Engravers when they would shew their best Art and chiefest Workmanship they cull out the choicest Materials as either precious Stones Cedar or Marble to work upon and so Embroiderers the finest Stuff or Cloth for the Ground-work they would embroider Gold or Pearls upon Thus hath God singled forth Angels and Men the chief of and more noble Creatures in the Stuff they consist of than the rest of his whole Creation Power and Wisdom is seen in other Creatures but Vindicative Justice as also Grace and saving Mercy only on Men and Angels And 2. Although he hath shewn forth more of Wisdom and Power in the Frame and Fabrick of Men and Angels than in the whole of Heaven and Earth yet still comparatively more of Justice and Mercy in these two than that all or any of the other Attributes shewn forth in and upon them comes unto Whereof this is sufficient evidence that they have the Name of Vessels of Mercy and Vessels of Wrath Rom. 9. You read nowhere that they are termed Vessels of Power or Vessels of Wisdom which is a Token that they are fill'd with these in that they carry away the Denomination which is usually à Principaliori as if no Attributes else in comparison seemed to appear and yet how much of Power and Wisdom is seen in the Fabrick of Man David tells us I am wonderfully or fearfully made So then those that shall prove to be the miserable Vessels of this his Wrath and Justice shall be so fill'd with a Punishment whereby this Justice is made known as shall deservedly bear the Name of Wrath and Judgment engraven upon it of all other Attributes The Day in which he will judg the World Acts 17. 31. is elsewhere called the Day of Destruction the Day of Wrath the Day of Judgment c. It beareth its Denomination from this very Work we speak of And further consider how he hath given out afore-hand almost six thousand years before concerning this Work above all Works else and hath posted it upon Enoch's Pillars you know the Tradition I allude to as you use to do Citations Jude 14 15. or as you do indicere diem set a Day for the most solemn Works Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied hereof saying Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints to execute Judgment upon all c. And further and besides God speaks of Preparations to have been all along made by him during the time of this World against that Day The Persons are a fitting Rom. 9. The Punishment a preparing prepared for the Devil and his Angels even from their very first Fall Now certainly God would never raise up in us by such words given out by himself so great expectations if the Reality the Execution the Thing it self should not answer to all these Yea after all his other Works of Wonder finished and perfected he professeth to come on purpose to be glorified And in what as well in rendring Vengeance in the Destruction of Wicked Men as in the glorifying his Saints 2 Thess 1. 6 7 8 9 10. Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompence Tribulation to them that trouble you And to you that are troubled Rest with us When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming Fire taking Vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ Who shall be punish'd with everlasting Destruction from the Presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his Power When he shall come to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe in that day He carries on the glorifying himself and of his Power in the one as well as in the other Yea and to render the Solemnity of this Work and Day yet greater he calls a General Assembly of all Men and Angels that are or have been or of Men that yet shall be in either Worlds to be present and see the Execution To conclude It is therefore called the Great Day as that Reserved to the Judgment of the Great Day Jude 6. and other Speeches And why the Great Day but from this Work of that Day that shall be done upon it which this Day shall then bring forth and produce As Days have their Stile and Denomination from the Work of the Day Opus diei in die suo So this as was said is called the Day of Destruction Wrath c. And if so then that Stile of Greatness must be from the Greatness of the Work that shall be done thereon And so the Judgment of the Great Day because great will the Judgment be that is to be executed on that Day Lastly God hath in the mean time suffered his Glory to be debased himself to be least regarded in the World Sin and the Devil to carry all before them and Sinners to have the Glory relieving himself in the mean time that he hath a Treasure of Glory to be broken up at that day Rom. 2. 3. When he will come on purpose to be glorious He hath suffered an Ecclipse of six thousand Years that in the end he may break forth with a redoubled Glory And all that Glory must come in this way even from this Punishment he shall execute And it must be a recovery of greater Glory than he should have had by Man's Holiness in that first State by Creation or God would never have let Sin have come into the World he meant not to be a Loser §. V. Demonstrations taken from the satisfying of Avenging Wrath The third particular Attribute I Come next to argue this from the third Attribute his Wrath or if you will his Power and Justice as intended and heightned to extremities by Wrath And though he will be just in what he doth yet it is Justice put on by Wrath. He recompenseth Sin not only as Rector Vniversi Judg of all the World and so upon the account of Publick Rules given forth to vindicate the equity and righteousness of which he punisheth the transgressions of them but over and above he doth it as resenting an Injury a personal Affront given to himself his Person and this draws forth his Wrath and Vengeance on his own behalf As it is termed Vengeance so Zeal in Heb. 10. 27. and 1 Cor. 10. 22. Do you provoke the Lord to Jealousy In Nahum 1. 2. See what a Conglomeration there is of Attributes and Effects God is jealous that 's the first He compares that in God unto that in Man which Solomon tell us is the Rage of Man Prov. 6. last Again 2. The Lord revengeth the Lord revengeth That is the Effect and he says it twice as speaking of one who is enflamed with Anger Then 3. To shew how fiercely in revenging he executes it even with Fury he adds The Lord revengeth and is furious who yet professeth elsewhere of himself Fury is not in me that is of my self it is not Isa 27. 4.
Godly or the Wicked although there are differing ends and purposes from God towards either yet as they are one and the same in substance as other afflictions are so also they meet in this one and the same issue namely to be an evidence and demonstration what Hell it self in the extremity of it is For as in the Wicked they are imperfect Testimonies of what they shall undergo to the end they may repent so in the Godly they are Evidences of what they have deserved in common with those and all wicked Men and to shew that they are alike Children of Wrath even as others also unto them Eph. 2. 1. they are sensible Experiments of what they should have undergone but that Christ hath saved them from the Wrath to come that so they may be thankful love much And many other holy ends there are yet still so as these contrary lines do centre in this that Hell is prelibated and tasted by the one as well as the other But for a clear Eviction that these Terrors in the Godly are no other than the very shadow of Death or vive and lively Resemblances of what Men feel in Hell Hear what themselves say of it whilst under the sense thereof First Heman for all the rest while you find him as with his mouth put in Hell into the very dust of Death bemoaning himself thus ver 5. I am free among the Dead like the Slain that lie in the Grave whom thou remembrest Psal 88. no more and that are cut off from or by thy hand When he says Slain it is in language the same which Christ useth of that Execution Luke 19. 27. Slay them before me And the whole of it is all one as to say My condition is like unto a Man 's that is in Hell and in some respects the same Not that it had the same Consequents all Effects of Despair that Wrath hath upon the Damned but in respect it is God's hand that inflicteth it and also the same Wrath it self he felt And David who had experimented them expresly terms them the pains and sorrows of Hell Psal 18. 5. 116. 3. and elsewhere And Jonah says the like whilst he was in the Whale's belly for his Rebellion against God Compare for this Heman's Speeches Psal 88. 6 7 16 17. with these of Jonah ch 2. 2 4. And so you have out of their own mouths this Assertion verified and the Consequence we have insisted on confirmed CHAP. VI. Thirdly Reasons 1. God's Justice 2. Avenging Wrath otherwise not satisfied A Demonstration added I Come now to the Reasons of it which will shew the necessity of this course namely of God's taking it into his own hands It might be wondred at that the great God having an Host or Army of creatures ready to be his Avengers should over and above what they might do himself set his hand to this But God and Christ are so far from esteeming this a staining of their Glory as earthly Judges think it would be to execute any themselves that this being a Trophee of regaining Honour debased by the Creature they account it a part of their Glory Thus God here challengeth it to himself Vengeance is mine as a Glory he would not give to any other And Christ is so far from accounting that he staineth his Compare for this Interpretation Revel 19. with Isa 63. Raiment with their Blood Isa 63. as that he glories to tread the Wine-press of his Father's Wrath alone He glories in it There are two Reasons drawn from the final Causes of this Punishment which makes this Dispensation necessary 1. It is for the Glory of his Justice 2. It is an Act of Avenging Wrath retributing Vengeance Which two do center in this as a third That it is to be Destruction to the Persons it falls upon as the issue of both All which can never be attained but by an execution made by God's own immediate Wrath. I shall found these Reasons as I did the other Proofs upon what I find Foundations for in these very Texts I have chosen 1. It is an Act of Justice so in this Heb. 10. I will repay and 2 Thess 1. 6. It is a righteous thing in God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to repay again or recompence and vers 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who shall pay or lay down a Punishment justly sentenced which in Heb. 2. 2. is called a just Recompence of Reward And Rom. 6. last the Wages or Reward of Sin And this is the last Payment and all that for ever Sin in them or God for Sin shall have and therefore that whereby the Glory of God is to be fully recovered 2. It is an Act of avenging Wrath as in both these places is expressed Let us see what evidence of Reason each of these apart do afford much more put together 1. Justice Concerning that the assertion is That if there be a Satisfaction made for Man's Sin unto God's Justice but so far as it may be attained upon the Creature to be punish'd in Hell God himself will set his immediate hand to it and Justice requires this The Explication 1. I say A Satisfaction so far as may be attained upon the Creature that hath sinned and which is to be the Subject of this Punishment I put this in because otherwise it must be affirmed of Christ alone that he gave full satisfaction unto God's Justice in whom there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Manifestation or Rom. 3. 25 Demonstration of God's Justice for Sins that were past yet still as although a full Satisfaction can never be had from or upon the Creature therefore in Hell they alwas suffer yet God doth recover what can be had and payeth himself out of them as far as it will go as those Phrases Paying the utmost farthing Mat. 5. 26. and Selling them and all they had to make Money thereof Mat. 18. 25. do shew 2. In this case that which justice will require unto any tolerable equitable satisfaction in this Punishment is that as exact a proportion be observed as possibly there may be and as the Subject is capable of The Justice of God as it is according to Truth so exactness and equity and the work of God is perfect in every kind and performed in due Weight Number and Measure but above all else where Justice is professed You may hear Justice speak in Isaiah Chap. 59. According to their Deeds Accordingly he will repay recompence to his Enemies There is an According and an Accordingly to that So as all due Measures and Rules of Proportion every way shall be observed Which Measures being set out in this matter will evidently demonstrate that God's immediate Hand is necessarily required thereto 1. Let the demerit of Sin be weighed And for that in the General I refer unto the first of these Treatises of the heinousness of Sin And we shall find that although the crasser part of Sin is an inordinate
lusting after or enjoyment of things created or sinful Comforts in Creatures yet that the great and Foundation evil of it lieth in an aversion or turning off from God and therein and thereby there is a reflecting upon God an immediate slight or undervalue to an infiniteness of dishonour and contempt cast upon his Goodness Blessedness that is to be had in him as also to his Soveraignty Prerogative Supremacy Holiness c. which are shewn forth and laid at Stake of every of his Laws whereof Sin is the Transgression Now if indeed it could have been supposed that Sin were nothing else but that gross and crass part spoken of the enjoyment of Creatures than a punishment by Creatures only might equivalently have been even with that its obliquity of debasing its own excellency unto Creatures But it being an immediate reflection upon God Himself none can fill up the proportion of a meet and full Punishment which Justice doth require for this but God Himself I may make use of Eli's speech 1 Sam. 2. 25. If one Man sin against another the Judg shall judg him and revenge it but if against God who shall intreat for him Thus he And upon the same or like ground of Reason I infer if one Creature wrong another a Creature of the same kind can revenge it If a Man shed Man's Blood so far as it is wrong to the bare Creature By Man shall his Blood be shed so says the Law in relation to Man's day in this World But if Man sin against God who shall recompence it when God's day comes wherein he is to be glorifyed none so as to give satisfaction to his most exact Justice but God Himself Yea further if we retained to that opinion of many Learned Men That Adam's enjoyment of God for ever in that holy Estate of Innocency should have been of God but as manifested in and by Creatures and his holy Law and not as in Himself or as in Heaven c. yet this would not serve for a Rule whereby to estimate or make proportion that therefore this Punishment should oppositely be only from God by and through Creatures For whatever his enjoyment should have been whether of God mediately or of God as in Himself immediately I dispute not yet to be sure when God was cast off by him or is by us immediately and directly reflected upon even God as God which is that whereby every Man's Sin is heightned in Rom. 1. 21. the meaning whereof is that God as in Himself is debased by Sin So that as the Apostle says in the like case Rom. 5. 15. Not as the Offence so is the free Gift On the contrary upon the like ground Not as was the case or merit of Adam's Righteousness so is the demerit of Sin and so nor of Punishment Because there is so transcendent an undueness yea an injury done to the great God Himself by the Creature in Sinning over and above the proportion of all created Grace or Obedience For all Obedience was due and all Man's Reward in obeying was from the meer goodness of God which He and his Obedience and all depended upon and so the proportion thereof is no way to be lookt at either as the measure of the evil of Sin or of what is to be the Punishment thereof Sin we are sure is so great an Evil as no meer Creature but Christ God-Man and his Obedience or Suffering could have satisfied God for in the behalf of another And why may it not also be said that as none but He that was subjectivè God could satisfy God for the demerit of Sin committed against God objectivè so that Sin is such an evil as cannot in the Sinner himself be throughly punished unto the satisfaction of Justice but by God Himself efficiently that is God to be the inflicter thereof immediately A second equitable rule of Proportion that Justice requiring the fullest satisfaction that may be had will exact is that the principal Author and Actor in the Sin should principally bear the Punishment This not only Vengeance which is the second Topick doth in a more eminent manner aim at and affect but Justice doth call for it also The Justice both of God and Men. Now the principal in Sin is known to be the Soul of Man Which I shall urge when I come to shew how Vengeance also seeketh to wreck it self thereon That which serves to my present purpose which is this that in the point of satisfaction to be made unto God's Justice it is most proper for God Himself to punish Sin in the Soul in order thereunto is First to enquire What is it in Soul or Spirit of Man which God when he comes to deal strictly and down-rightly as a Judg of Mens Souls hath principally to do withal All must acknowledg that it is Conscience that hath to do with God as a Judge for it must be that in Man which is the most proper seat of the guilt of Sin which guilt is the obligation unto Judgment and Punishment And this to be Mens Consciences the Scriptures hold forth and every Man 's own Soul feels Hence also to be purged from an evil Conscience is all one and to be perfectly acquitted from the Guilt of Sin And for God no more to remember our Sins or to be atoned with us as a Judg is all one as to say that we on our parts have no more Conscience of Sins Heb. 10. 2 3 10 11 17. verses compared Conscience is that part of the Soul whereby God as the Judg arraigneth every Man It is the Hand which a guilty Soul holds up at God's Bar for all the rest of Man and is God's Witness within Man against himself Rom. 2. 15. and that in order unto Judgment as follows in verse 16. Again 2. I enquire when it shall come to the execution of the Punishment sentenced What is it in the Soul or Spirit of Man that is most directly and naturally capable of Anguish and Torment and what that part is which God may most properly strike a Man's Soul in when he would rebuke him for Sin Certainly still a Man's Conscience All Beasts have one tender part above any other that most grieves them if smitten This in guilty Man is Conscience We see it in Cain and Judas God burnt them both in this Hand in the Hand of Conscience in this World Having by these two Enquiries stated the Principal both in Guilt and in being the Seat of the Execution I shall for the Proof hereof as also in order to the clearer making forth the Argument afore us namely that Justice requires God's immediate Hand c. I shall in a more ample manner set together these five ensuing Assertions The First That Conscience and the intellectual or understanding Power in Man's Soul are God's Engagee and the Principal in a double respect 1. Conscience is responsible for the whole in Man or if you will principal in the Obligation As being that
which by its own acknowledgment of a Judgment made unto God when he shall come to judge binds over it self and with it self the whole Soul for the Payment And upon that account is to be reckoned the chief Obligee and therefore the Execution is justly to be served upon it and through it upon the whole Soul 2. If we take in together with Conscience the understanding part in Man the Intelligentia or the Spirit of the Mind in the summity of it That is really to be accounted also the Principal in respect of its share in the very acts of Sinning so as justly the Guilt of every act is refunded upon it as the principal Actor For it is betrusted by God with the steering and management of the whole Soul with the conduct of it as the General By reason of that Light God at first seated in it it was appointed for ever to be the Guide and Leader of the Will and Affections And therefore God justly requireth the account or the defaults and miscarriages of the whole at its Hands According to the equity of those Rules declared concerning Rulers of the People Jer. 5. 4 5. These have known the way of the Lord c. As also from that other like to it given forth touching the Priests and which we find so often inculcated in Ezekiel I will require their Blood at the Priests Hands And all these founded upon one and the same common ground common unto Conscience with these namely Conscience and Knowledg there being the Guides And yet in that Conscience gives but an ineffectual weak warning against Sin which should powerfully sway the whole and the Spirit of the Mind or the practick Understanding doth still wickedly give secret consent unto Sin c. Hence therefore that denunciation in Ezekiel holds that God will require the Blood of the Soul at its hands Although the Soul the Will and Affections do perish too in their Iniquity as it is there spoken And for this cause it becomes Justice to punish this chief Agent and Offender or this great Minister of State in sinning and to make these the Seat of the Execution above any or all other Faculties 2. It will furthermore agree with the Rules of Justice yea it will be a special Trophy unto Justice to have Sin it self in the Guilt of it made as far as possibly to be it's own Tormentor and Instrument of the highest Punishment in and unto the Soul that hath sinned There is no Sword like unto that will Justice say to slay a Sinner withall It is of all other the most proper and exquisite way of punishing For the Sinner to eat for ever of the Fruit of his own Ways and Prov. 1. 31. to be filled with their own Devices and their Iniquity to slay them This is the justest and highest Doom which Wisdom it self can invent or God's Power execute The very same doth Jeremy also speak Jer. 2. 19. Thine own Wickedness shall correct thee know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and a bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God Certainly for the Sinner to feel in the most intimate and immediate manner that may be the bitterness of the Guilt of Sin and to find that that above all other Punishments that can be inflicted is the sharpest and severest this is a transcendent strain of Justice indeed Now this is most exquisitely accomplish'd through that proper capacity which Conscience and the intellectual part in Man have as to this very thing And in their being the Seat of the Guilt of Sin they are thereby further fitted to become the Vessel or Receptacle of this the highest Punishment This is in a great measure verified by that in Isa 59. 11 12. We roar all like Bears And what was it that caused this For our Transgressions are multiplied before thee and our Sins testify against us For our Transgressions are with us they dwell with and possess us and we possess them as Job also speaks And as for our Iniquities we know them It was their very knowing of their Sins as set on by God that made them thus roar which is the loudest and wildest Tone of Grief and Note of insufferable Torment And observe how that that Knowledg had two things in contemplation which caused the Roaring 1. Sin together with the Wrath of God Our Transgressions are multiplied afore thee And so they had God in their eye as a Judge which those words shew We look for Salvation but it is far from us v. 11. And 2. They testify against us This was the accusation of their own Consciences themselves So as it was Conscience which was the Seat the Habitation as it were where these two took up their dwellings continually quartered upon and possessed Jeremy says the same To see and know how bitter a thing it is to sin c. And though these Scriptures speak not immediately of Hell yet they do clearly point out to us what and wherein the most exquisite punishment of Sin lieth and by what effected namely Knowledg of Sin and Wrath whether it be in Men in forerunning Anguish in this Life or hereafter in Hell in the fulness of it 3. It is not nor can it be the meer Spiritual evil that is in Sin as Sin is Sin and an opposite to true Holiness and as it stands in a contrariety to the Holiness and Goodness of God that is not it which Men in Hell shall spiritually know and see so as to lay to heart the evil thereof in that respect No for that is the peculiar effect of Grace and proper to the Saints even as to see the Beauty that is in Holiness as it is Holiness likewise is It is therefore Sin in the bitter effects thereof only whereby Souls still remaining wholly sinful as those in Hell do can come to know this bitterness of Sin Now to prosecute this The evil of Sin is not sufficiently or perfectly felt no not in the effects of it by the Conscience of a Sinner so as it may be until it be felt in that which is the highest and most transcendent and proper most immediate and first-born effect thereof of all other And that is no other than the Wrath and Indignation of the All-powerful God For that his Wrath shall break in upon the Sinner and so considered it is the most proper effect of all other of the demerit of Sin God being stirred up and provoked thereunto by Sin Do you provoke the Lord to Jealousy 1 Cor. 10. 22. The like Jer. 7. 19. Sins are as a heap of Charcoal wicked Mens Consciences the Oven and God's Wrath the Fire Let this Fire be put into this Coal and let both meet in a guilty Conscience and it instantly becomes a fiery Oven within it self And as concerning all other Punishments I may say it That all other of what kind or from whomsoever although they are all the effects and deserts of Sin according to that
in Jeremy Thy way and thy doings have procured these things to thee and this is thy Wickedness as it follows there in Jer. 4. 18. Yet still these are all of them deficient and fall short in representing unto the Heart and Conscience the demerit of Sin even so far as by the effects it may be known and the Soul yet further is capable to feel But if once the Wrath and Indignation of the Great God come into the Soul and Conscience this when felt doth bear some answerable proportion as an effect unto so great an Evil as Sin is which it hath deserved and when revealed unto and impressed upon the Sinner's Conscience it hath also the fullest dimensions of such an Evil even to the Sinner also as Sin justly deserveth as far as any way the Creature is capable Then it is that the Sinner feels and takes in the evil of Sin not as in secundary outward effects only and such all other Punishments whatsoever are in comparison to the Wrath of God and therefore fall short but in this case it feels immediately the demerit of Sin in that which is the Cause the only Cause the highest Cause of all other secundary Punishments which Sin hath also deserved whereof it also is the cause And this Dispensation of immediate Wrath riseth up unto the exactest demonstration of the evil that is in Sin which any way from Effects can be made or given unto the Creature 4. Of this immediate Wrath as it is an evil of Punishment the Conscience and intellectual part in Man's Soul is not only capable to be made the Vessel the Receptacle thereof but it lies immediatly exposed unto it It is bare and naked unto him with whom we have to do Heb. 4. 13. as in respect to God's knowledg so of God's punishing as I have elsewhere shewn Conscience is as an open Door or In-let or as an open Window is to the Sun so it to God for him to come in at at any time That when ever God will but take upon him to perform and execute the part of a Judg and Avenger a Conscience that is guilty lies exposed nakedly and barely unto his Anger to receive the strokes and impressions of it For I ask What is God's Justice against Sin but his just Anger against Sin as Rom. 3. 5. the Original hath it And what is a guilty Conscience but that in Man that is naturally suscipient or apprehensive of it And these two are suited as Faculty and Object and are as it were made one for the other there needs no third or other thing if God but please to hold forth his Anger and apply the Corrosive to the Sore so this unto the Soul to convey his own displeasure by Conscience hath an ear to hear what God will speak without any Medium to convey the Voice Look as Faith is a Principle peculiarly fitted to take in God's free Grace and Christ's Righteousness such is Conscience when guilty unto God's Wrath immediatly susceptive of it If God will but set a Mans Sins in order afore him and withal say unto Conscience I am angry yea look but angrily and present himself as such then Conscience instantly like the sensible Plant is struck shrinks and falls down For if God be angry but a little as Psal 2. last and rebuke us in his Anger Psal 6. 1. then at the very rebuke of his Countenance we perish Psal 80. And it is most certain that God can reveal his Anger to the Soul immediatly as well as his Favour And what is this Punishment we are speaking of but the Revelation of the righteous Judgment of God revealed as afore others so principally to a Man 's own Soul as vers 9. And what is that Judgment but God's Judgment expressed as in sentencing so in shewing his Anger and Wrath against Sin as the whole stream of that Scripture shews It is therefore the Wrath and Face of God and the Lamb when discovered which a guilty Conscience flies from Rev. 6. 16. That as Luther says Animus sibi male conscius potius ad Diabolum ipsum ferretur quam ad Deum accederet It had rather be brought afore the Devil and see his face than see God's Terror of Conscience what is it but all one and God's Wrath in Conscience See it in its contrary Peace which we call Peace of Conscience which passeth Vnderstanding is rather denominated the Peace of God which passeth understanding Phil. 4. 7. than Peace of Conscience although Conscience be the Subject pacified and whose Peace and Quietus est it is And in like manner Terror is stiled the Terror of the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 11. And these things may perhaps afford as true a Light towards the understanding of that Maxim of the Apostle Rom. 2. 8 9. Indignation and Wrath viz. of God Tribulation and Anguish upon every Soul as the seat of their Anguish of Man that doth evil as any other And withal shew how it comes to pass that this Tribulation is executed from that Wrath even by the reception of Conscience For of Conscience also the following words vers 15. do there speak and that as in order unto Judgment vers 16. 5. I add as a Corollary from this that Conscience though it be thus naked and open to God and his Wrath yet it is so great a secluse so fast and privy a Cabinet so intimate a Power and Principle in and unto the Soul it self and so entirely reserved unto God himself who is the Lord thereof as it is not immediately subjicible to or to be broke open by Creatures No not those who are superiour Spirits to it either Angels or Devils they are not able to terrify the Conscience until it hath been first made raw and tender by God God only made the Heart and God only knows the Heart and God only can come at and strike at the root of the Heart The Devils or Angels can come but into an outward Room the Fancy and cast in Images thereinto the Fancy being the Souls Looking-glass wherein it vieweth its own thoughts and from which it takes off into it self the Species that are cast in there Also they may stir bodily Passions both which I have elsewhere shewn but they cannot enter into the Closet of the Soul God only is intimior intimo nostro as the Ancients express it God only is greater than our Hearts as the Apostle expresseth it Conscience is a Book so fast clasp'd as it is God's Prerogative alone to open it which he then at that day will do and thereunto that likewise may be applied He openeth and none shuts and he shuts and none opens That Speech holds as true of Conscience as of any other thing And as it is a Book which he alone can open so in which he alone can write over every Man's Sins not with Ink but with Wrath which like Aqua fortis every letter of it shall eat into the Soul According unto that in
Job Thou writest bitter things against me and causest me to possess the Sins of my Youth Job 13. 26. Let no Man therefore imagine that Devils are the greatest Tormentors of Men or of their Consciences in Hell or if any would affirm it I would demand Who it is that torments the Consciences of Devils themselves Certainly none but God They now believing there is a God do tremble but in Hell they fear him and for ever have to do with him And it is as sure that the same God with whom those Spirits and their Consciences have for ever to do the Consciences of Men shall also And as for all other mediate or outward ways of Judgments executed in which the Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven but as at the second hand take the sorest and severest of them that ever God executed by Creatures yea suppose all of the several kinds of Providential Judgments I call them such which are executed upon Men in this World afore-hand which God hath as Judg of all the World in his riding Circuit through all Ages since the Fall revealed his Wrath from Heaven by against all sorts of Unrighteousness of Men as the Apostle speaking of these Judgments says in Rom. 1. 18. Suppose I say they were let flie upon any one Sinner all at once yet would they not reach or touch that Man's Conscience further than as God should over and above the efficacy of them strike the Conscience it self with his anger and displeasure revealed more or less by himself therewith And although in all such Judgments his goings forth are as of a Judg and he accompanies such Judgments more or less but as with some ordinary light and glimmerings of an angry Deity yet his coming as a Judg upon Mens Consciences at the Day of Wrath and Revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God as if he had never revealed his Wrath before this is another manner of coming and shewing himself a Judg indeed rendring Indignation and Wrath upon the Souls of Men And of that Judgment it is the same Apostle in the second Chapter treats as of that other in the former And I may say of all the former in comparison to this latter that they all are but as the Batteries of the Out-works and as Bullets shot against the Walls in a Siege which may indeed terrify the Inhabitants and make them tremble Deut. 32. Rom. 2. and so these the Soul as by remote effects in the Suburbs of it But the latter is as shooting in of Granadoes which have been laid up with him in his Treasury carrying Fire from thence in them the Fire of his fierce and sorest Indignation and these himself alone can shoot into the inwards of Mens Souls And this is as shooting Fire into the the very Magazine into that which is the most inward in the Soul and fortified against the entrance of all created Powers the Magazine where all the Gun-pouder lies that is the guilt of a Man's Sins so as there needeth nothing else to blow up all If his Wrath doth but touch it takes and sets all on Fire Yea give me leave upon the same ground and by the like reason further to say That all the material Fire in Hell by which the Soul shall and will suffer by way of a Compatibility as it is termed or suffering by and with the Body an unspeakable Torment and this for the Sins a Man is guilty of yet these Flames nor these Punishments taken materially and abstracted from this Revelation of God's Wrath would not break into Conscience not until God did therewithal break in with the Fire of his Wrath and make the Conscience and intellectual Spirit of the Mind a fiery Oven within it self as the Psalmist expresseth it in Psal 21. 9. almost in these very words This being the state of matters between God the Judg of all and the Souls and Consciences of Sinners as touching that due and equitable Punishment for Sin and the execution thereof which Mens Souls are capable of I shall now compleat the reason why the Justice of God should move him to be willing yea and that there is in respect unto Divine Justice a kind of requisiteness if not necessity for the Great God to take this course to punish the Sinner by the Revelation of his own immediate Wrath. And this I shall do by gathering together what hath been said from which the Arguments for both these two Assertions that follow lie fair 1. That God for his Justice sake should be willing For Conscience being the principal Engagee obliged unto God as a Judg and the understanding Power in Man the eminent Transgressor and both lying so naked and immediately exposed unto God's Wrath and capable to receive the Revelation of it An Anguish made thereby in the Soul is the most proper natural suitable Reward unto Sin to pay the Sinner home in his own Coin as also the most ready direct and short way for God to take If therefore we suppose Justice be left to have but its free and full course if Justice according to the Prophet's language and God's own rule and direction given unto us run down as Waters and Righteousness as a mighty Stream in its proper natural Channel and so as to fall into that most capacious Vessel or Receptacle that is in Man to receive it Again if Divine Justice hath a will to put and lay its charge and execution where principally it is to be laid even against the Principal whether in the Obligation for Sin or in the guilt of the Act of sinning Or if it be deemed that Divine Justice will take a recovery where the fullest and fairest advantage lies and recover his principal Debt of that which is the principal Debtor and from that in Man which is capable to afford the most due satisfaction and punishment as being that which is the Treasury of all the Guilt of Sin and most exquisitely capable to suffer and thereby to make fullest payment for all Then we may conclude that assuredly God is willing to wreck his just Anger and in his Wrath to break forth upon the Conscience and Intellectual Faculty of the Sinner in Hell by the immediate Revelation of his Wrath and that upon all the accounts fore-mentioned thereby to punish it And we may well suppose that his Justice is willing to do this because God is as the Psalmist with an Emphasis Judg Himself Psal 50. 6. And judgeth for Himself Prov. 16. 4. And for the Recovery of his own Glory and Revelation of his Righteous Judgment And this Course of immediate Wrath being a way above all other so natural so ready so direct so compendious and so suited to the demerit of Sin as hath been shewn we may well think that God will be rather willing to shew his Wrath as the Apostle speaks this way if we could suppose there might be another because this so falls in with and agrees unto the rules and
proportions of Justice fore-mentioned which are most near and sacred to him 2. The second Assertion That it is also requisite yea necessary I speak it as in relation to Justice attaining its ends For all mediate Punishments executed by Creatures being deficient as unto that wherein the very Essence of this Punishment lies they all not reaching the Inwards of the Spirit of the Mind and Conscience and seeing that without God's wrath revealed therewith by God himself all such Punishments would not compleat the Justice of God in a Punishment in any tolerable measure suitable Then if Justice will have its perfect work and bring its Suit against the Sinner unto the ultimate issue it is requisite God himself put his immediate hand to the execution For otherwise this Work of Justice will not be perfect as yet every of his Works in their kind are said to be And so he should not only fall short of satisfying his Justice but also by not doing that towards it which is in his power to do and which he is Lord of he should not in any tolerable measure content it Especially if we further consider that when all is done that can be done this Punishment will not arise to a perfect satisfaction for the Creature 's punishment will not afford it and therefore it doth for ever suffer but only unto what may be had out of them towards it I shut this Point up therefore with this that If God be Judg Himself he will do this work Himself which none else can perform for him and without which all else would be utterly imperfect and defective For upon what hath been afore argued I may say of all other Punishments and Punishers although set by God upon a Man what the Apostle says of those legal Ordinances though instituted by God for his Worship That they could not make the Service perfect as pertaining to the Conscience So nor all outward Torments take them alone without God's Wrath accompanying them they cannot make a perfect or compleat Punishment as pertaining to the Conscience And all this also shews one sufficient reason of Difference why earthly Kings and Judges leave the Execution of Traytors and Offenders wholly unto others Because they have no more Power as in respect of Execution to inflict a condign Punishment than other Men but others can do it as exquisitely and their Justice be as fully satisfied thereby but it is not so here And for these causes God is so far from staining his Glory thereby which other Judges would esteem to be so as that it is the only way fully to recover his Glory And so much for that Argument drawn from satisfying of Justice A second Reason is drawn from satisfying of Vengeance or Avenging Wrath as against Enemies which heightens Justice Thus in many places in the Old and New Testament Deut. 32. Rom. 12. 19. 2 Cor. 10. 6. Rev. 6. 10. In which last place God is stiled both a Judg and an Avenger Judg and Avenge say the Saints there A Judg most commonly doth acts of Justice in the behalf of others but an Avenger is one that doth or seeks Justice in his own Cause and in his own behalf and Interest therefore the next a-Kin seeking the Life of a Murtherer was termed an Avenger of Blood Now God is more nearly concerned in this than any Creatures can be in what may concern Vengeance in them for what ever Injury This is therefore poena vindictae as of one enraged and provoked Patience having been abused as Rom. 9. 22. and so is turned into Fury Now there are two properties of Vengeance from whence I argue this being put together First that it is the property of Revenge to vent it self upon that which is principal in the Injury and to make that the Vessel of its Wrath it will never be satisfied else Now that is the Soul of Man which is the chief seat and subject of the Corruption of Sin the chief Cause of the Act proceeding from thence and that in which the Guilt arising from both doth principally abide The Body is but instrumental in what the Soul doth yea and in some and the greatest Sins the Soul hath the sole and immediate Hand This Soul therefore which is the chiefest Vessel of Sin must be the chief Vessel of Wrath. Indignation and Wrath upon every Soul of Man that doth evil Rom. 2. 8. whereof this undeniable Instance is given by God that the Soul is it that suffers for the whole Man until the Resurrrection as the Instance of the Rich Man shews And it must be no less an immediate Sufferer although not the alone Sufferer but much more after the day of Judgment unto Eternity A second thing which Vengeance affecteth is that the person that wrought the Injury dye by the hand of himself that is the Avenger It loves to do that work it self And this especially holds good in this cause of God's and seeing it is to recover glory to God by shewing Vengeance He comes to be glorified rendring Vengeance from the glory of his Power I need not go about to form up any Argument from hence for these two things especially the latter do speak home unto the Point And being added unto what hath been spoken in the former Head of Justice may be sufficient There is a third thing which as I said both Divine Justice and Vengeance do conspire in and that is the utter Destruction of that which is the principal Offendor which is the Soul it is the nature of Vengeance to work the Destruction of that it is set against And in this case of Sin God's Justice also doth the same the demerit of Sin is such as it exciteth Vengeance to it And therefore in both these places which are my Texts Destruction is mentioned as the issue and product of this Revenge and Wrath. So in 2 Thess 1. 6 7. To render Vengeance on them who shall be punished with everlasting Destruction and Rom. 9. 22. to make known the power of his Wrath on those Vessels of Wrath fitted to Destruction Destroyed they shall be though not in regard of being for they are to be Vessels of Wrath and therefore to be still kept whole in respect of being else they could hold no Wrath And that is another property of Vengeance to have the Party made sensible of its Misery and that his Enemy is even with him And therefore God upholds their Being but destroys their Souls in regard of well being Now that is never till it be stript of every Comfort and every corner of the Soul be filled with Misery For if any corner be empty it is not destroyed it will not die Now this third or last thing doth of it self afford at least a Demonstration ab effectis from the event and effects of this Punishment That therefore it is God's immediate hand that inflicts this Punishment Which Demonstration is to be added unto the former Reason which was drawn from the Causes
his People And 2 Thess 1. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall lay down or pay a Punishment And v. 6. It is a righteous thing in God to recompence Tribulation c. And indeed God's Power herein is not put forth simply out of Soveraignty or for it self but is drawn out by Justice and Wrath to execute what they are provoked unto I afore gave this as one reason why God himself must execute this Punishment because else the Punishment will not come up to satisfy his Justice But now I make use of the same to infer the Dreadfulness thereof That it is the falling into the hands as of a potent God so of a just God recompencing for Sin and extending his mighty Power to inflict a Punishment which should in Justice hold proportion with the demerit of Sin that so the exactness of his Justice might appear Now to heighten our Apprehensions of the Dreadfulness of this Punishment from this particular Consider 1. The Infinite Demerit of Sin Which is not enough known or considered by the miserable Subjects thereof because indeed God himself in his Holiness and in his Greatness is not known by them Now because Men will not otherwise know nor be sensible of Sin in the Spiritual evil of it against God therefore it is that God is put upon it thus to make Men know it and what God himself is for Men to sin against him by such dreadful Effects as in Justice shall hold proportion with their Sin and the Desert thereof And God professeth he will herein be exact Heb. 2. 2. So As every Transgression shall receive a just Recompence of Reward Not such or such Sins some few more eminent Sins only but every Transgression shall have a Reward proportionate He that is the Judg of all the World shall not he be exact as Abraham in another case Gen. 17. Yes in this ultimate Punishment he will be sure to be as Isaiah speaks Chap. 28. vers 17. To lay Judgment to the Line and Righteousness to the Plummet As Carpenters do when they would fit things one to another and make things uniform and correspondent and square them adequately to an hairs breadth as we say And thus will God do in Judging He will bring his Line and his Plummet take measure of the hainousness of every Sin and mete a Punishment adequate thereto And if so then this Punishment how dreadful will it be If thou wilt be severe to mark what is done amiss who will be able to stand says the Psalmist The Psal 130. 3. Hainousness of Sin is measured by the Greatness of that Glory whereof it is the debasement and that Debasement done to him further measured by this that it is by so mean things as we Creatures are to God And so is estimated by the worth of that Person against whom it it is committed which therefore could by no other means be expiated but by the debasement and emptying of as great a Glory due to the Person of the Son of God appearing in our Nature as one Person therewith Sin the Apostle tells us Rom. 7. 13. is above measure sinful And hence accordingly this Punishment is estimated to be above measure fearful Thus Jer. 30. 11. and Isa 27. 7 8. God putting this very difference between his punishing godly Men his own Children and his punishing wicked Men Hath he smitten him as he smote those that smote him No for he puts this difference in the 8th ver He smites his own in measure You may then take the Compass the Magnitude and Depth of it by this that therefore oppositely his Punishing the other exceeds all measure Sin is the Creatures proper work and Punishment is God's work Vengeance belongeth unto me says the Text he challengeth it as his Now it is certain God will shew himself as perfect and as exact in his Work as Man and Satan have been in theirs he will not be exceeded or out-gone by them The Lord is known says the Psalmist by the Judgment that he executeth Psal 9. 16. If the Creature be so wicked as to bring forth so hainous an Evil in genere moris as Sin is which is Malum Catholicum a Catholick Evil and accordingly hath the Name of all Evil given it as virtually and transcendently containing all that God or Man calls Evil then be assured that God who is so just will be as sure to bring forth by way of return upon the Creature a Punishment that shall be in genere Poenae in it's kind Malum Catholicum an universal Evil also And such Ezekiel terms it speaking of the Evil of Punishment It is an Evil and an only Evil Ezek. 7. 5. That is such an Evil as shall be nothing but evil and that shall contain the Spirit the Quintessence of all Evil in it Therefore Psal 75. 8. In the hand of the Lord there is a Cup and it is full of Mixture As if an Artist that knows the Nature of all Simples should temper a Cup that is full of all sorts of Poysons and which is a Compound of the bitterest loathsomest Ingredients this Earth puts forth Even thus hath God strained the quintessence of all Evils into one Cup and it follows there The Wicked of the Earth must drink the dregs of it Which Phrase also argues such a Mixture as this we speak of the bitterest of all is at the bottom and 't is Eternity to the bottom and they must not nor shall not leave a drop but suck out the Dregs as the Prophet's Phrase is Ezek. 23. 34. Thou hast a Cup of Abomination and when thou hast fill'd up thy measure then will God take measure of thy Cup and fill the same proportion of Dregs and Mixture to thee in a Cup of his tempering 2. Consider that in the manifestation of this Attribute of Justice there must of all other next unto that of Mercy be a more special Glory intended and designed by God himself unto which this Punishment must bear an eminent proportion as being the Matter wherein it appears I said afore that if God professed to manifest any Attribute of his whatever it still hath been done in such Effects of Wonder as all the Creation is set admiring of Now of all other Attributes these two of Justice and Mercy are the prime which he sets the greatest value upon the manifestation of And therefore still look how they are more eminent or by how much the more eminently he intends to manifest them above other Attributes by so much must the Effects in and by which he manifesteth them exceed and excell all other Works Now that these are the brightest Jewels in that Crown of his Glory and which he intends most to embelish may be seen in this 1. That he hath chosen the choicest and most excellent of his Creatures as the Stuff or Materials in which to set these forth namely Angels and Men and Christ himself the Head of all That look as curious