Of GOD'S JUSTICE.

Queft. 1. What is the juftice of God?

Anfw. It is that effential attribute of his nature, whereby he is infinitely righteous and equal in himself, and in all his ways towards his creatures, Deut. xxxii. 4.

Queft. 2. How may the justice of God be confidered? Anfw. Either as it relates to himself, or to rational creatures.

Quest. 3. What is God's juftice as it relates to himSelf?

Anfw. It is his making his own glory the fixed and invariable rule of the whole of his procedure, Ifa. xlii. 8. 2 Tim. ii, 13.

Queft. 4. What is God's justice in relation to rational creatures?

Anju. It is his righteous government of them, according to their nature, and the law he hath given them, Rom. ii. 12, 14, 15.

Queft. 5. How is it ufually diftinguished?

Anfw. Into legislative and diftributive juítice.
Queft. 6. What is legiflative juftice?

Anfw. It is his giving most holy, juft, and good laws to rational creatures, commanding and forbidding them, what is fit for them to do, or forbear, Ifa. xxxiii. 22.

Quest. 7. Hath man a power to give obedience to these laws?

Anfw. He once had power, but by the fall hath loft it, Eccl. vii, 29. Rom iii. 23.

Queft. 8. How doth it confift with the justice of God, to demand that obedience, which man hath not power to give?

Anfw. God cannot lose his right to demand obedience to his laws, though man hath loft his power to give it; especially as man's inability was contracted by his own voluntary apoftacy and rebellion, Gal. iii. 10.

Quest. 9.

Queft. 9. What is God's diftributive justice? Anfw. It is his conftant will, to render to rational creatures their due, according to law, without respect of perfons, Job xxxiv. 11. 1 Pet. i. 17.

Queft. 10. What are the laws, according to which, God will diftribute juftice among men?

Anfu. They are two ; the law of works and the law of faith mentioned Rom. iii. 27.

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Queft. 11. What is understood by the law of works, and the law of faith?

Anfw. By the law of works, is understood the covenant of works; and by the law of faith, the covenant of grace.

Queft. 12. What is due to the finner, in justice, according to the law of works?

Anfw. Death and the curfe; which include all woe and mifery, in time, and through eternity, Rom. vi. 23. Gal, iii. 10.

Queft. 13. What is the finner's due, according to the law of faith?

An/w. Acquittance and acceptance, on account of the furety-righteoufnefs imputed to him, and apprehended by faith, Psalm xxxii. 1, 2. Rom. viii. I. Queft. 14. Is God juft in dealing thus with the ungodly finner who believes in Chrift?

Anfw. Yes his righteoufnefs is declared in fo doing, Rom. iii, 25, 26. Whom God hath fet forth for a propitiation, through faith in his blood, to declare his righteoufnefs,----that he might be just, and the juftifier of him which believeth in Jefus.

Queft. 15. Doth God reward the fincere, though imperfect, obedience of his people to the law, as a rule of life?

Anfw. In keeping of his commandments there is indeed great reward, Pfal. xix. 11.; but then this reward is entirely of free grace, and not of debt : it is not on account of any worth in their obedience, but only on account of what Christ hath merited,

merited, by his obedience to the death, Rom. iv. 4, 5. and xi. 6. 1 Pet. ii. 5.

Queft. 16. How is this kind of justice called?

Anfw. Remunerative or rewarding juftice, Pfal. lviii. 11.-----Verily, there is a reward for the righ

teous.

Quelt. 17. Is not God's taking vengeance on transgreffors, a righteous act of justice?

Anfw. Yes: for every tranfgreffion and difobedience receives a juft recompence of reward, Heb. ii. 2. It is a righteous thing to recompence tribulation to them that trouble you, 2 Theff. i. 6. Hence fays the fame apostle, Rom. iii. 5, 6.-----Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance ?----God forbid for then how fhall God judge the world?

Queft. 18. How is this juftice of God called? Anfw. Vindictive or punishing justice, Acts xxviii. 4.

Queft. 19. What is vindictive justice?

Anfw. It is God's inflicting the punishment upon fin, which is threatened in the law, Gen. ii. 17. Ezek. xviii. 4.

Queft 20. Could God, of his own free will have pardoned fin, without a fatisfaction to his justice?

Anfw. No: for he hath declared, that in forgiving iniquity, tranfgreffion and fin, he will by no means clear the guilty, namely, without a fatisfaction, Exod. xxxiv. 7.

Queft. 21. How do you prove that vindictive, or punishing justice, is effential to God?

Anfw. From the infinite holiness of God, who cannot but hate, and confequently punish fin, Hab. i. 12, 13.; from his faithfulness in the threatening, Gen. ii. 17. Pfal. xcv. 11.; from the remarkable judgments that have been inflicted on finners in this life, Jude ver. 5, 7.; and from the fufferings and death of God's only begotten Son, whom he would furely have fpared, if there had been any

other

other poffible way of pardoning fin, but through his fatisfaction, Matth. xxvi. 42. 2 Cor. v. 21.

Quest. 22. What improvement ought we to make of the juftice of God, as glorified by the fatisfactory death of his own fon?

Anfw. To plead the perfect fatisfaction thereof by the furety, as the honourable channel, in which we expect all mercy and grace to flow plentifully unto us, as the Pfalmift did, Pfalm xxv. 11, For thy NAME'S SAKE, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great.

of GOD'S GOODNESS.

Queft. 1. What is the goodness of God?

Anfw. It is that effential property of his nature, whereby he is infinitely good in himself, and the author and fountain of al good to others, Pfal. cxix. 68.

Quest. 2. How may the goodness of God be diftinguished?

Anfw. Into his abfolute and relative goodness.
Queft. 3. What is his abfolute goodness?

Anfw. It is the effential goodness of his nature, without confidering it as relating to the creatures, Matth. xix. 17.-----There is none good but one, that is God.

Queft. 4. What is his relative goodness?

Anfw. It is the relation that his goodness bears unto the creatures; both in the propenfity of his nature to do them good, and in the actual manifeftation and communication of the bleffings of his bounty unto them, in creation, providence, and redemption, Exod. xxxiii. 19. and xxxiv. 6, 7.

Quelt. 5. How is the goodness of God manifested in the work of creation in general?

Anfw. In giving being to his creatures, when he stood in no need of them, being infinitely happy in himself, though no creature had ever been made;

and

and in making all the creatures very good, Pfal. xvi. 2. Gen. i. 31.

Queft. 6. How is the goodness of God difplayed in the creation of man in particular?

Anw. In making him after his own image; furnishing the world with fuch a variety of creatures for his ufe; giving him dominion over them; and in entering into covenant with him, Gen. i. 27, 28. and ii. 16, 17.

Queft. 7. How is the goodness of God manifefted in his providence?

Anfw. In preferving his creatures, and making bountiful provifion for them, Pfal. cxlv. 9, 15, 16. Queft. 8. How is this goodnefs diftinguished? Anfw. Into common and fpecial goodness. Queft. 9. What is his common goodness?

Anfw. His difpenfing the good things of this life, promifcuously, among his creatures, Matth. v. 45. ---He maketh his fun to rife on the evil and on the good; and fendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. Queft. 10. Is God good even to the wicked who are his enemies?

Anfw. Yes: for he not only provides for them, filling their hearts with food and gladness, Acts xiv. 17.; but exercifes long-fuffering patience towards them, and affords fuch of them, as are within the vifible church, the means of falvation, Rom. ii. 4. Acts xiii. 26.

Queft. 11. What is the fpecial goodness of God? Anfw. It is his diftinguishing love to a certain number of mankind loft, manifefted in their redemption through Chrift, Rev. v. 9.

Queft. 12. Wherein doth the goodness of God ap pear in the work of redemption?

Anfw. Both in the contrivance and execution thereof.

Queft. 13. How doth the goodness of God appear in the contrivance of redemption?

Anfw. In