88 / 652
'78
OF
THE
MORAL
LAW,
AND
THE
EVIL
OF
-SIN.
ESERM,
Y.
Clad
given him,
and the
hope
of
all
that
he
had pro-
mised." Every
sin
incurs a forfeiture
of
life itself,
and
all
the present
and
future
comforts
of
it,
according to
the
express
words
of
the threatening
;'
Gen.
ii. 17.
"
In
the
day,
that
thou eatest
of
the
forbidden
fruit
thou shalt
surely die,"
that
is,
thou
shalt
become
mortal and
liable,
to death
*.
And the apostle tells us
;
Rom.
vi.
23.
"
The
wages
of
sin is
death."
Nor
is
such
a forfeiture
of
life
and the
blessings
of
it
by
sin,
utterly unknown
to
the heathen
world,
as St.
Paul declares;
Rom.
i.
32.
"
Who
knowing the
judgment of God, that
they
who
commit
such things
are worthy
of
death:"
And
I
think
the
very light
of
nature
might
find
out
this
;
for
it
would
be
strange indeed
if God
the
Creator
should
be
bound
to
continue
life
or
any blessing
to
a creature
which
bad
broken
his
allegiance
to
his
Maker, and
by a wilful
and
presumptuous
offence,
had
as
it
were renounced the very
end
and
design for
which he was
made.
Proposition
III.
"
This forfeiture
of
life
and the
blessings
of it
by
sin, is
an everlasting
forfeiture." Every
sin
is
usually and
justly
supposed to increase
its
demerit
or
desert
of punishment, according
to
the
dignity
of
the
person
whose law
is
broken.
Sin
against
a father or
a
prince carries greater guilt
in
it,
than
that
which
is
committed against
a
neighbour or
a
servant
:
And
in
this
way
of
argument
sin
against
God
appears
to
have
a
sort
of
infinite
evil
in
it,
because
it
is
committed against the
infinite Majesty
of
heaven
:
And on this
account
every
sin deserves
a sort
of
infinite
or everlasting punishment,
*
Death
in
its
original, and
most
proper and natural
sense, signifies
the
loss
of
life,
and
together
with
it
the
loss
of
all
its blessings
and
comforts.
This
is
the common
if
-not
the
universal
sense
of
the
word
in
the
writings of
Moses: And
in
the sanction of
a law
it
is
reasonable
to
suppose
the
word
is
used
in
its
most
natural and proper
sense.
Death
in
scripture
is
used
sometimes for
the
loss
of privileges,
blessings
and comforts, even where
life remains
:
In this
sense
it
signifies
they
oul's
loss
of
the image of God,
of
holiness
and
peace: This
is
called spiritual death.
Thus the
Ephe-
sians are said to be
dead
in
trespasses
and
Sins. Epic.
ii.
1.
Sometimes
death
signifies
the
loss
of
blessings
in
the
world to come,
together
with
positive
sorrows
and
sufferings both in
soul
and body
for
ever.
So
in
Rom.
viii.
13.
"
If
ye
live
after the
flesh
ye shall die ;" and Johnvi.
50.
Q0
This
is the
bread
which came
down from
heaven,
that
a man may
eat
thereof
and
not
die"
In
Rev.
xxi.
8.
this
is
called the
second
death.
Note
-death in all these
senses
is
either the natural
consequent
of
sin,
or
it
is
the
legal punishment of it,
according
to
its several aggravations,
as will
ap-
pear
afterward,