Book II, Part 2, Chapter 1. Of three Kinds of Virtues, wherein consists the Fulness of all Justice

1. Having, in the first part of this book, spoken of those vices which pollute and darken the soul, let us now treat of such virtues, as adorn and beautify it with the spiritual ornament of justice. And as it is the property of justice to give every one his due, whether it be God, our neighbor or ourself, so there are three sorts of virtues that compose it ; some are particularly for the performance of the duty man owes to God, some, again, for that he owes his neighbor, and others for that he owes to himself. This is all he has to do, in order to satisfy the obligations of virtue and justice ; that is, for the making of himself truly just and virtuous, the only thing we pretend to here.

2. If you would know, in short, how that is to be done, and have it made more plain by a few familiar comparisons, I say, a man will comply exactly with these three duties, if he has but these three things : — the heart of a son towards God, the heart of a man towards his neighbor, and that of a judge towards himself. In these three points of justice, the prophet- placed the very perfection of our good, when he said, " I will show thee, O man, what good consists in, and what the Lord requires from thee ; it is that thou do judgment, that thou love mercy, and that thou walk humbly with him;" Mich. vi. 8. The doing of judgment shows a man what he owes to himself; mercy, what he owes to his neighbors, and walking humbly with God, what his obligation is to him, since all our good depends on these three things ; 1 Par. Tra. 4. c. 3. We will handle them now at large, having only spoke of them briefly in the Memorial of a Christian Life, with a design to explain them more fully in this place.