94 ÓEt.IGAT10H ÓP THE MORAL LAW. for the lowest degree of sin or guilt, where the law df God fa suffered to take its proper course in executing the penalty ; for' the mere loss of life is a less punishment than the continuance of it in any degree of misery. IV. " There is scarce any actual, that is, wilful sin, but carries with it some particular aggravations, and these deserve such further positive punishments as the wisdom and justice of God shall see reason-to inflict. Hence arises the penal continu- ance in life with the loss of all the comforts of it, that is the pains and sorrows of the future statet. God is the righteous Governor of the world, his justice weighs in the nicest balances every command of his own law, and every grain of the sinners offences, with all their circumstances of guilt and aggravation; and strict justice distributes sórrows in proportion to sins : This appears in the punishment of Babylon ; Rev. xviii. 6. God bath remembered the iniquities of Babylon, 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 andsorrow 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. It is time now to conclude this discourse with some few reflections. Reflection I. Is the law of God in perpetualforce, and is j. This is usually calledeternal death, or the punishment of hell. # Now from the desert of sin and the punishment due to it beingset iti this light, I would humbly enquire, whether we may not bettet learn the meaning of the apostle; Rom. v. 12-14, when he says, Death entered into the world by sin;. andpasses 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; whir have committed no actual personal sin as Adamdid r Yet here is a forfeiture of life and its blessings derived to the children of Adam, and they come under a sentence of death by original imputed sin, which we may suppose to be the louest kind of guilt. But in Roma ii. b. 9. Indignation and wrath, tri., halation and anguish are denounced against every soul of man that loth evil, that is. that doth commit wilful actual sin, because there are special aggravations, some of a greater and some of a lesser kind, that belong to all actual iniquities. Whether thereforesin has any particularaggravation attending it orno, there is an everlasting forfeiture of life incurred by it, and an eternal loss of the bless sings of it; and whatsoever further aggravations the sin Carries in it, so much further pain or anguish does it deserve in body, or in mind, or in both ; that is, it requires so much further continuance in life and being, as to sustain that degree of anguish and sorrow which is due to the sinner; and therefore the life of a wicked soul is continued in sorrows, in the other world after the death of the body as a punishment for sin; and therefore also at the last day shalt be, raised again', that all wilful and impenitent sinners may 'sustain punishments according to the various dispensations of God under which they have lived; and the several aggravations of their sins; and all these things shall be perfectly adjusted in the wisdom and righteousness of God, who is the Judge of the whole earth, and alwaye does what is right ; Gen. still. 25.
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