GERM. V.] OF TIDE MORAL LAW, AND. THE EVIL OF SIN. '79 that is, an everlasting loss of life and all the blessings of it, which are eternally forfeited thereby. And perhaps this is the lowest punishment that ever is inflicted for the lowest degree of sin or guilt, where the law of God is suffered to take its proper course in executing the pe- nalty; for the mere loss of life is a less punishment than the continuance of it in any degree of misery. Proposition IV. " There is scarce any actual, that is, wilful sin, but carries with it some particular aggrava- tions, and these deserve such further positive punishments as the wisdom and justice of God shall see reason to in- flict. Hence arises the penal continuance in life with the loss of all the comforts of it, that is the pains and sorrows of the future state*. God is the righteous Go-. vernor of the world, his justice weighs in the nicest ba- lances every command of his own law, and every grain of the sinners offences, with all their circumstances ofguilt and aggravation ; and strict justice distributes sorrows in proportion to sins : This appears in the punishment of Babylon; Rev. xviii. 6. " God bath remembered the iniquities of ßabylon, and rewarded her as she rewarded his saints: Double vengeance unto her, according to her double malice and persecution : How much she hath glorified herself and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her." And this proportion of sorrow to sin will terribly appear 'in the last judgment and the final punishment of sinners in the world to comet. " This is usually called eternal death, or the punishment of hell. t Now from the desert of sin and the punishment due to it beingset in this light, I would humbly enquire whether we may not better learn the meaning of the apostle ; Rom. v. 12 -14. when he says, " Death entered into the world by sin, and passes upon all men for that all have sinned ;" that is, sin is imputed to all, and death reigns over them, even over those that have not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, which is generally interpreted concerning infants, whohave committed no actual personal sin as Adam did: Yet here is a forfeiture of life and its blessings derived to the childrenof Adam, and they come under a sentence of death by original imputed sin, which we may suppose to be the lowest kind of guilt. But in Rom. ii. 8, 9. " Indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish are denounced against every soul of man that doth evil," that is, that Both commit wilful actual sin, because there are special aggravations, some of a greater and some of a lesserkind, that belong to all actual ini- quities. Whether therefore sin has any partibular aggravation attending it-Or no, there is an everlasting forfeiture of life incufred,by,it, and an eternal loss of the blessings of it ; and whatsoever further aggravations the sin carries 6
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