(2dly.) His justice obligeth him to punish sin, that the law might not seem to be made in vain. It concerns the universal judge to maintain the reputation of his justice in reference to men, and to appear to them still as a righteous God : Gen. xviii. 25, ' Shall not the judge of all the earth do right ? ' and Rom. iii. 5, 6, ' Is God unrighteous to take vengeance? how then shall he judge the world?' These scriptures imply, that if there were the least blemish, if you could suppose he should fail in point of righteousness, this were to be denied, that God should be the judge of the world. Therefore God's righteousness and justice, which gives to every one their due, must shine in its proper place ; he will give vengeance to whom vengeance is due, and blessing to whom blessing belongs. In our case punishment belongs to us, and what can we expect from this God but wrath and eternal destruction ? Therefore if all this be so, if a conscience suppose a law, a law a sanction, a sanction a judge — a judge some time when his justice must have a solemn trial, and this will necessarily infer condemnation to a fallen creature — what then shall we do?
[7.] From this condemnation there is no escape, unless God set up another court and chancery of the gosj)el, where condenmed sinners m;iy be taken to mercy, and their sins forgiven, and they justified and
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accepted unto grace and life, upon terms tliat may salve God's honour and government over mankind. Tliere is a great deal of difference between the forgiving private wrongs and injuries, and the pardoning of public offences ; between the pardon of a magistrate, and the pardon of a private person. When equals fall out among themselves, they may end their differences in charity, and in such ways as best please themselves, by a mere forgiving, by acquitting the sense of the wrong done, or a bare submission of the party offending. But the case is dif- ferent here : God is not reconciled to us merely as the party offended, but as the governor of the world ; the case lies between the judge of the world and sinning mankind ; therefore it must not be ended by mere compromise and agreement, but by satisfiiction, that his law may be satisfied, and the honour of his justice secured. Therefore to make the pardon of man a thing convenient to the righteous and holy judge to bestow, without any impeachment to the honour of his justice and authority of his law, the Lord finds out this great mystery, ' God mani- fested in our flesh.' Jesus Christ is ' made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law,' Gal. iv. 5 ; and is ' become a propitia- tion to satisfy God's justice,' Kom. iii. 2.5, 26. And so God shows mercy to his creatures, and yet the awe of his government is kept up, and a full demonstration of his righteousness is given to the world.
[8.] This being done conveniently to God's honour, we must sue out our pardon with respect to both the covenants, both that which we have broken, the law of nature, and that which is made in Christ, and is to be accepted by us as our sanctuary and sure refuge.
(1.) We must have a broken-hearted sense of sin, and of the curse due to the first covenant ; for it is the disease brings us to the physi- cian ; the curse drives us to the promise, and the tribunal of justice to the throne of grace ; and the avenger of blood at our heels, that causeth us to fly to our proper city of refuge, and to take sanctuary at the Lord's grace, Heb. vi. 18. So that if you mince and extenuate sin, you seem to hold to the first covenant, and had rather plead innocent than guilty. No ; if you would have this favour, you must confess your sins : 1 John i. 9, ' If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' You must confess your sins, and with that remorse that will become offences done to so great a God. And there must not only be a sense of sin, «but of the curse and merit of sin also ; for we must not only accuse, but judge ourselves, that God may not judge and condemn us, 1 Cor. xi. 31. Self-accusing respects sin, and is acted in confession ; self- judging respects the curse or punishment that is due to us for sin, and it is a person's pronouncing upon himself according to the tenor of the law what is his due, acknowledging his guilt, and this with much brokenness of heart before God, when he hath involved himself in God's eternal wrath and displeasure. I observe, that the law-cove- nant is in the scripture compared to a prison, wherein God hath shut up guilty souls, Horn. xi. 32, ' He hath concluded or shut them up, that he may have mercy upon them ;' Gal. iii. 21, 'He hath shut them up under sin.' The law is God's prison, and no offenders can get out of it till they have God's leave; and from him they have none, till they are sensible of the justice and righteousness of that first dispensation,