A supplement to the several discourses upon various divine subjects

2. 'Tis congruous to the holiness of God. God keeps up those punishments as the Rector ⟨p. 82⟩and Governor of the World, to show his detestation of that sin which brought a disorder and deformity upon the Creation, and was the first act of dishonour to God, and the first pollution of the Creature. 'Tis an high vindication of the Holiness and Authority of God, and the Majesty and Purity of his Law, to punish sin in them that are dear to him upon another's righteousness, whereby he evidenceth, that he hates sin in all, and will not wink at it, or approve of it. So he pardoned David, but for the honour of his name, which had been blasphemed by occasion of David's sin, he would leave the smart of it upon his Family, 2 Sam. 12.10, 14.

2. 'Tis congruous to the holiness of God. God keeps up those punishments as the Rector ⟨p. 82⟩and Governour of the World, to shew his detestation of that sin which brought a disorder and deformity upon the Creation, and was the first act of dishonour to God, and the first pollution of the Creature. 'Tis an high vindication of the Holiness and Authority of God, and the Majesty and Purity of his Law, to punish sin in them that are dear to him upon anothers righteousness, whereby he evidenceth, that he hates sin in all, and will not wink at it, or approve of it. So he pardoned David, but for the honour of his name, which had been blasphemed by occasion of David's sin, he would leave the smart of it upon his Family, 2 Sam. 12.10, 14.

3. 'Tis a declaration of his Justice. 'Tis not congruous to the Justice of God not to leave some marks of his anger against that sin, which caused him to be at the expense of his Sons Blood, and is the source of all those evils whereby God is injured, for which the Redeemer bled, and by which the Spirit is grieved. Since Pardon doth not, neither can alter the demerit of sin, but that will continue; and what is once meritoriously a capital crime in its own nature, can never be otherwise; God may for the demonstration of his justice, inflict and continue something upon the creature, though he free him from actual condemnation. We should not be so sensible of the justice of God in the death of Christ, did we not feel some strokes of it upon our selves, nor what the purchase of our redemption did cost our Saviour: What we hear doth not so much affect as what we feel. That which brought disorder into Gods Government of the world, and made him change the Scene of his Providence, may very justly have some signal remark upon it, notwithstanding the Redemption, especially when the fruits of it are not fully complete: For since Man was the immediate end of the creation of this lower world, and since all Creatures were made for the service of Man, that he might be fit for the service of his righteous Creator, he did by his fall violate the order of the Creation, and subjected it to the service of the Devil, a corrupt Creature, and an enemy to God the chief Lord of the World, and so did deprave the order of the universe, and endeavoured to frustrate the end of God, and the end of all the Creatures. 'Tis very rational to think, that tho God out of his infinite compassion would not lose his creature, yet that he should set such a badge upon him, that should make him sensible of a depravation he had wrought in the world.