JUSTICE OF GOD. 



35 



the fear of some evil or disadvantage which may 

 arise from the impartial distribution of justice; 

 from the idea of some imaginary good of which 

 they might be deprived ; from some mental de 

 fect incident to the present state of humanity ; 

 from some prejudice against the individuals to 

 wards whom justice ought to be administered ; 

 or from the indulgence of some cruel and de 

 praved dispositions. But none of these causes 

 or motives can exist in the mind of the All-per 

 fect and infinite Creator. His comprehensive 

 eye takes in, at one glance, all the circumstances, 

 even the most minute, on which a righteous de 

 cision depends ; he is no &quot; respecter of per 

 sons ;&quot; he can indulge no malevolent disposi 

 tions ; he can expect no accession of enjoyment 

 from an act of injustice ; he has nothing to fear 

 from the execution of his decisions ; his power is 

 all-sufficient to bring them into full effect, at the 

 time, and in the manner, which is most condu 

 cive to the happiness of the universe ; and his be 

 nevolence, which is displayed throughout all his 

 works, effectually prevents him from withholding 

 good, or inflicting evil, beyond the desert of the 

 subjects of his government. 



This character of the Deity is amply exhibit 

 ed and confirmed in the declarations of Sacred 

 Scripture, where it is asserted, that &quot; He is a 

 God of truth, and without iniquity ; just and 

 right is he.&quot; &quot; Thou art just,&quot; says Nehemiah, 

 li in all that is brought upon us ; for thou hast 

 done right, but we have done wickedly.&quot; &quot; Shall 

 mortal man be more just than God? Surely God 

 will not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty 

 pervert judgment. Wilt thou condemn Him 

 that is most just? Is it fit to say to a king, 

 Thou art wicked ; or to princes, Ye are ungod 

 ly ? How much less to him who accepteth not 

 the persons of princes, nor regardeth the rich 

 more than the poor?&quot; &quot; The righteous Lord 

 loveth righteousness; he shall judge the world in 

 righteousness; he shall minister judgment to the 

 people in uprightness. Justice and judgment 

 are the foundation of his throne. The Lord our 

 God is righteous in all his works which he 

 doth.&quot; &quot; I am the Lord who exercise judgment 

 and righteousness in the earth.&quot; &quot; God is not 

 unrighteous to forget your work and labour of 

 &amp;gt;ove which ye have showed towards his name. 

 Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God 

 Almighty ; just and true are thy ways, thou King 

 of saints.&quot; The equitable laws which he has pro 

 mulgated to his creatures ; the justice he re 

 quires to be exercised by one man to another ; 

 his promises of reward, and his threatenings of 

 punishment; and the impressive judgments 

 which he has executed on individuals, on nations, 

 and on the world at large, all bear testimony to 

 the existence of perfect rectitude in the divine 

 character. 



But, although Scripture and Reason combine 

 in attesting the immutable justice of God, we are 



unable, in many instances, to trace the display 

 of this perfection in his dispensations towards the 

 inhabitants of our world. This is owing, in part, 

 to the false maxims by which we form a judgment 

 of his procedure ; to the limited views we are 

 obliged to take of the objects of his government; 

 to the want of a comprehensive knowledge of the 

 whole plan of his dispensations, and the ends to 

 be effected by them ; to the limited views we 

 have acquired of the whole range of his univer 

 sal dominions ; and to our ignorance of the rela 

 tions which may subsist between our world and 

 the inhabitants of other provinces of the divine 

 Empire. We behold many of &quot; the excellent of 

 the earth,&quot; pining in the abodes of poverty, and 

 almost unnoticed by their fellow-men ; while we 

 behold the wicked elevated to stations of power, 

 and encircled with riches and splendour. From 

 a false estimate of true enjoyment, we are apt 

 to imagine, that misery surrounds the one, and 

 &quot;that happiness encircles the other; and that 

 there is an apparent act of injustice in these dif 

 ferent allotments ; whereas, God may have placed 

 the one in the midst of worldly prosperity as a 

 punishment for his sins, and the other in obscu 

 rity, as a stimulus to the exercise of virtue. We 

 behold a man of piety and benevolence falling 

 before the dagger of an assassin, who escapes 

 with impunity : we are startled at the dispensa 

 tion, and confounded at the mystery of provi 

 dence, and are apt to exclaim, &quot; Is there not a 

 God that judgeth in the earth ?&quot; But, we are ig 

 norant of the relation which such an event bears 

 to the general plan of the divine government 

 of the links in the chain of events which preced 

 ed it, and of those which shall follow in its train. 

 We are ignorant of the relation it bears to par 

 ticular families and societies, or to the nation at 

 large in which it happened, and even to all the 

 nations ol the earth. An event apparently trivial, 

 or mysterious, or, according to our views, un 

 just, may, for aught we know, form an essential 

 link in that chain of events which extends from 

 the commencement of time to its consummation, 

 which runs through a thousand worlds, and 

 stretches into the depths of eternity. We all 

 know, that some of the most appalling scenes of 

 terror and destruction have often proceeded from 

 an apparently trivial accident, and that events of 

 the greatest importance have originated from 

 causes so inconsiderable as to be almost over 

 looked. The British and Foreign Bible Socie 

 ty, which now engages the attention of the whole 

 mass of the Christian world, and whose be 

 neficent effects will soon extend to the remotest 

 corners of the world, derived its origin from a 

 casual conversation between a few obscure indi 

 viduals, on the subject of distributing the Scrip 

 tures. And the apparently trivial circumstance, 

 of observing that a certain mineral substance, 

 when left free to move itself, uniformly pointo 

 towards the north, has been the means, not onln 



