Justice and Mercy

A Model of Christian Charity of Winthrop is a point of beginning to exam the effect of justice and mercy in American society. Justice means base on law to determine whether what people are doing is good or bad, after that it will give punishment or rewardto anyone who deserves it. Mercy means to exempt someone from the punishment and forgive them. Justice and mercy have distinction in their act and in their object, and they contract each other,   but they can coexist to knit community and direct people to follow to the right way.
Justice and mercy can be used to determine what happen to people coming with their guilty in the same sistuation. Some people need to be mercy because their acts don’t cause bad consequence for others, but some should be justice because of their bad actions. Winthrop say “as sometimes there may be an occasion of showing mercy to a rich man in some sudden danger of distress, and also doing of mere justice to a poor man in regard of some particular contract.”
There are some situations that justice need to go together with mercy in order to force people to comply with the law. The principal of mercy say that people must help their brothers and sisters by lending them when they need help and forgiving when they have nothing to pay, but justice still occurs in lending and forgiving. Winthrop say “If he hath present means of repaying thee, thou art to look at him not as an act of mercy, but by the way of commerce, wherein thou art to walk by the rule of justice.” If the borrower lend amount of money, and they don’t have ability to pay back, people can forgive them according to mercy rule. However, if they have money to pay lending but they don’t want to do it, justice can intervene and force them pay back money. Justice and mercy coexist to make sense in following the law rule.
Sometime, justice cannot deal with enemies, so mercy coexist with justice support standard for behavior with neighbors. Justice, represent law of nature, encourages...