Book IV. S I N A D E B T. 88z METAfHO~ DISPAR IT ~ !I. D"bts among Men, are oftI!. God cloth not forgiw Sin, this fpirituai times forgiven, without Payment, Debt, withom a full Payment, or plenary Satif– or Samfaftion made 'for them, faCtion made for it by our Surety : It confifl:eth --eaher by the Debtor, or his Surety. not with Ius Jufl:ice, Honor, nor with the Nature and Purity of his Law, confidering the N acure of Sin itfelf, fo to do : And therefore, what Man is not able ·to do upon this Account, Jelus Chrifl: his bleifed Surety hath done for -him. F irft; To make this appear, or further to manifefl: the Truth of it, it will not be amit· to confidor the Nature of God's Threatenings, I mean, legal Threatenings, which feveral Divines have well diftinguilhed -from l:!.vangdicaL Gofpel, or Evangelical Threatenings, are thofe fatherly Chafrifements, which God denounceth, to keep us within the Bounds of Child-like Obedience; and therefore, God hath not only fignified, b ut the Nature of the Affair requireth, that they lhould be •executed only in.cafe of Need, 1 Pet. i. 6. But legal Threatenings, denounce unmixed and unallayed Curfe':lnd Wrath. Thefe :two widely drfrt:r, not only iruheir Nature, but End. In the firfl:, fuppofe, that the •Bufinefs of the Threarenings be done to God's Hand, without the Execution of them; it clearly follows, that the Obligation of the Believer to them, as they have refpeCl: to fuch an End, drfrolves and ceafeth; that which is God'S'lntcnt by them, being obtained wi[hout them, the Execution of the Threatenings, without the leaft Derogation from cche Truth of God, or Impeachment of his other Properties, may be fufpended. But legal Threatenings being of another Nautre, and having another End; namely. the Vindication of Gq,d's H olinefs and J uftice upon Prifoners and Rebels, they are no -wife diffolvable, but mufr of neceffity be infliCted, that the PerfeCtions and Govern– . ment of God may be vindic>red, and Sin may be revenged. All Sin is a Contempt of God's Amhority and Government, and cafl:s Dirt upon his Glory ; and Punilhment is the vindicating of God's .Honor, in revenge dfEvil ·committed. Let this be noted, that in cafe of fuch a proportionable Satisfaction, by which the Honor "nd Equity of his Law is vindicated, ,his J ufl:ice, 1-:!olinefs, and Hatred of Sin demonflrated, the Ends of Government attained; he may relax and difpenfe with the Threatening, as to the Parry offending, which is the Cafe here: For by executing the Threatenings upon Chrift, and receiving a valuable ConGcleration of Satisfaction from him, he hath given as eminent Demonftration of his Righreoufne!S, Purity, and Hatred' of Sin, and as fully vindicated his Law from Contempt, as if the Offenders themfdves had fuffered; and therefore, by an admirabk mixture of Grace with J uftice, bath re– leafed us. Thefe Things being premited, I re-aifume, faith he, the Argument, namely, That the Truth of God's Threatenings, would not allow him to pardon Sin, and fave Sinners, but upon the Conf1deration of a Satisfaction. Firfl:; God having denounced ·Death, and the Curfe againll: Sin, Gen, ii , 17. Deut. xxvii. '26. the -Veracity and Faithfulnefs of his Narure obliged him to ke it infliCted,: Never any entertained .a Notion of God, bur they included in it that he-fpake Truth. Could ever any Threatening of God, be of awe upon the Confcience of a·Sinner, lhou!d the firfr and great Threatening be made fo eaGiy void? Should it be granted, that not· withfranding God's folemn Denunciation of Wrath, in cafe of Srn, that yet he bath taken the Offender into Favor, and pardoned the Offence without any Satisfaction, or ConGderation at all? What would Creatures imagine, ,but that God either intended his Threatenings for mere Scare-Crow,, or that he were fubjed to Mutability; which Apprehenfion being onceTeceived, what bolclnefs would Men aifume in Sin? believing that the Comminations of the Gofpel, would be no more -executed than thofe of the L-aw: But '" God be true, a11d every Man a LJar. Secondly; To fuppore that God bath abrogated his Threa!ening, is at once to ove"" throw the whole Scripture; for that exprdsly tells us, That not one jtt of the Law ·wtrs to perifo, Matt. v. 18, 'That every Difobedience ,-eceived a jujt Recompence '"f Reward, Heb,•ii. 2. ·See Heb, viii. -z8. and ix. 22, 23. 'Ihat ·withttit Blood there was to be no Remijjiun. Third·ly; 'If the Threatening annexed to the Law·be releafed, it is eirher by virtue of the Law itlelf, or by virtue of the Gofpel. It is not by virtue of the Law; for that was wholly inexorable, requiring either perfeCt and confl:ant Obedience, or de– nouncing unmix-ed and unallayed Wrath, Gal. iii. ro. Nor is it rdeafed by the Gof3 ~·
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