completed, this feparation fhall ceafe, and all mankind will be united to their bodies again, in which the redeemed fhall be happy forever; and the wicked fuffer the penalty of the law, in everlafting mifery, in foul and body united. In fhort, the diffolution of the body could not take place, unless man had finned; nor then, if the threatning had been executed without remedy; and unless a new dispensation of grace had been introduced, and man had been reprieved, and put into a new state of probation, under a Redeemer. Both these must take place, the fin and rebellion of man, and redemption by a Mediator, in order to feparation of foul and body be.. ing proper, neceffary, or poffible, confiftent with the divine law. They therefore must have been greatly miltaken, who have thought and afferted that this was all that was threatened in the divine law, or as the penalty of eating of the forbidden fruit. And they have made as real a mistake who have supposed that turning the body to duft is included in the threatning, or any part of it, fince the contrary is evidently true, viz. that the threatning neceffarily excludes it.

3. From what has been faid on this fubject, it may be inferred with the greatest certainty, that death in the original threatning, does not mean annihilation, or an end to existence, as fome have fuppofed. For this would be an infinitely lefs evil than fin deferves; which has been proved cannot be the penalty threatened in the divine law, because a good and perfect law must threaten a punishment equal to the crime in tranfgreffing it. Befides, it has been fhown that death and dying, is never ufed in this fenfe, when it denotes the punishment or proper wages of fin. And the fecond death, which evidently means the death threatened to Adam, is exprefsly faid to confift in pofitive, fenfible punishment or pain, which is perpetual and endless, where they reft not day or night, and the smoke of their torment afcendeth up forever and ever.

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4. It appears from what has been faid, as well as from other confiderations, that what is called fpiritual death, a going into a courfe of total finfulnefs and rebellion, is not the death threatened, when God faid to man, "Thou fhalt furely die."

This is evident, in that it cannot be the evil which part of it?

fin deferves, or the proper punishment of it. A man may be wholly a rebel and totally finful, or contrary to the law of God, in all his exercifes and conduct; and yet not be totally miserable. Of this we have evidence enough before our eyes. But rebellion deferves complete and endless mifery, and must be therefore threatened, as has been proved. Befides, if going into a course of total rebellion were neceffarily attended with complete and endless pain and mifery; the punishment, or the evil threatened, is the attendant, natural evil, pain and mifety, and not the fin and rebellion itself.

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This leads to obferve, that fin and rebellion, or transgreffion of the divine law, cannot be the proper matter of a threatning, as a punishment of tranfgreffion, and the evil to be inflicted for it. For this is the evil or crime, for which punishment is threatened, and not the punishment itself. This is the crime threatened with a punishment, and not the punishment threatened. Mor- 46.24. Mor-fer al evil, or fin and rebellion, is always criminal, in every inftance and degree of it; and this deferves punishment, and this only can be punished. The punishment therefore cannot be fin itself, or moral evil; for to fuppofe this is to confound the crime and punishment, as one and the fame thing, and fo threaten a crime with the correction of a crime. The proper and only punishment of fin or moral evil, is natural evil, or pain and fuffering; and this alone can be the proper matter of a threatning. If finning and rebellion be a punishment; then the first act of fin of which the man was guilty was a punishment, as really as any after acts; but this could not be a punishment,

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punishment, unless man was punished for his antecedent innocence: And therefore could not be threatened as a punishment. Befides, to threaten any one, that if he tranfgreffed once, he should be left to his pleasure to go on in fin, and do nothing but fin, would be really no threatning, or a very improper one, and no more than to fay, if he did fin, he should fin, and go on to do that which should be most agreeable to him, and so long as he fhould chufe to do fo, and no longer. Punishment is fuffering fome evil; and which is an evil in his fight on whom it is inflicted, and in which he is paffive: Therefore man cannot be properly punished, by that in which he is not a patient, and really fuffers nothing; but is altogether active in it, and chooses it as a good, in itself confidered; which is true of every degree of fin. Therefore, in this view of it, it cannot be threatened as a punishment; for it really is none, as it has not the nature of a punishment.

God is faid in fcripture, in several instances, to give men up to gratify their lufts and to ftrong delufion, and to walk in their own ways,* in confequence of their having chofen to rebel against him. But this is not threatened as a punishment, nor faid to be fuch; and for reafons just mentioned, we may be fure they are not to be confidered as fuch, but only as inftances of God's juft and wife conduct, to answer important ends in his moral government. By the fins they commit who are thus abandoned to fin, they are prepared for punishment, and go on to it; but they are not the punishment itself; this confifts in the deftruction, the natural evil which they fuffer for the fins, which they are suffered, and given up to commit. It is thus expreffed by St. Paul; " For this caufe God fhall fend them ftrong delufion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned, who believed not the truth; but had pleasure in unrighteous nefs."

Pfalm lxxxi. 12.-Rom. i. 26.-2 Theff. ii. II.

nefs." And when he speaks of the heathen being given up by God to vile affections, and fays that in this way, They received in themselves that recompenfe of their error which was meet;" he is not to be understood to mean, that the exercise of thefe lufts, or their finning as they did, was the recompenfe or punishment for their former fins; but this recompenfe confifted in the fhame and difgrace, pain and mifery, which were the proper, meet and conftituted attendants and confequence of their vile practices. Nor does he fay that this natural evil or unhappiness, which in this life attended, or followed their ways of fin, was the proper and adequate punishment of their crimes. For he goes on to obferve, that they knew, or were under advantages to know, that the fins of which they were guilty deserved death; by which is meant neither temporal nor fpiritual death; but eternal deftruction, the fecond death, the death threatened, as the proper and full punishment of fin, when moral government was firft inftituted, and man was put under law. His words are, "Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit fuch things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." He proceeds in the next chapter to speak of that punishment of the finner, which he here fays is death, according to the revealed, known judgment of God. We are fure that the judgment of God is according to truth, against them which commit fuch things. And thinkeft thou, O man, who doest these things, that thou fhalt efcape the judgment of God. But after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasureft up wrath, against the day of wrath, and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God. God. Who will render to every man according to his deeds. To them who by patient con

tinuance in well doing, feek for glory, honour and im mortality; Eternal life: But unto them that are contentious,

* Romans, i. 32.

tentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighte ousness; indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every foul of man, that doth evil." In thefe words he clearly, and in the most decifive manner, declares what that death is, of which finners are worthy, according to the judgment of God, and which will be inflicted on the finally impenitent. It confifts in fuffering the wrath of God, which fhall be poured on the heads of the wicked after the day of judgment: And this indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, is fet in oppofition to eternal life, which the redeemed fhall enjoy; therefore must be without end. This death therefore is not temporal, nor spiritual death, nor annihilation; but endless existence in mifery, fuffering that evil which is the wages of fin, and is infinitely worke than non existence.

If all natural evil, that is, unhappiness, pain and suffer ing, could be feparated from fin, and the finner could have all the enjoyment and happiness he defires and feeks in the way of fin, it would be no fenfible punish ment, and really no punishment at all to him; but his view, it would be a real good, perfectly agreeable t his defire and choice, to be allowed to go on in fin; and the contrary would be the object of his greatest aver fion, and the greateft evil to him. Therefore ther can be no propriety or reafon in threatening him, to giv him up to walk in his own ways, and do nothing bul fin. This indeed could not be a threatning to him, but would be confidered by him as a precious promise o good.

It will perhaps be faid, that though living in fin be not an evil in the view of the finner, but a defirable good; yet to innocent man, and in the perfect exercife of holinefs, to whom this threatning was pronounced if he tranfgreffed, fin appeared to be the greatest evil; and therefore nothing worse to him could be threatened, than fpiritual death, which confifts wholly in fin.

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