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Untitled Article
demands it , we ask , Why ? Why is God required , for the sake of his justice , to exact from his creatures what he has the right of exacting ? This is not accordant with the notions of justice as entertained among men , there being no kind or degree of injustice in any one ' s foregoing a claim which he might legally have enforced . But this notion of justice is not only opposed to the common understanding of the word , but it would render the Divine
attributes of a jarring and contradictory character ; it would make the justice of God inconsistent with his mercy . The act of mercy is the remission of punishment , the relinquishment of a debt , the forgiveness of the sinner , the pardon of the guilty . And if it be contended that the justice of God requires that , without the offer of an equivalent , the guilty should not be pardoned , —that the sinner should not be forgiven , —that punishment should not be remitted , it is in effect to say , that God is not merciful , that
mercy is no essential part of his nature , is no necessary element in the composition of his character . But so to speak of the justice of God , so to define it as to lead to such absurd and frightful consequences as these , is a manifest proof that we know not what we say , or that what we say is palpably and grossly erroneous . However convenient it may be to the imperfection of our minds to speak of God ' s justice , and truth , and mercy , as distinct attributes , they must all , like the different voices of a chorus ,
now harmoniously into one . Benevolence is the great general principle into which the moral perfections of God may be resolved . This is the fountain of them all , and they are to be regarded as so many rays of light streaming in different directions from the same Mighty Orb . Justice is goodness flowing in one direction ; mercy is goodness moving in another ; and faithfulness is goodness in another still . In God it is just to be merciful , and it is merciful to be just . His perfections do not jar , and strike
one upon another , but go their eternal rounds in perfect concord and delightful harmony . With us it may be otherwise . With beings imperfect in their apprehensions , and narrow in their views , and confined in the range of their knowledge , and liable to be , at all times , imposed upon by artifice and cunning , the one may and does frequently clash with the other . Their interests will be conflicting , and in the conflict a sacrifice must sometimes be made of the one or of the other ; but with the all-perfect and
all-knowing God , who sees all things from the beginning to the end , with all their relations and dependencies , they uniformly go together . To him the claims of justice can never be inconsistent with the claims of mercy . What then becomes of the boasted argument in favour of the Atonement which is derived from the justice of God ? In the first place , it is false in point of fact : God has pardoned the guilty upon their repentance and amendment , as appears from many instances recorded in Scripture . In the second
place , it is false as it respects the Divine declarations and promises . " I , even I , am he , saith the Lord , that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake , and will not remember thy sins . " " Let the wicked forsake his way , and the unrighteous man hs thoughts , and let him return unto the Lord , and he will have mercy upon him , and to our God , for he will abundantly pardon . " And to make a plain thing still plainer , let us attend
to what Isaiah says in another place . " Put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes ; cease to do evil ; learn to do well;—and though your sins be as scarlet , they shall be as white as snow ; though they be red like crimson , they shall be as wool . " The justice of God then—we say it confidently , because we say it under the express authority and sanction of his own word—the justice of God does not require punishment for the
Untitled Article
Review . —Dr . J . P . Smiths ' Discourses . 549
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1828, page 549, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2563/page/37/
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