Grace Quotes

(from Edwards sermon, "The Final Judgment") The infinitely holy and wise Creator and Governor of the world must necessarily hate wickedness. Yet we see many wicked men flourishing. They live with impunity; things seem to go well with them, and the world smiles upon them. God allows so much injustice to take place in the world. Now it seems a mystery that these things are tolerated, when he that is rightfully the Supreme Judge and Governor of the world is perfectly just. But at the final judgment all these wrongs shall be righted. Many who have not been fit to live, who have held God and religion in the greatest contempt, who have been open enemies to all that is good, have by their wickedness been the pests of mankind. Many cruel tyrants, whose barbarities have been such as would even fill one with horror to hear or read of them; yet have lived in great wealth and outward glory, have reigned over great and mighty kingdoms and empires, and have been honored as a sort of earthly gods. Now, if we look no further than the present state, these things appear strange and unaccountable. But we ought not to confine our views within such narrow limits. God sometimes allows some of the holiest of men to be in great affliction, poverty, and persecution. The wicked rule, while they are subject. The wicked are the head, and they are the tail. The wicked domineer, while they serve, and are oppressed, yes are trampled under their feet, as the mire of the streets! These things are very common, yet they seem to imply great confusion. Now, it is very mysterious, that the holy and righteous Governor of the world, whose eye beholds all the children of men, should allow it so to be, unless we look forward to the day of judgment. And then the mystery is unraveled. For although God for the present keeps silence, and seems to let them alone; yet then he will give suitable manifestations of his displeasure against their wickedness. They shall then receive just punishment. There are many things in the dealings of God towards men, which appear very mysterious, if we view them without having an eye to this last judgment, which yet, if we consider this judgment, have no difficulty in them. Though God allows things to be so for the present, yet they shall not proceed in this course always. Comparatively speaking, the present state of things is but for a moment. When all shall be settled and fixed by a divine judgment, the righteous shall be exalted, honored, and rewarded, and the wicked shall be depressed and put under their feet. However the wicked now prevail against the righteous, yet the righteous shall at last have the ascendant, shall come off conquerors, and shall see the just vengeance of God executed upon those who now hate and persecute them.