constant admonition to man, that he was a sinner, and had hereby incurred the displeasure of his Maker; and of his desert of endless destruction, and the certainty of its coming upon him, unless he be interested in the benefits of redemption. And it was necessary it should take place, as the best way in which man should pass out of this state of probation into the invisible state, so as to continue that state invisible, where both the redeemed, and those who die in their sins, are lodged and remain, until the general resurrection; when the body and soul shall be reunited, not to be separated again. And as this separation of soul and body, in which the latter becomes a ghastly, loathsome spectacle, and returns to corruption, and is a certain introduction to endless misery, the second death, to all who have no interest in the Redeemer, it is a striking visible emblem of endless destruction, and is connected with it to all who die ungodly; it has therefore obtained the name of death, though it be not death in the original sense of the word; eternal destruction being the only proper and real death of a moral agent, sinning against God: Therefore this is called the second death, after separation of soul and body had obtained the name of death, and with reference to that.

And as the body's returning to dust, is no part of the death threatened, and is not the real and true death of a rational creature, it is frequently represented in scripture, not to be real death; but persons are represented as escaping death and not dying, who are the subjects of this separation of soul and body, and do die in this sense. Thus in the forementioned chapters of the prophecy of Ezekiel, it is repeatedly said, that the penitent obedient sinner, shall not die. His body must return to dust, as do the bodies of the wicked, yet he should not die. Therefore this is not death. It is not the death threatened to the wicked, nor the death which the righteous escape: Therefore not death in the origi nal and most proper sense of the word.

Solomon says,

'Righteousness

delivereth from death. In the way of righteousness is life, and in the pathway thereof there is no death." But the bodies of Therefore this is not

the righteous return to dust.

death. Our Saviour speaks the same language, and says, "Whosoever believeth in me, shall never die : shall not die, but live forever." Believing in him does not prevent their bodies returning to dust: Therefore this is not death; it is not the death threatened for sin, and is not the proper wages of it; and is not the death from which Christ came to deliver men; for there would have been no separation of soul and body, had he not undertaken to redeem man. He delivers from the second death, the only real death of a rational creature : which was therefore threatened to disobedience, and will take place in its full meaning after the day of judg ment; of which the death of the body is but a shadow.

This leads to observe, as a farther evidence that the separation of soul and body is no part of the curse threatened in the divine law, that when this curse or threatened punishment shall be executed on those who die in their sins, and are not redeemed, soul and body shall be united, and they shall be miserable forever, both in soul and body, in union. The proper and full execu tion of the threatening does not take place, but is suspended by reason of the redemption, which brings man into a state of probation, until that is finished. During this time the wicked, who by the death of the body go out of this world into the invisible state, are represented in scripture, to be in prison, as criminals, waiting for the pronouncing and execution of the sentence against them, at the day of judgment: and then the threatening will be executed. We must therefore look there, to see what the curse of the law is, and what is meant by death when threatened as the proper punishment of sin; and this will assure us it is the second death, even that infinite evil included in the last sentence, "Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire."

Thus evident and certain it appears to be, that the law and constitution under which man was made, knew not of separation of soul and body, nor did admit of it; and that the death with which he was threatened, if he failed of perfect obedience to every divine command, was endless punishment, in his whole person, soul and body: And that this separation of soul and body was introduced and took place, under a new dispensation of

grace by a Redeemer, as peculiar to that, and to answer important ends respecting it; and when that is over and completed, this separation shall cease, and all mankind will be united to their bodies again, in which the redeemed shall be happy forever; and the wicked suffer the penalty of the law, in everlasting misery, in soul and body united. In short, the dissolution of the body could not take place, unless man had sinned; nor then, if the threatening 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 sin and rebellion of man, and redemption by a Mediator, in order to separation of soul and body being proper, necessary, or possible, consistent with the divine law. They therefore must have been greatly mistaken, who have thought and asserted 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 dust is included in the threatening, or any part of it, since the contrary is evidently true, viz. that the threatening necessarily excludes it.

3. From what has been said on this subject, it may be inferred with the greatest certainty, that death in the original threatening, does not mean annihilation, or an end to existence, as some have supposed: For this would be an infinitely less evil than sin deserves; 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 transgressing it. Besides, it has been shown that death and dying is never used in this sense, when it denotes the punishment or proper wages of sin. And the second death, which evidently means the death threatened to Adam, is expressly said to consist in positive, sensible punishment or pain, which is perpetual and endless, where they rest not day or night, and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever.

4. It appears from what has been said, as well as from other considerations, that what is called spiritual death, a going into a course of total sinfulness and rebellion, is

not the death threatened, when God said to man, "Thou shalt surely die."

This is evident, in that it cannot be the evil which sin deserves, or the proper punishment of it. A man may be wholly a rebel and totally sinful, or contrary to the law of God, in all his exercises and conduct: and yet not be totally miserable. Of this we have evidence enough before our eyes. But rebellion deserves complete and endless misery, and must be therefore threatened, as has been proved. Besides, if going into a course of total rebellion were necessarily attended with complete and endless pain and misery; the punishment or the evil threatened, is the attendant, natural evil, pain and misery, and not the sin and rebellion itself.

This leads to observe, that sin and rebellion, or transgression of the divine law, cannot be the proper matter of a threatening, as a punishment of transgression, 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. Moral evil, or sin and rebellion, is always criminal, in every instance and degree of it; and this deserves punishment, and this only can be punished. The punishment therefore cannot be sin itself, or moral evil; for to suppose this is to confound the crime and punishment, as one and the same thing, and to threaten a crime with the commission of a crime. The proper and only punishment of sin or moral evil, is natural evil, or pain and suffering; and this alone can be the proper matter of a threatening.

If sinning and rebellion be a punishment, then the first act of sin of which the man was guilty was a punishment, as really as any after acts; but this could not be a punishment, unless man was punished for his antecedent innocence: And therefore could not be threatened as a punishment. Besides, to threaten any one, that if he transgressed once, he should be left to his pleasure to go on in sin, and do nothing but sin, would be really no threatening, or a very improper one, and no more than to say, if he did sin, he should sin, and go on to do that which should be most agreeable to him, and so long as

he should choose to do so, and no longer. Punishment is suffering some evil; and which is an evil in his sight on whom it is inflicted, and in which he is passive: Therefore man cannot be properly punished, by that in which he is not a patient, and really suffers nothing: but is altogether active in it, and chooses it as a good, in itself considered; which is true of every degree of sin. 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 said in scripture, in several instances, to give men up to gratify their lusts and to strong delusion, and to walk in their own ways,* in consequence of their having chosen to rebel against him. But this is not threatened as a punishment, nor said to be such; and for reasons just mentioned, we may be sure they are not to be considered as such, but only as instances of God's just and wise conduct, to answer important ends in his moral government. By the sins they commit who are thus abandoned to sin, they are prepared for punishment, and go on to it; but they are not the punishment itself; this consists in the destruction, the natural evil which they suffer for the sins which they are suffered, and giv. en up to commit. It is thus expressed by St. Paul; "For this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned, who believed not the truth; but had pleasure in unrighteousness." And when he speaks of the heathen being given up by God to vile affections, and says that in this way, They received in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet," he is not be understood to mean, that the exercise of these lusts, or their sinning as they did, was the recompense or punishment for their former sins; but this recompense consisted in the shame and disgrace, pain and misery, which were the proper, meet and constituted attendants and consequence of their vile practices. Nor does he say that this natural evil or unhappiness, which in this life attended, or followed their ways of sin, was the proper and adequate punishment of their crimes. For he goes on to observe, that they knew, or were under advantages to * Psalm lxxxi. 12.-Rom, i. 26.—2 Thess. ii. 11.