I shall not be farther troublesome to my readers ; if what has been already said amount not to proof sufficient, I know not what is suffi- cient. I urge only one testimony more from Scripture and conclude. It is found in Heb. x. 26, 27: " For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation." " But perhaps God will pardon without any sacri- fice." The apostle is of a contrary opinion. AVhere there is "no sacri- fice for sin," he argues that, from the very nature of the thing, there must be "a looking for of judgment and fiery indignation;" — the very jioint that was to be proved.
I could heartily wish that some sinner whose conscience the hand of the omnipotent God hath lately touched, whose " sore ran in the night and ceased not," and whose " soul refused to be comforted," whose " grief is heavier than the sand of the sea," in whom " the ar- rows of the Almighty" stick fast, " the poison whereof drinketh up the spirit,"^ were to estimate and determine this difficult and doubtful dis- pute. Let us, I say, have recourse to a person, who, being convinced by the Spirit of his debts to God, is weighed down by their burden, while the sharp arrows of Christ are piercing the heart, Ps. xlv. 5,
» Job vi. 2-4.
ARGUMENTS — ON THE SUPPOSITION OF SIN. 54:9
and let us inform him that God, v/ith the greatest ease, by his nod, or by the hght touch of his finger, so to speak, can blot out, hide, and forgive all sins. Will he rest satisfied in such a thought? will he immediately subscribe to it? Will he not rather exclaim, " I have heard many such things; ' miserable comforters are ye all ;'^ nay, ' ye are forgers of lies, physicians of no value.' The terrors of the Lord, which surround me, and beset me day and night, ye feel not. I have to do with the most just, the most holy, the supreme Judge of all, who ' will do right, and will by no means clear the guilty.' Therefore, ' my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth. My heart is smitten, and withered like grass ; so that I forget to eat my bread. By reason of the voice of my groan- ing, my bones cleave to my skin.'^ ' I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up : while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted. Thy fierce Avrath goeth over me ; thy terrors have cut me off.'* I wish I were hid in the grave, yea, even in the pit, unless the Judge him- self say to me, ' Deliver him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom.'* Indeed, when the recollection of that very melan- choly period comes into mind, when first God was pleased by his Spirit effectually to convince the heart of me, a poor sinner, of sin, and when the whole of God's controversy with me for sin is again presented to my view, I cannot sufficiently wonder what thoughts could possess those men who have treated of the remission of sins in so very slight, I had almost said contemptuous, a manner." But these reflections are rather foreign to our present business.
CHAPTER VI.
Another head of the first part of the dissertation — Arguments for the necessary egress of vindicatory justice from the supposition of sin — The first argument — God's hatred of sin; what — Wliether God by nature hates sin, or because he wills so to do — Testimonies from holy >Scripture — Dr Twisse's answer — The sum of it — The same obviated — The relation of obedience to reward and of sin to punishment not the same — Justice and mercy, in respect of their exercise, different — The second argument — The description of God in the Scriptures in respect of sin — In what sense he is called a " consuming fire" — Twisse's answer refuted — The fallacies of the answer.
We have sufficiently proved, if I be not mistaken, that sin-punish- ing justice is natural to God. The opposite arguments, more numerous than weighty, shall be considered hereafter. We are now to prove the second part of the question, — namely, that the existence and sin of a rational creature being supposed, the exercise of this justice is necessary. And, granting what apf)ears from what we have
* Job xiii. 4, xvi. 2. ^ pg_ cH. 3-5. ^ Ps. Ixxxviii. 15, IG. <Jobxxxiii. 24.
650 A DISSERTATION ON DIVINE JUSTICE. [PART I.
already said concerning the nature of justice, especially from the first argument, our proofs must necessarily be conclusive. The first is this : — •
I. He who cannot but hate all sin cannot but punish sin ; for to hate sin is, as to the affection, to will to punish it, and as to the effect, the punishment itself. And to be unable not to will the punishment of sin is the same with the necessity of punishing it ; for he who cannot but will to punish sin cannot but punish it : for " our God is in the heavens ; he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased," Ps. cxv. 3. Now, when we say that God necessarily punishes sin, we mean, that on account of the rectitude and perfection of his nature, he cannot possess an indifference of will to punish ; for it being supposed that God hates sin, he must hate it either by nature or by choice. If it be by nature, then we have gained our point. If by choice, or be- cause he wills it, then it is possible for him not to hate it. Nay, he may even justly will the contrary, or exercise a contrary act about the same object; for those acts of the divine will are most free, namely, which have their foundation in the will only : that is to say, it is even possible for him to love sin; for the divine will is not so inclined to any object, but that, if it should be inclined to its contrary, that might, consistent with justice, be done. This reasoning Duran- dus agrees to, and this Twisse urges as an argument. The conclu- sion, then, must be, that God may love sin, considered as sin. " Credat ApcUa."