Secondly, A proper regard is not shown to divine holiness, nor is its glory manifested, unless the punishment due to sin be inflicted. Holiness is opposed to sin ; for " God is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity,"^ and is the cause why he cannot let sin pass unpunished, " Ye cannot serve the Lord ; for he is an holy God: he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins,"^
' Our author here speaks in the lar.guage, and reasons in the manner, of logicians; the prevalent mode of reasoning at the time when he ■wrote. For the sake of those unacquainted with that ai-t, it may not be improper to observe that the above argaiment is what they call a syllogism, and that a syllogism consists of three propositions. The first is called the major, the second the minor, and the third the conclusion. In the above argument the major proposition is, " It is absolutely necessary that God should preserve his glory entire to all eternity." The minor is, " But sin being sup- posed, without any punishment due to it he cannot preserve his glory free from viola- tion." The conclusion is, " Therefore, it is necessaiy that he .should punisli it." The minor is sometimes called the assumption, and sometimes the conclusion is so named. They are both included under this title by our author in the following sentence. — Tk.
2 Isa. xlii. 8. 3 Prov. xvii. 15. * Gen. xviii. 25. * 2 Thess. i. 6; Rom. i. 32.
6 Rom. iii. 5, 6, Rev. xvi. 5-7. ? Hab. i. 13. s josh. xxiv. 19.
556 A DISSERTATION ON DIVINE JUSTICE. [PART L
said Joshua to the Israelites. For why? Can any thing impure and poUuted stand before his holy Majesty? He himself declares the contrary; — that he is "not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness/' that "evil shall not dwell with him;" that "the foolish shall not stand in his sight;" that "he hateth all workers of iniquity;" and that " there shall in no wise enter into the new Jerusalem any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie."^ Nor can Jesus Christ present his church to his Father till it be " sanctified and cleansed with the washing of water by the word/' and made " a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but holy and without blemish."^ And we are enjoined to be holy, because he is holy. But all things are to be "purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission."*
Thirdly, We have sufficiently shown above that the natural do- minion which God hath over rational creatures, and which they by sin renounce, could not otherwise be preserved or continued than by means of a vicarious punishment And now let impartial judges decide whether it be necessary to God that he should preserve entire the glory of his justice, holiness, and supreme dominion, or not,
IV. And which is a principal point to be considered on this subject. Were the opinions of the adversaries to be admitted, and were we to suppose that God might will the salvation of any sinner, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to assign any sufficient and necessary cause of the death of Christ. For let us suppose that God hath imposed on mankind a law, ratified by a threatening of eternal death, and that they, by a violation of that law, have deserved the punishment threatened, and consequently are become liable to eternal death ; again, let us suppose that God in that threatening did not expressly intend the death of the sinner, but afterward de- clared what and of what kind he willed that the guilt of sin should be, and what punishment he might justly inflict on the sinner, and what the sinner himself ought to expect (all which things flow from the free determination of God), but that he might by his nod or word, without any trouble, though no satisfaction were either made or re- ceived, without the least diminution of his glory, and without any affront or dishonour to any attribute, or any injury or disgrace to himself, consistently with the pi'eservation of his right, dominion, and justice, freely pardon the sins of those whom he might will to save; — what sufficient reason could be given, pray, then, why he shoidd lay those sins, so easily remissible, to the charge of his most holy Son, and on their account subject him to such dreadful sufferings?
While Socinians do not acknowledge other ends of the whole of this dispensation and mystery than those which they assign, they will be unable, to all eternity, to give any probable reason why a
1 Ts. V. 4 G; Rev. xxi. 27. 2 Epli. v. 20, 27. » Hcb. ix. 22.
ARGUMENTS — FEOM THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 557
most merciful and just God sliould expose a most innocent and holy man, — who was his own Son by way of eminence, and who Avas in- troduced by himself into the world in a preternatural manner, as they themselves acknowledge, — to afflictions and sufferings of every kind, while among the living he pointed out to them the way of life, and at last to a cruel, ignominious, and accursed death.