Introduction.
The same praise shall one day be given to the Almighty by all the angels and men in heaven and on and under the earth: “He hath done all things well.” That will be on the last day of general judgment, when God shall in the sight of the whole world avenge His injured honor and justify the ordinations of His Providence, which now appear to us in many cases incomprehensible, nay, often inconsistent and unjust, as you have heard three Sundays ago; and in the two following sermons we have seen that since we cannot understand the decrees of the Almighty, and shall not understand them till the last day, we should not pry into them curiously, and much less blame or find fault with them, but rather, as we know they proceed from a God of infinite goodness, justice, and holiness, look on them as right, just, and holy; the conclusion we deduced from that is, that in all cases we should be completely and quietly resigned to the divine will. There we have the first reason on the part of God which renders a general judgment necessary. There is still another reason that regards us men and especially the elect, which I now intend to explain.
Plan of Discourse.
There must be a day of general judgment, that God may publicly, before heaven and earth, justify and defend His chosen servants. Such is the whole subject. From it the pious may derive consolation; the wicked and the tepid, instruction.
Give us Thy light hereto, O Holy Ghost, which we humbly beg of Thee through the intercession of Mary and of our holy angels.
During life the good are not duly honored nor appreciated.
That pious and virtuous servants of God are during their lives not appreciated nor honored, but, generally speaking, despised and persecuted unjustly, comes from three causes. The first is their own humility, which impels them to hide their virtue from the world; the second is the wickedness of sinful men, who, by rash judgments, uncharitable talk, and persecution, try to vilify their good works; the third is the false maxims and judgments of vain worldlings, who ridicule and laugh at true virtue and piety as folly. It is then just that there should be a day of general judgment, on which God shall defend His servants against these two latter classes of people, and justify their virtue, and make