1030 Tux wont.o To COME. justice and equity of God : Surely may some person say; the justice of God will proportion the punishment to the offence; hut since our sins are but the actions of mortal and short lived crea tures, and are committed in a few years of time, why should the punishment be immortal, and the anguish be lengthened out to eternity ? Can a righteous God pronounce such a severe and unjust sentence, and execute it in its full dimensions. Answer. It is not the length of time which wicked men spent in committing their sins ,nor the nature of the persons who have sinned, that determines the measure of punishment, but the dignity of that infinitely glorious Being, against whom sin is Com- mitted, that gives such a high aggravation as to require punish. ment without end. How many instances are there amongst men wherein offenders against their neighbours, or against a magis. trate, who spent but a few moments in the crime, yet are doom- ed to imprisonment for months and years i And a lower degree of trespass against a king, which is short of high - treason, is sometimes punished with confiscation of goods, and with poverty and close imprispnment for life ; and by the same reason, the sins of men being committed against a God of infinite majesty, re. gnirean endless punishment, as I have proved in the second ar. gument : And therefore divine justice pronounces, or inflicts no longer penalty than the crimes of men deserve, according to their aggravations. If any sinners tarry then till they have paid the utmost farthing to divine justice, I grant God will release them, but he has given us no hope before. Objection III. The third objection is drawn from the sovereignity and goodness of God. It is granted, say they, that the threatenings of eternal death are denounced against sinners in scripture, yet it is not necessary God should execute them to the full. When a law is made, the threatenings of it only declare what punishment the offender shall be exposed to, and shall be obliged to bear when it is inflicted ; but these expressions in a law do not oblige the government to inflict that sentence with all its terrors. It is granted, that in the case of promises, truth and veracity oblige the promiser to fulfil them punctually; because the right of the thing promised pas ses over to that other person to whom the promise was made, and he hath such a right to require it, that it is injustice to withhold it from him; and therefore everlasting felicity must be given to the righteous : But` in threatenings the case is other- wise ; for though the full punishment is due to sinners, yet they will never require the execution of it ; and the goodness of God will incline him to relieve the sufferer, and to release him from the severity of such punishment, where his veracity or truth does not forbid it. To this I answer two ways : I. I will not debate this point of law now, how far a gover-
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=