"
Leibnitz continues elsewhere: "There is a kind of justice which aims
neither at the amendment of the criminal, nor at furnishing an
example to others, nor at the reparation of the injury. This justice
is founded in pure fitness, which finds a certain satisfaction in
the expiation of a wicked deed. The Socinians and Hobbes objected to
this punitive justice, which is properly vindictive justice and
which God has reserved for himself at many junctures. ... It is
always founded in the fitness of things, and satisfies not only the
offended party, but all wise lookers-on, even as beautiful music or
a fine piece of architecture satisfies a well-constituted mind. It
is thus that the torments of the damned continue, even tho they
serve no longer to turn anyone away from sin, and that the rewards
of the blest continue, even tho they confirm no one in good ways.
The damned draw to themselves ever new penalties by their continuing
sins, and the blest attract ever fresh joys by their unceasing
progress in good. Both facts are founded on the principle of
fitness, ... for God has made all things harmonious in perfection as
I have already said."
Leibnitz's feeble grasp of reality is too obvious to need comment
from me.
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