A supplement to the several discourses upon various divine subjects

1. 'Tis not a Punishment in a rigid sense, nor continued as such.

1. Because 'tis not commensurate to the nature of the sin, neither is it that penalty which the Law required. Death was due, and death immediately upon the offence; but death was kept off by the interposition of the Mediator, and this which is less than death, inflicted at present. The Mediator or Days-man interposed before this sentence; for the promise of the Seed which should bruise the Serpents head, preceded the pronouncing of this sentence, Gen. 3.15, 16. God arms himself against both, but not with those weapons they had deserved. Capital Crimes are usually attended with capital punishments, which draw a destruction upon the offender. Where death is deserved, and a lighter punishment inflicted, it is rather ⟨p. 79⟩an act of clemency, than strict Justice, and may be called by the name of a partial pardon, or reprieve, as well as a punishment. 'Tis indeed a punishment when Conscience racks a man with further expectation of torment, when it is but a Prologue to everlasting burnings, when through those pains any fall into the place of everlasting horror. 'Tis then more properly a punishment, when it proceeds from an irreconcilable Justice, armed with Omnipotency in the Execution, not when it proceeds from an anger mixed with mildness, and mitigated by the Intercessions of a Mediator.

1. Because 'tis not commensurate to the nature of the sin, neither is it that penalty which the Law required. Death was due, and death immediately upon the offence; but death was kept off by the interposition of the Mediator, and this which is less than death, inflicted at present. The Mediator or Days-man interposed before this sentence; for the promise of the Seed which should bruise the Serpents head, preceded the pronouncing of this sentence, Gen. 3.15, 16