Speculum theologiæ in Christo, or, A view of some divine truths which are either…

3. God being Rector and Judg, He must needs carry himself as becomes one of infinite Rectitude and Justice. It is right, that sin should be punished; And shall not the Judg of all the Earth do right? After Man, nay all the Race of mankind, had for many Ages turned Rebels against God, and violated, and, as much as in them lieth, made void his Sacred Laws: After they had by the contempt of their sins despised his Majesty and Sovereignty, and by the turpitude of them offended his Purity and Holiness; should all this pass unpunished, how black would the Consequence be? Would it not be a blot to his Government to nod and let fall the reins of Discipline? a slight to his Law to neglect it as a thing ill-contrived, or unworthy of a Vindication? Would not the great things of the Law appear very small, and the horrible Ataxy of sin a minute inconsiderable nothing? Must not the divine Attributes of Rectitude and Justice be co-sufferers with that Law, upon whose Commands and Comminations their very Image is engraven? Would not the face of things look, as if the moral Foundations, the Differences of good and evil, were shaken and destroyed; as if all things were indifferent, and sin or no sin, were all one to the Holy One? Which way should his infinite hatred and abhorrence of sin be manifested; no more displeasure outwardly appearing at a world of sin, than there would at none at ⟨p. 48⟩all? The total managery of things no way demonstrating Sin to be odious, or Holiness grateful; Obedience failing, and there being nothing vicarious, no Punishment to supply the room of it; How could the order between the Creator and the Creature be preserved? or what would become of that moral dependence and subjection which we owe to our Maker? Doubtless no defect, no jeofail can be in his Sacred Government. His just Anger requires, that Discipline should be kept, Manners corrected, and Licentiousness suppressed. As an Ancient speaks: Man being under a Law,¹ God must needs be Rector; and being such, He cannot choose but act like himself, in a just decorum to his holy Attributes and Law: No blot or irregularity can light upon his Government. Sin, which makes a breach upon the sacred Order, must be reduced in such a punitive way, as may bear witness to his Rectitude and Justice. There are two things in Sin; a Macula, a corrupting Spot; and a Reatus, an obliging Guilt.