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SER M. punishments, as the truth of the cafe and circumstances of the objects require. And in a more enlarged fenfe, it is to do what is right and fit, according to the nature and truth of things. And And in the fame manner it is to be understood with respect to God, only in an infinitely more perfect and excellent degree. Justice must be the fame in kind with God, and among For if it is not the fame we cannot reafon at all about it, nor can we know whether he is poffeffed of any fuch perfections. And in general, all the moral attributes of God muft agree with our notions of moral perfection, or else it is impoffible for us to know whether he is of a moral character or not; and if there is any room to doubt in this cafe, fuch a doubt leads directly to atheism.

men.

In difcourfing farther on this fubject, I fhall endeavour to prove,

I. That God is perfectly just and true ways.

in his

II. To fhow how he exercises this moral attribute among his creatures.

III. To obviate fome difficulties that may be objected to the Justice of his And

government.

Laftly,

Laftly, to draw fome practical infe- SERM,

rences.

I. I am to endeavour to reprefent to you that God is perfectly juft. It is evident, that we naturally think Justice a good difpofition, or habit of mind, from our reflection upon the reasonableness and importance of it. It feems to be the plain dictate of nature, engraven upon the hearts of all men; it is our natural notion of right and wrong, founded upon the reason and truth of things. Now if Justice is our natural perception, it is plain that he who formed our nature, muft have the fame kind of percep tion and sentiments, though in an infinitely more perfect manner. Our minds must be an imperfect tranfcript, or likenefs of his own infinite mind; and therefore God himself must be juft, who has implanted in us thofe notions of Juftice and righteousness. For it is impoffible for us to imagine, that he would have formed our minds contrary to his own nature, and the immutable relation of things. And as God has all knowledge and understanding, he can never be deceived with any any false appearance; he

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muft

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SER M. must always fee things as they are, and VI. according to what is juft and right to be done. Nor can he be biaffed with any wrong affection, with any hopes or fears to draw him aside to any injuftice, because he is all-fufficient and happy in himself, and infinitely beyond the reach of any temptation. And therefore, he must always be juft, and his actions ever conformable to the eternal rules of righteousness and truth.

Again, if we confider God as an infinitely perfect being, who acts always in the most perfect manner, which is our natural notion of him, he must then be abfolutely juft. For it must be allowed, that to be just is a moral perfection, and becomes a reasonable being; and injuftice is the greatest imperfection and depravation of any moral agent; it is to act inconfistently and abfurdly, as a weak and malevolent being: and if fo, it is impoffible that he who is the author of all perfection and goodness, can ever act unjustly; he cannot act contrary to his own excellent nature, he cannot deny himself. So that from reason we may certainly conclude, that God must be just,

and

and there can be no unrighteoufnefs with SER M. him.

And accordingly, we fee that men in all ages, even in the heathen world, have had the same sentiments of him. They have always confidered the fupreme Being, the Father of Gods and men, as he was often ftiled, to be perfectly just. They ever appealed unto him as inflexibly upright, and invoked him as the great Avenger of injuftice and violence. However rude their notions might be of him with regard to fome other things, they always accounted Juftice as his most glorious attribute, by which he was qualified to be the Judge of the world. And even those of them who were the moft ignorant, who imagined a plurality of gods, almoft of equal power and dignity, believed them to be just, and to be revengers of wrong, and defenders of in

nocence.

But in the holy fcriptures, this attribute of the Justice of God is declared in the fullest and strongest manner. In some places he is described, as impartially diftributing Justice among his creatures; Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? fays the patriarch Abraham, Gen. xviii. 25. And

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SER M. And to the fame purpose, says Mofes to

VI.

the Ifraelites, Deut. xxxii. 4. He is a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is be. In other places of fcripture, Juftice is reprefented as effential to his nature, as if it was impoffible for him to do injuftice. Thus in Job xxxiv. 10. it is faid, far be it from God that he should do wickedness, and from the Almighty, that he fhould commit iniquity. And elsewhere, he is called the righteous God. Pfalm vii. The righteous Lord, a juft God, and a Saviour, Pfalm lxxxix. 14. And that Juftice and judgment are the habitation of his throne, Pfalm lxxxix. And our bleffed Saviour himself, calls him the righteous Father, John xvii. From these and many other paffages, which might be tedious to mention, it is plain, that the fcriptures clearly concur with our reafon, to affert that God is perfectly juft, in the fame fenfe in which we understand Juftice among men. And in them indeed, all the divine attributes are defcribed in a manner agreeable to our most accurate reasoning.

The Justice of God in general, being then certain, let us in the