Of the punishment of sin
John Gill
As to the punishment of
original sin on those who, it may be thought, not to have added to it any
actual sin and transgression, as infants, dying in infancy, I shall be silent;
at least, say little. Not that I doubt of the right of justice to punish that
sin on Adam's descendants, who have not actually sinned
after the similitude of his transgression; since corporal death, a part of the
punishment threatened, does pass upon them, and they are born with a want of
original righteousness, a considerable branch of moral death; but if divine
justice proceeds further, and inflicts eternal death, or everlasting punishment
on them, I think it must be in a more mild and gentle manner
than what is inflicted on those who have also been guilty of actual sins and
transgressions; seeing, as there are degrees of punishment respecting them, as
they are greater or lesser, #Mt 11:20-24 so there must be a difference of the
punishment of original sin, separately considered; and of that attended with
numerous actual transgressions. Many unguarded expressions have been dropped, concerning the punishment of such infants, as before mentioned,
which are not at all to the credit of truth. Many conjectures have been made,
and schemes formed, that are scarcely worth mentioning. Some have fancied that
all such infants are lost; which seems to have something in it shocking,
especially to parents. And others think they are all saved, through the
electing grace of God, the redeeming blood of Christ, and
the regeneration of the blessed Spirit; to which I am much rather inclined,
than to the former: but think it best to leave it among the secret things that
belong to God; who, we may be assured, cannot do an unjust thing, nor do any
injury to any of his creatures: and who, as he is just in his nature, he is
merciful in Christ.
In this article I have nothing
to do with men as elect or non-elect; but as they are all the fallen race of
Adam. The elect, as considered in Christ, the Head of the covenant of grace,
are not subject, or liable, to any punishment, here or hereafter; "There
is no condemnation, to them that are in Christ Jesus": their afflictions
are not punishments for sin; nor is corporal death inflicted
on them as a penal evil; nor will any curse befall them in a future state. But
my concern is with men considered in Adam, as the head of the covenant of
works, and the representative of all mankind; as they sinned and fell in him,
and were involved in the guilt of his sin; and as they are actual transgressors
in themselves; and as they ard chargeable with sin, according
to the declaration, sanction, and tenor of the law; and considered as such, all
mankind descending from Adam by ordinary generation, without any exception and
distinction, are subject, obnoxious, and liable to punishment.
Punishment of sin, original
and actual, may be considered as temporal and eternal; both in
this life, and that which is to come. There is an everlasting punishment into
which the wicked go after death; and there is a punishment in this life;
"Wherefore should a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his
sin?" #La 3:37 that is, for punishment in the present state.
1. First,
Temporal punishment, or punishment in this life, is due to sin; and is
inflicted on account of it; and this is both inward and outward, or of soul and
body.
1a. Punishment inward, or of
the soul, lies,
1a1.
In a loss of the image of God upon it; all have sinned and
"come
short", or "are deprived of the glory of God"; that
is, of the
image of God, in which his glory on man lay; one
principal
part of which image was righteousness and
holiness.
This man is stripped of, and is become unrighteous;
"There
is none righteous, no not one", #Ro 3:10,23.
1a2. In a
loss of the freedom of will, and of power to do good.
Man has not
lost the natural liberty of his will to things
natural; but
the moral liberty of his will to things moral;
his
will is not free to that which is good, only to that
which is
evil; and that liberty is no other than bondage.
Man's free
will is a slave to his lusts; he is a homeborn
slave, #Jer
2:14. Man has lost his power to do good; how to
perform that
he knows not; through the weakness of the
flesh,
or corrupt nature, he cannot do what the law
requires; he
cannot of himself think anything; and, without
the grace of
God, cannot do anything as it ought to be
done; for he
has no principle of life and motion in him to
it; he is
dead in trespasses and sins.
1a3. In a
loss of knowledge of divine things; his understanding
is darkened
with respect to them; he is darkness itself; he
has lost his knowledge
by sinning, instead of gaining more;
"There
is none that understandeth, and seeks after God, and
the
knowledge of him. Spiritual things men cannot discern;
to do good
they have no knowledge; they know not, nor will
they
understand. And many, through an habitual course of
sinning,
become hardened; and God gives them up to a
judicial
blindness and hardness of heart; to vile
affections,
and a reprobate mind, to do things not
convenient;
to strong delusions, to believe a lie; and to
their own
hearts lusts; and nothing worse can well befall
men than
that.
1a4.
In a loss of communion with God. Adam sinned, and was drove
out of
paradise, and was deprived of communion with God
through the
creatures; and all his sons are alienated from a
life of
fellowship with him: their sins separate between God
and them;
and, indeed, what communion can there be between
light
and darkness, righteousness and unrighteousness? the
throne of
iniquity, or where iniquity reigns, can have no
fellowship
with God, who commit sin as though they had a law
to do it.
1a5.
In being destitute of hope, and subject to horror and black
despair. The
sinful soul of man is hopeless and helpless:
men live
without real hope of future happiness, and without
God in the
world; if their consciences are not lulled
asleep, they
are continually accusing of sin; the arrows of
the
Almighty stick in them; the poison of his wrath drinks
up their
spirits; and his terrors set themselves in array
against them:
having no view of pardon, peace, and
righteousness
by another, there is nothing but a fearful
looking for
of judgment; indignation and wrath, tribulation
and
anguish, are due to every soul of man that does evil,
and to which
he is liable; unless the grace of God prevents.
1b. Outward punishments or of
the body, or what relate to the outward things of life, are as follow:
1b1. Loss of
immortality of the body. Adam's body was gifted with
immortality;
but sinning, he was stripped of it and became
mortal, and
so all his posterity are; which arises not from
the
constitution of their nature, and the appointment of
God,
barely, but from sin; "The body is dead", or is become
mortal,
"because of sin", #Ro 8:10 and it is liable, on the
same account,
to various diseases; they all have their
foundation in
and their original from sin; God threatens men
for it with a
consumption, and with a fever, and with an
inflammation,
and with extreme burning, #De 28:22 and these,
with many
others, are inflicted on account of it. To one
cured of a
disease Christ said; "Go home, sin no more, lest
a worse thing
come upon thee", #Joh 5:14 signifying, that
his former
disease came upon him for sin, and a worse would,
1b2. Labour
of body, with toil, fatigue, and weariness, is
another penal
effect of sin. Though Adam dressed the garden
of Eden, in
his state of innocence, it was done without toil
and
fatigue; but when he had sinned, the earth was cursed
for his sake,
and brought forth thorns and thistles; and he
was doomed to
labour in it, to dig in it, to weed and purge
it, to
cultivate and manure it; and thereby to get and eat
his bread in
sorrow, and in the sweat of his brow. And this
doom
continues still in his posterity; man is born "to
labour"
as the sparks fly upward; so the word may be
rendered,
#Job 5:7. The earth remains in such a state as
requires
cultivation, ploughing, sowing, weeding, &c. in
which men
must work with their own hands, in a toilsome and
laborious
manner, or in other arts, to get bread for
themselves
and families, and have wherewith to give to
others. And
it may be observed, that the punishment
pronounced on
Eve, that her conception and sorrow should be
multiplied;
and that in sorrow she should bring forth
children,
is continued in her daughters; and it is remarked,
that of all
the creatures, none bring forth their young in
so much pain
as women; and hence some of the greatest
calamities
and distresses in life, are described and
expressed by
the pains of a woman in travail; see
1b3. Loss of
dominion over the creatures is another sort of
punishment of
sin. Adam had a grant of dominion over all the
creatures,
and these were in subjection to him. But by sin
man
has lost his power over them; and many of them, instead
of fearing
and serving him, rebel against him, and are
hurtful to
him; he is afraid of coming near them, unless God
makes peace
with them for him, and preserves him from them;
yea, the noisome
beast is one of God's sore judgments with
which
he threatens to punish sinful men, #Ho 2:18 Eze 14:21.
1b4. The many
distresses in person, in family, and in estate, are
the penal
effects of sin; the curses of the law, for the
transgressions
of it, come upon men, and on what they have;
in
the city, and in the field; in basket, and in store; in
the fruit of
their body, and of their land; in the increase
of their kine
and flocks of sheep; when these are affected,
and there is
a failure in them, it is for sin, #De 28:16,20.
1b5.
Public calamities are to be considered in this light, as
punishments
of sin; as the drowning of the old world; the
burning of
Sodom and Gomorrah; the captivities of the Jews;
the
destruction of other nations and cities; the
devastations
made by wars, famines, pestilences,
1b6. Last of
all, as to outward temporal punishment, corporal
death, which
is the disunion of soul and body, is the just
"wages"
and demerit of sin; it was threatened in case of it,
and
it is inflicted for it; it came upon Adam, and it comes
upon all his
posterity; and sin is the cause of it; "The
sting of
death is sin"; sin gives it its destructive power
and force,
and makes it a penal evil.
2. Secondly,
There is an eternal punishment of sin, or the punishment of it in the world to
come for ever. This takes place in part on wicked men as soon as soul and body
are separated; their souls, during their separate state, until the
resurrection, are in a state of punishment; the wicked rich man when he died,
"in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torment", #Lu 16:22,23. At the
resurrection the bodies of wicked men will come forth from
their graves, to the resurrection of damnation; when soul and body will be
destroyed in hell, and punished with an everlasting destruction from the
presence of God, #Joh 5:29 Mt 10:28 2Th 1:9. This punishment will be both of
loss and sense; it will lie in an eternal separation from God, from any
enjoyment of his favour, and fellowship with him; but such will have their
eternal abode with devils and damned spirits; and in an
everlasting sense of the wrath of God, which will be poured forth like fire;
and both are expressed in that sentence, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into
everlasting fire", #Mt 25:41. Now this punishment is eternal; it is called
everlasting punishment, everlasting destruction: everlasting fire; fire that is
not quenched; the smoke of it ascends for ever and ever, #Mt 25:41,46
2Th 1:9 Mr 9:42 #Re 14:11. The reasons of the eternal duration of punishment
for sin, are, because it is committed against an infinite and eternal Being,
and is objectively infinite, and requires infinite satisfaction, which a finite
creature cannot give; and this not being given, punishment must proceed on
"ad infinitum", and so be eternal. Could satisfaction be made,
punishment would cease; but no satisfaction can be made in
hell by the sufferings of finite creatures; which, therefore, must be continued
until the uttermost farthing is paid, or full satisfaction made, which can
never be done. Besides, the wicked in the future state, will always continue
sinning, and be more and more outrageous and desperate in their blasphemy and
hatred of God; and, therefore, as they will sin continually, it will be just that they be punished continually; to which may be added,
that there will be no repentance for sin there, no pardon of it, no change of
state; "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he that is filthy,
let him be filthy still", #Re 22:11. But of this more hereafter, towards
the close of this work.
Now this
punishment of sin, both temporal and eternal, is due to all the fallen race of
Adam; to all descending from him by ordinary generation, without any
distinction or exception, as they are considered in him, and transgressors of
the righteous law of God. All equally sinned in him, and died in him; all are
made sinners by the imputation of his disobedience to them; the guilt of which
sin, and of their own actual transgressions, they are
chargeable with: the whole world is become guilty before God; and which guilt
in his sight, and as pronounced by him according to his law, is an obligation
to punishment: all the transgressors of the law, as all men are, stand cursed
and condemned by it; nay, "by the offence of one", of the one man
Adam, "judgment came upon all men to condemnation"; so that all Adam's posterity are under a sentence of condemnation; and as
considered in him, and in themselves, are subject, exposed, and liable to the
above punishment; being all by nature children of wrath, one as well as
another, deserving of it, and so liable to it; that is, to punishment: the
reason why this punishment, to which all are subject, is not inflicted on some,
is because of the suretyship engagements of Christ for
them, and his performance of those engagements; whereby he endured all that
wrath and punishment due to their sins in their room and stead; and so
delivered them from it, which otherwise they were exposed unto; the dawn of
which distinguishing grace the next part of this work will open and display.