The Scriptures abound in passages which set forth God as the moral ruler of men ; which declare that He will judge the world in righteousness. The Bible represents Him as the judge of nations and of individuals ; as the avenger of the poor and the persecuted. It abounds also in promises and in threatenings, and in illustrations of the righteous judgments of God. Nothing, therefore, is plainer than that men in this world are subject to the moral government of God. Besides this, the Bible also teaches that there is a future state of reward and punishment, in which the inequalities and anomalies here permitted shall be adjusted. According to some, this is all that the Bible teaches on the subject. What is said of the punishment of the wicked and of the reward of the righteous is to be understood in this general way. This is the doctrine of the common school of Rationalists.2 Bretschneider 3 admits, however, that reason has nothing to object to the Church doctrine on this subject prop- erly understood.
1 The interpretation of this whole passage (Rev. xx. 1-6) is thoroughly discussed in the ve*y aoie work of the Rev. David Brown, of St. James' Free Church, Glasgow, entitled, Christ's Second Coming: Will it be Pre-Millenial t chapter x. edit. New York, 1851, p. 218 ff.
■ J. A. L. Wegscheider, Institutiones Theologian, iv. ii. 99 ; 5th edit. Halle, 1826, p. 614 ff.
* Dogmatik der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche, § 172, 3d edit. Leipzig, 1828 ; vol. ii p. 445.