yet tightening, or fire from heaven, which sometimes will scorch and burn, and not consume and destroy-bodies, or reduce them to ashes; as in the case of Nadab and Abihu: but this is not very material to determine; since, -2. The soul will be filled with a sense of wrath, which will be poured forth on the wicked, and burn like fire, Psat, lxxix. 5. this is the fiery indignation which shall consume the adversaries of God and Christ in hell, that indignation and wrath, -tribulation and anguish, which will come upon every soul of man that does evil, Rom. ii, &, 9. that fire which the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, will kindle, Isai. xxxi. 30. and which the body, by its near conjunction with the soul, will feel the effects of. IV. The degrees of this punishment; for it seems such there will be, since wicked men will be judged, and so punished, according to their evil works, whether more of fewer, greater or lesser. But then these cannot be understood of the punishment of loss; one cannot lose more or less than another; all are equally excluded from the presence and communion of God and of Christ, and of the Spirit; and from the company of angels and saints, and from the kingdom of heaven and the glories of it; but can only be said of the punishment of sense; some are lesser sinners, and others greater; some are only guilty of original sin, and not of actual transgressions, at least of very few, and so are deserving of a milder punishment only, as before observed; and of actual transgressions some are guilty of mote, and of more heinous ones; sce John xix. 11, and their guilt and punishment are in proportion to them; some are attended with greater aggravations, and so are deserving of a greater punishment; some are done in ignorance, and others against light and knowledge; one knows his master's will and does it not, and so deserves to be beaten with many stripes; and another knows it not, and yet does things worthy of stripes, and therefore to be beaten with few stripes, Luke xii. 47. Some have had the advantage of a written law, the law of Meses, as the Jews had, and this explained with the sanctions of it; when others, as the Gentiles, had only the light of nature and the law of it to guide them; and as both will be judged according to their different laws, so will they be punished in a different manner, Rom. ii. 12. Some have had the advantage of a preached gospel, and have despised it, and have been disobedient to it, which is an aggravation of their condemnation; so that it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon, for Sodom and Gomorrah, than for them, Matt. xi. 20, 21. The scribes and Pharisees who, against the clearest evidence, and the conviction of their own consciences, denied that Jesus was the Messiah, and blasphemed his miracles, which were proofs of it; and under a pretence of religion devoured widows' houses, justly receive the greater damnation, Matt. xii. 25-32. and those who have treated contumeliously the great doctrines of the gospel, respecting the person and blood of Christ, and the grace of the Spirit of Christ; of how much sorer punishment shall they be thought worthy, than those who have only broken the law of Moses? Heb. x. 28, 29. Some have been favoured with greater mercies in providence than others, and have abused them, and despised the goodness of God extended to them, and se have treasured up more wrath against the day of wrath: and having their good things here, will have their evil ones hereafter, with redoubled vengeance. Rom. ii. 4, 5. Luke xxi. 25. What remains to be considered is, the duration of the punishment of the wicked in hell. It will always continue and never have an end, and is therefore called everlasting punishment, and everlasting destruction, Matt. xxv. 46. 2 Thess. i. 9. and this will admit of proof both from reason and revelation, from the light of nature, and from the sure word of prophecy. The heathens had not only knowledge of the future punishment of the wicked in hell, but of the eternal duration of it. Lucretius, the Epicurean philosopher, though he disbelieved it. bears a full testimony to the truth of it, even whilst he derides it; he wrote many years before the coming of Christ, so that what he says could not be derived from the writings of the New Testament, but from a more ancient tradition handed down among the Gentiles time immemorial; he says", that the fears of eternal punishment after death, and as what would never have an end, were the cause of all the troubles and miseries of human life; under the bondage of which men lay oppressed, until Epicurus, a man of Greece, rose up, and delivered men from those fears and fancies, so that, according to him, till the times of Epicurus, who lived more than two hundred years before Christ, this sentiment had alwavs obtained among the heathens. And from the sacred scriptures the eternity of future punishment is abundantly evident: as, 1. From the punishment of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, whe were made an ensample to those that after should live ungodly; the destruction of those cities was an emblem of eternal punishment: they agree in the efficient cause of them, God; in the instruments, angels; in the matter and manner of the destruction, by fire and brimstone; in circumstances, suddenly, at an unawares; and in the nature of it, irreparable, and in a sense eternal; for those cities were reduced to such a state, as that they will not, nor can be restored again, and so a fit type of the everlasting punishment of sinners in hell; but more than this, the inhabitants of those cities are now suffering the vengeance of eternal fire, Jude 7. they are not only now suffering the vengeance, but the vengeance is eternal, and expressed by fire that is everlasting. 2. From the sense and fears of sinners in Zion, expressed in Isai. xxxii. 14. The sinners in Zion are afraid; who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? the Targum interprets this of everlasting burnings of hell; and many christian interpreters, of the wrath of God, and the tortures of a guilty conscience there; which are represented as what will endure for ever, and as intolerable, the desert which those sinners were conscious of, and that the outward form of 1eligion would not deliver from them.3. From the resurrection of the dead, and the issue of it, as described in Dan. xii. 2. Some of whom awake to everlasting life, and some to everlasting contempt: this two-fold resurrection is Æternas quoniam pœnas in morte timendum, Lucret. de Rerum Natura, 1. 1. called, the one the resurrection of life; the other the resurrection of damnation, John v. 29. and as the life some are raised to is everlasting life, the damnation that follows the resurrection of the other, must be everlasting damnation; here called, everlasting contempt; for such will be had in contempt for ever, by God, the holy angels, and good men: the word everlasting must have the same sense, and denote the same duration, with respect to the one as to the other. 4. From the senter.ce pronounced on the wicked, Matt. xxv. 41. to depart into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: if the punishment of the devil and his angels, will endure for ever, and have no end, then the punishment of the wicked will also endure for ever, without end, since the same punishment is prepared for the one as for the other; and which is here expressed by everlasting fire; and as elsewhere by unquenchable fire, by fire that shall never be quenched, Matt. iii. 12. Mark ix. 45. by smoke of fire and torments, that ascendeth up for ever and ever, Rev. xiv. 11. and by blackness of darkness reserved for ever, Jude 13.-5. From the execution of the sentence, Matt. xxv. 46. These shall go away into everlasting punishment; as the happiness of the saints in heaven is everlasting, and there is no reason to believe it ever will have an end; so the punishment of the wicked in hell will be everlasting, and without end: the same word here rendered everlasting, is frequently used of the future life and happiness of the saints, John vi. 40, 47, 54. vea, it is used of it in this passage; for it follows, but the righteous. into life eternal: now no reason can be given why the word in the one clause, which is the same, should be underBesides, the stood of an eternal duration, and in the other of a limited one. opposition of the two states of the respective persons requires, that it should be 6. From the immor. understood in the same sense, and as of equal extent. tality, of the soul. The soulof man, of every man, is immortal, and cannot die, or become extinct, as has been abundantly proved; if therefore it is immortal, and lives for ever, it must be for ever either happy or miserable; the souls of the righteous being inmortal, shall be for ever happy; and the souls of the wicked, being so likewise, shall be always miserable: he that is unjust and filthy now, will be after death unjust and filthy still, and ever remain so, and therefore always unhappy and miserable, Rev. xxii. 21.7. From the parts of future punishment; the punishment of loss, and the punishment of sense. The loss of all good sustained will be in retrievable; and the sense of pain and torment will be constant, and without intermission; there will be no rest day nor night; the soul being immortal, the worm of conscience dieth not, but will be always gnawing, stinging, accusing and upbraiding, and therefore the pun. ishment will always endure.-8. From an incapacity of ever being relieved, through the use of means, the ministry of the word; or by a being brought to repentance; or by having sin pardoned, and satisfaction made for it; all which will be out of the question: the ministry of the word of peace and reconciliaion will be no more; the door of the gospel will be shut; no place will be t ound for repentance; men will blaspheme God because of their pains, but not repent of their sins; there will be no remission of sin in the world to come, nor satisfaction to be made for sine; sinners cannot satisfy for them themselves by all that they endure; and there will be none to satisfy for them, for there will be no more offering for sin. 9. From the impossibility of an escape, or a remove out of it. The place of torment is bounded by a great gulf, so that there is no passing from that to a state of happiness; which gulf is no other than the eternal and immutable decree of God, which can never be disannulled, but wil remain fixed and unalterable. The heathens themselves represent Hades and Tartarus, by which they mean the same as hell, as so closely locked and shut up, that there is no return from thence; and as strongly fortified with iron, towers and gates, with walls and adamantine pillars, as impregnable, and ne ver to be broke through.-10. From the perfections of God: The veracity of God makes eternal punishment for sin necessary. He has threatened sin, the breach of his law, with eternal death; for such is the demerit of it; and his truth and faithfulness are engaged to fulfil the threatening, unless a compensation is made for sin committed. Let God be true, and every man a liar! The justice of God also requires it; not to punish sin, would not be doing justice to himself, and to the glory of his Majesty; it would be a denying himself, a cone cealing his perfections, and suffering his supreme authority over his creatures to be subject to contempt; his justice, and the honour of it, make it necessary. that sin should be punished, either in the sinner, or in a surety for him; wherefore no satisfaction being made to justice, nor can there be any made in a future state, the punishment must continue for ever. It is pretended by some, as if it was contrary to the justice of God, that a transient, temporary action, as sin is, should be everlastingly punished. To which it may be replied, that though sin,. as an action, is a transient one, yet the evil, the guilt, the demerit of sin continue, unless purged by the blood of Christ, and atoned for by his sacrifice. Besides, sin is continued to be committed in a future state, though not the same sorts of sins, some of them, as murders, adulteries, &c. yet blasphemy, malice, envy, and the like; and therefore as they continue to be committed, it is but just that the wrath of God should remain upon them: moreover, though sin is a finite action, as an action, for nothing else can be done by a finite creature; yeb it is, objectively, infinite, as committed against an infinite Being, and therefore is justly punished with the loss of an intinite good. And as the demerit of sin, as to the punishment of sense, cannot be inflicted intensively on a finite creature, that not being able to bear it; it is inflicted extensively; or is continued, að infinitum, for ever, Nor is this contrary to the mercy and goodness of God; God is just, as well as merciful and good: and these attributes are not to be opposed to another; justice must be satished, as well as grace, mercy, and good* Pausania Eliac, sive 1. 5. p. 325. Plato in Phædous, p. 84. Virgil. Æneid. 6. v. 548. &c. y Homer. Iliad 8. v. 15 ness displayed; and besides, the displays of those, or the actings thereof, are according to the sovereign will and pleasure of God; and when men have dsspised his goodness in providence, and his grace and mercy held forth in the gospel, and in salvation by Christ; it can be no reproach to his mercy and goodness thus despised, to punish such with everlasting destruction, 2 Thess. i. 9. OF THE FINAL STATE OF THE SAINTS. THERE is a state of happiness, which the spirits, or souls, of just men enter into immediately after the separation of them from the body; of which we have treated in a preceding chapter. But after the resurrection, which is of the saints unto everlasting life, and therefore is called the resurrection of life; and when the general judgment is over, and the invitation is given, Come ye blessed, &c. then the righteous shall go into life eternal, soul and body, Matt. xxv. 34, 46. which is the state now to be considered. And, first, the state of happiness itself, and then the eternity of it. The state of happiness the saints are possessed of after the resurrection, and general judgment, in soul and body, expressed in the passage above quoted, by eternal life, and very fiequently elsewhere. But it is not animal life, which lies in the conjunction of soul and body, and a continuance of that for ever, which is meant by eternal life; for the wicked will live such a life upon the resurrection; for as there will be a resurrection of the just, so of the unjust; they will live again, and live for evermore; though their living will be no other than the second and eternal death; for they will be destroyed, both body and soul, in hell; not as to the substance of either, but as to the comfort and happiness of both; for it is not barely living, but living well, comfortably and happily, that is properly life; in which sense the word is used, Psal. xxii. 26. and such is the life the saints will live in heaven, in soul and body, in the enjoyment of God, as their covenant-God; and thrice happy are they that are in such a case; and in being with Christ! which is far better than to live in this world: and in having the communion of the holy Spirit, than which nothing can be more comfortable; and in the society of angels and saints: all which is most eligible and desirable. In treating on this state, I shall take much the same method as in the preceding chapter. I shall, I. Prove that there will be a state of happiness of good men in the world to come; for godliness has the promise of that life which is to come; that is, of happiness in it. And this may be made to appear, in some respect, 1. From the light of nature and reason; for though the kind of happiness is not to be discovered and demonstrated by it; yet some general notion of future happiness may be evinced from it. 1. A general notion of happiness after VOL. II. 3 R |