of misery that is impossible as before was suggested 3. Sin in hell shall be aggravated not crucified shall be envenomed by a more violent blasphemy and not wounded and weakened by a serious and savory penitency Now impenitency for sin leaves the sinner to eternity of misery For Sin is a wound which if not cured is mortal or rather immortal and will cause eternal death the slightest wound if not healed festers and wranckles and kills and so doth unrepented sin for ever Sin is a Fall in which if there be no rising it is perpetual sin casteth the soul upon punishment which if not removed is everlasting Sin is a thief It steals Gods love Christs sufferings heavens joys from the soul now if their be no restitution and no pardon be acquired for the theft it deserves death that death for sin must needs be perpetual because the guilt still remains unsatisfied Rom. 6. 13. Now if the theft of a peice of money deserves a temporal death what death doth the theft of Gods glory demerit Let us but cast up the Account Sin is a chain and a bond And therefore we read of Captivity and slavery of sin of being led captive by lust now if 2 Pet. 3. 6. the person that is bound be not loosed he remains bound for ever Can the chain Isa 6. 18. Vincula insoluta manens Bern. break it self or the cord untwist it self and ye know sins are called the Cords of Vanity Now onely Repentance can file of these chains which is impossible to the damned in eternity as before Sin is a sale by sin the soul sels it self to Hell Satan and misery Ahab sold himself to sin sin sold Ahab to wrath Now 1 King 21. 20. if no ransome be made then the sale remains for ever and onely Christ can pay this ransome in whose merits the Reprobate shall never interest himself And though the sale may be made in a moment for how few sinful dayes do the damned sell themselves yet the force and the end of the sale is for ever Thus yee see sin must be eternally punished in reference to the impenitency of it The sinner must dy eternally in respect of the ingratitude of sin the obligation of every sinner is eternal for as a creature he is obliged to serve God eternally so God being the fountain of his being and sustentation all mans service is but a small retribution for this life which streams from God Now every sin breaketh this obligation and there can be no reparation for this breach but onely in Christ to whom the reprobate hath no title Now therefore the obligation being forfeited the punishment must be adequate to the obligation which was eternal And man once sinning and so breaking this obligation he acts now no more as Gods creature but as Gods enemy and so all his actions being sin not duty he is Everlastingly punishable The sinner shall not onely be everlastingly punished upon the account of his own sin but in regard of God too 1. In regard of the dishonour that one the least sin casteth upon the glorious Name of God Every sin casteth a treble dishonour upon God 1. In its malignity as being most contrary to the pure unspotted perfect nature of God his justice his righteousnes his holines Sin is as contrary to the Nature of God as light to darkness hell to heaven nay infinitely More 2. In its obstinacy it opposeth the Commands of God slights the will of God contradicts the designes of God And 3. principally in its choyce the sinner in sinning chooseth a base lust a venomous sin a crooked Way a sordid corruption before the glorious precious desireable good the Lord himself who is summum bonum summa felicitas 2. In regard of the Magnificence of God Shall a poor worm a painted sepulcher a gaudy nothing Annullity dressed with flesh for so man is comparatively to the Almighty I say shall such a pedantique dream as man is kick and rebell against the most glorious incomprehensible God the Great Soveraigne of the Universe and doth not this fasten the sinner to eternal torment 3. In regard of the Justice of God Pure Justice exacts and requires eternal punishment and will pluck the sinner by the throat for ever and in the eternity of the wicked there shall be summum jus Justice with the sowrest looks the most dreadful frown and the sharpest edge there shall be justice inexorable implacable in its greatest rigor and severity such as tears shall not mollifie or blood satisfy And lastly the sinner shall be punisht to eternity for the pleasure of the Saints They shall be delighted to see the enemies of Christ overwhelmed with eternal Misery Gods justice in heaven shall be as Vide non indutum veste uuptiali ex sponsali dome exemplum nemipro illo intercedentem sic de decem talentū habente quinque stultis virginibus Crysost I◠66. 24. pleasing to them as any other Artribute They shall behold with delight decorem divinae justiciae the beauty of Gods justice How would the Saints here rejoyce to see the Turk the Pope the bloody implacable Enemies of the Gospel buried in ruine and confusion much more when they shall be perfect and lie in Christs bosome And as Gregory observes Although the just in glory by the goodness of their nature be mercifull yet being conjoyned to the justice of God in such a Cap. 20. rectitude they cannot be moved with any compassion at all towards sinners They shall rather loath and abhorre them CHAP. XX. Vse 3. of consolation AND now at last I fall upon the third and last improvement of the proposition our future eternity and that is This flowes with unparallel'd comfort and consolation to all the saints this Truth is a mine a masse a spring of happiness to them Their felicity to come shall be for ever it shall Haec Haereditas Sancti est vita incorruptio regnum coaterna cum Deo babitatio Hilar. never fade nor receive damp Their spring shall know no autumne nor falling of the leaf of glory no declension or abatement No not for ever The sunne of their blessednesse shall never set or be eclipsed Let the saints remember with delight and complacency this one word Eternity Duration is the life of Happinesse A tottering crown is but an honourable misery the best flowers are fond sweetnesses because dying Gold is but drosse because 1 Pet. 1. 18. corruptible what is the lease of the greatest revenues which will soon expire but the saints happinesse shall be immarcessible their crown is made of immortality This shall be the blessedness of the glorified ones that after they have past millions of ages in glory one moment of their happiness is not shed The saint shall ever spring with fresh felicities and shine in an everlasting flourish and renown The Ocean of their joy shall know no bottome
shall be the unlading of their affections They are triumph not service the ◠souls everlasting ovation there is nothing of toyle in those holy gratulations They are the triumphant Rev. 4. 11. song the musicke the jubiles of the glorified ones Cantus coronatus crown'd harmony these blessed praises are but the Saints wedding day These Hallelujahs of the Church triumphant proceed not so much from an enforcement of duty as that beatificall vision They are the ravisht acknowledgment of heavens Courtiers the blessed sight of God extracts these pretious collaudations The Lord saith Exod. 33. 20. No man shall see me and live by reason of mans weaknesse and sinfulnesse But in heaven the sight of God shall not only be the fountain of life but shall spring a vein of eternall praises and hallelujahs Object 2 But seeing the Majesty and greatnesse of God is the same in heaven to the Saints as it was on earth why are not the Saints as full of service and humility Answ 1 Now Majesty is sweetned into familiarity and the Saints are now truly Kings and Priests advanced into a glorious Rev. 1. 6. dignity and now God appeares purely as a father No longer as a God among his creatures which resembles soveraignty and subjection but as a father among his children So that now duty is transformed into delight and service is changed into satisfaction God in heaven fits in his throne not in his tribunall to his Saints and so there shall be an unclouded familiarity 1 Cor. 13. 12. In glory the Lord shall not so much appear as a great God as a great benefactour great in his largesses he shall be lovely in his bounty all his attributes shall be remunerative Observe that rare place 2 Tim. 4. 8. which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the righteous judge shall give Even Gods justice shall be open handed and overflow in donations Indeed the Majesty of God in heaven shall not be abated but more communicated Moses was called Gods friend here what shall Exod. 33. 11. he be in heaven when his Majesty shall be seen unveyled CHAP. IX Concl. 9 Man 's eternall condition admits of no waste or diminution AND here lies the great riddle of eternity that time never wasts I say time though it be an improper locution there being no time in eternity and that after millions of ages are past over there is not the thousandth part of a moment spent When there are as many centuries and ages spent as there are drops in the Ocean or starres in the heaven or haires upon all the heads that are or have been in the world since the Creation yet then there is not one flying moment blown over the taper of eternity spends not nor doth duration shed or fade at all As the Psalmist speaks of the Eagle it renewes Psal 103. 6. its strength so there is a perpetuall renovation in eternity One flying moment generates another As the Sea is alwayes full of water though the waves passe away After the damned Mar. 9. 46. 48. have tumbled on flames a tedious night of ages it is as far from morning as the first moment Could we sum up all those years which those Patriarchs of old spent mentioned in the 5. of Genesis when their lives were stretcht out to so many centuries and their glasse was so long in running and hoary age so slowly seized upon them I say could we digest so many thousand years into one totall sum nay Est enim aeternitas duratio quaedam permanens unicum nunc stans nunquam fluens Cabrea in Thomam and cast in the time of all their posterities lives into the computation yet this totall sum would be a cypher in eternity when so many ages are elapsed eternity is yet to spend the clock hath not struck one hour And let not the fond sinner who is inebriated with the soft effeminacies and dalliances of the world imagine his future miseries shall be as fleet as his downy pleasures here Nay eternity in this is like the Sun that weares not out nor wasts its substance by all its swift and constant travaile Time sheds not I say time for explications sake nor failes in our everlasting condition nor shall wrinckles ever surprise the face of eternity Abraham Isaac and Jacob that holy triumvirate are at this day in the spring of their sublime beatitude nor shall their glory be blasted with the fear of an Autumne In a word eternity cannot be lessen'd nor curtaild by the longest tracts or circuits of duration Time it self in eternity is a pure anomaly I say time which is the Genus of moments dayes houres years those winged parcels of duration is obsolete and a cypher in our everlasting estate And there can be no diminution in the eternity of the blessed This would be an eclipse to their glory that their joyes passe away and their consummative happinesse should be capable of a waste the Suns beauteous light though it be recreative and refresh the earths inhabitants yet as posting towards night and being capable of declining it leaves a dampe in the worlds joy Could the Saints say so much of their happinesse was blown over it would cloud their felicities with trouble and murmuration It would be the wombe of grief and leaven glory with sorrow In Luke 20. 36. Christ saith the glorified Saints shall be equall to the Angels and those blessed Spirits viz. the Angels never stained themselves with any crime which might depopulate or waste their happinesse And indeed heaven it self must be hung with mourning could the rivers of the Saints pleasures be capable of ebbing Psal 36. 8. This shall be Dives his misery in hell to thinke of his past delicacies and with a sad recordation to review the pleasant banquets that are now blown over And now no sorrow shall veil glory or benight heaven no grief shall thrust into the Brides-chamber nor shall any trouble Mat. 01. 52. overshadow the everlasting festivall of the glorified ones Gods smile shall dry up all teares there * Rev. 7. 17. Neither shall the Sun light on them nor any heat loco prius citato the Saints shall not be interrupted by the overkind embraces of a warming Sun the morning of glory shall not spend there shall be a fountain of happinesse and Gods presence shall be a spring to this fountain So there can be no waste in the Saints eternity All time wastes and spends according to the motion of the Sun Its rising denominates the morning its setting gives name to the evening and its circuite includes the space of a year in its circumference so that time flies after the chariot of the Sun whose setting is the index of the transient hours But now God himself shall be in stead of a Sun to his Saints in glory Rev. 21. 23. And the City had no Isa 60. 19. need of the Sun nor of the Moon to shine in it
be to accumulate their infelicity Their souls shall not be refreshed with the dewes of celestiall happinesse God in the full passage of eternity shall not once draw the curtain to refresh the damned with a transient view of that glory which shall for ever encompasse his Saints I might here superadd their exile and banishment from the harmonies and hallelujahs of heaven those seraphicall musicks which are the everlasting redundancies of the Angels obedience and the Saints joy And I might likewise take notice of the damneds exclusion from the refreshment of common pitty and commiseration The reprobates in eternity shall not Prov. 1. 26. have the Levits courtesie the refreshment of a compassionate look they shall eternally be banisht all moaning Psal 92. 8. language they shall never hear the Ipsimet damnati sese invicem odio prosequentur ac miseriis suis mutuo insultabunt Ger. sounding of the bowels of man nor be indulged with the compassions of God I say these things might be enlarged but this punishment of losse which the damned shall be afflicted with will more clearly appear when the gain the felicities of heaven shall come into debate and discussion I now fall upon the punishment of sense consisting in all those actuall torments which the damned shall undergoe which as David speaks of Gods works Psal 40. 5. Many O Lord my God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. are thy wonderfull works And as Nestor spake of the miseries they endured at the siege of Troy so I may say of those calamities they are not more grievous for their nature then numerous for the account As the Father comprised all in one short sentence Ibi nihil aderit boni nihil aberit mali But I shall comprise those chief punishments which shall consume and torment the damned under these few heads They shall be tortured with the scorching heat of fire mentioned in many places of Scripture Mat. 18. 9. Mat. 3. 12. Mar. 9. 48. Luke 16. 24. c. Now for the handling of this particular I shall dispatch it in these three things 1. Quest Whether this infernall fire be materiall or no Answ Answ There are many who seem to affirme it and use many arguments Gehenna illa quae etiam stagnum ignis sulphuris dicta est corporeus ignis erit cruciabit corpora damnatorum Aug. de civ dei for the assertion As 1. In the articles of faith we are to adhere to the letter unlesse evident and necessary occasion draw us from a literall interpretation Now these miseries are often called fire Mat. 15. 41 c. And 2. To this fire is ascribed sulphur flames wood Isa 30. 33. Now the Word would not give such properties to immateriall fire 3. The bodies of men cannot be more exquisitely tormented then with fire one spark is exceeding dolorous And Nebuchadnezzars furnace was but a type of hell and therefore there is no reason to recede from their opinion And then on the contrary part it is urged 1. That corporeall fire can make no impressions on a spirit as the Devils and the souls of men are All agents Daemonas animas â—ationales non aliter cruciari igne corporeo quidam asserunt contra suam voluntatem quam quod in eo detineantur tanquam in perpetuo carcere Thom. as Philosophers observe doe act on a capable object now spirituall substances are not so to materiall agents Now to this it is answered 1 Our souls here are often afflicted in corporeall distempers Et corpore afflicto anima ipsa dolet 2. Although coporeall fire doe not act on the soul by a physicall and naturall power yet God can infuse a power into fire as the instrument of his wrath and vengeance even to scorch and singe the souls of the damned Though fire cannot do it as Divines observe Virtute physica tamen virtute hyperphysica And it is a good observatioâ— a learned man that Talis est cujusque rei natura actio qualem Deus creator Omnipotens eam vult esse si corpora damnatorum urantur non consumantur nonne illud est miraculum Et quomodo dicitur ignis contra naturam agere cum agat voluntate Dei that is The nature and the action of every thing is such as the Almighty creator will have it and commands it to be if the bodies Alii dicunt si ignis infernalis esset materialis tum extingui posset sed resp sicut corpora damnatorum etsi comburuntur tamen non consumuntur sic ignis inferni etsi se exerit in damnatorum poena tamen non extinguitur Vtrumque ergo est per miraculam of the damned are burned and not consumed is not this a miracle as the bush Exod. 3. in the beginning And then how can that fire be said to act against its own nature that acts according to the will of the God of nature and therefore it may be asserted that the fire of hell may reach the souls of the damned if God give it a command or impose on it a quality and power so to do Now to clear the whole in a word The infernall fire may be considered two wayes 1. Ratione sui in reference to it self and so it cannot have any power on a spirituall substance 2. Ratione agentis principalis cujus est instrumentum in regard of the principall agent whose instrument it is and so it can act upon spirituall beings and make the same painfull impressions as it would do upon corporall But not further to amplifie the controversie that saying of St. Augustine is August remarkable Cujusmodi ignis infernalis est hominem scire arbitror neminem nisi forte cui Spiritus divinus ostendit i. e. None can know what this fire is of what kind of what power unlesse extraordinarily the Spirit of God reveal it to him And another piously Let us earnestly importune the Lord that this knowledge whether the fire of hell be materiall or not be never manifested to us by experience Quest 2 And it would not be any great digression if we should examine the difference between our fire and infernall fire wherein the vast diversity lies Our fire can be extinguisht the hottest flames can be put out by the greatest streames the holy fire of the heart love cannot be quenched no not by many waters Cant. 8. 7. but Job 20. 26. the fire of the hearth can be extinguished Deut. 32. 22. the greatest conflagrations will either die of themselves or be quenched by an exterior power But the fire of hell is an everlasting flame tears cannot quench it bloud cannot allay it Could the damned weep an Ocean they could not extinguish one sparke of this fire Our fire must be maintained by continuall supplies of fuell take away the pile of wood and the fire goes out but the fire of hell shall not be Isa 30. 33. fed with wood but with wrath Gods indignation shall