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
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
Brain and that in these folds Memory and reminiscence is performed Yet here the main Questions concerning Memory remain still unexplained Namely how notwithstanding the continued wasting of the parts of the Brain and the supply of fresh parts in their Room and notwithstanding the confluence of all the vast variety of new Impressions yet the memory of the same things continues so many yeares if there be nothing but a transient Elementary matter to be the subject of these Memories Secondly it neither is nor do I ever expect to see it explained how within those Folds Light or Air or Fire or any Elementary Body should be able to Remember or Recollect when neither Fire nor Air nor Light in any other place ever appear'd to have any Faculties in any particulars like those mention'd Wee believe there is a Soul of Man that goeth upward and the Soul of a beast that goeth downward But let none of our Materialists in Philosophy boast that they have demonstrated how either of these Souls can performe its meanest Operations if to speak in Opposition to the Elements it be not a Quintessence somewhat above these Materiall Natures His enim Naturis I must repeat Ciceroes words Nihil inest quod vim Memoriae Mentis Cogitationis habeat Another of Cicero's arguments is this Quod sapit Other old Arguments for the souls immortality from its simplicity causality of its own motions and longings after eternity divinum est To be wise implieth a high and noble Intellect and is a faculty fit not for a corporeall and Elementary but for an excellent pure and simple essence and if it bee not of an Elementary but of a pure and simple Nature it must consequently be eternall Dubitare non possumus quin nihil sit animis admixtum nihil copulatum nihil duplex quod cum ita sit certe nec secerni nec dividi dec discerpi nec distrahi potest Nec interi re igitur Est enim Interitus quasi discessus secretio direptio earū partiū quae ante interitum junctione aliqua teneban tur Cicero Tusc Quaefi lib. 1. It is not to be doubted saith he that the Soul is an incomplex't Being such a one as is not mixt nor join'd nor doubled in its composure Which being so the parts of it can never be divided or sever'd one from another and consequently it can never dye because Death is but a separation of those parts that before Death were in conjuncture Other Arguments he hath for the Immortality of the Soul as that the Soul is the principle of its own Motion and so moveth it selfe and therefore seeing nothing can be deserted of it selfe the soul can never dye nor cease to move as the Body doth which therefore dyeth because it is deserted of the Principle of its Motion which is the soul That the soul hath native Breathings and longings after Eternity implanted in it And that those Breathings and longings are not in vain since God and Nature made nothing in vain Such are the arguments that were anciently used on this subject And let no Man here object the Operations of beasts For it is demonstrable that they are of a kind vastly inferior to ours and therefore we judge their souls to bee so too And truly many considering Men will rather think the Souls of beasts somewhat above Elementary which we understand not and own with Socrates our imperfect knowledge than that such Operations as are performed by the Minds of Men should be the product of Elementary matter only For surely our modern Materialists who are the Philosophers in Fashion have been so far from shewing how the Operations of the Souls of Men may be performed by such matter that they have not given any sufficient satisfaction how it is possible that by such matter and locall Motion alone the actions of bruit beasts may be elicited But enough hath been said to make it evident beyond all contradiction That the doctrine of the Souls Immortality was not built upon the Daemonology of the Greeks but was received and continued from Reasons drawn from the consideration of its own Nature Motions and Operations And Mr Hobbes should do well to answer those Reasons and to shew the credibility of his own Hypothesis seeing He hath exceeded the Atheisme not only of the ancient hereticks in Philosophy but of all pretenders to it in this last and most Atheisticall Age. For he and those of his Clubbe make the human Soul to be little or Nothing but a Modus Entis at best a kind of Motion of some parts of an Organized Body somewhat like that Harmony of parts to which some compared the soul anciently and stand confuted for their pains by Plato and other Philosophers And as if it had been a small matter to corrupt Philosophy he hath done worse and hath shew'd his endeavor to abuse Divinity also when he levells the sense of Scripture to that of his own Philosophy and when he telleth us that the Soul in our Saviors words doth not signify any such distinct and immortall substance as the erroneous world believes it to bee but only the life that is in his sense the Motion of an organized Body that the Body and Soul when spoken of together signify the Body alive that is the Body in its Organicall Motions But all his Wit and Learning will never be able to draw the holy Scriptures to favor the impious Hypothesis of his Philosophy If there be no such thing as Spirit Mr Hobbes misinterprets the scripture which speaks of the soul as independent from the body or incorporeall substance that may informe us if the Soul so much spoken of be nothing but a Modus Entis the motion or harmony of the Body it was neither safe nor wise nor good advise that our Savior gave his Disciples when he commanded them thus Fear not them that kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both Body and Soul in Hell For if the Soul were only the Motion or Harmony of the Parts of the Body he that should kill the Body must needs spoil the Harmony or motions of it also and consequently must bee able to destroy the Soul too As he who breaks the Lute must needs spoil all its Musick for ever after It is plain therefore that our Savior speaks of the Soul as of a Being independent from the Body so likewise when his Body was upon the crosse and lay under the cruelty of his deadly Enemies he commended his Soul to God as that which was above their reach The like did his first Martyr St Stephen and all his holy Martyrs and all good Christians ever since have at their Death 's commended their souls to God as that which is distinct and independent from their perishing Bodyes And yet this doctrine concerning the Independence Immateriality and Immortality of the Soul was as I have shewed no peculiar doctrine
variety in the Aims of these singularly learned Men Whom then shall we follow or shall we follow none shall we joyn issue with Maximus Tyrius in the Discourse above commended and say what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That God hath blown the expectation and desire of Good as a living spark into the heart of Man but hath hidden from him the Way to find it out No by no means This were no better then blasphemously to cast mans fault upon his maker God indeed for Reasons hidden from us and wrapt up in the abysse of his own secret knowledge formerly as St Paul speaks winked at the Errors and vanity of mankind imparting true wisedome and the knowledge and desire of the cheifest Good to very few But since Christ the light of the world appeared among us he hath publikly preach't these Truths First that the Enjoyment of the kingdome of Heaven is the cheifest and indeed the only considerable good Secondly that there is no way to attain this Kingdome of God without first attaining his Righteousnesse and submitting our selves according to our Sacramentall Obligations to the Rules of the Gospell Now these being laid down first as principles of eternall and unalterable Truth Our saviour giveth us in the next place the only safe advice Namely that abandoning all other foolish and idle Counsels we should give our selves to be his Disciples we should addict our selves to Christianity as to a Discipline of true Wisdome we should design no lesse then Heavenly Glory which is no doubt the cheifest Good Omnis sapientia hominis in hoc uno est ut Deum cognoscat colat Hoc nostrum Dogma haec sententia est Quanta igitur voce possum testificor proclamo denuntio Hoc est illud quod Philosophi omnes in tota sua vita quaesierunt nec unquam tamen investigare ◠comprehendere tenere valuerunt quia Religionem aut pravam tenuerunt aut totam penitus sustulerunt Facessant igitur illi omnes qui humanam vitam non instruunt sed turbant Quid enim docent aut quem instruunt qui seipsos nondum instruxerunt Quem sanare aegroti quem regere caeci possunt huc ergo nos omnes quibus est curae sapientia conferamus an expectabimus donec Socrates aliquid sciat aut Anaxagoras in tenebris lumen inveniat aut Democritus veritatem de puteo extrahat aut Empedocles dilatet animi sui semitas aut Arcesilas Carneades videant sentiant percipiant Ecce vox de caelo veritatem docens nobis sole ipso clarius lumen ostendens Quid nobis iniqui sumus sapientiam suscipere cunctamur quam clari homines contritis in quaerendo aetatibus suis nunquam reperire potuerunt Qui vult sapiens ac beatus esse audiat dei vocem discat justitiam sacramentum Nativitatis suae norit humana contemnat divina suscipiat ut summum illud bonum ad quod natus est possit adipisci Lactantius lib. 3. de falsa Sap. cap. 30. We should sell all that we have rather then to mille the buying of this pearl And when we have fixed our Eye aright we should then pursue wisely that Happinesse that we have in our Design we should endeavor after it in that way by which it is only attainable which is declared to be the way of Righteousnesse Nor is it any Righteousnesse that will lead us to this Kingdome The Righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees will not do it Our Savior hath told us in the beginning of his Sermon in the Mount that Except our Righteousnesse exceed their Righteousnesse we shall never enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Originall Righteousnesse we have none at all Wee lost it God knowes assoon as we were entrusted with it Actuall Righteousnesse we have none of out own We must speak of all our Righteousnesse as the Man to the Prophet concerning his Axe when the head of it fell into the Water 2 Kings 6.5 Alas Master for it was borrowed Wee must have a Righteousnesse without us called by our Savior Matt. 6.33 Gods Righteousnesse that is a Righteousnesse given and imputed And we must have a Righteousnesse within us and that is Gods Righteousnesse also a Righteousnesse given though inherent A spirit of Righteousnesse a new Spirit and a new heart This inherent Righteousnesse giveth us an assurance that we have a title to the other The other the Righteousnesse without us that of our Savior is indeed only meritorious In the argument of merit O Christ we will make mention of thy Righteousnesse even of thy Righteousnesse only And yet we know that without holinesse without inherent holinesse no man shall see thy face No man shall have the benefit of thy Passion or any part of thy Righteousnesse that hath not thy Spirit For whatsoever hath not the Spirit of Christ they are none of his It is not the calling of our Savior Lord Lord that will give us any title to his merits without our sincere endeavor to do the will of our father which is in Heaven This I take to be a sufficiently orthodox and sense of those words seek yee first the Kingdome of God and his Righteousnesse Now if these are the principall of our Masters precepts surely we have no reason to think his Yoke uneasy or his Commandments greivous this is the summe of the burthen that he layeth on us He hath provided an Estate of unconceivable Glory and Happinesse for us And hath commanded us to seek it And further least we should erre and mistake the way that leadeth to this Estate He hath declared unto us that it must be sought in the Way of Righteousnesse for the Robe of Glory can no more become an unrighteous man then Honor can bee seemly for a fool He hath commanded us for our own sakes to seek this Kingdome of Glory but to seek it in that just proper and humble way and method that Himself hath prescribed And when you recollect and consider the Nature and Excellence of that Estate you will confesse it an Estate beyond all others infinitely worth your seeking Reflect then but with one glance of your Mind upon it as it is described in the certain Oracles of eternall Truth David first in the 16th Psalm and the last verse assureth us that in the Kingdome of Heaven or which is all one in the presence of God there is fullnesse of Joy and that at his right hand there are pleasures for evermore Now in these words there is a description of the greatest happinesse that can be or can be imagined There is nothing for its nature more desireable then Joy or delight there is no measure or proportion better then fullnesse There is no Duration better then Eternity And therefore he that hath Joy for the kind and fullnesse of that Joy for the Measure and joyes or pleasures which for the duration of them shall last not for a day or a year nor only for ten years or