e same sin again, under the same or similar circumstances. The
same thing will be true of each and every succeeding repetition of the
offence; until the habit of sinning may be so completely wrought into the
soul, and so firmly fixed there, that nothing can check it in its career
of guilt. Neither the glories of heaven, nor the terrors of hell, may be
sufficient to change its course. No amount of influence brought to bear
upon its feelings, may be sufficient to transform its will. "There is a
certain bound to imprudence and misbehaviour," says Butler, "which being
transgressed, there remains no place for repentance in the natural course
of things." And may we not also add, nor in the supernatural course of
things either; and there only remains a certain fearful looking-for of
judgment? As this may be the case, for aught we know, nay, as it seems so
probable that this is the case, no one is authorized to pronounce endless
sufferings unjust, unless he can first show that the object of them has
not brought upon himself an eternal continuance in the practice of sin. In
other words, unless he can first show that the sinner does not doom
himself to an eternity of sinning, he cannot reasonably complain that his
Creator and Judge dooms him to an eternity of suffering.

But it may be said, that although the sinner may deserve to suffer
forever, because he continues to sin forever; yet it were more worthy the
infinite goodness of God, to release him from so awful a calamity. If the
sinner deserves such punishment, it is not only just to inflict it upon
him, it is a demand of infinite goodness itself that it should be
inflicted upon him, provided a sufficiently great good may be attained by
such a manifestation of justice. This brings us to the consideration of
our second point, namely: Is the object proposed to be accomplished by the
infliction of eternal misery sufficiently great to justify the infliction
of so severe a penalty? In other words, Is such a penalty disproportioned
to the exigencies of the case?

In his attempt to show, that the infliction of eternal misery is too
severe to consist with the goodness of God, Mr. Foster does not at all
consider the great ends, or final causes, of penal enactments. He merely
dwells upon the terrors of the punishment, and brings these into vivid
contrast with the weakness and impotency of man in his mortal state. This,
it must be confessed, is a most one-sided and partial view of so prof