I shall not trouble the reader with the heathens' apprehension of Bhadamanthean righteousness, and the exact rendering to every one according to his desert, even in another world.
There is a twofold rule of this proportion of sin and punishment, the one constitutive, the other declarative. The rule constitutive of the proportion of penalty for sin is the infinitely wise, holy, and righteous will of God ; the rule declarative of it is the laAV.
For the first, it is his judgment " that they which commit sin are worthy of death," Bom. i. c>2. This the apostle fully declares, chap, ii. 5-11. The day of punishing he calls " The day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God;" that is, what his judgment is con- cerning the demerit of sin. The world shall then know what in justice he requires for the due vengeance of it, and this according to his will. Verse 6, he will, in his righteous judgment, render to every one according to his deeds.
And here it is to be observed, that though there be an exceeding great variation in sin in respect of degrees, so that some seem as » Hor. Sat. lib. i. 3, 115-119. Vid. Catonis Orat. apud Sallust. Bell. Catilin. cap. lii.
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mountains, others in comparison of them but as mole-hills, yet it is the general nature of sin (which is the creature's subducting itself from under the dominion of God and dependence upon him) that punishment originally is suited unto; whence death is appointed to every sin, and that eternal, wherein the degrees of punishment vary, not the kind.
2. For the several kinds of punishment (I call them so in a ge- neral acceptation of both words), they are distinguished according to their ends and causes.^ The ends of punishments, or of all such things as have in them the nature of punishments, may be referred to the ensuing heads: —
(1.) The first end of punishment is the good of him that is punished; and this is twofold: —
[1.] For amendment and recovery from the evil and sin that he hath committed. This kind of punishing is frequently mentioned in Scripture: so eminently, Lev. xxvi., doth the Lord describe it at large, and insist upon it, reckoning up in a long series a catalogue of several judgments, he interposing, "But if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary to me" (as verse 23), " then will I do so and so," or add this or that punishment to them foregoing; and this in reference to the former end, of their reformation. And the success of this procedure we find variously expressed. Sometimes the end of it in some measure was fulfilled, Ps. Ixxviii. 32-35 ; some- times otherwise, Isa. i. 5, " Why should ye be smitten any more? ye will revolt more and more," intimating that the end of the for- mer smiting was to cure their revoltings. And this kind of punish- ment is called vovkeia^ correction for instruction, and is not punish- ment in its strict and proper sense.
[2], For the taking off of sinners, to prevent such other wicked- nesses as they would commit, should patience be exercised towards them. The very heathen saw that he that was wicked and not to be reclaimed, it was even good for him and to him that he should be destroyed. Such an one, as Plutarch says, was sTspo/g ys -ttwitws (SXa- ^iphv alru) t£ ^XaZipuTarov, — " hurtful to others, but most of all to himself." How much more is this evident to us, who know that future judgments shall be proportion ably increased to the wickedness of men in this Avorld ! And if every drop of judgment in the world to come be incomparably greater than the greatest and heaviest a man can possibly suffer in this life or lose his life by, it is most evident
' "Puniendis pcccatis tres esse debere causas existimatum est. Una est qure viv- hffia. vel KoKari; vel Tapa'Diitri; dicitur ; cum poena adhibetur castigandi atque emcn- dandi gratia, ut is qui fortuito dcliquit, attentior fiat, correctiorque. Altera est, quam ii, qui vocabula ista curiosius diviscrunt, rifiuplav appellant, ea causa animadvertcndi est, qiium dignitas authoritasque ejus, in quern est peccatuni tuenda est, ne prgeter- missa auimadversio contemptum ejus pariat, et honorem elevet," etc. — Vid. A. Gell. lib. vi. cap. xxiv.
' KaJ ykp h tmvhtrla Kai i ^piyo; \ftr/!ii7 f.iriivoictv ko.) ai(r^uv'/,v. — Plut. dc ^ irtut.
438 viNDiCDE evangelicm:.
that a man may be punished with death for his own good, " mitius punientur." This is xoXaala. And this hath no place in human ad- ministrations of punishments when they arise to death itself Men cannot kill a man to prevent their dealing worse with him, for that is their worst; they can do no more, says our Saviour: but acciden- tally it may be for his good. Generally, xfAac/g or xoXacr/a is, as Aristotle speaks, vde-x^ovrog evsxa, and is thereby differenced from rtiMupia (of which afterward), which, as he says, is toD vovovvrog hsxa iVa d'!ro'7rKripu9ii} Hence d%okd<sroc, is one not corrected, not restrained, " incastigatus." And therefore the punishment of death cannot at all properly be MXaeig: but cutting off by God to prevent farther sin hath in it ri avakoyov thereunto.