There was also a subjective enlargement of its sphere. Under the influence of Pharisaic teacliing and example, the moral law had come to be re- garded as merely an external rule of conduct ; the inner world of thought and motive and feeling being overlooked or regarded as of only secondary importance. All the virtues had thus sufl'ered deterioration, and justice among them. But in the Sermon on the Mount, Christ claimed this neglected sphere for tlie moral law. Its authority was extended so as to cover the entire life of men, for in the spiritual realm of being, thoughts and feelings are accounted as deeds, as acts of the moral self. And tliis was an infinite extension of the sway of justice. ' Out of tlie heart proceed adulteries, fornications, murders, tht'fts' (Mk 7"'). Sin is not confined to outward acts ; it begins the moment evil thoughts and desires arise in the heart ; and a regime of justice is necessary there. To be angry with our brother without cause is to do him wrong (Mt 5°-) ; and the man is accounted guilty who, while refraining from actual murder, yet thinks in his heart, ' I would, if I dared.' Our neighbour has a claim on us, that we should think and feel justly regarding him ; and wlien this is withheld, we fail to give him liis due. Again, the sin of adultery may be begun and completed by simply looking on a woman to lust after Iter (Mt 5-'). Before the tribunal of the Kingdom, the man is adjudged to liave wronged the woman. The Christian law of justice is embodied in the Golden Rule, ' All things whatsoever ye woiild that men should do to you, do ye even so to them ' (Mt 7'-) ; and also in tlie second of the great commandments, 'Thou shalt love thy neighliour as thyself (Mk 12^'). According to the Golden Rule, we are to regard our fellow-man as an niter ef/o, to put our- selves in his place, and judge his claims or needs and our duties from his point of view (Pli 2''"*). Then the commandment tells us jjositively what
self,' not with
-moral love, which seel
nothing higher than the happiness of its objects. We are to care for him with that holy love which attaches itself to that in him which in ourselves is the legitimate object of our self-love, — the moral self or soul which was created in, and can be restored to, the image of God. It is for His moral perfections that we love God ; and the claims of Christian justice are met, only when our love for others has as its aim their restoration to Godlike- ness (Mt 16'-", Ja 5-", He 13"). The Christian law retjuires us not merely to refrain from doing our neighbour wrong, but to promote, even at the cost of self-sacrifice, his highest well-being as we would our own. For a Christian man to say, ' I have done my neighbour justice, and he has no claim on me for more,' is to prove false to the Christian ideal ; for, in the Kingdom of righteousness, benevolence is not something that may be with- held, but is simply justice made perfect.
Literature. — For meaning of hUocioi and S/» Grimm-Thayer. Ltx. ; Cremer, Bib.-Th. Lex. ; Westcott, Ep. of Jn. 24 f. ; Sanday-Headlam, Rom. 28 ff. See also T. Aquinas, Sum. i., Qii. XXI. ii. 2, Qu. lviil-ixxxi. ; Hodge, Syst. Theol. vol. i. ; the Dogmatics of Martensen and Dorncr ; Ritsehl, Justification and Reconciliation', Moberly, Atonement and Personality, esp. i.-iv. ; Clarke, Outline of Theol. ; Stevens, Chr. Doct. of Salvation ; the Christian Ethics of Martensen (Social), Dorner, Newman Smyth; Luthardt, Hist, of Chr. Ethics ; Wendt, Teaching of Jems. vol. i. ; C. Wagner, Justice ; Seeley, Ecce Homo. In the following works on General Ethics, 'Justice' is, in the main, treated from tlie
point: Hegel, Phil, of Right; Bradlev. Eth. Proleg. to Ethics, also Principles of Polil. ObUg. Introd. to Social Phil.; Seth, Ethical Principles; JIaeterlinck,
Essay on the 'Mystery of Justice' in his Buried Temple [con- tains some fine thoughts, but Agnostic in tone and tendency]. A. BiSSET.
JUSTIFICATION.—
I. Biblical doctrine.
1. The OT and Pharisaic doctrines.
2. The Pauline doctrine. II. Historical.
1. The Catholic doctrine.
2. The Protestant doctrine.
3. Modern theories. III. Constructive treatment.
I. Biblical doctrine. — 1. The OT and Phari- saic doctrines. — The doctrine of j ustification through faith in Christ owes its orinin to St. Paul, and is the outcome of two factors, his Jewish training on the one hand, and his Christian experience on the other. The idea of justification itself was derived by the Apostle from the Rabbinic theology, whose doctrine of justification by the works of the Law is at once the antithesis and the necessary back- ground of his own. The Rabbinic doctrine again rested upon an OT basis. We can trace the de- velopment of the idea of righteousness before God in the prophets, who from the first judge Israel by the standard of the absolutely righteous demands of Jahweh. In the time of Jeremiali and Ezekiel the idea is brought into connexion with the indi- vidual (Jer 20'2, Hab 1^- '^ ^\ Ezk 3-"- =• \»^- 33""'). Further, this age being also that of the development of the Law, whose authors aimed at embodying the demands of Jahweh in a practical form, we find the idea connected with the fulfil- ment either of the Law as a whole (Dt 6-'), or of a single commandment contained in it (24i3). Finally, in the post-exilic period the idea receives a ^eat development. God is characterized as the right- eous Judge (Ps g'-^SO^ 94= 96"' '' etc.), whose righteousness results in the punishment of sinners (p. 6 gi6 116. 6etc.). The actual positive recognition of the righteousness of the righteous is said in Ps 6212 to depend on the Divine grace ; the latter term, however, is practically synonymous with righteousness in its beneficent aspect (33" 36"' ' 48'-'- " 145"). Sinners God can justify so far as they are at bottom righteous (Job 33=*). But the god"less He may not justify (Ps 692'). The general idea is, further, that the recognition of righteous-