ginative theory is far from the truth.

1. The language in which the original account of Adam's sin and
its punishment is stated shows conclusively that the penalty of
transgression was not literal death, but spiritual, that is,
degradation, suffering. God's warning in relation to the forbidden
tree was, "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely
die." Of course, Jehovah's solemn declaration was fulfilled as he
had said. But in the day that man partook of the prohibited fruit
he did not die a physical death. He lived, driven from the
delights of Paradise, (according to the account,) upwards of eight
hundred years, earning his bread by the sweat of his brow.
Consequently, the death with which he had been threatened must
have been a moral death, loss of innocence and joy, experience of
guilt and woe.

2. The common usage of the words connected with this subject in
the New Testament still more clearly substantiates the view here
taken of it. There is a class of words, linked together by
similarity of meaning and closeness of mutual relation, often used
by the Christian writers loosely, figuratively, and sometimes
interchangeably, as has been shown already in another connection.
We mean the words "sin," "flesh," "misery," "death." The same
remark may be made of another class of words of precisely opposite
signification, "righteousness," "faith," "life," "blessedness,"
"eternal life." These different words frequently stand to
represent the same idea. "As the law hath reigned through sin unto
death, so shall grace reign through righteousness unto life." In
other terms, as the recognition of the retributive law of God
through rebellion and guilt filled the consciences of men with
wretchedness, so the acceptance of the pardoning love of God
through faith and conformity will fill them with blessedness. Sin
includes conscious distrust, disobedience, and alienation;
righteousness includes conscious faith, obedience, and
reconciliation. Sin and death, it will be seen, are related just
as righteousness and life are. The fact that they are sometimes
represented in the relation of identity "the minding of the flesh
is death, but the minding of the spirit is life" and sometimes in
the relation of cause and effect "the fruit of sin is death, the
fruit of righteousness is life" proves that the words are used
metaphorically, and really mean conscious guilt and misery,
conscious virtue and blessedness. No other view is con