meaning. A thing may be wise or unwise, expedient or inexpedi- ent, but in no otlier sense right or wrong. Wrong becomes right, and right becomes wrong, as the gi'eater amount of happiness flows from the one or from the other. As this utilitarian theory of mor- als has been banished from the schools of philosophy, it should be banished from systems of theology.
Argument from the Connection between Sin and Misery.
6. The inseparable connection between sin and misery is a reve- lation of the justice of God. That holiness promotes happiness is a revelatioiTof the relation in which God stands to holiness ; and that sin produces misery is no less a revelation of the relation in which He stands to moral evil. This constitution of things depend- ing on the nature and will of God, proves that sin is evil in its own nature, and is punished for its own sake. . The law of God which includes a penalty as well as precepts, is in both a revelation of the nature of God. If the precepts manifest his holiness, the penalty as clearly manifests his justice. If the one is immutable, so also is the other. The wages of sin is death. Death is what is due to it injustice, and what without injustice cannot be withheld from it. If the prevention of crime were the primary end of punishment, then if the punishment of the innocent, the execution, for example, of the wife and children of a murderer, would have a greater restraining influence than the punishment of the guilty murderer, their execution would be just. But this would shock the moral sense of men.
Argument from the Scriptural Doctrines of Satisfaction and Jus- tification.
7. The Scriptural doctrines of satisfaction and justification rest on the principle that God is immutably just, i. e., that his moral excellence, in the case of sin, demands punishment, or expiation. \i The Bible clearly teaches the necessity of satisfaction to justice in/ order to the forgiveness of sin. Christ was set forth as a propitia-^ tion, in oi'der that God might be just in justifying the ungodly. This assumes that it would be unjust, i. e., contrary to moi-al recti- tude, to pardon the guilty without such a propitiation. This neces- sity for a satisfaction is never referred to expediency or to govern- mental considerations. If sin could have been pardoned, without a satisfaction, the Apostle says, Christ is dead in vain. (Gal. ii. 21.) If there could have been a law which could have given life, salvation would have been by the law. (Gal. iii. 21.)
424 PART L — THEOLOGY. [Ch. V. — Divine Attributes.
Moreover, if there is no such attribute in God as justice, as distinci^uished from benevolence, then there can be no such thing as justification. Thex'e may be pardon, as the act of a sovereign remitting a penalty and restoring an offender to favour ; but no such thing as justification, as an act of a judge proceeding according to law and pronouncing the demands of justice satisfied. The Scrip- tures, however, according to the almost unanimous judgment of the Church, pronounce that justification is more than an act of execu- tive clemency. Conscience is not satisfied with mere forgiveness. It is essential to peace with God, that the soul should see that justice is satisfied. This is the reason why the death of Ciirist, why his blood, is so inexpressibly precious in the eyes of his people. AU the experience of the saints is a protest against the principle that expiation is unnecessary, that sin can be pardoned without a satis- faction of justice.
PauVs Argument.
The whole argument of the Apostle in his Epistle to the Ro- mans is founded on the principle that justice, is a divine attribute distinct fronr benevolence. His argument is : God is just. Al) men are sinners. All, therefore, are guilty, ^'. e-, under condem- nation. Therefore no man can be justified, i. e., pronounced not guilty, on the ground of his character or conduct. Sinners cannot satisfy justice. But what they could not do, Christ, the Eternal Son of God, clothed in our nature, has done for them. He has brought in everlasting righteousness, which meets all the demands of the law. All those who renounce theii" own righteousness, and trust to the righteousness of Christ, God justifies and saves. This is the gospel as preached by Paul. It all rests on the assumption that God is just.
The doctrine of the vindicatory justice, which has this clear evidence of its truth, in the moral nature of man, in the religious experience of believers, and in the teaching and doctrines of the Scriptures, has ever been considered as a turning point in theology.
E. Philosophical Views of the Nature of Justice. The teachings of the Scriptures, and the faith of the Church, so far as the divine attributes are concerned, are founded on the assumption that God is a personal Being. It is involved in that assumption, not only that He possesses intelligence and moral character, but that he thinks, feels, wills, and acts. It is, moreover, involved in the idea of personality, that thinking, feeling, willing, and acting in God, are, in all that is essential, analogous to what