xxvi. 9, 10. _For when Thy judgments, &c._
I. _The judgments of God are frequently in the earth_--such as
earthquakes, hurricanes, pestilence, commercial disasters. These are
not, as the infidel asserts, merely the results of the working of
natural causes: these public calamities are the punishment of public
sins. _Nations_ are thus punished, because they have no immortality,
and therefore, if they are to be judged at all, must be judged here
and now. Without these chastisements, which often astonish the hearts
of the most insensible, and bring the most incredulous to their right
mind, the world would be only a theatre of atheism and crime. That
these calamites are strictly "the judgments of God," is the testimony
of _Scripture_ (Amos iii. 6; Jer. xxxii. 23, &c.), of the universal
_conscience,_ which appeals loudly in terms of calamity,[1] and of
_reason._ Acknowledge a First Cause which directs all things, and we
are obliged to confess that public calamities are the judgments of
God.
II. _God's design in sending His judgments upon the earth is that the
inhabitants thereof should learn righteousness_--righteousness
towards Him, towards their neighbours, and towards themselves. This
is His design, and to comply with it is the indispensable duty of
those who He afflicts.[2] The natural tendency of these chastisements
is to remove the obstacles that ordinarily oppose themselves to our
conversion: indolence, thoughtlessness, abuse of God's patience, the
hope of long life.[3]
III. _God's design in sending judgments upon the earth is often
frustrated by the fact that some sinners are so obdurate that neither
judgments nor mercies will move them_ (v. 10). The "favour" here
spoken of is a temporal favour, a deliverance from physical misery, a
suspension of the judgments which were falling upon the wicked. Such
favours, instead of calling forth gratitude, are frequently turned
into reasons for sinning (Eccl. viii. 11; Ex. viii. 15). To harden
ourselves against the "judgments" of God is a great sin, but to
harden ourselves against His "favours" is a still greater sin. Those
who commit it leave the Almighty no alternative but to utterly
destroy them.--_Daniel de Superville: Sermons,_ pp. 332-361.