everything has been rightly and justly ordained, and that the world could not have been governed better. Pious Christians, who in the midst of your crosses and trials must see the wicked prospering, and all their affairs apparently succeeding, be comforted with the thought of that day! Now you cannot see everything; but then you will understand all, and will say: now I behold all the works of God, and they are very good; everything without exception is most right and just. Then you will rejoice with the Prophet David: “We have rejoiced for the days in which thou hast humbled us: for the years in which we have seen evils,”[1] and have had much suffering to bear. Now we rejoice at the happy days in which we were chastised and humbled by Thee, O Lord! All that the Lord has done with us and in the whole world, is well done! Thus, my dear brethren, will God justify the providence with which He rules the world; and this is the second reason why there must be a general judgment.
Exhortation and resolution not to scrutinize the divine decrees, but to submit to them humbly. And what conclusion shall we now draw from this for our instruction? It follows of itself; namely, that we must in the first place not scrutinize curiously the decrees and providence of the Almighty, much less should we murmur or complain on account of them, for we are now incapable of investigating or understanding them thoroughly, as we shall see in another sermon. In the next place, that we should always submit ourselves and all belonging to us in all circumstances to the holy will of God and to His all-wise Providence, perfectly confident that whatever He does with us must be for the very best, as we have heard already in a sermon on conformity with the will of God, and shall hear again in the two following sermons. Yes, O Lord! such is my firm resolve; I give myself to Thee completely; do with me as Thou wilt! I do not now wish to see the reasons of Thy decrees, although on account of my ignorance they sometimes seem strange to me; but I know that all Thy works and dispensations in my regard could not be better than they are, simply because they are Thine; it is enough for me that I shall understand them all clearly on that day. Only grant me now Thy powerful grace, that I may begin and continue so to serve my future Judge that on the last day I may not only know and confess the holiness and justice of Thy Providence (for even the damned must do that), but that with Thy elect I may praise and glorify that
- ↑ Lætati sumus pro diebus quibus nos humiliasti, annis quibus vidimus mala.—Ps. lxxxix. 15.
