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save sinners should undergo for them the punishment that was due to them. But because this could not be done by men suffering or enduring punishment, which is a thing in its own nature indifferent, the will and obedience of Christ, in the manner of undergoing it, was also required. This made his priesthood necessary; whereby, whilst he underwent the punishment due to our sins, "he offered himself an acceptable sac"rifice," for their expiation.

§5. What is now distinctly proposed to confirmation, is, "That the justice, or righteousness of God, as "exercised in the rule and government of his rational "creatures, did indispensably and necessarily require, "that sin committed should be punished;" whence ariseth the special nature of the priesthood of Christ. But we shall premise a few observations, which tend to the right explication of the truth.

1. There are some attributes, as the wisdom and power of God, which do not find, but produce the objects of their first actings ad extra. These, therefore, in these actings must needs be absolutely and every way free, being limited and directed only by the sovereign will and pleasure of God. But there are properties of the Divine nature, which cannot act according to their nature, without a supposition of an antecedent object, and that qualified in such or such a manner. Such is his vindictive justice, and pardoning mercy; for if there be no sinners, none can be punished or pardoned.

2. The rule of God's acting from his vindictive justice, is not a mere free act of his will, but the natural dominion and rule which he hath over sinning creatures, in answer to the rectitude and holiness of his own nature. Neither does he punish sin as he can; that is, to the utmost of his power, but as the rule of

his government, and the order of things in the universe disposed to his glory, do require.

3. This justice exerted itself in one signal act antecedent to the sin of man; namely, in the prescription of a pœnal law; that is, in the annexing of the pœnalty of death to the transgression of the law. This God did not merely because he would do so, nor because he could do so; but because the order of all things, with respect to their dependence upon himself, as the Supreme Ruler of all, did so require. For had God only given men a law of the rule of their dependence on, and subjection to him, and not inseparably annexed a penalty to its transgression, it was possible, that man, by sin, might have cast off all his moral dependence on God, and set himself at liberty from his rule. And having broken and disannulled the sole law of his dependence, what should we have had more to do with him? But this case was obviated by the justice of God, in pre-disposing the order of punishment, to succeed in the room of the order of obedience, if that were broken. And that this provision should be made, the nature of God indispensably required.

4. This justice of God, I say, required a punishment of sin, as a punishment; but the way and degree, the time, season, and manner of it; belong to his sovereign will and wisdom; and I say not that God punisheth sin necessarily, as the sun gives out light and heat, or as the fire burns, or as heavy things tend downward by necessity of nature; he doth it freely, exerting his power by a free act of his will. For the necessity asserted doth only exclude an antecedent indifference upon all the suppositions laid down. denies, that on these respects it is absolutely indifferent with God, whether sin be punished, or no. Such

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an indifference, I say, is opposite to the nature, law, truth, and rule of God; and, therefore, such a necessity as excludes it, must herein be asserted. But herein God is a free agent, and acts freely in what he doth. Suppose the determination of his will, and the Divine nature necessarily requireth an acting suitable to itself. It is altogether free to God, whether he will speak to any of his creatures or no; but supposing the determination of his will, that he will so speak, it is absolutely necessary, that he speak truly; for truth is an essential property of his nature; whence he is God, that cannot lie. It was absolutely free to God, whethcr he would create this world or no; but on supposition that he would create it, he could not but create it omnipotently and wisely; for so his nature doth require, because he is essentially omnipotent, and infinitely wise. So there was no absolute necessity in the nature of God, that he should punish sin; but on supposition that he would create man, and would permit him to sin, it was necessary that his sin should be avenged; for this his righteousness and dominion over his creatures did require.

§6. It is objected, "That on the same supposition, "it will be no less necessary that God should pardon "sin, than that he should punish it; for mercy is no less "an essential property of his nature, than justice." But those by whom the substitution of the Son of God to answer Divine Justice is denied, can give no tolerable account, why all are not condemned, seeing God is infinitely righteous; or all are not pardoned, seeing he is infinitely merciful. But the truth is, there is not the same reason of the actual exercise of justice and mercy. For upon the entrance of sin, as it respects the rule of God, the first thing that respects it, is justice, the province of which is, to preserve all things in

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their dependence on God, which without the punishment of sin, cannot be done. But God is not obliged to the exercise of mercy, nor doth the forbearance of such an exercise any way intrench upon the holiness of his nature, or the glory of his rule. It is true, mercy is no less an essential property of God, than justice; but nei-* ther the law, nor the state and order of things wherein they were created, nor their dependence on God, as the Supreme Governor of the whole creation, raise any natural respect, or obligation between mercy and its object. God, therefore, can execute the punishment that his justice requireth, without the least impeachment of his mercy; for no act of justice is contrary to mercy. But absolutely to pardon, where the interest of justice is to punish, is contrary to the nature of God.

But, moreover, we deny that sin and misery do constitute the proper object of mercy. It is required, that every thing contrary to the nature of God in sin, and the sinner, be taken out of the way, or there is no proper object for mercy. Such is the guilt of sin unsatisfied for. And Socinus himself acknowledgeth, that it is contrary to the nature of God to pardon impenitent sinners. And even mercy itself, on the account of an antecedent reconciliation, will be justly exercised..

§7. That it is necessary sin should be punished, or not be absolutely pardoned, without respect to satisfaction given to the rectoral justice of God, appears from the consideration of his holy nature. God, the Ruler of the World, is of so holy a nature, as that he cannot but hate and punish every sin, and, therefore, so to do belongs to his absolute perfection; for what is the purity and holiness of God, but that universal perfection of his nature, which is accompanied with a 43

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displeasure against sin, and a hatred of it, whence he will punish it according to its desert? Heb. i, 13; "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and "canst not look on iniquity." Not to be able to behold iniquity, expresseth the most inconceivable detestation of it. "He cannot," that is, because of the holiness of his nature, to which such an action would be contrary, "look upon;" that is, to pass by, spare, or connive at iniquity; for that is the rule of what God can do, or cannot do. He can do every thing that is not contrary to himself; that is, the essential properties of his nature. He can do nothing that is contrary to, or inconsistent with his truth, holiness, or righteousness.

Hence this holiness of God is sometimes expressed by jealousy, where he would instruct men in his severity, in the punishing of sin, Exod. xx, 5. For the nature of jealousy is not to spare, Prov. vi, 34; nothing but the executing of vengeance will satisfy it. And this is that which God intended in the revelation of himself, which he made by the proclamation of his name before Moses, Exod. xxxiv, 7; "That will by "no means clear the guilty;" namely, for whom no atonement is made. And it is to instruct us herein, that this holiness of God is expressed by fire, Heb. xii, 29; "Our God is a consuming fire." Devouring fire and everlasting burnings, Isa. xxxiii, 14. If we may not learn thence, that as eventually fire will burn any combustible thing that is put into it, so the holiness of God requires, that all sin be as assuredly punished, we know not what to learn from it. If the punishing of sin depend upon a mere free act of the will of God, which might, or might not be without any disadvantage to his nature, there is no reason why his holiness and righteousness should be so often mentioned as

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