yield! the Victory before hand to God in the Dispute; yet let me talk with thee of thy Judgements; yet he thinks the matter may come to a modest Parley: Wherefore doth the way of the Wicked prosper? Wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously? And why is the Desert of the Wicked so often the Lot of the Just? To stop the Mouth of the one, and to satisfy the Scruples of the other, let me lay before you these Considerations. 1. God is just in things that we cannot see nor sound. His Righteousness is like the great Mountains; firm and stable, when his Judgements are a great Deep not to be measured, Psal. 36.6. His way is in the Sea, his Path in the great Waters, his Foot steps are not known, Psal 77. 19 yet then most pure and regular. I have heard, that in a Contest between a great Nobleman and a learned-Judge of this Nation, the Judge urged Law; the Nobleman said, I thought your Laws had been consonant to Reason; yes (replied the Judge) so they are, they are made up of the Quintessence of Reason, but that comes not within the compass of every Cap. Must you see Sense and Reason of your own in gods Do, or else dispute the Justice of them, Hear Salvian, Summa sasticed est Voluntas Dei The Will of God is the top of Justice, and his Wisdom the rule of it: neither is any thing unjust that God doth,— Quia capere vim divinae justicae, homo non valet (to use his own Words) because Man cannot comprehend the scope and force of God in it. Learn we therefore to stoop, and tremble, and admire what we cannot fathom. 2. God is just in all the Shuffles and seeming Confusions in the world; He hath his way in the Whirlwind and the Storm, Naum 1.3. The stormy Wind fulfils his Will, Psal. 148 8. What so turbulent, tumultuous, unruly as the Storm, yet that varies not an hair, a tittle for the Bounds of divine Command? Things that seem immethodical and disorderly to us, are most comely in God's Eye and Disposal. A Trades-man hath the richest Market when his Wares are drawn out and scattered about the Shop, he knows how and when to put them into their places: so are there largest Acoruements to the glory of Divine Wisdom, Power, and Justice, in the variety and strangeness of events and passages; all which God holds in his hand, weighs in his balance guides with his eye, and hath his times of restitution, when he will set all right and in their proper places, Act. 3.21. 3. God is just in men's in justice. Executioners are commonly the basest of the people, and the Hangman ofttimes deseryes the Halter, as much as he that suffers under him; yet that doth not derogate from the justice of the Law or Judge. Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? the goodness of God endureth contiwally, Psal 52.1 Let men be never fo insolent in mischief, God is constant in goodness he is faithful and just in that wherein they are false and injurious. The best Antidote against ●…oison and Pestilential Diseases, is made of the flesh of Vipers; and hath not God the art (think you) to extract Honour to his Name, and Healing to the Nation, out of the rankest venom of wicked men. 4. God is just; and so to be acknowledged in things that are most adverse to us. We are sinners, and therefore must justify God when he speaks, and clear him when he judges, though it be against ourselves, Psal. 51.4. I know, O Lord, that thy judgements are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted, Psal. 119.75. Hypocrites will praise God's justice when it plague's others; and never blame his severity, whilst it touches not their own skin. We should be the sharpest Censors of ourselves, and then we will assert God's faith fullness in our heaviest afflictions. Indeed we are apt to grumble against God, when we suffer hard things in the world, unworthily and in juriously as we conceive: But in that the best of men and causes go so much to the worst, in the world, it is a manifest token of the righteous judgement of God, who sways all for the present, and will rectific all in due time for the good of his people, 2. Thes. 1.5. 5. God is ever just, but the discoveries and executions of his justice he reserves in his power for his own time. We are too hasty with him, and because judgement is not speedily executed think it will never come. But will ye reproach a Workman as if he were a Bungler, whilst he is hewing and squaring his pieces? Stay till the whole be framed and put together, and then the Artifice with appear. The China Clay, of which those curious brittle Trifles are composed, they say is moulded in one Age, and made up in another, and will you not give the Lord leave (with whom a thousand years are but as one day) to take his own time about his own glorious Works.? 2. this may serve to confound the wicked. Imagine what horror possesses the shackled Malefactors, conscious to themselves of capital crimes, when they hear of the Judges coming. It is said Foelix trembled when he heard S. Paul preach of judgement to come. Tremble ye sinners, behold here your Judge! And of all sinners these have most reason to tremble. 1. Great over grown, unruly sinners, that outbrave their fellow Mortals, and are too big to be dealt with by men; here's a Judge can hamper them, at whose Bar they must hold up the hand stand naked and shivering, as well as the vilest Wretch that crawls on the earth. They can then have no advantage of a Jury to secure them, there will beno doublt of the Evidence, no question but the Bill of Indictment will be be found, and Sentence pass accordingly. 2. Injurious violent sinners, Birds of Prey, ravenous Beasts. Read their doom Psal. 5,6. The wicked (and of all wicked ones, them that love violence, the Lord hates with his Soul See his special Indignation against them; his dealing with them will discover his Affection to them; Upon them he will rain snares Rain] There's the inevitableness of the Judgement; as soon can the Earth shrink from the descending Showers, as they from deserved Vengeance. Snares] there's unexpected Surpriz●… Fire and Brimstone] there's the sharpness of the tortured an horrible Tempest] there's Hellish terror all this the portion of their Cup] as proper to the as the Meat they eat, the Drink they pour down their Throats. 3 Enormous disorderly Sinners, that heap up sins without number or measure; that Bankrupt-like when they are once over shoes, run into evil over head and ears, never casting up an account or payment. Let them know that God keeps account, though they do not, catalogues every act and circumstance, and will one day set all in order, in full weight and tale, before their eyes, as they are now before his own, Psal. 50.21. 4 Cunning Sinners, that over or colour Abominations, as if God could not see Secrets, search Hearts, sift Persons and Causes to the bottom, distinguish truth from sshapes, though never so specious; as if they would impose upon their Judge by false pleas or fair pretences. Assoon can they hinder the Sun from shining upon the face of the Earth, by the inter position of their Hand. No, no; their own deceitfulness will prove their own ruin, and the issue of their cunning will be, that they will steal craftily into everlasting misery. 5 Secure Sinners, that think God like themselves, regardless whilst silent; that do cubile sternere, potius quam tribunal erigere; in their conceits rather make a Bed for God to sleep on, than erect a Seat for Judgement. 'Tis most certain, that the damnation of such slumbers not, 2. Pet. 2.3. In a word; All impenitent Sinners that remain in an unreconciled state, obnoxious to God's revenging justice, may be as men Thunder-smitten by this truth. For, 1. Here's your Judge, before whose face you must appear to render a full account of all things done in the flesh, and that in a cloar, solemn, glorious way. ●ou shall not be beheaded in prison, drowned in a Well, smothered in a Bed, made away in a corner, perish in silence; God takes care as for the execution, so the revelation of his righteous judgement, Rom. 2.5. Consider his proceed towards Sodom; he inquires, charges, finds guilty, and then executes, so that the World rings of it. This is Similitudo futuri judieii, Isid A little resemblance of the great Judgement. When the Lots, the faithful ones of God, shall be conveyed to the Mountains the everlasting Hills; the wicked shall be swallowed up into those black Flames, that dead Sea from whence there's no redemption. 2. In all this, feverity there is nothing but Justice. The Judge does you right, gives, you your due, renders to you according to your demerits; this is your Wages, (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Soldiers Pays) proper for your Work to Men and Angels will appland the right ousnesa and God will be eternally glorified in taking the Vengeance, 2 Thess. 1. 8, 9, 10. 3. This Doctrine of Divine Righteousness gives direction to them that are entrusted with Government and Judgement among men, here's the best of Patterns for them, God the Judge, the best of Rules, to do right. And blessed be God, that we have no just cause to complain of public wrong. Have we not our Religion, Laws, Lives, Liberties, and Properties fecured to us? What do we want, which any Nation under the cope of Heaven can wish for? Happy we, did we but know our happiness. Have we not a King so clement, so merciful, that some have been ready to think, that his mency to others hath proved injutious to himself? A second Titus (as he hath been called) who never willingly sent away any suitor sad or discontented from him, and under whom the Unfortunate fall gently. What Laws more good and equitable than ours? What more wholesome and helping, if duly executed? Ancient Lawmakers derived the Pedigree of their Laws from their-Gods. Lycurgus' fathered his upon Apolle at Delphos. Numa pretended his to the Nymph Ageria. If we had Laws dropped out of Heaven, they would do us no good without execution. I might go on, and instance in every particular, (if the time would permit me) and show that we have all the Elements of Felicity; but our unhappiness is, that we cannot form them to our own content. Some there are who find fault with every thing, because they will be satisfied with nothing. Religion is pretended, but Piety in many appears to be no more than Carnal Policy, and in some a misguided Zele for the Interest of their own Party. Some men are so bewildered, so lost in the mists of their Opinions, and smoke of their passions, that the Light they boast of prove● no better than an Ignis fatuus to lead them out of the way, and into the Ditch of Ruin and Destruction. Some cry out of Persecution, when men are Sufferers merely because they are evil doers. How many are there whose Music confists in Discord? They pretend to love Truth, and yet hate Peace. Like Salamanders they delight to live in the flames, and are never better pleased, than when they are warming themselves by a Fire of their own kindling. At the time of the Battle at Trasimenum, between Hannibal and the Romans, there was such an Earthquake as overthrew a great part of most of the Cities in Italy; yet not one of the Fighters that were at it in the heart of the Country felt the Motion. Men are so fiercely intent on their own Interesses and Quarrels, that they are quite senfless of public Hazards and Ruins. But these things are an apt Subject for Tears than Words; here the Eye may be more liberal in its dropping Language, than the Tongue in most fluent Elocution. I dare not stay you any longer from the weighty public Affairs; in a word then, Lastly, seeing there is such a Judge, a Judge of all, that doth and will do right, before whose Face we must all shortly appear: Let us supplicate our Judge, make him our Friend, agree with our Adversary quickly in the way, pass our Accounts betimes, assure Reconciliation in the Blood of the Covenant, engage God's righteousness as well as his mercy for our good by believing: and then the Judge will plead our Cause, right our Wrongs, clear up our Integrity, quiet our Spirits, and crown our Patience. When the Faces of all wicked ones shall gather blackness, when they shall implore the pity of Mountains and Rocks to fall upon them, and hid them from the presence of him that fitteth on the Throne; then shall we stand acquitted and accepted; we shall have boldness in that day. Which the Lord of his infinite mercy grant, and that for the merits of his dear Son and our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ; to whom with the Father and Holy Ghost, be all Honour and Adoration henceforth and for ever. Amen. F I N I S.