HELL.] Eternal punishment just. [CHAP. II. reverse or mitigate the sentence against the damned, who continually blaspheme his majesty and his justice? If they were as omnipotent to effect, as they are malicious to desire, they would destroy his being. It is true the divine threatening does not bind God to a rigorous execution of it upon sinners: he has declared that if sinners will turn from their evil ways, he will repent of the evil which he purposed to do unto them. Jer, xxvi. 3. But when threatenings are part of the laws whereby men are governed, it is agreeable to the wisdom and justice of the Lawgiver to execute them in their full force upon obstinate offenders; especially when the inflicting of them is so far from working any ingenuous change in those rebels, that they thereby become more fierce and obdurate. 4. The immense guilt that adheres to sin, requires a proportionate punishment. It is a rule in all courts of judicature, that the degrees of an offence rise according to the degrees of dignity in the person offended. Now the Majesty of God is truly infinite, against whom sin is committed; and consequently the guilt of sin exceeds our boundless thoughts. This is the reason of the sentence; 'Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.' The cause threatened includes the first and the second death. What a dishonour is it to the God of glory, that proud dust should fly in his face, and controul his authority. What a provocation that the reason. CHAP. II.] Eternal punishment just. [HELL. abie creature, who is naturally and necessarily a subject, should despise the divine law and Lawgiver. Though carnal minds make light of sin, yet when weighed in the scales of the sanctuary, it is found so heavy that no punishment inflicted on sinners exceeds, either in the degrees or duration, the desert of sin. God's justice is not satisfied in depriving them of heaven, but inflicts the most heavy punishment upon sense and conscience in the miserable. For as the soul and body in their state of union in this life were both guilty, the one as the guide, the other as the instrument of sin; so when reunited, it is just that they should feel the penal effects of it. Sinners shall then be tormented wherein they were most delighted; they shall be invested with those objects that wili cause the most dolorous perceptions in their sensitive faculties. The lake of fire and brimstone, the blackness of darkness for ever,', are words of a terrible signification; but no words can fully express the terrible ingredients of their misery. The punishment will be in proportion to the glory of God's majesty that is provoked, and the extent of his power. And as the soul was the principal, and the body but an accessary in the works of sin; so its capacious faculties shall be far more tormented than the limited faculties of the outward senses. The fiery attributes of God shall be transmitted through the glass of conscience, and concentered upon their miserable spirits. The fire without is not so tormenting as the fire HELL.] within them. Eternal punishment just. [CHAP. 11. What How will the tormenting passions be inflamed! What rancour, reluctance and rage, against the just power that sentenced them to hell. impatience and indignation against themselves for their wilful sins, the just cause of it. How will they curse their creation, and wish their utter extinction, as the final remedy of their misery. But all their ardent wishes are vain; for the guilt of sin will never be expiated, nor God so far reconciled as to annihilate them. As long as there is justice in heaven, or fire in hell, as long as God and eternity shall continue, they must suffer those torments which the strength and patience of an angel cannot bear one 'hour. CHAP. III. Practical inferences-The tender mercy of God in revealing the prepared plagues for sinners, to prevent their misery-The desperate folly of choosing the pleasures of sin, notwithstanding the dreadful and everlasting torments that follow sin-Eternal death, the wages of sin, a prevailing motive to abhor and forsake it-Obligations to our Saviour, who delivers us from the wrath to come. I SHALL now draw some practical inferences, and conclude this subject. 1. From the revelation in scripture of the dreadful punishment prepared for impenitent sinners in the next state, we may understand the tender mercies of God to men; how willing he is they should be saved, who are so wilful to be damned. Hell is represented to them by the most violent figures to terrify their imaginations and strongly affect their minds, that they may flee from the wrath to come. God counsels, commands, intreats, urges sinners to be wise, to foresee and prevent the evil that every hour is approaching; and with compassion and indignation laments their misery, and reproaches their folly in bringing it upon themselves. The divine mercy is as eminently and apparently declared to men in the present corrupt state, in threatening hell to excite HELL.] Practical inferences. [CHAP. III. their fear, as in promising heaven to allure their hopes. For if carnal indulgent sinners are not roused by a quick apprehension of hell, they will securely enjoy their pernicious pleasures, and despise the blessed reward; and heaven would be as empty of human souls as it is full of glory. Men in general are more capable of conceiving of the torments of hell, than of the joys of heaven. Storms and darkness are more easily drawn by a pencil, than a clear calm day. Fire mixed with brimstone is very painful to sense; and the fancy strongly represents its vehemence in tormenting the body. Aud what misery the incessant remorse of a guilty conscience will cause in the damned hereafter, is in part understood by the secret accusations. and twinges of conscience in self-condemned sinners here. But they are absolutely strangers to the joys of the Holy Ghost, to the delights of the soul in communion with God, and to peace of conscience in his favour. They cannot without experience know how good the Lord is, any more than see a taste. To discourse to them of spiritual pleasures that flow from the divine presence, of the happiness of the saints that are before the throne of God, and serve him in his temple, is to speak with the tongue of an angel unintelligible things. Their minds and language are confined to sensible objects. The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.' |