This point being established beyond all controversy, that the threatning made to man, if he eat of the fruit of the forbidden tree, denounced the evil which fin deserves; and which was equally applicable to the tranfgreffion of any other precept; and therefore was a threatning of infinite evil, or complete and endless deftruction; the following inferences neceffarily follow, viz.

1. That temporal death, or feparation between foul and body, is not the whole or the chief of the evil contained in the threatning. This is not an infinite evil; but a very inconfiderable one, compared, with what fin, deferves: Therefore fomething infinitely more dreadful must be implied in the threatning; even that which in fcripture is called the fecond death, which is endless mif

ery,

2. It farther follows, that feparation of foul and body is no part of the punishment threatened. The death' threatened was quite of a different kind, and not only does not include, but neceffarily excludes,, feparation of foul and body. Had the punishments taken place and been executed without any mitigation; or had there' been no reprieve and redemption for man, this feparation of foul and body could not have taken place: Becaufe the punishment deferved, and therefore the punifhment threatened was, evil to the whole man, or to the man made up of foul and body. This creature, confifting of body and foul, which were effential conftituent parts of the man, was threatened, and if he finned, was to be punished; and not one part only, while the other is taken down and annihilated. Therefore, this could not take place, confiftent with the full execution of the threatning. It is not fo great an evil for the mind only to fuffer, as it is to be miferable, or to fuffer evil, in body and foul: The man is capable of fuffering unspeakable evil, or pain, in his body; therefore, this fuffering must be included in the threatning. And this proves, that separation

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feparation of foul and body, could not be the fubject of a threatning, that is, could not be threatened: For this would not have been an evil, in that cafe, but a negative good, which cannot be the fubject of a threatning, but rather of a promife; for evil only can be threatened, and not good, negative, or pofitive. Separation of body and foul would have been a mitigation of punishment, and would have rendered mah, not capable of fuffering fo much, as in body and foul united; therefore could not be threatened as a punishment, it being no part or kind of punishment; but the contrary. And under that conftitution, under which the threatning was made, there was no provifion for a reunion if a feparation once took place; nor was it indeed poffible there fhould be a reunion, if a feparation was threatened as a punishment, and had the threatning been executed. Is it not hence evident to a certainty, that separation of foul and body, could not have taken place, had man been punished for disobedience, according to the threatning; and therefore this was not included in the threatning, but on the contrary, was neceffarily excluded?

If any fhould fay, as fome indeed have faid, that we learn what was intended by the threatning, by the fentence that was pronounced on man, after he had tranfgreffed; which was nothing worfe than temporal death: The reply will be, That it is a great mistake to fuppofe that the body of man, being doomed to return to the duft, and the appointment of a feparation between foul and body, is pronouncing a fentence upon him, anfwerable to the threatning; as there is not the leaft evidence or appearance of this, but the contrary, in the ac count which is given of it, all taken together. When man had finned, God appeared, and called him before him, and brought him to a confeffion of his fin. And then, instead of inflicting the threatened penalty upon him, he declared his defign to reprieve him from

the

punishment threatened, and to exercise pardoning mercy; and promised a redemption, by which fatan fhould be defeated in his defign, in tempting man to rebel, in the following words, to the ferpent, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy feed and her feed; It fhall bruife thy head, and thou fhalt bruife his heel." God having thus promised relief and redemption by the feed of the woman, proceeds to declare what should take place, in confequence of man's apoftacy; and the introduction of a Saviour, viz. That the ground should be cursed for his fake, and bring forth thorns and thistles; fo that in the fweat of his face, and in forrow, he should obtain and eat his bread, till his body fhould return to the ground from whence it was taken. That is, this should be an evil, forrowful world to him, and he fhould leave this state, and pass into the invifible world by a feparation of foul and body, by the latter returning to its original duft.

This new conftitution and appointment, is introduced in confequence of the apoftacy of man, and the promifed redemption by Chrift, wifely ordered to answer important ends in the new ftate of probation, into which man was now brought; and at the fame time, to be a conftant admonition to man, that he was a finner, and had hereby incurred the displeasure of his Maker; and of his desert of endless deftruction, and the certainty of its coming upon him, unless he be interested in the benefits of redemption. And it was neceffary it should take place, as the best way in which man fhould pafs out of this ftate of probation into the invifible ftate, so as to continue that state invifible, where both the redeemed, and those who die in their fins, are lodged and remain, until the general refurrection; when the body and foul hall be reunited, not to be feparated again. And as this feparation of foul and body, in which the latter beComes a ghaftly, loathfome fpectacle, and returns to corruption,

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ruption, and is a certain introduction to endless mifery, the fecond death, to all who have no intereft in the Redeemer, it is a striking, vifible emblem of endless deftruction, and is connected with it to all who die ungodly; it has therefore obtained the name of death, though it be not death in the original fenfe of the word; eternal deftruction being the only proper and real death of a moral agent, finning against God: Therefore this is called the fecond death, after separation of foul and body had ob tained the name of death, and with reference to that.

And as the body's returning to duft, is no part of the death threatened, and is not the real and true death of a rational creature, it is frequently reprefented in fcripture not to be real death; but perfons are represented as ef caping death and not dying, who are the subjects of thit feparation of foul and body, and do die in this fenfe Thus in the forementioned chapters of the prophely Ezekiel, it is repeatedly said, that the penitent obedien finner, fhall not die. His body must return to duft, a do the bodies of the wicked, yet he fhould not die Therefore this is not death. It is not the death threat ened to the wicked, nor the death which the righteou escape Therefore not death in the original and mol proper fenfe of the word.

Solomon fays, "Righteoufnefs delivereth from death In the way of righteoufnefs is life, and in the pathway thereof there is no death." But the bodies of the right. ous return to duft. Therefore this is not death. Ou Saviour speaks the fame language, and fays, "Whofo ever believeth in me, fhall never die; fhall not die, bu live forever." Believing in him does not prevent thei bodies returning to duft; Therefore this is not death. it is not the death threatened for fin, and is not the proper wages of it; and is not the death from which Chrif came to deliver men; for there would have been no feparation of foul and body, had he not undertaken to

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redeem man. He delivers from the fecond death, the only real death of a rational creature; which was therefore threatened to disobedience, and will take place in its full meaning after the day of judgment; of which the death of the body is but a fhadow.

This leads to observe, as a farther evidence that the feparation of foul and body is no part of the curfe threatened in the divine law, that when this curfe or threatened punishment fhall be executed on those who die in their fins, and are not redeemed, foul and body, fhall be united, and they shall be miferable forever, both in foul and body, in union. The proper and full execution of the threatning does not take place, but is fufpended by reafon of the redemption, which brings man into a state of probation, until that is finished. During this time the wicked, who by the death of the body go out of this world into the invifible ftate, are reprefented in fcripfure, to be in prison, as criminals, waiting for the proBouncing and execution of the fentence against them, at the day of judgment: And then the threatning will be executed. We must therefore look there, to see what the curfe of the law is, and what is meant by death, when threatened as the proper punishment of fin; and this will affure us it is the fecond death, even that infinite evil included in the last fentence, "Depart, ye curfed, into everlasting fire."

Thus evident and certain it appears to be, that the law and conftitution under which man was made, knew not of feparation of foul and body, nor did admit of it; and that the death with which he was threatened, if he failed of perfect obedience to every divine command, was endless punishment, in his whole perfon, foul and body: And that this feparation of foul and body, was introduced and took place, under a new difpenfation of grace by a Redeemer, as peculiar to that, and to answer important ends refpecting it; and when that is over and completed,

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