ever punished for what he did in the world, but only for what he is now doing to afflict and destroy others. He has indeed acquired by his life in the world the peculiar spiritual constitution, the conformations of heart and mind that continually impel him to the commission of the evil which precipitates him into suffering and punishment.
A great theological consequence flows from this rational and philosophical view of the punishment of sin. Christ did not undergo the punishment of sin. His work was not to deliver us from the effects of sin, but from its power and bondage. Effects are only removed by removing their causes. Sin is always punished, by the loss of spiritual vitality, by the weakening of conscience, by the receding of angelic spheres, by the enveloping tyranny of evil. The infliction of pain, physical or mental, cannot atone for sin, cannot satisfy the offended majesty of the law. This revenge, for it is nothing else, is altogether abhorrent to God and angels, who instantly forgive every evil thing done against them and pity the doer. The small part of the miseries of hell for which God may be considered responsible, viz., those induced by the visitation of angelic spheres, is never permitted except for the defence of the innocent, the reformation of
