Section 9: God is Just, there is no Unrighteousness in him.

Book 2 Part 1 Chapter 2 Section 9 (p. 46-47)
God is Just, there is no Unrighteousness in him.

It is a very important Question of the Apostle; "Is there Unrighteousness with God? how then should he judg the World?" Shewing the dreadful absurdity of not believing God to be Righteous altogether, an Opinion too common among Men.

1. This Justice or Righteousness whereof we now speak, must not be taken as a thing only attributed unto God, but as that which is essential to him, and without which he would cease to be God. Dan. 9.7. "O Lord, Righteousness belongeth unto thee. - Abscribe ye Righteousness unto our God." Our Blessed Saviour gives this Appellation to his Father with great solemnity, John 17.25. "O Righteous Father." And so do the Holy Angels, Rev. 16.5. "Thou art Righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be."

2. His Righteousness is and shall be best known by his Judgments; For wilst he suffereth long, Evil Men say in their Heart, the Lord will not do Good, neither will he do Evil: And God knowing their Thought, detects them, Psal. 50. "These things hast thou done, and I kept silent; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thy self; but I will reprove thee, and set thy sin in order before thine eye. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver." And thus is the Lord known by the Judgment which he executeth. "Yea, the Heavens shall declare his Righteousness, for God is Judg himself," Psalm. 50.6.

3. In that we say there is nothing Unrighteous in him, we hold that Unrighteousness had no being from God, being indeed a privation, as the shutting out of Light causeth Darkness; but there is no privation in God, he is the same yesterday, to day, and for ever. The Righteousness of Men is mutable, it being no part of their Essence or Being; but in God to be Righteous, is the same as to be God, and therefore he is called Righteousness it self, "the Lord our Righteousness". Like it is truly said, That "God is Light, and in him is no Darkness at all," 1 John 1.5.