Thirdly, It is necessary that God should do every thing that is requisite wnto his own glory. This the perfection of his nature and existence doth require. So he doth all things for himself. It is ne- cessary, therefore, that nothing fall out in the universe which should absolutely impeach the glory of God, or contradict his design of its manifestation. Now, suppose that God would and should let sin go unpunished, where would be the glory of his righteousness as he is the supreme ruler over all? For, to omit what justice requireth is no less a disparagement unto it than to do what it forbids, Prov. xvii. 15. And where would be the glory of his holiness, supposing the description given of it, Hab. i. 13,—where would be that fear and reverence which is due unto him, where that sense of his terror, where that secret awe of him which ought to be in the hearts and thoughts of men,—if once he were looked on as such a God, as such a Governor, as unto whom it is a matter of mere freedom, choice, and liberty, whether he will punish sin or no, as being not concerned in point of righteousness or holiness so to do? Nothing can tend more than such a persuasion to ingenerate an apprehension in men
136 NECESSITY OF THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST [EXERC. XXX.
that God is such an one as themselves, and that he is so little con- cerned in their sins that they need not themselves be much con- cerned in them. Such thoughts they are apt to conceive, if he do but hold his peace for a season, and not reprove them for their sins, Ps, 1.21. And if their hearts are fully set in them to do evil, be- cause in some signal instances judgment is not speedily executed, Eccles. viii. 11, how much more will such pernicious consequents ensue, if they are persuaded that it may be God will never punish them for their sins, seeing it is absolutely at his pleasure whether he will do so or no!—that neither his righteousness, nor his holiness, nor his glory, requires any such thing at his hands! This is not the language of the law; no, nor yet of the consciences of men, unless they are debauched. Is it not, with most Christians, certain that even- tually God lets no sinners go unpunished? Do they not believe that all who are not interested by faith in the sufferings of Christ, or at least that are not saved on the account of his undergoing the punishment due to sin, must perish eternally? And if this be the absolute rule of God’s proceeding towards sinners, if he never went out of the way of it in any one instance, whence should it proceed but from what his nature doth require?
Lastly, God is, as we have showed, the righteous judge of all the world. What law is unto another judge, who is to proceed by it, that is the infinite rectitude of his own nature unto him. And it is necessary to a judge to punish where the law requires him so to do; and if he do not, he is not just. And because God is righteous by an essential righteousness, it is necessary for him to punish sin as it is contrary thereunto, and not to acquit the guilty. And what is sin cannot but be sin, neither can God order it otherwise; for what is contrary to his nature cannot by any act of his will be rendered other- wise. And if sin be sin necessarily, because of its contrariety to the nature of God, on the supposition of the order of all things by himself created, the punishment of it is on the same ground necessary also.
6. On the grounds insisted on, argued and proved it is, that on the supposition before also laid down and explained,—namely, that God would glorify himself and his grace in the recovery and salva- tion of sinners, which proceeded alone from the free counsel of his will,—it was, with respect unto the holiness and righteousness of God, absolutely necessary that the Son of God, in his interposition for them, should be a priest, and offer himself for a sacrifice; seeing therein and thereby he could and did undergo the punishment which, in the judgment of God, was due unto the sins of them that were to be saved by him.
7. Hereon we lay the necessity of the death and suffering of Jesus Christ; as also our apostle doth declare, Heb. ii, 10, 11. And they
SECT. 6,7.] ON THE SUPPOSITION OF SIN AND GRACE. 137
who are otherwise minded are not able to assign so much as a sufti- cient cause or just and peculiar reason for it; which yet to think it had not is highly injurious to the wisdom and grace of God. The reason assigned by the Socinians is, that by his death he might con- firm the doctrine that he taught, and our faith in himself, as also to set us an example of patient suffering. But these things were not highly necessary if considered alone, nor peculiar, and such there must be, or no man can satisfy himself why the Son of God should suffer and die; for God sent many before to reveal his will,—Moses, for instance, whose declarations thereof all men were bound to be- lieve,—and yet caused them not to die violent, bloody, and cursed deaths, in the confirmation of them. So the death of Moses was con- cealed from all the world, only it was known that he died; his doc- trine was not confirmed by his death. Besides, our Lord had such a power of working miracles as to give an uncontrollable evidence unto his being sent of God, and of God’s approbation of what he taught. Nor can it be pretended that it was necessary that he should die that he might rise again, and so confirm his doctrine by his resur- rection; for he might have died for this end any other way, and not by a shameful and cursed death,—not by a death in the view whereof he cried out that he was forsaken of God. Besides, on the supposition that Christ died only to confirm his doctrine, his resurrection was not of any more virtue to ingenerate, strengthen, or increase faith in us, than any other miracle that he wrought; for himself tells us that the rising of any one from the dead absolutely is not accompanied with such a peculiar efficacy to that purpose, Luke xvi. 31. But on supposition that he died for our sins, or underwent the punishment due to them, his resurrection from the dead is the principal founda- tion of our faith and hope. Neither was his being an example unto us indispensably necessary; for God hath given us other examples to the same purpose, which he obligeth us to conform ourselves unto, James vy. 10, 11. Whereas, therefore, all acknowledge that Christ was the Son of God, and there must be some peculiar reason why the Son of God should die a shameful and painful death, this cannot be assigned by them by whom the indispensable necessity of punish- ing is denied.