Secondly, To prove that God is just. I shall prove it by four things : —
1. From the perfection of the divine nature. The perfection of the divine will is such that he necessarily loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity. As the perfection of God's understanding includes all intel- lectual virtues, so the perfection of his will all moral virtues. There can be no virtuous act of the will, either in men or angels, that doth not agree to God in a far more excellent manner and measure ; and therefore if there be such a quality as justice and righteousness in angels and men, if holy angels and just men made perfect, certainly there is a just God. This rectitude in men and angels is accidental, and separable from their being. Angels may be angels, yet not just, as appears in the devils ; but in God it is essential ; as his essence is necessarily, so his integrity must needs be so. In short, God must be just and holy, because he necessarily loves himself, and hates every- thing that is contrary to himself : Ps. xi. 7, ' The righteous God loveth righteousness, and his countenance beholdeth the upright.' If they be just, he loves their justice, because he loves himself ; if unjust, he hates their injustice, because they are contrary to himself.
2. He could not else govern the world, or judge men according to their offences. Next his nature, God's office shows him just, that infers his.justice as he is governor and judge of the world ; so we shall see, Gen. xviii. 15, ' The judge of all the earth, shall not he do right?' It must needs be so tliat the judge of the earth will do right : Horn. V. 6, ' Is God unrighteous who taketli vengeance ? God forbid ; for then how shall God judge the world?' It is impossible to imagine that he can be the supreme judge who is not just. Among men appeals are allowed, because men are fallible, and apt to pervert equity and judgment ; and this is their relief that they can appeal higher. But now, Eccles. v. 8, 'If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice, marvel not at the matter ; for he that is higher than the liigiiest regardeth, and there be higher than they.' God is the great arbiter of all affairs in the world, where all appeals rest, can go no higher than the will of God ; therefore he must needs be just.
3. This was God's great end in giving Jesus Christ, that he might be known to be a just God ; therefore he stood so punctually upon satisfaction, that the sinner must die or the surety. No surety so fit
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to keep up the honour of his hiw and honour of his justice in the con- sciences of men as the Son of God, Rom. iii. 24-26. God had a mind to be gracious to the creature, but without any disparagement to his justice. Now how shoukl this be ? All the wise men in the world that had any sense of the nature and being of God busied themselves in this inquiry, How God could be merciful to the creature, and yet just ; but all their devices were vain and frivolous, until God himself found out a ransom and remedy for us, as it is in Job xxxiii. 24. Here was the difficulty ; God would preserve the notions which the creature had of his being and justice inviolable ; he would be known as one that would stand to his law which he had made for the government of the world. Now, there was no way to keep up the credit of it but these two — strict execution or sufficient satisfaction. The execution would have de- stroyed all the inferior world, the reasonable creatures at least ; and the love and wisdom and mercy of God would not permit that the world should be destroyed so soon as it was made, and man left remedi- less in everlasting misery. Well, then, strict execution would not do it ; therefore satisfaction must be the remedy ; and such satisfaction as might be sufficient to procure the ends of the law, to keep up the honour of God's justice in the consciences of men. Now this was done by Jesus Christ, whom God had set forth to declare his righteousness, that he might exercise his mercy without prejudice to his justice. If this ransom had not been found, we should either have slighted God, and not stood in awe of him, or else we had been for ever left under the curse, and under doubtfulness and scruple, wherewith we should have appeased him ; but the Lord found out such a means to our hands, that he might declare he was a righteous God.
4. I prove it from the divine nature infused into us. As many as are made partakers of God's grace are more just than others, they hate sin and sinners ; so we read, Eph. iv. 24, ' That the new man was created after God in righteousness and true holiness.' After God, that is, after the image and pattern of God. Now, if the new creature be made after such a pattern, then certainly God was righteous. We find by experience, the more god-like and virtuous any are the more just they are, more apt to give every one his due, to live without wrong to any, and the more their hearts are set against that which is base and unworthy. Therefore certainly God is righteous, for he hath put such a quality as the copy of his nature into the hearts of men.