Divine sanction

“ It is not for sinful man to dictate what such terms shall [Pg 7] be. It is for an outraged God to enact, for the transgressor to comply with the command.
Of these conditions, one flows from the infinite holiness of His own nature, namely: contrition or repentance. The other, which is judicial absolution from sin, implying previous confession of it, is imposed by the revealed law of God, and is therefore a divine command obliging all—popes and bishops, priests and people. ”

“ But if the true New Testament conception of the penalty of sin is the eternal death which is the result of the rending of a man away from the Source of life, then the remission of the penalty is precisely identical with the uninterrupted flow of the divine love. ”

“ Even in the awful state of final severance from the Divine presence there is room for assent, order, acceptance of penalty; and so far, evil, in the sense of the will antagonistic to God's righteous Law—may have ceased to exist. Truth will have prevailed ”

“ To make that a sin which God's law does not make sin, is only the next step to ecclesiastical regulations to the level of divine commands, we lower divine commands to the level of ecclesiastical regulations. ”

“ But the other error of making God, or God’s ministers in his behalf, through vengeance of past sins, and not merely for the correction of the offence, insist upon penal satisfactions from those who, with true repentance, and with faith in Christ, have forsaken their sins, as though the vicarial punishment inflicted upon the Son of God were not sufficient to satisfy the Divine vengeance, is left, and must needs be left, untouched. ”

“ Not that God had lost His supreme dominion and power over man, but that He justly delivered him up to be tyrannised over by sin and Satan, as the executioners of the Divine justice, in punishment of having voluntarily left the easy and delightful service of his heavenly Father. ”

“ What is this but absolute rebellion against Divine authority, which must be subdued; and, if it please Him to employ severe and varied afflictions to subdue it, then "why should a living man complain—a man for the punishment of his sins?" "Should we not," says an admired writer, "principally value that which is morally good for us; that which influences and secures our eternal welfare; that by which the safety of the soul is least endangered, and the sanctification of the soul is most promoted!" ”

“ Suppose, then, that a man, abusing his freedom, disobeys the Divine commandments, which are the laws of heavenly order, and falls into sin. By repeated acts of disobedience, he perverts his nature and his tastes, forms evil habits, and sinks into a low and miserable state. ”

“ The divine justice punisheth every sin, either in this world or in the next. A sinner's willingness to undergo any punishment which shall be appointed by the minister of God, in order to make proof of, and to establish his repentance, is a sure sign that God has not withdrawn his grace, notwithstanding his sin. ”

“ So that ever true servant of God is fighting against the servants of sin by simply seeking to bring his life into conformity with His Master’s Will.
III. All neglect of God’s law is a commendation of sin. There are many men who would be ashamed openly to praise a wicked action who yet by their disregard of the Divine requirements encourage open transgressors. For there is no middle way here. Every man is on one side or the other, and all who are not contending with the wicked by obedience are countenancing their evil courses by their own forsaking of the law of God. ”

“ Christ has borne this penalty, and the same Christ has borne the natural penalties, too, and delivered us out of condemnation in every sense. Physical sufferings come to us, but not under the law of retribution, but only as a Divine discipline. Every penalty has been fulfilled by Christ and every law satisfied, and so far as we can have risen with Him into the plane of spiritual and eternal life, we are lifted above the mere realm of law, and we enter into the full effects of His complete satisfaction of every claim against us. ”

“ Almighty God, in commanding us to do penance, remits, in a manner, His own right to punish us, accepting small sacrifices on our part, instead of much more severe chastisements which we would have to suffer, if they were inflicted by His Divine justice. ”

“ The truth is, any sin is against the Divine authority; and he who has committed one transgression is guilty of death; and by his one deliberate act dissolves, as far as he can, the sacred connection that subsists between all the Divine precepts and the obligation which he is under to obey, and thus casts off in effect his allegiance to God. ”

“ Again, if all suffering, however unavoidably incurred, is to be regarded as a punishment from the Divine Legislator, to attempt to alleviate or remove the suffering thus incurred would be to fly in the face of the Divine authority, by endeavoring to set aside the punishment it had inflicted ”

“ And the Bible plainly teaches that a time is approaching when the laws of the state will so conflict with the law of God that whosoever would obey all the divine precepts must brave reproach and punishment as an evil-doer. ”

“ It is evident, that if the government of God requires that no suffering should be inflicted, except as a punishment for sin, then his perfect moral government requires that the punishment should, in all cases, be exactly proportioned to the demerit of those upon whom it falls. ”

“ Only to the first man, then, was the law proposed as a method of salvation. With the first sin, all hope of obtaining the divine favor by perfect obedience is lost. To sinners the law remains as a means of discovering and developing sin in its true nature, and of compelling a recourse to the mercy provided in Jesus Christ. ”

“ In connection with this argument it is urged, that, as it is evident to our senses that sin often escapes a just retribution in this world, it must be recompensed in another state, or divine justice must forever be deprived of its claims. ”

“ But religious sanctions are far more powerful when they are explicit and detailed, as the history of Christianity has shown. And we must remember that the prophetic claims were not always accepted. Religion is usually conservative and more or less conventional. The ritual element plays a considerable part in religious morality. It is as hard to change the people's ideas of God as it is to change their conceptions of justice and goodness. For this reason, I am not convinced that the religious sanction was of much advantage in the evolution of morality. ”

“ Sin is the destitution or privation of correspondence and agreement with the divine law, that law which is the transcript of the divine nature and purity, which contains his will for the government of the world, which is suitable to the rational nature, and enacted for the good of the world, which shows man the way of felicity and peace, and conducts him to the author of his nature and of the law. The current commission of sin now is the rejection of the divine law, and this is the rejection of the divine authority, and consequently of God himself. ”

“ God's decree to permit the sins of men, and bring glory to himself out of them, do neither necessitate their sins, nor determine to them, nor will they be any excuse of the sin, or mitigation of the punishment. ”

“ We can see that the belief in divine rewards and punishments has sometimes been a real power, sometimes seems to have no effect. The character of the sanctions varies with the growth of refinement, advancing from the crude savage and later ideas of physical pains and pleasures to the conception of moral degradation or salvation. ”

“ They give the rein to lust, and practise the sins which have called down judgments upon the heathen.
Those who teach the people to regard lightly the commandments of God, sow disobedience, to reap disobedience. Let the restraint imposed by the divine law be wholly cast aside, and human laws would soon be disregarded. Because God forbids dishonest practices, coveting, lying, and defrauding, men are ready to trample upon His statutes as a hindrance to their worldly prosperity; but the results of banishing these precepts would be such as they do not anticipate. ”

“ But it is not materiall to dispute this matter in more words; for seeing God hath determined that his justice shall take her revenge, if by breach of Covenant she be wronged, he cannot but punish sin according to its desert, neither may he set us free from the same, but so as wronged justice may receive satisfaction. The decree of God is unchangeable, and the sentence of God denounced against sin must stand firme for ever, therefore punishment must be executed, if the commandment be transgressed. ”

“ Non est perpetuum ut id quod justè fiat, non nisi injustè omittatur. as well as justice to punish iniquity: and if God punish iniquity by absolute and naturall necessity, of necessity he must reward obedience: if he punish iniquity without divine constitution, he must reward obedience in the same manner. God may inflict a more mild punishment then sin deserveth, therefore at least he may leave some degree of sin unpunished: as also, it is lawfull for God to men equall in sin, to grant pardon to one, to punish another according to his deserts. ”

“ And now, if you deny the authority and credibility of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, we ask you upon what ground you venture to affirm that God will pardon man's sin. You cannot demonstrate it upon any a priori and necessary principles. You cannot show that the Deity is obligated to remit the penalty due to transgression. You can prove the necessity of the exercise of justice, but you cannot prove the necessity of the exercise of mercy. ”

“ And, if no similar remark has to be made with reference to the religious sanction, it is because, in all the higher forms of religion, the religious sanction is conceived of as applying to exactly the same actions as the moral sanction. What a man himself deems right, that he conceives God to approve of, and what he conceives God as disapproving of, that he deems wrong. ”

“ No License for Sin.—Let it not be supposed, however, that disobedience to divine requirements is or ever can be justifiable. On the contrary, obedience is the great law upon which all blessings are predicated. [16] What was done by our First Parents in an exceptional instance and for a special purpose, constitutes no license for men to commit sin. Adam and Eve, having obeyed God's command to "multiply and replenish," reaped the reward of their obedience. But they had to be punished for their disobedience in the matter of the forbidden fruit. "The wages of sin is death." ”

“ It would be absurd to imagine that the justice of God, which could not be satisfied but by the sufferings of Jesus Christ, and which, notwithstanding these sufferings, doth still condemn to eternal torments the unrepenting sinner — it would be absurd, indeed, to imagine, that his justice should now be appeased by a superficial or outward compliance with this duty, accompanied, perhaps, with insincerity, gross negligence, or a fixed adherence to mortal sin, and therefore destitute of real sorrow, change of heart, and a firm purpose of amendment. ”

“ Men who turn their back upon the living God, and question the Divine authority of His revelation, are sure in time to break loose against their fellows. The commandments which the wicked are here accused of breaking, are all taken from the second table, on which is inscribed man's duty to man, and their violation is traced to the fact of their first alienating their hearts from all allegiance to God and then casting His law behind their back. ”

“ While the divine injunctions, originally traditions of the dead king's will, mainly refer to the destruction of peoples with whom he was at enmity, and divine anger or approval are conceived as determined by the degrees in which subjection to him is shown, directly by worship and indirectly by fulfilling these injunctions. ”

“ It is evident that those who are guided in all they think and do by either love of the Lord, the neighbor, or of obeying the Divine Commandments, need no penal laws or punishments. It is equally evident that men who are actuated by the supreme love of self, vain show, or sensual gratifications must be restrained, in that world as in this, by penal laws and punishments. But we are told that the Lord governs the hells as well as the heavens through His angels, and does not permit vindictive or unjust punishments. ”

“ But if you think154 yourself under obligation to punish, as far as human laws can, the violation of the will of God by these great sins, you are certainly under the same obligation to punish, with proportionately less punishment, the violation of His will in less sins. ”

“ A command is the signification of a desire or wish, accompanied with the power and the purpose to inflict evil if that desire is not complied with. The person so desired is bound or obliged, or placed under a duty, to obey. Refusal is disobedience, or violation of duty. The evil to be inflicted is called a sanction, or an enforcement of obedience; the term punishment expresses one class of sanctions. ”

“ The members of such a society consider that the transgression of a religious ordinance should be punished by civil penalties, and that the violation of a civil duty exposes the delinquent to divine correction. ”

“ But why did He show them the wounds in His hands and side? To make it plain that He bore all the penalty of sin. Some speak about sin as if it were only a mistake, but God says sin is guilt, and that all are guilty, for all have sinned. We have offended against God's holy law, and if any one breaks the law he brings upon himself the penalty. God says, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die;" [Footnote: Ezek. xviii. 20.] so the penalty we deserve is death, everlasting punishment. The penalty must be paid by some one. God's justice demands it. ”