VENGEANCE.
O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongeth; O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew Thyself.—Psalm xciv. 1.
Say to them that are of a fearful heart, be strong; fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense.—Isaiah, xxxv. 4.
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.—Romans, xii. 19.
From Sinai’s top Jehovah gave the law,
Life for obedience, death for every flaw.
When the great Sovereign would His will express,
He gives a perfect rule, what can He less?
And guards it with a sanction as severe
As vengeance can inflict, or sinners fear:
Else His own glorious rights He would disclaim,
And man might safely trifle with His name.
Cowper.
Speak not of vengeance! ’t is the right of God.
“Vengeance is His.” Who shall usurp the bolt
And launch it for Omnipotence? shall man
Assume the right of judgment, or prescribe
How far the line of mercy shall extend,
Or punishment shall stretch its iron rod?
In thine own cause to judge, who gave thee right,
Presumptuous man!
C. P. Layard.
Some deluded minds,
Harrowed by penal terrors, in the gulf
Of black despair are whelmed. No ray of hope
Dispels the involving gloom; a Deity,
With all the thunder of dread vengeance round Him,
Is ever present to their tortured thoughts.
Samuel Hayes.
To vengeance horrible aroused,
And clad in tenfold fierceness, shalt thou stand
Beside the atheist’s bed; by his who oft,
With wit profane, and poignant blasphemy,
And specious show of argument, hath scoffed
Each awful truth, and ridiculed his God.
William Gibson.