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A41537
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Two discourses I. of the punishment of sin in hell, demonstrating the wrath of God to be the immediate cause thereof : II. proving a state of glory for just men upon their dissolution / by Tho. Goodwin ...
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Goodwin, Thomas, 1600-1680.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing G1263; ESTC R22738
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152,445
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370
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as well as that the Soul should But yet so as either of them have this meeted out to them according to their vastly differing share and hand and acting which they had in sinning in which the Soul is always the principal Actor and in some Sins the sole Agent and Subject To be sure in Heaven there is a confluence of created Excellencies suited to the Bodies of Saints made Spiritual as well as God Himself the Happiness of their Souls and sure I am that on the contrary it is distinctly said of each and apart That God destroys both Body and Soul in Hell Mat. 10. 28. And accordingly each of them with a Punishment suited unto each The Passage of Scripture unto which the gathering will be of several others for the proof of this my present Assertion which is the subject of this Chapter is that of our Apostle in the 28. ver of this Heb. 10. a little afore my Text he there setting forth the Judgment to come in the Causes and Effects of it to be A fiery Indignation devouring the Adversaries I did but touch upon it before when I drew out other Arguments from this Text but then reserved a fuller handling of this by it self The Original hath it The Indignation of Fire But Indignation is in and from the Heart of an intelligent Person provoked which is God as the Text shews Grotius therefore interprets it The Anger of God but adds putting forth it self by Fire I suppose he means by corporeal Fire as its Instrument But why not rather The Anger of God Himself Devouring his Adversaries as Fire and so to relate to the manner of his Anger its working as represented under the Similitude of Fire seeing God Himself is in this Epistle stiled a Consuming Fire which interprets this And in this Expression of fiery Indignation which Devoureth He hath particular reference unto those of all other the most extraordinary Judgments upon Nadah and Abihu Lev. 10. 2. There came out Fire from the Lord and devoured them They are in terminis the very Words of the Apostle here And Respici videtur Historia quae est Numb 16. 35. Lev. 10. 2. Grotius we may take in also that so we may have two Witnesses too to confirm this our Interpretation of the Apostles Allusion That two hundred and fifty Princes perished by Fire from the Lord in the Rebellion of Corah Numb 16. 30. This as for what examples is referred unto Now to raise up our Thoughts unto how much a sorer Punishment the fiery Indignation that remained for these Gospel-Adversaries should be he suggests how transcendently the Gospel exceeds the Ministration of Moses Law in these Words that follow He that despised Moses Law died without Mercy under two or three Witnesses of how much sorer Punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath troden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the Blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite to the Spirit of Grace Moses Law the old Covenant as joined with the Law Ceremonial was sprinkled or consecrated with the Blood of Beasts Chap. 9. 19 20 21. But the Gospel of the New Covenant and the Persons enlightned thereby have been sanctified by the Blood of the Son of God If then such an extraordinary fiery Judgment befel the despisers of this Moses Law thus sprinkled c. what fiery Indignation proportionably must it be that shall befal the treaders down both of the Book Covenant and sacred Blood of Christ And in this lies the weight and strength of the Apostle's Argument That Maxim of the Judicial Law which is annexed that Despisers died without Mercy under two or three Witnesses is brought in for that grand Circumstance's sake whereby the Apostle heightneth both the Iniquity of those Persons destroyed by Fire who sinned afore many thousand Witnesses the whole Congregation of Israel As likewise this other far transcending guilt of these Adversaries who had renounced Christ and his Blood openly afore the whole World and Christian Church So Chap. 6. 6. 'T is said they did put the Lord Jesus to an open shame and they are the same Persons whom he threatens this against here and speaks of there But still by what surpassing Proportion may we estimate or suppose as the Apostle calls us to do how much this fiery Indignation is sorer then that outward devouring them by Fire 'T is certain that Moses Law and that sprinkling with Beasts Blood c. which he argues from held but the proportion of Types †As he had expresly called them in that chap. 9. 9. and again in this chap. 10. ver 1. Figures and Shadows But the New Covenant and Christ's Blood c. of the Substance and Reality comparatively to these Then in like manner his intent in proposing these examples of Judgments by Fire was as of those that hold the Proportion but of a Type a Figure of this fiery Indignation that is to come upon the treaders down of the Blood of Christ For indeed a meer bodily Death the sharpest as those by Fire were is but as the Shadow of Death unto the second Death the thing intended here which is utterly another kind of thing In Heb. 10. ver 1. He says of the good things of the Gospel that what the Law held forth were but the Shadows of those good things to come as Canaan of Heaven Chap. 4 c. the like 2 Col. 17. And why may it not be also said that as all the good things under the Law the best were but shadows of those good things to come so that the highest and worst of outward evil things executed then were in like manner but shadows of those evil things which the Gospel brings to Light as the Punishment of Sin And we may see in his succeeding Discourse in this same Chapter how he having first instanced in the Good he after instanceth in the highest of Evil in these Words I am upon ver 27 28 29 30 31. And in like manner the like extraordinary Judgments then are expresly said to have happened to them as Types so in the Greek and Margin 1 Cor. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rudiores imagines perfectioris 11. Types not meerly monitory of like Events but withal prefigurative of Punishment of an higher kind c. What Death could be outwardly sorer than See Lucan of the Effects of the stingings by African Serpents upon Cato's Souldiers Lib. 9. to be destroyed of Serpents ver 9. and those fiery too Numb 21. 6. the Effects of whose Stings are described to be as dolorous as being burnt alive But under the Gospel Sin and the Law and so God's Wrath these as the substance are set out to be the Sting of that Death to come 1 Cor. 15. 55. * As the brazen Serpent was the shadow of Christ John 3. So the stingings of those fiery Serpents the like Figures of the stinging of Sin
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