things of the pains of Hell that they shall be great and that they shall be eternall a good argument I thought to move us to fear Him who hath power to cast us thither and an immutable wil or decree to give every man reward or punishment according to the merit of his life I then also gave an answer to the Objections of our moderne Platonists to Mr Hobbes also and the Socinians who deny the pains of Hell to be eternall Wicked Ahab confess 't 1 Kings c. ult â— v. 8. that he hated Micaiah because He did not prophesy good concerning Him John 8.40 but evill and our Savior found that he procured himself a mortall hatred among the Jewes because he told them the truth Some truths are so ingratefull to the Ear that they cannot be insinuated without great danger of procuring an aversation to the relator Felix did not love to hear of Judgement to come Acts. 24 25. more unhappy He more unlike to justify his name And I fear that some do so ill like the severe and necessary Truths concerning that last judgement and the consequences of it that I as your spirituall Scholemaster have proposed from this text that they will be censured by them as the dictates of a tetricall Orbilius of a sharpe and cruell Master Memini quae plagosus mihi parvo Orbilius dictaret Horat. I affirme therefore to countenance them yet further and to plant them upon their right foundation that they are not mine but the resolutions of the ancient Catholick Church It is true this Doctrine hath its considerable opposers and so have all other doctrines of the Christian Faith But since this text looks upon you my Auditors and all true professors of Religion as children the phrase is come Ye children and hearken unto me Be so humble as to own the Discipline you are under Submit your selves to the paedagogick Rules of your Schole For he cannot be Christs Scholar that is too proud to admit them One good Rule for the resolving all such difficulties and sopiting all such differences is this That if there be a controversy concerning the sense of a Scripture and the Fathers of the primitive Church that lived next after Christ and his Apostles have unanimously determined the sense of that Scripture and have made that determination professedly and not by the by Every one of Christs Scholars must have humility enough to submit unto it For they being neerer the fountain were more like to have the truth brought incorruptly to them than we that are so far remov'd to us And having told you this for a Rule so equitable that I think it will merit not to be contradicted I shall tell you further that the primitive Fathers did maturely debate and consider this controversy and the Texts alledged on both sides concerning it both in their publick councills and in their private studies and have declared for the greatnesse and Eternity of Hell torments against that which was anciently Origens Opinion and is now renewed by some moderne Socinians and Atheists Seeing therefore the Eternity of these Torments hath been anciently matters of contradiction and continues so to be unto this day I think it reasonable for me to give you a further confirmation of their Eternity from the Testimonies arguments and reasons of these Reverent ancients and Primitive Fathers in our Religion As St Augustine whom for the reputation of his authority I first produce in his exposition on those words of our Savior August ad Oros contra Priscill Origen cap. 6. Math. 25.46 The wicked shal go into everlasting punishment and the righteous into life everlasting observes that the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is there put to expresse the duration of the punishment of the wicked in Hell and the eternall life of the glorified in Heaven And having laid that for a ground he argueth thus if the consideration of the mercy of God provoketh us to believe that the punishment of the wicked in Hell shall have an end what must we consequently believe concerning the reward of the righteous when on both sides in the same text and with the same word they are alike pronounced to be eternall This argument is frequently used by other Fathers August De Civit Dei c. 23. and by St Augustine himself in other places So in his book de Civitate Dei he telleth those who oppose the Eternity of Hell Torments that if they will have a temporary punishment in Hell they must likewise have a temporary reward in Heaven our Saviors epithete being the same to both The Translators of the Bible were surely guilty of a little oversight when they varied the Epithete in that Text which is the same without variation in the Originall There are texts wherein the variation of a word or phrase may be usefull by Way of Paraphrase to let in light to the sense but here in respect to this Controversy Verbum verbo curâsset reddere fiâ—â—us Interpres The Interpreter should have been strict and have rendred the Text word for word For it is the Identity of the Epithete applied equally to both that maketh St Augustines argument unanswerable And St Augustine building upon that Identity of Duration mention'd there urgeth the absurdity Can you saith he think such exposition true in the later part Can you think it credible that the Righteous may relapse from that excellent and glorious purity they enjoy in Heaven and fall thence into the filth of sin again and into its wages Death and then he asserts that if it be absurd and false to affirme an End of glory and purity in Heaven it must be equally absurd and false to affirme an End of pains in Hell because the same Adjective in the same verse is applied to both Another argument He draweth out of the prophesy of Esay What saith he August ad Oros contra Priscill Origen c. 6. shall we answer to the words of that Prophet Their Worme shall not dye and their fire shall not be quenched Whatsoever kind of punishment is understood by their worme and their fire if it shall neither dye nor be extinguished it is declared to be eternall and I told you in my last discourse that he opposeth also that subtile and slender defence August de Fide Operib that some did then and do now make who allow the Fire to be eternall but not the burning of the Individuall persons cast into it This my Brethren is St Augustines doctrine and I am sure his advice is as safe as his doctrine is true namely Augustin de Civit Dei lib. 21. c. 23. that those who would be free from this eternall punishment should rather spend their time in doeing Gods will than in framing arguments and distinctions against his word Next I produce St Basil as a principall Authority among the Greek Fathers Basil ad Virgin lapsam tom 3. pag. 18. He telleth us that the
to endure that punishment but that even the fire it self shall have a restorative faculty also and give strength in the midst of Torment And if this either Tradition or Supposition of the Fathers concerning the restorative faculty of the fire of Hell or the then strength of the passive faculties be admitted it is very easy to conceive how the pains of Hell may be great and yet their greatnesse may not hinder their Eternity Tertullian and Justin Martyr are misreported by a learned Writer as favorers of some contrary Opinions Bishop Taylor Ser. 3. of Christs Advent and as sometimes disallowing the perpetuity and sometimes the continuity of those Torments But great and learned divines are not allwaies without their naevi And I think it may be reckon'd for one of his failings that he hath given countenance to our modern encouragers of Vice by writing so doubtfully and in generall misreporting the Opinions of the Fathers in this particular For Tertullian in the first place is so farr from favoring Origens Opinion that he every where opposeth it In that very Text cited and misconstrued by the Bishop Epicurus omnem cruciatum do lorem depreciat modicum contemplibilem pronunciando Mag. num vero non diuturnum c. Tertull. c. 45. adversus Gentes pag. 74. Tertullian directly opposeth one of the greatest arguments that was ever made in the defence of the Heresy of Origen The argument indeed taken from the principles of Epicurus was this That no pain which is great can be lasting Tertullian industriously and directly denies that principle and affirmes in particular that the paines of Hell are great and yet not only lasting but everlasting Dolores non diuturni verum sempiterni His sense is that to say those paines are lasting is to abate of the Truth and to speak too little of them and therefore he pronounceth the pains of Hell to be great and everlasting and that this was then the Christian Faith The Reverend Prelate above mention'd would have the words non diuturnus to signify not the paines of every day and so he doth at least take off the continuity of the pains of Hell in the Opinion of that Father Bellum diaturnum pax diuturna morbus diuturnus fimulatio diuturna alio semper sensu apud Cic. I will not bring a Grammaticall controversy into the Pulpit else it is easily defensible that He hath fixed a new and a wrong sense to the word Diuturnus and a new and a wrong Etymology when he deriveth it from dies not from diu Besides he takes off the Opposition intended by Tertullian against that principle of Epicurus and maketh him speak that which is most contrary to his own doctrine in other places Deus producto aevo isto judicaturus est suos cultores in vitae aeteraae retributionem profanos in ignem aeque perpetem jogem suscitatis omnibus ab initio defunctis reformatis recensitis ad utriusque meriti dispunctionâ—m Tert. adv Gentes c. 18. For in the 18th chapter of his Treatise adversus Gentes he writes that God at the End of this life shall raise up the dead from the beginning of the world and call them to an account of their merit and demerit and shall sentence the wicked into a Fire that shall be both everlasting and continued and elsewhere that the profane shall live in the torment of a perpetuall fire which shall be so farr from destroying them that it shall give an incorruptibility to the tormented Bodies What can be spoken more expressely against the annihilation contended for than this doctrine that maketh Hell fire so far from corrupting them as to give incorruptibility to the tormented Or what more against Origens Opinion for the restoration of the damned and vicissitude of Resurrections than what he affirmeth in the same place Dei quidem cultores apud Deum semper proâ—ni vero in paenâ aeque jugis ignis habentis ex naturâ ejus divinam subministrationem incorruptibilitatis Tert. cap. 48. Adv Genter Et S. ibidem Restituetur omne human um genus ad expungendum quod in isto avo boni vel mali meruit exinde pendendum immensam aeternitatis perpetuitatem Ideo nec mors jam nec rursus ac rursus resurrectio sed erimus iidem qui nunc nec alii post That there shall not be now a death and then a Resurrection and then another death and after that another resurrection but that we shall rise the same that we are now and that afterward there shall be no change I pronounce therefore that Tertullian hath had wrong done Him in this Point and that neither St Augustine among the Latine nor St Basil among the Greek Fathers are more orthodox than He nor more opposite to the ancient and modern Heretiques in this point concerning the greatnesse and eternity of Hell Torments And the like may be said of Justin Martyr he affirmes I am sure that every one shall go to everlasting punishment or to everlasting Salvation according to the merit of their life That the Devill and such as follow him that is V. Justin Martyr in Apol. pro Christianis ad senatum Rom. in 2. Apol. ad Antoninum Pium pag. 45. Where it is not only call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. pag. 50. 52. ib. and in 68th pag. speaking of the ad coming of Christ he affirmes that then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wicked debauch't and Impenitent shall be eternally punish't in an eternall fire And he doth not mean that they shall be annihilated as Mr Hobbes will have it and revive no more but that they shall continue to suffer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in an eternal sense of that Torment That they shall have sorrow enough in Hell but that in Hell their Sorrow and Repentance shall not profit them at all St Gregory telleth us that the Devill begat this Persuasion Greg. Moral 34. c. 11. that the punishment of sin in Hell should have an End that Men here on Earth might not take care to put and End to their sins And Photius that great Patriarch of Constantinople in his Letter to Michael Prince of Bulgaria reckons this Opinion so dangerous that he calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Exhortation to all possible sin and to all possible damnation And surely those who would now persuade us than the pains of Hell shall be but short and transitory will when they may have hope to prevail tempt us with that same Originall Lye by which the Serpent first deceived Eve As then the Serpent said to the woman Ye shall not surely dye though God had said you shall surely dye So these will say Be sanguine now that is eat and drink whore and Hector debauch and oppresse For we have found out a new and comfortable Opinion that there is no such thing as any second Death But I shall proceed
the son of God and which the foolishnesse of preaching hath in opposition to all their Philosophy again resetled over all the Christian world The first particular that we are to prove is this that they could never secure to themselves the happinesse they design in this life And this St Augustine proves to their heads I shall give you but a Tast of his Discourse First those prima Naturae those first happinesses of Nature which the Academicks made prime parts of their felicity saith he and where and how can they be so ascertain'd as not to be subject to various Casualties What greif is there though never so contrary to pleasure what uneasinesse and Disquiet is there Prima sic Naturam numerat Cicero Incolumitatem conservationemque omnium partium valetudinem sensus integros vires pulchritudinem caeteraque generis ejuidem v. Ciceron de Finib lib. 5. p. 144. though never so contrary to Rest and Indolence that may not happen to the Body of their wisest Philosopher Who can help his being deform'd if Nature made him so siknesse happens to one and hee wants health Weaknesse and Lassitude to another and he wants strength To another a Lasy Heavinesse and torpor and he wants Activity and which of all these may not happen to the Body of their Wisest Man Then as to the Soul What little assistance from our senses will remain towards the perception and comprehension of Truth Ea quae dicuntur prima Naturae quando ubi quomodo tam bene se habere in hac vitâ possunt ut non sub incertis casibus fluctuentur Quis enim Dolor contrarius voluptati Quae inquietudo contraria quieti in corpus cadere sapientis non potest Membrorum amputatio vel debilitas hominis expugnat incolumitatem deformitas pulchritudinem Imbecillitas sanitatem Vires lassitudo Mobilitatem Torpor aut tarditas Ecquid horum est quod nequeat in carnem sapientis irruere Quid ipsius animi primigenia quae dicuntur bona ubi duo prima ponunt propter comprehensionem perceptionemque veritatis sensum intellectum Sed qualis quantusque manet sensus si ut alia taceam homo fiat caecus surdus Ratio verò Intelligentia quo recedit ubi sopietur si aliquo morbo efficiatur insanus Deinde perceptio veritatis in hac carnum qualis ac quanta est quando sicut legimus in veraci libro sapientiae Corpus Corruptibile aggravat animam c. if a Man should happen to be blind and deaf And whether goeth the Reason and understanding of this great Philosopher how will he render it sedale and tractable if by the Tumultuary motions of the Spirits in a Disease he once be rendred Mad But allthough no such Disease should fall upon him yet how little perception of Truth can we possibly arrive to us whilest we are impeded with this Flesh Seeing it is true that we read in the book of Wisdome that the corruptible Body presseth down the Soul Impetus porrò vel actionis Appetitus si hoc modo recte latine appellatur ea quam Graeci vocant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quia ipsam primis Natuae deputant bonis Nonne ipse est quo geruntur etiam insanorum illi miserabiles motus facta quae horremus quando pervertitur sensus ratioque ropitur Porro ipsa virtus quae non est inter prima Naturae quoniam eis postea doctrinâ introducente supervenit cum sibi culmen bonorum vindicet humanorum Quid hic agit nisi perpetua bella cum vitiis nec exteriori bus sed interioribus nec alienis sed plane fuis c. ib. and the earthy Tabernacle weigheth down the mind that otherwise would be apt to meditate on many things Hardly saith he do we guesse aright at things that are upon the Earth and with labor do we find the things that are before us Then for the appetitive part which the Greks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the latines have scarce any good Name for though it be esteem'd with them one of their prime parts of happinesse is not this the power by which when once the sense is perverted and Reason laid a sleep all those horrible actions of Mad and phreneticall Persons are perform'd Then as for the Morall vertues such as Temperance and Prudence Justice and fortitude which exceed the prime Happinesses of Nature and are introduced by learning and discipline What great Matter of Happinesse can there bee in these when they confesse that their vertue is allwaies in a perpetuall War with Vice not only with outward Vices but also with such as are within us not only with others Vices but also with our own We who are Christians confesse Neque enim nullum est vitium cum sicut dicit Apostous Caro concupiscit adversus Spiritum Cui Vitio contraria Virtus est cum sicut idem dicit Spiritus concupiscit adversus carnem Haec duo sibi invicem adverfantur c. absitergo ut quamdiu in hoc bello intestino sumus jam nos beatitudinem ad quam vincendo volumus pervenire adeptos esse credamus that the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and that these are contrary one to another so that we cannot do the things that we would and therefore we confesse also that we are not the adepti that wee have not yet attained that happinesse to which by the conquest of our carnall appetite we desire to be advanc't Et quis est adeo sapiens ut contra libidines nullum om ninò habeat conflictum And where is that Philosopher who by his Wisdome hath attained to such a Mastery as to be beyond this Intestine War and to have no conflict with his lusts To passe by those other vertues it is a full Testimony that they give us of their want of true happinesse whiles they describe unto us the happinesse that they suppose themselves to have in their vertue Fortitude The Stoick hath learn'd the lesson of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Epictetum in initio Enchiridii V. Commentarium Plutarchi Stoices magis inopinata quam Poetas effari Things within our power and things without our power so well that he will not allow any thing to be evill that it is not in his power to hinder But for all that let this Stoick boast of his Immunity from Evils or the Cyrenaick of his Pleasure or the Epicurean of his Indolence Tantus superbiae stupor est in his hominibus hic se habere finem Boni a seipsis fieri beatos putantibus ut sapiens eorum hoc est qualem mirabili vanitate describunt etiamsi excaecetur obsurdescat obmutescat membris debilitetur dolotibus crucietur si quid aliud ralium malorum dici aut cogitari possit incidat in eum quo sibi mortem cogatur inferre hanc in his