N03467:434
Discourses on various important subjects, nearly concerning the great affair of the soul's eternal…
Discourses on various important subjects, nearly concerning the great affair of the soul's eternal salvation, viz. I. Justification by faith alone. II. Pressing into the Kingdom of God. III. Ruth's resolution. IV. The justice of God in the damnation of sinners. V. The excellency of Jesus Christ. : Delivered at Northampton, chiefly at the time of the late wonderful pouring out of the spirit of God there. / By Jonathan Edwards, A.M. Pastor of the Church of Christ in Northampton. ; [Three lines from Deuteronomy]
Boston: printed by S. Kneeland and T. Green, 1738
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Discourse 4: The Justice of GOD in the Damnation of Sinners.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
1. If we consider the infinite Evil, and Heinousness of Sin in general. 'Tis not unjust in God to inflict what Punishment is deserved; because the very Notion of deserving any Punishment is, that it may be justly inflicted: A deserved Punishment and a just Punishment are the same Thing. To say that one deserves such a Punishment, and yet to say that he don't justly deserve it, is a Contradiction; and if he justly deserves it, then it may be justly inflicted.
Every Crime or Fault deserves a greater or lesser Punishment, in Proportion as the Crime it self is greater or less. If any Fault deserves Punishment, then so much the greater the Fault, so much the greater is the Punishment deserved. The faulty Nature of any Thing, is the formal Ground and Reason of its Desert of Punishment; and therefore the more any Thing hath of this Nature, the more Punishment it deserves. And therefore the Terribleness of the Degree of Punishment, let it be never so terrible, is no Argument against the Justice of it, if the Proportion does but hold, between the Heinousness of the Crime, and the Dreadfulness of the Punishment. So that if there be any such Thing as a Fault infinitely Heinous, it will follow that 'tis just to inflict a Punishment for it, that is infinitely dreadful.
A Crime is more or less Heinous, according as we are under greater or lesser Obligations to the contrary. This is self-evident, because it is herein that the Criminalness, or Faultiness of any Thing consists, that it is contrary to what we are obliged or bound to, or what ought to be in us. So the Faultiness of one Beings hating another, is in Proportion to his Obligation to love him: The Crime of one Beings despising, and casting Contempt on another, is proportionably more or less Heinous as he was under greater or lesser Obligations to honour him: The Fault of disobeying another, is greater or less, ⟨p. 197⟩