nce of the criminality_; the
doctrine teaching that it is of the essence, and is an awful aggravation
of the original consignment, that it dooms the condemned to maintain the
criminal spirit unchanged forever. The doom _to sin_ as well as to suffer,
and, according to the argument, to sin _in order_ to suffer, is inflicted
as the punishment of the sin committed in the mortal state. Virtually,
therefore, the eternal punishment is the punishment of the sins of
time."(204)

Even according to the principles of Foster himself, the argument is wholly
untenable. For he admits, that such is the evil nature of man, such the
circumstances around him, and such the influences of the great tempter, he
must inevitably go wrong; and yet he holds that he may be justly punished
for such transgressions. Now, if every man who comes into the world be
doomed to sin, as this author insists he is, and may be justly punished
for sins committed in this life, why should he be excused for the sins
committed in another state, because he is doomed to commit them? But this
_argumentum ad hominem_ is merely by the way, and has more to do with the
consistency of the author, than with the validity of his position. We
shall proceed to subject this to a more searching and a more, satisfactory
test.

His argument assumes, that "it is of the essence of the original
consignment, that it dooms the condemned to maintain the criminal spirit
unchanged forever." This is an unwarrantable assumption. We nowhere learn,
and we are nowhere required to believe, that the guilty are doomed to sin
forever, because they have voluntarily sinned in this life; much less that
they are necessitated to sin in order to suffer! The doctrine of the
eternity of future punishments is not necessarily encumbered with any such
ridiculous appendage; and if any one can be found to entertain so absurd a
view of the doctrine, we must leave him to vindicate the creation of his
own imagination.

We do not suppose that the soul of the guilty will continue to sin
forever, because it will be consigned to the regions of the lost; but we
suppose it will be consigned to the regions of the lost, because, by its
own repeated acts of transgression, it has made sure of its eternal
continuance in sinning. God dooms no man to sin--neither by his power nor
by his providence. But it is a fact, against which there will be no
dispute, that if a man commit a sin once, he will be still more apt to
commit th