TryingToLearn
Puritan Board Freshman
My question here will probably be clearer for those who have the book in front of them. Near the end of his Disputation on Divine Justice, Owen is critiquing Samuel Rutherford. On page 613 of the Goold volume, we get this quote from Owen:
"Neither, however, do we think ourselves bound to teach that God could not forbid sin but under the penalty of eternal death"
Then a few pages later (617):
"We say that God hath revealed to us that the punishment due to every sin, from his right and by the rule of his justice, is eternal; nor could the thing in itself be otherwise"
I'm having trouble reconciling these statements and figuring out what Owen is saying. They seem directly contradictory. If "the punishment due to every sin" is "eternal" and "could [not] be otherwise" by "the rule of his justice", then is not it the case that God "could not forbid sin but under the penalty of eternal death"?
"Neither, however, do we think ourselves bound to teach that God could not forbid sin but under the penalty of eternal death"
Then a few pages later (617):
"We say that God hath revealed to us that the punishment due to every sin, from his right and by the rule of his justice, is eternal; nor could the thing in itself be otherwise"
I'm having trouble reconciling these statements and figuring out what Owen is saying. They seem directly contradictory. If "the punishment due to every sin" is "eternal" and "could [not] be otherwise" by "the rule of his justice", then is not it the case that God "could not forbid sin but under the penalty of eternal death"?