Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulness of sin. The life…Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulnesse of sinne. The life…

This Guilt being an Obligation unto punishment, leadeth us to consider what the nature of that curse and death is unto which it bindeth us over. Punishment bearing necessary relation to a command, the transgression whereof is therein recompensed, taketh in these considerations. First, on the part of the Commander, a will to which the Actions of the subject must conform, revealed and signified under the nature of a Law. Secondly, a justice which will, and thirdly, a power which can punish the transgressors of that Law. Secondly, on the part of the subject commanded there is required, first, Reason and free-will originally, without which there can be no sin; for though man by his brutishness and impotency which he doth contract cannot make void the commands of God, but that they now bind men who have put out their light, and lost their liberty; yet originally God made no law to bind under pain of sin, but that unto the obedience whereof he gave reason and free-will Secondly, a debt and obligation, either by voluntary subjection, as man to man; or natural, as the creature to God, or both, sealed and acknowledged in the covenants between God and man, whereby man is bound to fulfil that law which it was originally enabled to observe. Thirdly, a forfeiture, guilt, and demerit upon the violation of that Law. Thirdly and lastly, the evil it self inflicted, wherein we consider, first, the nature and quality of it, which is to have a destructive power, to oppress and dis quiet the offender, and to violate the integrity of his well ⟨p. 264⟩being. For as sin is a violation offered by man to the Law, so punishment is a violation retorted from the Law to man. Secondly, the Proportion of it to the offence, the greatness whereof is manifested in the majesty of God offended, and those several relations of goodness, patience, creation, redemption which he hath to man: in the quality of the creature offending, being the chief, and lord of all the rest below him: in the easiness of the primitive obedience, in the unprofitableness of the ways of sin, and a world of the like aggravations. Thirdly, the end of it, which is not the destruction of the creature, whom as a creature God loveth, but the satisfaction of justice, the declaration of divine displeasure against sin, and the manifestation of the glory of his power and terror.

This Guilt being an Obligation unto punishment, leadeth us to consider what the nature of that curse and death is unto which it bindeth us over. Punishment bearing necessarie relation to a command, the trangression whereof is therein recompenced, taketh in these considerations. First, on the part of the Commander, a will to which the Actions of the subject must conforme, reveal'd and signified under the nature of a Law. Secondly, a justice which will, and thirdly, a power which can punish the transgressors of that Law. Secondly, on the part of the subject commanded there is requir'd, first, Reason and free-will originally, without which there can be no sinne; for though man by his brutishnesse and impotency which he doth cōtract cannot make void the commands of God, but that they now binde men who have put out their light, and lost their libertie; yet originally God made no law to binde under paine of sinne, but that unto the obedience whereof hee gave reason and free-will Secondly, a debt and obligation, either by voluntarie subjection, as man to man; or naturall, as the creature to God, or both, sealed and acknowledged in the covenants betweene God and man, whereby man is bound to fulfill that law which it was originally enabled to observe. Thirdly, a forfeiture, guilt, and demerit upon the violation of that Law. Thirdly and lastly, the evill it selfe inflicted, wherein we consider, first, the nature and qualitie of it, which is to have a destructive power, to oppresse and dis quiet the offender, and to violate the integritie of his well