fome Refpect, is not reasonable; and therefore, when the Reason of Juftice is exactly pursued, you have the true Point, where Mercy and Justice meet together: And this is the Point in which all the Judgments of God do centre. I fpeak here of the Judgments of God properly so called; for those Acts of Goodness which he exercises in Right of his fupreme Sovereignty and Dominion are not within our present View. And that this Account is true, you may partly collect from the Inftance in which the Text is concerned : Our Saviour does not juftify God for delaying the Punishment of the Wicked, by diftinguishing between the Mercy and Justice of God, and fhewing how Mercy triumphed over Justice in this Delay; but he appeals to the Reason of the Cafe, and fhews that God did what was fit and becoming a wife Judge and Governor; and that the Thing complained of as a Defect of Juftice, was, all its Circumstances confidered, the Height of Justice and Equity: And this will plainly appear in the Application we are to make of what has been faid to this particular Cafe.

The Parable, of which the Text is Part, is evidently intended as an Answer to the common Objection against Providence, drawn

from

from the Profperity of Sinners, or rather, in the present Cafe, from the Impunity of Offenders. If you examine upon what Principles the Objection proceeds, and upon what Principles the Anfwer, you will find that the Objection is founded upon one of the common and general Maxims of Juftice, which, as I have already fhewn, do often misguide our Judgments in particular Cafes; and that our Saviour's Anfwer is drawn from the Reason of all Law and Equity, which can never fail. Afk the Man, who makes this Objection against God's Government, why he thinks it unbecoming the Wisdom of God to delay the Punishment of Sinners? he will readily answer, because it is contrary to his Justice; and, to fupport his Reason, he will farther add, that it is an undoubted Maxim of Justice, that all Sinners deserve Punishment. And here, I think, he must stop; for he cannot enter into particulaar Cafes, unless he knew more of Men than he does, or can know. In Answer to this, our Saviour owns the Truth of the general Maxim, as far as it relates to the Defert of Sinners; and therefore teaches us, that God has appointed a Day in which he will judge the World: But then he fhews, from fuperior Reasons of Q2 Juftice,

Justice, that the Application of the Principle in the present Cafe is wrong; for though it be just to punish all Sinners, yet to punish them immediately would destroy the very Reason, which makes it just to punish them. It is just to punish them, that there may be a Difference made between the Good and the Bad according to their Deferts, that their Punishment may be a Difcouragement to Vice, an Encouragement to Virtue. Now our Lord fhews in this Parable, that the immediate Punishment of the Wicked would quite deftroy thefe Ends of Juftice; for the Righteous and the Wicked, like the Wheat and Tares growing together in one Field, are fo mixed and united in Interest in this World, that, as Things ftand, the Wicked cannot be rooted out, but the Righteous must fuffer with them: Confequently, the immediate Destruction of the Wicked, fince it must

inevitably fall upon the Righteous also, would make no proper Distinction between the Good and the Bad; could be no Encouragement to Virtue, for the Virtuous would fuffer; could be no Difcouragement to Vice, for Vice would fare as well as Virtue: And therefore it is not only reasonable to delay the Punishment of the Wicked, but even necef

fary to the obtaining the Ends of Justice, fince they cannot be obtained in their immediate Destruction.

This then is a full Juftification of God in his Dealings with Men; and fhews his Juftice, as well as his Mercy, in not executing Wrath and Vengeance as foon as Sinners are ripe for them. But if this be the Height of Justice in God, how is it not the Height of Injustice in Men to deal with one another quite otherwife? Temporal Punishments, even those which are capital, are executed immediately; though often it happens that many Innocents fuffer in the Punishment of one injurious Perfon. The Law does not confider who fhall maintain the Children, when it seizes the Father's Eftate as forfeited; nor does Juftice relent for fear she should make a miserable Widow, and many wretched Orphans, by the fevere Blow which cuts off the guilty Husband and Father. Nay, farther; This very Method of Juftice is ordained by God, and Magiftrates are not at Liberty totally to fufpend the Execution of Justice; and how comes God to pursue one Method of Justice himself, and to prescribe another to his Vicegerents? The plain Anfwer is, because the Reason of these two

Cafes

Cafes is very different. The Punishments of this World are not the final Punishments of Iniquity; but are Means ordained to secure Virtue and Morality, and to protect the Innocent from immediate Violence. Offences which disturb the Peace of Society, and the Security of private Perfons, will not bear a Delay of Juftice; for the End of Justice, in this Cafe, is to fecure Peace: But this End can never be ferved by permitting Thieves, and Murderers, and Rebels, to go unpunished; and though, whenever they suffer, İnnocents may fuffer with them, yet many more would suffer in their Impunity; and this World would be scarcely habitable, were fuch Crimes as thefe to wait for their Punishment till another World fucceeded this.

many

Our Saviour's Reafoning, when applied to this Cafe, leads to another Conclufion; that the Righteous may not suffer, God delays the final Punishment of the Wicked; for the fame Reafon, that the Righteous may not fuffer, he has commanded the Magiftrate to cut off all the Sons of Violence, all Difturbers of the public Peace and Quiet. And, in so doing, he has followed the fame Reafon in both Cafes, namely, that the Righteous may be preserved

and

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