Punishment of Adoni-Bezek,

    "But Adoni-bezek fled; and they pursued after him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes." Cruel, cruel, cruel! It may be so; but it is of God. And in this point of view, it is right. The Ruler of the world in this affair executes an awful retribution. And he does it in the way of his Providence. There is no account of a command to punish in this way on this occasion. There is no evidence that the Israelites knew that Adoni-bezek had punished in this manner the kings whom he had conquered. There is no evidence that they intended this punishment to be retributive. What, then, suggested the manner of punishment to them in this instance? Whatever it was, the Providence of the Lord secured its accomplishment. The tyrant himself confesses not only the justice of his punishment, but acknowledges that it was a retribution overruled by God. "And Adoni-bezek said, Three score and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table: as I have done, so God has requited me." Hear this, ye foolish wise men. Hear the testimony of one of the kings of ancient Canaan. Hear the heathen recognising the Providence of God in the manner of his punishment, while ye see no Providence but as the effect of general laws. Your ignorance is below heathen ignorance. It is brutish. It would blaspheme the light of heathenism to say that it was heathenish; Of all men living there are no such enemies of the Divine character, as those who profess to fathom the nature of God, and determine a bound to his conduct. AH the wisdom of philosophers could not discover how God could do this, while, at the same time, it was the uncommanded act of the Israelites. And that for which they cannot account, they will, in the presumption of their ignorance, boldly deny. As they cannot see the way in which God can do such things, they will solve the matter by explaining it as if it were merely permitted or foreseen by God. But neither permission nor foreknowledge can warrant a thing to be ascribed to God, as his doing. I might permit or foreknow with the utmost certainty, what I could in no sense be said to do. Here, then, I may be asked, can God be said to do such things? Were I to attempt an answer to such questions, I would be as presumptuous as the inquirer. God tells me that he doth such things. He tells me also that men do these things. I believe both assertions, though I cannot make the smallest approach to reconcile them. Does not God tell me in his word, that " his ways are past finding out?" If we could fathom all the ways of God, the Scriptures could not be his word.