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Do not tell me that sin is sometimes the punishment of sin.First, sin as sin is not punishment—unless you mean to smash together two opposite kinds of evil and erase the line between penalty and guilt.Privation of righteousness in us, as such, is formally sin; it clashes with the law.
Second, that claim is not about punishment properly and strictly so called—the kind the law threatens and justice must have satisfied.Who believes justice demands that justice be broken? that justice is paid by wounding justice? that the penalty-debt is settled by making the debt larger? that a threat whose penalty is the very breach of the precept should be tacked onto the precept "do not break it"?I go on.
Latin
Noli mihi objicere peccatum esse interdum poenam peccati. Primum enim non est poena quatenus peccatum, nisi velis duas species mali oppositas inter se confundere, sublato inter malum poenae & culpae discrimine. Privatio autem justitiae in nobis, qua talis, formaliter peccatum est; repugnat enim legi. Deinde id non est accipiendum de poena proprie & stricte accepta, qualem lex comminatur & justitia necessario exigit ut sibi satisfiat. Quis enim credat justitiam exigere ut justitia violetur? satisfieri justitiae eo quo justitia laeditur? solvi poenae debitum eo, quo debitum illud augetur? Adjungi praecepto, ne violetur, comminationem poenae sitae in violatione praecepti? pergo igitur.