more likely to hinder men from incurring the penalty that is threatened.

4. Let it be confidered likewise, that when it is so very plain that God hath threatened eternal mifery to impenitent finners, all the prudence in the world obliges men to believe that he is in good carnest, and will execute these threatenings upon them, if they will obftinately stand it out with him, and will not be brought to repentance. And therefore, in all reason, we ought fo to demean ourfelves, and fo to perfuade others, as knowing the terror of the Lord, and that they who wilfully break his laws are in danger of eternal death. To which I will add, in the

5. and laft place, That if we fuppofe, that God did intend that his threatenings fhould have their effect to deter men from the breach of his laws, it cannot be imagined, that in the fame revelation which declares these threatenings, any intimation fhould be given of the abatement or non-execution of them. For by this God would have weakened his own laws, and have taken off the edge and terror of his threatenings; because a threatening hath quite loft its force, if we once come to believe that it will not be executed: and confequently it would be a very impious defign to go about to teach or perfuade any thing to the contrary, and a betraying men into that mifery, which, had it been firmly believed, might have been avoided.

We are all bound to preach, and you and I are all bound to believe the terrors of the Lord. Not so as faucily to determine and pronounce what God muft do in this cafe; for after all, he may do what he will, as I have clearly fhewn but what is fit for us to do, and what we have reafon to expect, if, notwithstanding a plain and express threatening of the vengeance of eternal fire, we ftill go on to treasure up to ourselves wrath against the day of wrath, and the revelation of the righteous judg ment of God; and will defperately put it to the hazard, whether, and how far, God will execute his threatenings upon finners in another world.

And therefore there is no need why we should be very folicitoufly concerned for the honour of God's justice or goodness in this matter. Let us but take care to believe

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and avoid the threatenings of God; and then how terrible foever they are, no harm can come to us. And as for God, let us not doubt but that he will take care of his own honour; and that he, who is holy in all his ways, and righteous in all his works, will do nothing that is repugnant to his eternal goodnefs and righteoufnefs; and that he will certainly fo manage things at the judg ment of the great day, as to be juftified in his fayings, and to be righteous when we are judged. For, notwithstanding his threatenings, he hath reserved power enough in his own hands to do right to all his perfections; fo that we may reft affured, that he will judge the world in righteoufnefs and if it be any ways inconfiftent either with righteoufnefs or goodnefs, which he knows much better than we do, to make finners miserable for ever, that he will not do it; nor is it credible, that he would threaten finners with a punishment which he could not justly execute upon them.

Therefore finners ought always to be afraid of it, and reckon upon it; and always to remember, that there is great goodness and mercy in the severity of God's threatenings; and that nothing will more justify the infliction. of eternal torments, than the foolish prefumption of finners in venturing upon them, notwithstanding fuch plain and terrible threatenings.

This, I am fure, is a good argument to all of us, to work out our falvation with fear and trembling; and, with all poffible care, to endeavour the prevention of that mifery which is fo terribly fevere, that at prefent we can hardly tell how to reconcile it with the juftice and goodnefs of God.

This God heartily defires we would do; and hath folemnly fworn, that he hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that he should turn from his wickedness, and live. So that here is all imaginable care taken to prevent our miscarriage, and all the affurance that the God of truth can give us of his unwillingness to bring this mifery upon us. And both these, I am fure, are arguments of great goodness. For what can goodness do more than to warn us of this mifery, and earnestly to perfuade us to prevent it; and to threaten us fo very terribly, on purpose to deter us from fo great a danger?

And

And if this will not prevail with us, but we will ftill go on to defpife the riches of God's goodness, and longSuffering, and forbearance; what in reafon remains for us, but a fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery indignation to confume us? And what almost can juftice, or even goodness itself, do less, than to inflict that punishment upon us, which with eyes open we would wilfully run upon; and which no warning, no persuasion, no importunity, could prevail with us to avoid? and when, as the Apoftle fays, knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit fuch things are worthy of death, yet for all that we would venture to commit them?

And therefore, whatever we fuffer, we do but inherit our own choice, and have no reason to complain of God, who hath fet before us life and death, eternal happiness and misery, and hath left us to be the carvers of our own fortune and if, after all this, we will obftinately refuse this happinefs, and wilfully run upon this mifery, wo unto us! for we have rewarded evil to ourselves.

You fee then, by all that hath been faid upon this argument, what we have all reason to expect, if we will ftill go on in our fins, and will not be brought to repentance. You have heard, what a terrible punishment the juft God hath threatened to the workers of iniquity; and that in as plain words as can be used to exprefs any thing: Thefe, that is, the wicked, shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal. Here are life and death, happiness and mifery fet before us. Not this frail and mortal life, which is hardly worth the having, were it not in order to a better and happier life; nor a temporal death, to get above the dread whereof should not methinks be difficult to us, were it not for the bitter and terrible confequences of it: but an eternal life, and an eternal enjoyment of all things which can render life pleasant and happy; and a perpetual death, which will for ever torment us, but never make an end of us.

Thefe God propounds to our choice: and if the confideration of them will not prevail with us to leave our fins, and to reform our lives, what will? Weightier motives cannot be proposed to the understanding of man, than everlasting punishment, and life eternal; than the

greatest

greatest and most durable happiness, and the most intolerable and lafting mifery that human nature is capable of.

Now, confidering in what terms the threatenings of the gospel are expreffed, we have all the reafon in the world to believe, that the punishment of finners in another world will be everlasting. However, we cannot be ccrtain on the contrary, time enough to prevent it; not till we come there, and find it by experience how it is: and if it prove fo, it will then be too late either to prevent that terrible doom, or to get it reversed.

Some comfort themselves with the uncomfortable and uncertain hope of being discharged out of being, and reduced to their first nothing; at least after the tedious and terrible fuffering of the moft grievous and exquifite torments for innumerable ages. And if this should happen to be true, good God! how feeble, how cold a comfort is this? Where is the reafon and understanding of men, to make this their last refuge and hope; and to lean upon it as a matter of mighty confolation, that they fhall be miferable beyond all imagination, and beyond all patience, for God knows how many ages? Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? no right fenfe and judgment of things? no confideration, and care of themselves? no concernment for their own lating intereft and happiness?

Origen, I know not for what good reafon, is faid to have been of opinion, that the punishment of devils and wicked men, after the day of judgment, will continue but for a thousand years; and that after that time they fhall all be finally faved. I can very hardly perfuade myfelf, that fo wife and learned a man as Origen was, fhould be pofitive in an opinion for which there can be no certain ground in reafon, efpecially for the punctual and precife term of a thousand years; and for which there is no ground at all, that I know of, from divine revelation.

But upon the whole matter, however it be, be it for a thousand years, or be it for a longer and unknown term, or be it for ever, which is plainly threatened in the gofpel; I fay, however it be, this is certain, that it is infinitely wifer to take care to avoid it, than to difpute it, and to run the final hazard of it. Put it which way VOL. II.

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we will, efpecially if we put it at the worst, as in all prudence we ought to do, it is by all poffible means to be provided against: fo terrible, fo intolerable is the thought, yea the very least suspicion of being miferable for ever.

And now give me leave to ask you, as St. Paul did King Agrippa, Do you believe the fcriptures? And I hope I may anfwer for you myself as he did for Agrippa, I know do believe them. And in them these things are clearly revealed, and are part of that creed of which we make a folemn profeffion every day.

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And yet, when we confider how most men live, is it credible that they do firmly believe this plain declaration of our Saviour and our judge, that the wicked fhall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal ?

Or if they do in fome fort believe it, is it credible that they do at all confider it feriously, and lay it to heart? So that, if we have a mind to reconcile our belief with our actions, we must either alter our Bible and our creed, or we must change our lives.

Let us then confider, and fhew ourselves men: and if we do fo, can any man, to please himself for a little while, be contented to be punished for ever; and, for the shadow of a fhort and imperfect happiness in this life, be willing to run the hazard of being really and eternally miferable in the next world?

Surely this confideration alone, of the extreme and endless mifery of impenitent finners in another world, if it were but well wrought into our minds, would be fufficient to kill all the temptations of this world, and to lay them dead at our feet; and to make us deaf to all the inchantments of fin and vice: because they bid us fo infinitely to our lofs, when they offer us the enjoyment of a fhort pleasure, upon fo very hard and unequal a condition as that of being miferable for ever.

The eternal rewards and punishments of another life, which are the great fanction and fecurity of God's laws, one would think fhould be a fufficient weight to caft the fcales against any pleasure, or any pain, that this world can tempt or can threaten us withal.

And yet, after all this, will we ftill go on to do wickedly,