QüESTION XI. 335 sin inhis creatures ; he cannot infuse sin into the nature of man, nor take away his virtues by any divine act, or makehirn vici- ous' . This must therefore be only esteemed as a natural effect or consequent of man's first sin, as I'have shewn under ques- tions III. and IX. 3. The soul's loss of the favour of God, is another part of spiritual death : The loss of the manifestations of God's love, of friendly converse with him, and any peculiar instances of his grace, maybe included in the word spiritual death ; 1 John iii. 14. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death: And perhaps this may be also included in that scriptural expression ; Eph. ii. 1 -3. because they who are dead in trespasses and sins are said to be children of wrath, or obnoxious to the di- vine anger. The words indignation and wrath, 1Cc. in Rom. ii. S. where the terms of the covenant of works are recited, seem to intimate that this may possibly be included in the word death, as a threatened part of the punishment, and reaches to the soul as well the body, and that even after its separation from the body as well as before. The favour of God was certainly forfeited in a legal manner, by the sin of the first man ; this is a proper punishment forsin : Forwe cannot suppose that God, the righteous Governor of the world, will always treat a criminal as he does an innocent person ; but will both threaten and manifest some tokens of his displeasure against him, in order to maintain his authority and government. 4. And not merely the punishment of loss, or the with- drawing of the sense ofdivine love, but the punishment ofsense, as the schools call it, that is, actual pain, sorrow, signified by the words tribulation and anguish, may be impressed upon the soul by Godhimself, or by good or evil angels, as his ministers ; and this is a proper legal penalty due to sin, and may be in- cluded in this spiritual death. In this sense the devil may be called the angel ofdeath, or he who has the powerofdeath; Heb. ii. 14. as well as that he has power sometimes to kill the body. Underthis head we may partly include the fear or -dread of all these evils, or of any of them. These four things then may be included in spiritual death; the two first of them as the natural consequences or effects of sin foretold, and the two last as proper punishments threaten- ed : And the dread of them is partly a natural effect as well as a punishment. Let us proceed now to the third distinction of death, as it is explained by our chief authors who treat on divine things. III. Eternal death consists in the misery bothof soul and body, in the invisible world, and in a future state : Thus it is *, See question IX. section II.
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