VER. 10.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 407
of anger and wrath in punishment itself be denoted by these expres- sions, yet often also they denote the habitude of the nature of God in his justice towards sin. For anger in itself, being a passion and perturbation of mind, including change and weakness, cannot pro- perly be ascribed unto God; and therefore when it is spoken of as that which is in him, and not of the effects which he works on others, it can intend nothing but his vindictive justice, that pro- perty of his nature which necessarily inclines him unto the punish- ment of sm. Thus it is said that his “wrath” or anger is “revealed from heaven against all ungodliness,” Rom. i. 18; that is, he discovers im his judgments what is his justice against sin. And thus when he comes to deal with Christ himself, to make him a propitiation for us, he is said to have “set him forth <i¢ vdeEw rijg dixcesoobyys,” Rom. ii. 25, 26,—“ to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins; that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus?” As God would pardon sin, and justify them that believe, so he would be just also. And how could this be? By punishing our sins in Christ;—that declared his righteousness, ” Evde&ig here is as much as zvdeywa, “documentum,’—a declaration .by an especial instance or example: or as drédcryma, as he is said to have punished Sodom and Gomorrah, and to have left them iidsryma werrdvrav aoz€eiv,—“ an example unto them that should live ungodly;” that is, an instance of what his dealings would be with sinners. So God is said here to have “ declared his righteousness,” by an example in the sufferings of Christ; which, indeed, was the greatest instance of the severity and inexorableness of justice against sin that God ever gave in this world. And this he did that he might be just, as well as gracious and merciful, in the forgiveness of sin. Now, if the jus- tice of God did not require that sin should be punished in the Me- diator, how did God give an instance of his justice in his sufferings; for nothing can be declared but in and by that which it requires? For to say that God showed his righteousness in doing that which might have been omitted without the least impeachment of his righteousness, is in this matter not safe.
(3.) God is the supreme ruler, governor, and judge of all. To him as such it belongeth to do right. So saith Abraham, Gen. xviii. 25, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” Un- doubtedly he will do so, it belongs unto him so to do; for, saith the apostle, “Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?” Rom. iii. 5,6. Right judgment in all things belongs unto the universal rectitude of the nature of God, as he is the supreme governor and judge of all the world. Now, the goodness and rightness of all things consists in the observation of that place and order which God in their creation allotted unto them, whereon he pronounced that they were exceeding
408 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. IE,
good. And that this order be preserved for the good of the whole, it belongs unto the government of God to take care; or if it be in any thing transgressed, not to leave all things in confusion, but to: reduce them into some new order and subjection unto himself. That this order was broken by sin we all know. What shall now the governor of all the world do? Shall he leave all things in dis- order and confusion? cast off the works of his hands, and suffer all things to run at random? Would this become the righteous gover- nor of all the world? What, then, is to be done to prevent this- confusion? Nothing remains but that he who brake the first order by sin should be subdued into a new one by punishment. This. brings him into subjection unto God upon a new account. And to say that God might have let his sin go unpunished, is to say that he might not be. righteous in his government, nor do that which is. necessary for the good, beauty, and order of the whole. But hereof somewhat was spoken in the opening of the words, so that it need not further be insisted on.
(4.) Lastly, there is no common presumption ingrafted in the hearts of men concerning any free act of God, and which might have been otherwise. No free decree or act of God is or can be known unto- any of the children of men but by revelation; much less have they all of them universally an inbred persuasion concerning any such acts or actings. But of the natural properties of God, and his acting suitably unto them, there is a secret light and persuasion ingrafted in the hearts of all men by nature. At least, those things of God whereof there is a natural and indelible character in the hearts of all men are natural, necessary, and essential unto him. Now, that. God is just, and that therefore he will punish sin, all sin, is an inbred presumption of nature, that can never be rooted out of the minds of men. All sinners have an inbred apprehension that God is displeased with sin, and that punishment is due unto it. They cannot but know that it is “the judgment of God that they who commit sin are worthy of death.” And therefore, though they have not the written law to instruct them, yet “their thoughts accuse them” upon sin, Rom. ii. 14, 15,—that is, their consciences,—which is the judgment which a man makes of himself in reference unto the judgment of God. And therefore all nations who retained any knowledge of a deity constantly invented some ways and means whereby they thought they might expiate sin, and appease the god that they feared. All which manifests that the punishment of sin inseparably follows the nature of God, and such properties thereof as men have a natural, inbred notion and presumption of; for if it depended merely on the will of God, and his faithfulness in the accomplishing of that threatening and constitution whereof they had no knowledge, they could not have had such an immoyable and