ARGUMENTS OF SOCINUS WEIGHED. 579
all, whosoever shall be cited before his tribunal, aliens and strangers to Christ, will find to be without foundation, and an absolute falsehood.
" But it is evident," sa3^s he, " that neither the justice nor mercy of which we are treating is inherent in God, from what we read, namely, that he is ' The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suf- fering and abundant in goodness;'^ which plainly shows that these two, — namely, his justice and mercy, — are the effects of his will, the one of which is surpassed in greatness by the other, and they cannot consist with one another, and they are limited ; whereas those qualities which are truly inherent in God have no limit, and are all consistent with one another, and, in respect of their greatness, are all absolutely equal."
Our opponent again very improperly applies a comparison made Ijetween external acts to the internal habits themselves. That anger and compassion, which are only attributed to God effectivel}', are free effects of the divine will, limited as to their object, and unequal, which cannot be exercised about the same person, in their highest degree, we acknowledge;^
But there is no reason that what is applicable to acts, or rather to effects, should also be applicable to the perfections whence these flow. But in that promulgation of the glory or name of God which we have in Exod. xxxiv. 6, he shows what and of what kind his disposi- tion is towards those whom, namely, he hath purchased as his pecu- liar people through Jesus Christ, and what patience, long-suffering, and compassion, he is disposed to exercise towards them;'' but in re- spect of all other sinners, he concludes that he " will by no means clear the guilty," or deliver them from the guilt of sin ; which, indeed, strikes at the very root of Socinianism. But to conclude from this that the divine perfections are opposite one to another, unequal, or siu'passing one another in greatness, is only the extreme folly of one ignorant of the righteousness or justice of God, and going about to establish a righteousness or justice of his own. He proceeds thus: —
" Hence it is manifest how grievously they err wdio affirm both this justice and mercy of God to be infinite; for as to justice, being deceived by the appearance of the word, they see not that they say no more than this, that the severity and anger of God are infinite, contrary to the most express testimonies of the sacred Scriptures, which, as we have just now said, declare God to be ' slow to anger.' That divine justice which hath no limit is not this of which we are discoursing, but that which alone, as we have seen before, is distin- guished by this illustrious name in Scripture, and which, by another
' See Exod. xxxiv. G ; Numb. xiv. 1 8.
3 Omitted : " though it is plain from the holy Scriptures that God not uiifrequently manifests some kind of anger, in his paternal chastisements, towards tl;ose who all the ■while are the objects of his supreme love and mercy." — En.
3 See 2. ret. iii 9, etc.
580 A DISSEETATION ON DIVINE JUSTICE. [PART 11.
name, may be called rectitude and equity. This, indeed, is inherent m God, and is most conspicuous in all his works; and by virtue of this alone, as we shall see hereafter, even if we had no other proof, that human fiction of the satisfaction of Christ would be thoroughly detected, and vanish."
Our opponent here serves up again nothing but his old dish, variously dressed, and repeatedly refused. We declare justice to be infinite, not deceived by the show of a word, but being so taught by the express testimonies of the sacred Scriptures, and by the most convincing and unanswerable arguments, — and we solemnly maintain it, not only with regard to that universal justice which may be called rectitude (though improperly), but also concerning that particular sin-avenging justice, which we deny to differ, either essentially or subjectively,' from the former,— but that anger and severity, so far as they denote effects of divine justice, or punishment inflicted, are -in- finite only in duration: " Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to take vengeance on them who know him not, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with ever- lasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." ^ But in respect of that divine excellence which they point out, we affirm them to be in every respect infinite.
But it would be altogether superfluous here again to repeat what we have before clearly settled concerning this justice, or again to re- cite the texts of Scripture formerly adduced. The sum is this: Sin- avenging justice differs not in reality from that universal justice which our opponent does not deny to be perpetually inherent in God and a natural attribute. It is only distinguished from it in respect of its egress to its own proper object; for the egnresses of justice against sin flow from the most holy perfection of Deity itself. But anger and severity, so far as they may be reduced to that justice which is manifested in them, are also infinite; in respect of their effects, they have their limits assigned them by the wisdom and justice of God. These things, however, have been proved bafore.