First, then, it is manifest that, by the anger of God, the effects of anger are denoted: " Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? God forbid," E,om. iii. 5. And it is said, Eph. v. 6, " Because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience;" that is, God will most assuredly punish them. Hence the frequent mention of " the wrath to come ;" that is, the last and everlasting punishment. Thus, that great and terrible day, " in which God v/ill judge the world by that man whom he hath ordained," is called "The day of his wrath," because it is the day of " the revelation of the righteous judgment of God," Rom. ii. 5. And he is said to be " slow to Avi-ath" because he oftentimes proceeds slowly, as it seems to us, to inflict punishment or recompense evil. But, perhaps, this difficulty is better obviated by Peter, who removes every idea of slowness from God, but ascribes to him patience and long-suffering in Christ to- wards the faithful. And of this dispensation even the whole world, in a secondary sense, are made partakers. " The Lord is not slack," says he, " concerning his promise" (the promise, namely, of a future judgment), "as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to US-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance," 2 Pet. iii. 9.
Nay, the threatening of punishment is sometimes described by the words " anger, fury, wrath," and " fierce wrath." Thus, Jonah iii. 9, " Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?" that is, " whether he may not, upon our humiliation and repentance, avert from us the grievous punish- ment denounced by the prophet."
But, secondly. It denotes a constant and immutable will in God of avenging and punisliing, hy a fast punishment, every injury, transgression, and sin. And hence that expression, Rom. ix. 22, " What if God, willing to show his wrath," — that is, his justice, or constant will of punishing sinners ; for when any external operations of the Deity are described by a word denoting a human affection that is wont to produce such effects, the holy Scripture means to point out to us some perfection perj)etually resident in God, whence these operations flow, and which is their proper and next principle.^
And what is that perfection but this justice of which we are dis- coursing? For we must remove far from God every idea of anger, 1 That is, tlie principle from -vrliicli they immediately flow. — Tk.
544 A DISSERTATION ON DIVINE JUSTICE. [PART I.
properly so called, which, in respect of its causes and effects, and of its own nature, supposes even the greatest perturbation, change, and inquietude of all the affections in its subject; and yet we are under the necessity of ascribing to him a nature adapted to effect those operations which are reckoned to belong to anger. But since the Scriptures testify that God works these works as he is just, and be- cause he is just (and we have proved it above), it plainly appears that that perfection of the divine nature is nothing else but this vindicatory justice ; whence Thomas Aquinas asserts^ that anger is not said to be in God in allusion to any passion of the mind, but to the judgment or decision of his justice. Nay, that " anger" may not only be reduced to "justice,'' but that the words themselves are synonymous, and that they are taken so in Scripture, is certain: Ps. vii. 6, 9, " Arise, O Lord, in thine anger, lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies: and awake for me to the judgment that thou hast commanded. Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just: for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins." To "judge in anger," or with "justice," are phrases of the same import: Ps. Ivi. 7, " Shall they escape by iniquity? in thine anger cast down the people, O God;" or, " In justice cast them down, because of their iniquity." Thus, when he justly destroyed the people of Israel by the king of Babylon, he says it came to pass through his anger: 2 Kings xxiv. 20, " For through the anger of the Lord it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence, that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon."
But the apostle says that this anger or punitory justice is " revealed from heaven." The apostle uses the same word here that is trans- lated " revealed" in the preceding verse, when speaking of the mani- festation or revelation of the righteousness of faith in the gospel. Therefore, some have been of opinion that the apostle here asserts that this very anger of God is again and again made known and manifested, or openly declared, in the gospel against unbelievers. But to what purpose, then, is there any mention made of "heaven," whence that manifestation or revelation is said to have been made? The apostle, therefore, uses the word in a different sense in Rom. i. 18, from that which it is used in in the preceding. There it means a manifestation by tlie preaching of the word, here it signifies a declaration by examples; and therefore one might not improperly translate the word " is laid open," or " clearly appears," — that is, is proved by numberless instances. Moreover, this verse is the prin- cipal of the arguments by which the apostle proves the necessity of justification by faith in the remission of sins through the blood of Christ, because that all have sinned, and thereby rendered God their open and avowed enemy.