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affirm tfhat a tId&g is righto , because God dotft M / - y £ t lt < to equally true that he doth it ? fefcfr # & £ fcis right . " Tit <»» rto he is litidfcr - no law Without himself / yet Mh ^ th ft law in his own riattu * e ^?* Thus ^ asju&t observed * we cannot suppose , upon the principle of mere justice only , that he would suffer &a innocent beirtg , br ( if you dislike the term )
a rational bemg m a state of positive favour with his Maker , to Be long under oppression , torment and misery , without some remuneration here or hereafter . This would be utterly incompatible with all our ideas of divine justice . .-. ) :. And in this' view * the life , death ,
resurrection and glorification of tfur Saviour Jesus Christ , furnish a striking ^ and important argument . Our Lord was not impeccable , or incapable of sinning , for then he could have had no merit ; but he was immaculate , or
never did actually transgress . He never committed any act which had the formal nature or essence of guilt . He was subject to every human infirmity , and €€ in all things tempted as we are , yet without sin . " u Other saints may possibly have excelled him in the
exercise of particular virtues : John Baptist was a greater mortifier than Jesus himself ; and if we observe his ; whole history , though without sin , yet the instances of his piety were the actions of a very holy , but of an ordinary ^* ( imitable ) ' * life . The lives of some in
ecclesiastical history seem told rather to amaze and to create scruples than to lead us in the evenness and serenity of a holy conscience ; and they appear to be represented holy by way of idea
and fancy , if not to promote the interest of a particular family or institution ; buf our Lord , in his external actions , where alone he is imitable ; did so converse with men , that they , after his example , might for ever coriverse with him . Some have had ^
excreseeneies and eruptions of holiness in uncommanded duties , which , in the same particulars , we find not in the life of Christ ; but here is the distinction — they that have done the most beyond have also done some short of their auty . In the greatest flames of their shining virtues they prevaricated something of the commandment ; but no man ever
* WUheart .
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did his whale duty , save only the holy Jesus . ** * . hi Hejiee it is worthy of remark , that in all the personal prayers of Christ upon record , though we meet with
every other essential requisite of prayer —• humility , adoration , submission , pe * tition , ana thanksgiving ; yet we never rneet with the smallest allusion to that which always constitutes an essential
part m our prayers—confession of sin > r for he had no sins to confess . ¦ . ; - Having thus briefly considered the - remunerative Justice of the Deity * ais eminently exemplified in the person of our Saviour , we shall offer a few more remarks on his punitive , or , as commonly termed ,-his vindictive justice . -
It will be acknowledged by alV < ** already observed * ( except by the gloomy advocate of unconditional reprobation , ) that this phrase can be applied to the Deity only figuratively , and that we ? had better use the term vindicative
than vindictive ; rage , hatred and rer venge being the most abominable and detestable passions that we can in \ a * gine in men or devils , which we cannot for a moment suppose in the idea of a , n angel , and which are infinitel y impossible to be regarded as subsisting in the Divinity , before whom «• the
heavens are not clean , and who chargeth even his angels with folly . " "Vengeance is mine , and I will repay , saith the Lord , " is urged by St . Paul , as a reason for not avenging ourselves , be ,, cause God alone is the proper judge of actions , Rom . xii . ; as if he had said ,. You are incompetent judges of men ' s hearts , and of , the motives of their
conduct ; resist , therefore , every tendency to a spirit of malice or revenge ; leave the punishment of the delinquent to God , who alone knows when and where and how to punish , and who will finally do you ample justice ; for 1 }® hath said , speaking after the manner of ; men , " Vengeance ia mine , and I
will repay . " Do you , therefore , " give place unto wrath , ? ' and € e overcome evil with good / ' and thus you will fulfil the enigmatical advice of the wise m aa * and " heap coals of fire '' upon the heads of your enemies 5 you will either be fully satisfied of the Divine equity in their puqisliment , or melt them down into another temper and
dispo-* Bishop Taylor ' s Life of-ChrinU
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Mvdern * Orthotitifc * Notion af Future PunUhment :. 463
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1820, page 463, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2491/page/19/
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