The four last things viz. death, judgment, heaven, hell, practically considered and applied in…

Therefore to Adam, the first and second Death was threatened upon his Disobedience; and Fear, as a Sentinel, was planted in his Breast, that no guilty Thought, no irregular Desire, no deceitful Suggestion should enter to break the Tables of the Law deposited therein. Now since, notwithstanding the threatening, Man was so easily seduced by the insinuations of the Tempter to break the Law, and disorder the Government of God in the World, 'tis evident that such a Restraint was not over-rigorous to secure his Obedience. I shall not insist on what is sadly visible since the first Apostasy, that there is in Mankind such a prodigious propensity to sensual things, that without the fear of Hell, no Arguments are strong enough to prevent the bold violation of the Divine Law.

Therefore to Adam, the first and second Death was threatned upon his Disobedience; and Fear, as a Sentinel, was planted in his Breast, that no guilty Thought, no irregular Desire, no deceitful Suggestion should enter to break the Tables of the Law deposited therein. Now since, notwithstanding the threatning, Man was so easily seduced by the insinuations of the Tempter to break the Law, and disorder the Government of God in the World, 'tis evident that such a Restraint was not over-rigorous to secure his Obedience. I shall not insist on what is sadly visible since the first Apostacy, that there is in Mankind such a prodigious propensity to sensual things, that without the fear of Hell, no Arguments are strong enough to prevent the bold violation of the Divine Law.

2. 'Tis consented to by common Reason,¹ that there ought to be a proportion between the quality of the Offence, and the degrees of the Punishment. Justice takes the Scales into its hand before it takes the Sword. Now ⟨p. 175⟩Sin against God is of such an immense Guilt, that an eternal Punishment is but equivalent to it. This will appear by considering,