From Reformation to Reformation

Finally, Vindicatory Righteousness is expressly asserted to be Essential to God in passages that speak of God’s Hatred, Anger, Vengeance,...

Thirdly, we add passages in which God is considered as Judge, and hence Judiciary Righteousness is assigned to Him, no less with respect...

No less accommodated solidly to prove this matter is the passage in Psalm 5:4-6; while it has regard partly to the Vindicatory...

That Vindicatory Righteousness is expressly attributed to God in Sacred Scripture, we prove from ἐμφατικωτάτοις/forceful Passages; among...

But, lest we should appear to contend by number, more than by weight, of Arguments, we will bring into the arena only four or five, and...

But, so that we might declare the matter as it stands, all the Orthodox are not found thinking in exactly the same manner concerning this...

Socinus and his followers vigorously dispute the former, so that they might all the more easily dispute the Truth of the Satisfaction of...

ARISTOTLE formerly divided Righteousness/Justice into Universal and Particular: the former was embracing absolutely all the Virtues under...

While I was preparing myself for the writing of this little Disputation, I resolved to pause, fearing lest upon me should fall this...

Theological Disputation on Vindicatory Righteousness as Essential to God

That God alone is Independent is proven from what has previously been said. Therefore, to the extent that all other things possess...

They Object, 5. α. If Vindictive Righteousness is Natural to God, no sin is dismissed unpunished. But the consequent is false; for many...

They Object, 3. the Goodness of God, whether it come under the name of Mercy, or under the name of Patience. The Catechesis Racoviensis,...

John Calvin But there are also among Our Own, those that acknowledge only a hypothetical Necessity of Punishing Sins flowing from the divine Decree, in such a way that God by His absolute Power could have remitted the Punishment due to the sinner. Among these were Calvin himself and Twiss, above all the rest: who in this regard follow too closely the conceptions of the Scholastics concerning the Absolute Power of God; to whom it belonged from this matter to feign an absolute

Faustus Socinus This is to be maintained against the Socinians, who, so that they might be able more easily to deny the Truth of the Satisfaction of Christ, also deny Vindictive Righteousness as Essential to God, and hence the consequent Necessity of Satisfaction to divine Justice. Socinus, at the beginning of book III de Christo Servatore, opera, tome 2, page 186, “I shall never be so injurious to my God, that I would dare to think, even indeed in a dream, that my sins, with

And so it is not at all strange that our Symbolic Formulæ also consider the Punishment of sinners as necessary, not by virtue of the divine Good Pleasure indifferently free, but by the very Righteousness of God requiring this. Thus the Heidelburg Catechism has it, question XI, “Is not God then also merciful? Answer: God is indeed merciful, but in such a way that He is also just; therefore His justice requires, that sin which is committed against the most high Majesty of God,

Now, to the extent that Judiciary Righteousness exerts itself in Punishments, it is wont to be called Vindictive, Avenging, Punishing, etc. This Righteousness is called Punishing from its effects, also Avenging and Vindictive, from Jeremiah 5:9, 29; Romans 12:19. Anthropopathically this is also called God’s Anger, Hatred, Heat, etc.; since it was proven in § 26 that Affections of this sort are not able properly to obtain in God. [And this is Natural to God in such a way that

Johannes a Marck Objection α: God punishes the children because of the sins of their parents, and the just with the unjust, Exodus 20:5; Ezekiel 21:3; John 11:3. Responses: 1. Temporal evils are treated, particularly in Ezekiel 21:3 and John 11:3, which do not befall those Evangelically righteous, except as sinners also, upon whom the matter of Punishment falls, but not in the form of Punishment; and who, having been removed from the land of the living by the temporal Judgmen

Aristotle ARISTOTLE divides Particular Righteousness into Commutative and Distributive. Commutative Righteousness/Justice, which is to be observed in contracts and commerce, does not have a place in God; since, 1. it is posited in the equality of the thing given and the thing received, with the Arithmetical proportion preserved, and, 2. by it ownership is transferred; neither of which is able to be said of God, Romans 11:35; 1 Corinthians 4:7; Genesis 32:10; 1 Chronicles 29:1

But, although this Truth of God implies the Infallibility of the Word revealed by Him; yet it does not likewise imply the Infallibility of Human Reason or Perception. If you should say, Reason is from God. Responses: 1. God is to be contemplated here, not only as Creator, but at the same time as Judge, who in the very creation of the soul inflicts upon the same punishment because of Adam’s sin. 2. Reason, with respect to its act, does not exert itself without the cooperation