Continuing our reading of Thomas Watson's A Body of Divinity, in the second section, God and His Creation, Part 7, The Holiness of God. The next attribute is God's holiness, Exodus 15, 11, glorious in holiness. Holiness is the most sparkling jewel of His crown. It is the name by which God is known. Psalm 111 verse 9, holy and reverend is His name. He is the Holy One. Job 6.10, seraphims cry, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory. Isaiah 6.3, His power makes Him mighty. His holiness makes Him glorious. God's holiness consists in his perfect love of righteousness and abhorrence of evil, of purer eyes than to behold evil and cannot look upon iniquity, Habakkuk 113. First, God is holy intrinsically. He is holy in His nature. His very being is made up of holiness, as light is of the essence of the sun. He is holy in His word. The word bears a stamp of His holiness upon it, as the wax bears an impression of the seal. Thy word is very pure. Psalm 119, 140. It is compared to silver refined seven times in Psalm 12, verse 6. Every line in the Word breathes sanctity. It encourages nothing but holiness. God is holy in His operations. All He does is holy. He cannot act but like Himself. He can no more do an unrighteous action than the sun can darken. The Lord is holy in all His works, Psalm 145, 17. Second, God is holy primarily. He is the original and pattern of holiness. Holiness began with Him, who is the Ancient of Days, Third, God is holy efficiently. He is the cause of all that is holiness in others. Every good and perfect gift comes from above, James 117. He made the angels holy. He infused all holiness into Christ's human nature. All the holiness we have is but a crystal stream from this fountain. We borrow all our holiness from God. As the lights of the sanctuary were lighted from the middle lamp, so all the holiness of others is a lamp lighted from heaven. I am the Lord which sanctify you, Leviticus 28. God is not only a pattern of holiness, but He is a principle of holiness. His spring feeds all our cisterns. He drops His holy oil of grace upon us. Fourth, God is holy transcendently. There is none holy as the Lord, 1 Samuel 2.2. No angel in heaven can take the just dimensions of God's holiness. The highest seraphim is too low of stature to measure these pyramids. Holiness in God is far above holiness in saints or angels. First, it is above holiness in saints. It is pure holiness. The saints' holiness is like gold in the ore, imperfect. Their humility is stained with pride. He that has most faith needs pray, Lord, help my unbelief. But the holiness of God is pure, like wine from the grape. It has not the least dash or tincture of impurity mixed with it. It is a more unchangeable holiness. Though the saints cannot lose the habit of holiness, for the seed of God remains, yet they may lose some degrees of their holiness. Thou hast left thy first love. Grace cannot die, yet the flame of it may go out. Holiness in the saints is subject to ebbing, but holiness in God is unchangeable. He never lost a drop of His holiness, as He cannot have more holiness because He is perfectly holy, so He cannot have less holiness because He is unchangeably holy. Second, the holiness of God is above the holiness of angels. Holiness in the angels is only a quality which may be lost, as we see in the fallen angels, but holiness in God is his essence. He is all over holy, and he can as well lose his Godhead as his holiness. But you say, is he not privy to all the sins of men? How can he behold their impurities and not be defiled? God sees all the sins of men but is no more defiled with them than the sun is defiled with the vapors that rise from the earth. God sees sin not as a patron to approve it, but as a judge to punish it. Use one. Is God so infinitely holy? Then see how unlike to God sin is. Sin is an unclean thing. It is hyperbolically evil, Romans 1.23. It is called an abomination in Deuteronomy 7.25. God has no mixture of evil in Him. Sin has no mixture of good, it is the spirit and quintessence of evil. It turns good into evil. It has deflowered the virgin soul, made it red with guilt and black with filth. It is called the accursed thing in Joshua 7.11. No wonder, therefore, that God hates sin, being so unlike to Him, nay, so contrary to Him. It strikes it as holiness. It does all it can to spite God. If sin could help it, God should be God no longer. Use 2. Is God the Holy One, and is holiness His glory? How impious are they that are haters of holiness! As the vulture hates perfume, so they hate the sweet perfume of holiness in the saints. Their hearts rise against holiness, as a man's stomach at a dish he has an antipathy against. There is not a greater sign of a person devoted to hell than to hate one for the thing wherein he is most like God. Others are despisers of holiness. They despise the glory of the Godhead, glorious in holiness. The despising holiness is seen in deriding it. And is it not sad that men should deride that which should save them? Sure that patient will die who derides the physic. Deriding the grace of the Spirit comes near to despising the Spirit of Grace. Scoffing Ishmael was cast out of Abraham's house, Genesis 21.9, such as scoff at holiness shall be cast out of heaven. Use 3. Is God so infinitely holy? Then let us endeavor to imitate God in holiness. Be ye holy, for I am holy, 1 Peter 1.16. There is a twofold holiness, a holiness of equality and a holiness of similitude. A holiness of equality no man or angel can reach to, who can be equally holy with God, who can parallel Him in sanctity. But there is a holiness of similitude, and that we must aspire after, to have some analogy and resemblance of God's holiness in us, to be as like Him in holiness as we can. Though a taper does not give so much light as the sun, yet it resembles it. We must imitate God in holiness. You say, if we must be like God in holiness, where in does our holiness consist? In two things. In our suitableness to God's nature and in our subjection to His will. Our holiness consists in our suitableness to the nature of God. Hence the saints are said to partake of the divine nature, which is not partaking of his essence, but his image, in 2 Peter 1.4. Herein is the saints' holiness when they are the lively pictures of God. They bear the image of God's meekness, mercifulness, heavenliness. They are of the same judgment with God, of the same disposition. They love what he loves and hate what he hates. Our holiness consists also in our subjection to the will of God. As God's nature is the pattern of holiness, so His will is the rule of holiness. It is our holiness when we do His will, Acts 13.22, when we bear His will, Micah 7.9, when what He inflicts wisely we suffer willingly. Our great care should be to be like God in holiness. Our holiness should be qualified as God's. As his is a real holiness, ours should be righteousness and true holiness. Ephesians 4.24 It should not be the paint of holiness, but the life thereof. It should not be like the Egyptian temples, beautified without merely, but like Solomon's temple, gold within. Psalm 45.13 The king's daughter is all glorious within. Then I may press you to resemble God in holiness. Consider first how illustrious every holy person is. He is a fair glass in which some of the beams of God's holiness shine forth. We read that Aaron put on the garments for glory and beauty in Exodus 28 too. When we wear the embroidered garment of holiness, it is for glory and beauty. A good Christian is ruddy, being sprinkled with Christ's blood, and white, being adorned with holiness. As the diamond to a ring, so is holiness to the soul that, as Chrysostom says, that oppose it cannot but admire it. Secondly, it is the great design God carries on in the world to make a people like himself in holiness. What are all the showers of ordinances for but to rain down righteousness upon us and to make us holy? What are the promises for but to encourage holiness? What is the sending of the Spirit into the world for, but to anoint us with the Holy Unction? 1 John 2.20 What are all the afflictions for, but to make us partners of God's holiness? Hebrews 12.10 What are mercies for, but lodestones to draw us to holiness? What is the end of Christ dying, but that His blood might wash away our unholiness? who gave himself for us to purify into himself a peculiar people, Titus 2.14, so that if we are not holy we cross God's great design in the world. Third, our holiness draws God's heart to us. Holiness is God's image, and God cannot choose but love His image where He sees it. A king loves to see his effigies upon a piece of coin. Thou lovest righteousness, Psalm 145.7. And where does righteousness grow but in a holy heart? Isaiah 62, 4, Thou shalt be called Hephzibah, for the Lord delighteth in thee. It was her holiness that drew God's love to her. They shall call them the holy people, verse 12. God values not any by their high birth, but their holiness. Fourthly, holiness is the only thing that distinguishes us from the reprobate part of the world. God's people have His seal upon them. The foundation of God standeth sure having this seal. The Lord knoweth them that are His, and let all that name the name of Christ depart from iniquity. 2 Timothy 2.19 The people of God are sealed with a double seal. Election the Lord knows who are His, and sanctification let everyone depart from iniquity. As a soldier distinguished from another by his wearing of rank, as a virtuous woman is distinguished from a harlot by her chastity, so holiness distinguishes between the two seeds. All that are of God have Christ for their captain, and holiness is the white color they wear. Fifthly, holiness is our honor. Holiness and honor are put together in 1 Thessalonians 4, 4. Dignity goes along with sanctification. He hath washed us from our sins in his blood and hath made us kings unto God, Revelation 1, 5. When we are washed and made holy, then we are kings and priests to God. The saints are called vessels of honor. They are called jewels for their sparkling holiness, because filled with wine of the Spirit, This makes them earthly angels. Sixthly, holiness gives us boldness with God. Thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles, and shalt lift up thy face unto God. Job 22, 23, and 26. Lifting up the face is an emblem of boldness. Nothing can make us so ashamed to go to God as sin. A wicked man in prayer may lift up his hands, but he cannot lift up his face. When Adam had lost his holiness, he lost his confidence, he hid himself, but the holy person goes to God as a child to its father. His conscience does not upbraid him with allowing any sin, therefore he can go boldly to the throne of grace and have mercy to help in time of need." Hebrews 4.16. Seventhly, holiness gives peace. It raises a storm in the conscience, as it is said, where there is sin there is tumult. There is no peace to the wicked. Isaiah 57.21. Righteousness and peace are put together. Holiness is the root which bears this sweet fruit of peace. Righteousness and peace kiss each other. Eighthly, holiness leads to heaven. It is the king of heaven's highway, and the highway shall be there, and it shall be called the way of holiness, Isaiah 35.8. At Rome there were temples of virtue and honor, and all were to go through the temple of virtue to get to the temple of honor. So must we go through the temple of holiness to the temple of heaven. Glory begins in virtue. Who hath called us to glory and virtue, 2 Peter 1.3? Happiness is nothing else but the quintessence of holiness. Holiness is glory militant, and happiness, holiness triumphant. You ask, what shall we do to resemble God in holiness? First, have recourse to Christ's blood by faith. This is called the washing of the soul. Legal purifications were types and emblems of it. 1 John 1, 7. The Word is a mirror to show us our spots, and Christ's blood is a fountain to wash them away. Secondly, pray for a holy heart. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Psalm 51 10. Lay thy heart before the Lord, and say, Lord, my heart is full of leprosy. It defiles all it touches. Lord, I'm not fit to live with such a heart, for I cannot honor thee, nor die with such a heart, for I cannot see thee. O, create in me a clean heart. Send thy spirit unto me, into me, to refine and purify me, that I may be a temple fit for thee, the holy God, to inhabit. Thirdly, walk with them that are holy. He that walketh with the wise shall be wise. Proverbs 13 20 Be among the spices and you will smell of them. Association begets assimilation. Nothing has a greater power and energy to affect holiness than the communion of saints. Part 8 The Justice of God The next attribute is God's justice. All God's attributes are identical and are the same with his essence, though he has several attributes whereby he is made known to us, yet he has but one essence. A cedar tree may have several branches, yet it is but one cedar, so there are several attributes of God whereby we conceive of him, but only one entire essence. Well, then, concerning God's justice, Deuteronomy 32, 4, just and right is He. Job 37, 23, touching the Almighty, we cannot find Him out. He is excellent in plenty of justice. God is said to dwell in justice. In the 89th Psalm, verse 14, justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne. In God, power and justice meets. Power holding the scepter, justice holding the balance. Point one, what is God's justice? Justice is to give everyone his due. God's justice is the rectitude of his nature whereby he is carried to the doing of that which is righteous and equal. Proverbs 24, 12, Shall not he render to every man according to his works? God is an impartial judge, he judgeth the cause. Men often judge the person but not the cause, which is not justice but malice. Genesis 18.21, I will go down and see whether they have done according to the cry which has come up unto me. When the Lord is upon a punitive act, he weighs things in the balance, he does not punish rashly, he does not go in the way of a riot, but a circuit against offenders. Concerning God's justice I shall lay down these six positions. 1. God cannot but be just. His holiness is the cause of His justice. Holiness will not suffer Him to do anything but what is righteous. He can no more be unjust than He can be unholy. 2. God's will is the supreme rule of justice. It is the standard of equity. His will is wise and good. God wills nothing but what is just, and therefore it is just because He wills it. 3. God does justice voluntarily. Justice flows from His nature. Men may act unjustly because they are bribed or forced. God will not be bribed because of His justice. He cannot be forced because of His power. He does justice out of love to justice. Psalm 45 verse 7, Thou lovest righteousness. Four, justice is the perfection of the divine nature. Aristotle says justice comprehends in it all virtues. To say God is just is to say he is all that is excellent. Perfections meet in him as lines in a center. He is not only just, but justice itself. 5. God never did nor can do the least wrong to his creatures. God's justice has been wronged but never did any wrong. God does not go according to the rigor of the law. He abates something of his severity. He might inflict heavier penalties than he does. Thou hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, Ezra 9.13. Our mercies are more than we deserve and our punishment less. 6. God's justice is such that it is not fit for any man or angel to expostulate with him or demand a reason of his actions. God has not only authority on his side, but equity. He lays judgment to the line and righteousness to the plummet, Isaiah 28.17. It is below him to give an account to us of his proceedings. Which of these two is more fit to take place? God's justice or man's reason? Romans 9.20 Who art thou, O man, that replyest against God? The plumb line of our reason is too short to fathom the depth of God's justice. Romans 11.33 How unsearchable are his judgments! We are to adore God's justice where we cannot see a reason of it. Point two, God's justice runs in two channels. It is seen in two things, the distribution of rewards and punishments. First in rewarding the virtuous, Psalm 5811, verily there is a reward for the righteous. The saints shall not serve him, for not he will reward, though they may be losers for him, they shall not be losers by him. God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love which you have showed to his name, Hebrews 6.10. He gives a reward not because we have deserved it, but because he has promised it. Second, he is just in punishing offenders. He is just, first, because he punishes sinners by a law. Well, there is no law, there is no transgression, Romans 4.15, but God has given men a law and they break it. Therefore he punishes them justly. Second, God is just in punishing the wicked because he never punished them but upon full proof and evidence. What greater evidence than for a man's own conscience to be witness against him. There is nothing God charges upon a sinner, but conscience sets its seal to the truth of it. Use 1. See here another flower in God's crown. He is just and righteous. He is the exemplar and pattern of justice. You ask, but how does it seem to stand with God's justice that the wicked should prosper in the world? Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? Jeremiah 12.1 This has been a great stumbling and has led many to question God's justice, such as our highest in sin, our highest in power. Diogenes, seeing Harpalus, a thief, go on prosperously, said, Sure God hath cast off the government of the world, and mindeth not how things go on here below. First, the wicked may be sometimes instruments to do God's work, though they do not design His glory, yet they may promote it. Cyrus in Ezra the first chapter, verse 7, instrumental in the building of God's temple in Jerusalem. There is some kind of justice that they should have a temporal reward. God lets those prosper under whose wing his people are sheltered. God will not be in any man's debt. who hath kindled a fire on my altar for naught." Malachi 1.10. Second, God lets men go on in sin and prosper that He may leave them more inexcusable. I gave her space to repent of her fornication. Revelation 2.21. God adjourns the sessions, spins out His mercies toward sinners, and if they repent not, His patience will be a witness against them, and His justice will be more cleared in their condemnation. that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and to be clear when thou judgest." Psalm 51 verse 4. Third, God does not always let the wicked prosper in their sin. Some He punishes openly that His justice may be taken notice of. The Lord is known by the judgment which He executeth. Psalm 9 verse 16, that is, His justice is seen in striking men dead in the very act of sin. Thus he struck Zimri and Cosby in the act of uncleanness. Fourth, if God lets men prosper a while in their sin, His vial of wrath is all this while filling, His sword is all this time wetting, And though God may forbear men a while, Yet long forbearance is no forgiveness. The longer God is in taking his blow, the heavier it will be at last. As long as there is eternity, God has time enough to reckon with his enemies. Justice may be as a lion asleep, but at last the lion will awake and roar upon the sinner. Do not Nero and Julian and Cain now meet with God's justice? But God's own people, you ask, suffer great afflictions. They are injured and persecuted. All the day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning. Psalm 73, 14. How does this stand with God's justice? First, that is a true rule of Austin, who said God's ways of judgment are sometimes secret, but never unjust. The Lord never afflicts His people without a cause, so that He cannot be unjust. There is some good in the godly, therefore the wicked afflict them. There is some evil in them, therefore God afflicts them. God's own children have their blemishes. Are there not with you, even with you, sins against the Lord? 2 Chronicles 28.10 These spiritual diamonds, have they no flaws? Do we not read of the spots of God's children? Deuteronomy 32.5 Are not they guilty of much pride, censoriousness, passion, worldliness? Though by their profession they seem to resemble the birds of paradise to fly above and feed upon the dew of heaven, yet as the serpent they lick the dust. And these sins of God's people do more provoke God than others, because of the provoking of His sons and daughters. Deuteronomy 32.19 The sins of others pierce Christ's side, these wound His heart. Therefore is not God just in all the evils that befall them? You only have I known of all the families of the earth. Therefore I will punish you for your iniquities." Amos 3, 2. I will punish you sooner, surer, sorer than others. Second, the trials and sufferings of the godly are to refine and purify them. God's furnace is in Zion, Isaiah 31.9. Is it any injustice in God to put His gold into the furnace to purify it? Is it any injustice in God by afflicting His people to make them partakers of His holiness, Hebrews 12.10? What more proclaims God's faithfulness than to take such a course with them as may make them better? In faithfulness thou hast afflicted me, Psalm 119, 75. Third, what injustice is it in God to inflict a less punishment and prevent a greater? The best of God's children have that in them which is meritorious of hell. Does God do them any wrong if He uses only the rod where they have deserved the scorpion? Is the father unjust if he only corrects his child who has deserved to be disinherited? If God deals so favorably with His children, He only puts wormwood in their cup, whereas He might put fire and brimstone. They should rather admire His mercy than complain of His injustice. How, you ask, can it stand with God's justice that all men being equally guilty by nature, he should pass by one and save another? Why does he not deal with all alike? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid, Romans 9.14, doth the Almighty pervert justice, Job 8.3. First, God is not bound to give an account of His actions to His creatures. If nuns may say to a king, What doest thou, Ecclesiastes 8.4, much less to God. It is sufficient. God is Lord paramount. He has a sovereign power over His creatures, therefore can do no injustice. Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel to honor and another to dishonor, Romans 9.21? God has liberty in His own breast to save one and not another, and His justice is not at all impeached or blemished. If two men owe you money, you may without any injustice remit the debt to one and exact it of the other. If two malefactors be condemned to die, the king may pardon the one and not the other. He is not unjust if he lets one suffer because he offended the law, nor if he save the other because he will make use of his prerogative as he is king. Second, though some are saved and others perish, yet there is no unrighteousness in God, because whoever perishes, his destruction is of himself. O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself. God offers grace, and the sinner refuses it. Is God bound to give grace? If a surgeon comes to heal a man's wound, and he will not be healed, is the surgeon bound to heal him? I have called, and ye refused. Israel would none of me. Verse 11, God is not bound to force His mercies upon men. If they willfully oppose the offer of grace, their sin is to be regarded as the cause of their perishing and not God's justice. Use 2. See the difference between God and a great part of the world. They are unjust. In their courts of judicature they pervert justice. They decree unrighteous decrees, Isaiah 10, 1. The Hebrew word for a judge's robe signifies prevarication, deceit, or injustice, which is more often true of the judge than of the robe. What is a good law without a good judge? Injustice lies in two things, either not to punish where there is a fault or to punish where there is no fault. Again, second, men are unjust in their dealings. This is, first, in using false weights. The balances of deceit are in his hands, Hosea 12, 7. It is sad to have the Bible in one hand and false weights in the other. Or, secondly, in adulterating commodities. Thy wine is mixed with water, Hosea 1, 22. when bad grain is mixed with good and sold for pure grain. I can never believe he is good in the first table who is not good in the second table of the law. He cannot be godly who is not just. Though God does not bid you be as omnipotent as he is, yet he bids you be as just. Use three. Imitate God in justice. Let Christ's golden maxim be observed. What you would have men do to you, do ye even so to them. Matthew 7, 12. You would not have them wrong you, neither do you them. Rather suffer wrong and do wrong, why do ye not rather take wrong? 1 Corinthians 7, 6, 7. Oh, to be exemplary for justice. Let justice be your ornament. I put on righteousness, that is, justice, as a robe and a diadem, Job 29.14, a robe for its graceful beauty, and I put it on, and I was clothed in righteousness, a judge putting on his robe and putting it off again at night. But Job did so put on justice as he did not put it off till death, forever clothed. We must not lay off this robe of justice till we lay down our tabernacles. If you have anything of God in you, you will be like Him. By every unjust action, you deny yourself to be a Christian. You stain the glory of your profession. Heathens will rise up in judgment against you. The sun might sooner alter his course than God could be turned from doing justice. Use 4. If God be just, there will be a day of judgment. Now things are out of course. Sin is rampant. Saints are wronged. They're often cast in a righteous cause. They can meet with no justice here. Justice is turned into wormwood. But there is a day coming when God will set things right. He will do every man justice. He will crown the righteous and condemn the wicked. He hath appointed a day, Acts 17, 31. If God be a just God, He will take vengeance. God has given men a law to live by, and they break it. There must be a day for the execution of offenders. A law not executed is but like a wooden dagger for a show. At the last day God's sword shall be drawn out against offenders, then his justice shall be revealed before all the world. God will judge in righteousness. Act 1731. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? Genesis 18.25. The wicked shall drink a sea of wrath, but not sip one drop of injustice. At that day shall all mouths be stopped, and God's justice shall be fully vindicated from all the cavils and clamors of unjust men. Use 5. Comfort to the true penitent. As God is a just God, He will pardon him. Man acknowledges his sin, God spares him. If we confess our sins, that is, confess and forsake them, He is just to forgive us our sins. 1 John 1.9 Not only merciful, but just. Why just? because he has promised to forgive such. Proverbs 28 13 If thy heart has been broken for and from sin thou mayest not only plead God's mercy but his justice for the pardoning of thy sin. Show him his hand and seal and he cannot deny himself. And thus far the reading of Thomas Watson's A Body of Divinity. This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's revival book You are welcome to make copies and give them to those in need. SWRB makes thousands of classic Reformation resources available, free and for sale, in audio, video, and printed formats. It is likely that the sermon or book that you just listened to is also available on cassette or video, or as a printed book or booklet. Our many free resources, as well as our complete mail order catalog, Thank you by phone at 780-450-3730 by fax at 780-468-1096 or by mail at 4710-37A Edmonton, that's E-D-M-O-N-T-O-N Alberta, abbreviated capital A, capital B, Canada, T6L3T5. You may also request a free printed catalog. And remember that John Calvin, in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship, or what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship, commenting on the words of God, which I commanded them not, neither came into my heart. From his commentary on Jeremiah 731, writes, God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions, since He condemns by this one phrase, I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devised. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God. For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to His commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle was adopted by the Papists, all those fictitious modes of worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying his word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The prophet's words, then, are very important, when he says that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind, as though he had said that men assume too much wisdom when they devise what he never required, nay, what he never knew.