8. Lastly, “That he might be just, and the justifier of him that believes in Jesus; or, that is of faith of Jesus, ton ek piseos Iesus, that is, of the Christian faith.
God set not forth Christ to due merely for this end, that Sinners might be justified without any more ado, only be sinners. Some have said, “Be but sure of this, that you are sinners, and you may believe you are justified.” The immediate effect of this Satisfaction, as satisfaction, and which is an essential consequent of a satisfaction to Justice, is only this, ‘That, that obstacles being removed, he might be left at liberty to act in the pardon of sinners, in what way, and upon what terms he pleased.’ The immediate effect is, ‘That God might be just, though he should pardon sinners;’ that he might pardon salva justitia; not that he must pardon them, come what will of it; or be unjust: not that sinners should ipso facto be pardoned, the price being undertaken or paid, and accepted. The Justice of God, as a flaming sword, obstructed all treating with us upon any terms of reconciliation whatsoever; and this would have been an eternal bar to all influences and effluxes of favor and bounty whatsoever. Now this Justice being satisfied (as I have before made out) and this bar and obstacle removed, Divine Grace and Benignity is left at liberty freely to act how it pleases, and in what way, and upon what terms and conditions it thinks meet.
Joseph Truman, The Great Propitiation; or Christ’s Satisfaction and Man’s Justification by it, Upon His Faith; that is Belief of, and Obedience to the Gospel (London: Printed by A. Maxwell, for R. Clavell, in Cross-key Court in Little Britain), 86-87. [Some spelling modernized, some reformatting, and underlining mine.]