Destruction The Word in the Original is from his Face 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now God's Anger or Wrath is as well and very frequently expressed by his Face in Scripture as his Favour useth to be For the Face as well holds forth Anger and Wrath as Favour and Grace Thus Lev. 20. 6. I will set my Face against that Soul and will cut him off that is I will put forth mine Anger to destroy him And Lament 4. 26. where it is translated the Anger of the Lord in the Hebrew and in your Margents it is The Face of the Lord. As there is the Light of God's Countenance in which is Life so the rebuke of God's Countenance at which we perish Psal 80. 16. Even as the Wax is said to melt at the Presence of the Fire Psal 68. 2. and often elsewhere So then to be destroyed from his Face and Presence is all one as to say from his Anger and Wrath. And we have both exegetically met in one Scripture Rev. 6. last They said to the Mountains Fall on us to hide us from the Face of him that sitteth on the Throne and from the Wrath of the Lamb and suitably this Destruction here in 2 Thess 1. is said to be both from God and Christ Even as the Happiness of Heaven is immediately from the Presence of God and Christ Rev. 21. 23. And the City had no need of the Sun neither of the Moon to shine in it For the Glory of God did lighten it and the Lamb is the Light thereof Thus on the contrary is it in Hell and so at the day of Judgment it is the Face of God and the Face of the Lamb that the Wicked most of all do dread as that which is the Inflicter of their Torment As for any Objection from those words in flaming Fire c. I shall answer it afterwards III. Scripture Rom. 9. 23. CHAP. III. This Passage explicated only so far as concerns the Execution Several Particulars in the Words that shew the Power of God's Wrath to be the inflicting Cause and immediately inflicting this Punishment An Explication of a fourth Scripture Rom. 2. 8 9. added for the confirmation of all I Shall insist on this Passage but so far as it respects the Execution of this Destruction in Hell after much Long-Suffering passed and not to touch at all upon any thing of that Point of Rejection from Eternity whether intended or not But that the Words should respect the Execution in Hell which is the Point only before us I take that as clear and much for granted And the Reason is because it is the Glory of Heaven which in the next Words the Apostle joins with it and sets by it as Parallels illustrating each the other So ver 23. And that he might make known the riches of his Glory on the Vessels of Mercy which he had afore prepared unto Glory In Heaven namely The only thing which by the way I observe is That the Sin of the Creature is that which prepareth or fitteth the Creature for the execution of this Punishment And a difference may be observed in this though otherwise a Parallel as put in cautiously by the Apostle that God himself prepareth the Saints to Glory ver 23. but the other are fitted that is by themselves unto Destruction ver 22. ere he destroyeth them The Point afore me is that God's Wrath and his Power are to be the immediate Inflicters of that Destruction There are several Particulars in the Words which taken singly might perhaps be sufficient to prove this but laid all together will become a strong eviction thereof 1. That God's Wrath and his Power or the Power of his Wrath are spoken of as the inflicting or executing Causes is evident For it is a Power of Efficiency here spoken of as whereby God produceth this Destruction as a Cause doth its proper Effect and accordingly He is said to make known and shew his Power and Wrath therein like as the force and virtue of an efficient Cause is made known and demonstrated in and by the Effect it produceth And so is spoken to the same Effect with what in Chap. 1. 20. he had said that his Power and Godhead is clearly seen from the Creation of the World and understood by the things that are made He that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mighty one as the blessed Virgin there by way of Eminency styles him Luke 1. 49. is said to shew strength with his Arm Ver. 51. And here to make known 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Word suited to that other his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 posse or what is possible to be done by him It is then a power of Strength and Energie or Efficacy with his own Hands and Arm and that according to the utmost of his Ability as the word imports And so the Power here spoken of is an inflicting Power that works and effects this Destruction and not that of Authority only or a Power of Liberty to do as one pleaseth as the Potter with the Clay For that kind of Power he had afore ascribed to God in this matter in the foregoing Verse which this Word here is distinct from And this is one step unto which add 2. It is his Power joined with his Wrath that is the Power of his Wrath or his Wrath in the Power of it For thus Moses the Man of God Psal 90. 11. had long afore put them together when he speaks of this very Wrath in Hell of which here the Apostle doth For after he had 1. set out the Time and Condition of Man in this Life The days of our years are threescore years and ten c. and then 2. We fly away so expressing Death and our going into another World Then 3. follows Who knows the Power of thine Anger As that which succeedeth and seizeth after Death upon the most of Mankind dying in their Sins The Apostle here mentions Power and Wrath apart but Moses there maketh Power an Attribute of his Wrath and so considered it hath a double meaning and both serving our purpose 1. That Wrath stirs up his Power and draws it out unto this Execution and therefore Wrath is the first of the two here mentioned yea further that it is his Power as it becomes heated inflamed and intended by Wrath that inflicteth this And as a Man in his Anger strikes a greater blow so may God be supposed to do when represented as thus smiting in his sore displeasure And 2. That God's very Wrath and Anger if but shewn and revealed by him to Mens Souls hath such a Power in it that that alone is enough to destroy them The nearest resemblance that the Scriptures Fiery Indignation in the Text. Psal 22. 14. make of this Wrath is that of Fire of which anon and that as Fire melting Wax by the very Presence of it As therefore when we would express the Power of Fire we say the Power of the Heat that
Temple of the Holy Ghost who dwells in us And that it is the Soul the Apostle hath here in his Eye in this Discourse of his in my Text as that which he intends the Subject here wrought upon appears if we consult the Well-head of his Discourse about the Soul which is the 16. ver of the 4. Chap. Our inward Man says he is renewed c. there is your wrought upon here whilst the outward the Body perisheth Which Soul in being call'd the inward Man connotates at once both Grace and the Soul conjunct together and distinct from the Body as well as from Sin and Corruption Elsewhere it is declared the subject first and originally wrought on Eph. 4. 23. Be renewed in the Spirit of your Minds Look round about the Text and what is the Vs wrought on plainly this Inward Man by the Coherence afore and after Ask yet 1. If our earthly Tabernacle that is our Body be dissolved we have c. that is This inner Man our Souls have for the Body is supposed dissolved So likewise ver 4. We in this Tabernacle that is our Souls in these Bodies More expresly after ver 8. our very Souls not only whilst in our Bodies but when separated from our Bodies have the We given them We are willing to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord. The We present with the Lord and absent from the Body is nor can be no other than a separate Soul in its estate of Widowhood And so here ver 5. Hath wrought Vs the Soul bears the Person carries away the Grace with it Add to this the Time here specified in Observa quôd non in futuro dicit Parabit â—s Non demumparabitur ubi jam induendum est c. Musc in locum the Text in which we are wrought upon It is but this Life and during the term thereof Hath wrought us says the Apostle not in the future Who shall work us for it That hath wrought referring to the work of Conversion at the first Who hath made us meet to be partakers c. Col. 1. 12. and who doth continue still to work us the Peterperfect being often put by the Apostle for the Present God renewing the inner Man Day by Day Chap. 4. 16. So working upon it in order to this self-same thing continually Unto which Words there these here have an evident aspect yet so as that time of working is but during this Life For it is whilst the outward Man is mouldring and that by Afflictions which during this moment work an eternal weight of Glory ver 17. and that is expresly said to be but this present time Rom. 8. So then there is no Parabit in that other World But as Solomon says of Man There is no work after this Life No remembrance Eccl. 9. 10. says David namely which Psal 6. 5. hath any influence into a Man's Eternity So there is no working upon us in order thereunto after Death God hath done his Do hath wrought and Man hath finished his course as Paul of himself and in this Chapter of my Text ver 10. Every Man receiveth the things done in his Body be they good or evil Those things that are done in this Body only therefore only what in this Life he hath wrought And for this he hath wrought us says the Text. §. These things premised I come to the Argument to be raised out of them to prove the Point in hand First that Grace or Holiness because they are immediately wrought in the Soul that therefore when the Body dies the Soul shall be taken up into Life That this is a meet and congruous Ordination of God the Scripture it self owns and seems so to pitch the reason of it in Rom. 8. 10 11. And if Christ be in you the Body is dead because of Sin but the Spirit is Life because of Righteousness But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the Dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you He gives an account of what is to become hereafter both of the Bodies and Souls of them in whom Christ is 1. First for the Body that is condemned to die The Body is dead because of Sin By Body I understand the same which he in the 11th Verse terms the mortal Body to be raised up which says he is dead that is appointed to die as one sentenced to Death you term a dead Man And this because of Sin It was meet that that first threatning of dying should have some effect to evidence the Truth of God therein Only God is favourable in his Ordination in this that he arresteth but the Body the less principal Debtor but that to be sure shall pay for it It is appointed to all Men once to die even for Men that are in Christ as this place of the Romans hath it Then 2. follows what remains the Soul of such an one when the Body dies But says he speaking by way of exception and contrary fate too The Spirit is Life because of Righteousness The Spirit is the Soul in contradistinction to the Body this when the Body dies is Life He says not Living only or immortal but is swallowed up into Life And why because of Righteousness which is Christ's Image and so preserves and by God's ordination upon dying elevates the Soul which is the immediate and original Subject of it which is the Point in hand For this thing it is God hath wrought it But then because the Query would be Shall this Body for ever remain dead because of this first Sin and bear this Punishment for ever No Therefore 3. he adds He that raised up Christ from the Dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies So at last and then bringing both Body and Soul together unto compleat Glory And the congruity of Reason that is for this appointment is observable something like to that 1 Cor. 15. As by Man came Death so by Man came also the Resurrection from the Dead For that Sin that condemned us to this Death we had from the first Adam by bodily Generation as the channel or means of conveying it who was as other Father of our Flesh The Arrest therefore goes forth against the Body which we had from that Adam because of that Sin conveyed by means of our Bodies for tho I must not say the Body defiles the Soul or of it self is the immediate Subject of Sin yet the original Means or Channel through which it comes down and is derived unto us is the Generation of our Bodies The Body therefore congruously pays for this and the Death thereof is a Means to let Sin out of the World as the propagating it was a means to bring Sin in But an holy Soul or Spirit which is the Off-spring of God having now true Holiness and Righteousness from the second Adam communicated to it
the Wrath and Indignation of God himself working immediately in and upon Mens Souls and Consciences that is intended in these and other Scriptures This is the Subject of the first Section of this Discourse And let it be noticed now at the entrance that the same Scriptures and Reasons that shall be brought to prove this in this first Section will be found again to serve as new Arguments by way of inference to set out and infer the latter also that is the dreadfulness of it as will appear in the second Section CHAP. II. The first sort of Proofs from Scriptures First those three prefixed as the Texts LEt us first see what the Scriptures speak more directly to this great Point I. Heb. 10. 28 29 30 31. In order to the Proofs from hence observe the occasion of the Apostle's mention of this Punishment here to be his having treated of the highest Sin and kind of Sinners the Sin against the Holy Ghost By the occasion of which he gives us to understand what for the Substance is indeed the recompence of all manner of other actual Sins small and great the Punishment being in solido one and the same to all though with a vast difference of Degrees And therefore it is said unto all that are found wicked at that day whether of greater or lesser Proportions and Sizes of Wickedness Go into Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels The Devil is the greatest of Sinners yet all go with him into the same Torment that is for Substance the same And upon the like ground what is here spoken by way of eminency concerning the Punishment of these the highest sort of Sinners of the Sons of Men is true of all others there being but one common Fire or Punishment in the Substance of it for all 2. Observe the manner of his setting forth the dreadfulness of that Punishment to us It is only by way of insinuation For seeing he could not express the soreness of it he thought fit to suggest only who is the immediate Author and Inflicter of it And so leaves it to our thoughts to infer how dreadful it is This in General To argue the Point in Hand out of this Text let us take these things along with us 1. You see he here brings in the great God as an enraged Enemy challenging the execution hereof to himself This Vengeance belongeth to me or as Rom. 12. 19. Vengeance is mine I will recompence as if he had said Let me alone with it 2. In that when he would set out the severeness of this Punishment which is his professed aim ver 29. as infinitely exceeding all those kinds of Corporal deaths in Moses Law he inferreth the soreness of this from God himself as the Avenger We know him that hath thus said Vengeance is mine that is what a great and powerful God he is The Saints only know God by Faith in Himself and his Greatness as Heb. 11. and that so as no other Men in this Life do And by what we know of him and the apprehensions we have of Him we cannot but forwarn what that Punishment must needs be when God himself shall thus solemnly profess himself to be the Avenger 'T is argued you see both from what this God is and from that knowledg the Saints have of Him They and they alone know Him in his Love and have tasted and found that his immediate Loving-kindness is better than Life and from the Law of Contraries they know that his Wrath must be more bitter than Death They are able to measure what he is in his Wrath by what he is in his Love And some of the Primitive Saints especially the Apostles who had the first fruits of the Spirit knew and had tasted how good the Lord is in his Love by immediate Impressions of it on their Souls in Communion with Himself The like tenour of speech has that in 2 Cor. 5. 11. We knowing the Terror of the Lord It is termed His Terror as noting out that which is proper to Him and his Greatness in his being able to punish and destroy Sinners Moses who in the Old Testament had seen the Glory of God the most immediately of any Man and was therein a Type of Christ was thereby made sensible of this very thing as touching this Punishment and therefore complains in the very like Language Psal 90. Who knows the Power of thine Anger Lamenting how the generality of Men did not know it because indeed they knew not God But We says the Apostle have known him c. And 3. Thereupon he further calls this Punishment a falling into God's Hands That very Phrase often notes out immediate Execution as in ordinary Speech it doth When a Father or a Master threaten a Child or a young Servant already corrected by other Hands at their appointment yet when either would threaten more severely they 'l say Take heed how you fall into my hands or come under my fingers when they mean to correct them themselves And then 4. That the Apostle thereupon infers from this the dreadfulness thereof even from this It is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of God Reason tells us that the soreness of any Torment the fearfulness of any Death ariseth from the Power Force Violence or Efficacy of that which is the immediate Agent or Cause inflicting it As why do we argue burning or dying by Fire a more terrible Death in respect of Torment than drowning in Water But that Fire being the immediate Agent or Instrument applyed to that Execution hath a more fierce and violent working than Water hath which dispatcheth a Man more easily Now therefore the fearfulness and soreness of this Punishment and that with difference from that by Creatures compare for this ver 28 29. being here argued that it is a falling into God's Hands and we knowing this withal that he is in himself able to work by his fierce Wrath more powerfully and exquisitely upon the reasonable Soul of Man Sinful than all created Agents whatever and the Soul it self being also capable of such a working upon by him This doth strongly argue his own immediate Execution by his own Hands to have been intended 5. In ver 27. he termeth the immediate Cause inflicting this Punishment A fiery indignation devouring the Adversaries Indignation or Wrath is of some intelligent Nature provoked And whom should this refer to or whose Indignation can it be supposed but of this God who himself as the Apostle expounds and comments upon it hath said Vengeance is mine saith the Lord And this Indignation is called fiery because it works as Fire is in tormenting like to Fire or as a Flaming Sword red hot when it is made the Instrument of ones Death which wounds and kills and doth torment with a superadded anguish For the further opening of which I shall at present only say two things 1. That God compares himself in this respect unto a devouring or consuming
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
of a contrary vertue or effect he compares the Curse of God on his Soul unto a spiritual Oyl of a piercing penetrating Violence that strikes in as Quicksilver into the Bones and Nervous Parts and fills them with unsufferable Torments He compareth also this Curse and the Effects of it unto such painful Diseases as are caused by sharp Corroding Waters in the Bowels as of the Gout in the Bowels which when it possesseth those Inwards is mortal and intolerable The Apostle's Allusion elsewhere is correspondent to both these of the Psalmist when he says The Word of God through the Power of the Spirit is a savour of Death unto Death in some Mens Hearts as of Life unto Life in others 2 Cor. 2. 16. The meaning whereof is that look as venemous and sulphurous Vapours and Damps in Mines and Caverns arising out of the Earth do strike up such scents or smells as often kill by extinguishing the Spirits of those that descend into them Such exhalations of Hell and Wrath doth the Spirit of God by the Word preached exhale and draw forth and cause to ascend in some Mens Consciences which gives them the very scent of Hell it self They are the Savour or Odour of Death afore-hand unto Death and Damnation and so are Vapours of the same kind out of the same Matter that is laid up in the Mine or Treasury it self as those out of the Earth use to be The second thing requisite to be added for the compleating the Demonstration is That such immediate Impressions of Divine Wrath in this Life are sure and certain Evidences I say not as to what Persons but of what kind of Torment it is which in the fulness of it befalleth Men in Hell and that both do proceed from the same immediate Cause This needs not much probation for the Instances afore given carry their own evidence with them of this thing to any intelligent Reader And this general Reason for it will readily occur to any ones Thoughts that surely God will not punish them in Hell with a Punishment of lesser sort or kind for we speak not now of comparisons of Degrees than what his Dispensation reacheth forth unto some Men in this Life For that is the proper day and time and season of Wrath and of the fierceness of his Wrath in which the Fruits of their own doings are every way in their full Ripeness and Maturity to be returned to them and these inflictions in this Life are but the Buds and the Blooms that preceed yet both from the same Root and Cause Now to be punish'd by God's Wrath but mediately through the force only of created Instruments c. as of material Fire or the like if that were all the Punishment there this were certainly by a lower kind or sort than to be punish'd immediately from the Wrath of God it self As will abundantly appear in the second Section when I shall set out the dreadfulness of such a Punishment But let us particularly weigh the Instances themselves as we have singly and apart delivered them 1. Those Dispensations to wicked and bad Men as Judas c. 2. The same as they are exemplified in good and holy Men as Heman c. And either of them will afford an Argument for the proof of this Proposition in Hand 1. These direful Impressions of God's immediate Wrath when they do befal wicked Men what are they to them Not only Pledges or Fore-runners of that Punishment to come for such all sorts of Afflictions are unto wicked Men. But further these are Spices and Grudgings and lesser intermitting Fits of those future fiery burning and continued Calentures and Feavers yea Earnest-Penies of Hell and so of the same kind with what in full Men shall there receive As we use to say and speak of those glorious Joys which some Saints aforehand have the priviledge to partake of that they are pure drops of those Rivers of Pleasure flowing immediately from the same Fountain of Life So we may as confidently say of those breakings forth of Wrath upon wicked Mens Souls here that they are the sippings of that Cup of Wrath without mixture as the Revelation Rev. 14. 10. distinguisheth it from those in this Life whereof the Wicked must drink the Dregs though it be Eternity unto the bottom And therefore we may make a true and warrantable measure of what all such Men are to look for in Hell by what some few of them do partake of here And the Argument is strong every way from the one of these unto the other For as Heaven and Hell are Parallel in a way of contraries as out of Rom. 9. 22 23. hath been shewn So those unspeakable glorious Joys and these contrary extraordinary Horrors and Anguishes on the other hand do hold Parallel also in being in their several kinds Prelibations and Tastes of what is to come in the other World And in this very posture and tendency doth the Apostle set these two Dispensations together in this Life in a Parallel way as in Rom. 9. he doth the other whilst in the same Scripture 2 Cor. 2. 15 16. He compares those Joys common in those times in them that are saved to the breakings forth at the opening of the Gospel as of a Box of Spiknard of a sweet Odour or Savour of Life unto Life namely of the Life to come afore-hand sensing their Souls with some of those Perfumes that are fetcht from that Country and only grow there and on the contrary such also he declares those precursory Savours or Odours of Death in their kind to be which do arise from the threatnings of the same Word in Horrors upon many that perish which he pronounceth to be the very Evaporations of that Lake of Fire and Brimstone Rev. 20. 14 which is the second Death in stiling them the Odour or Savour of Death unto Death so speaks he These Men often smell the scent of Hell in their Consciences and the Spirits of it do strike up into their Souls The very Ashes and Smoak of that Vesuvius or Aetna of Hell I allude unto the last Words of Deut. 32. 22. do fall upon them which lighting upon Men in this Life do as those Ashes of the Furnace Exod. 9. 8 9 10. miraculously did they cause sores and blains upon Mens Consciences And however if the Apostle did therewithal intend the more common Dispensations by the Word and so both the ordinary and extraordinary of which we now speak Yet still take and compare those extraordinary Joys in the one as a Savour of Life with the extraordinary Horrors that are the Savour of Death unto the other and in their Proportion there is still the like reason of both as to the matter in hand and an alike persignificancy in either of those two eternal Estates Again that each of these are alike by and from God and by his more immediate Hand dispensed This I take from that Phil. 1. 28. and submit the
Wrath than other even as in the Body some Parts are more of Pain If a Man would avoid a scalding drop to be let fall upon any Part of all other he would fence his Eye You see how a Mote a Flie troubleth it a scalding drop of Oyl would much more So it is in the Faculties of the Soul You read there is the Spirit of the Mind Eph. 4. 23. Now God will wound even that and aims at it in this Punishment A wounded Spirit who can bear says Solomon If a Man's Flesh be torn and cut he may yet bear up himself but if his Bones be broken who can stand Now the immediate Stroaks of God are so compared by David as unto the breaking of the Bones in comparison of other dealings of God with and Inflictions from God towards us The next thing which I mention but as an Appendix to this Head is that it is the Destruction of the Soul So Christ and the Apostle again and again They are said to be lost and though Men may Metaphysically dispute that it is better to Be though in Hell than not to Be Yet Christ hath said it were better not to have been born I shall say no more as to this Head than what the Apostle expresseth this by in the 1 Tim. 6. 9. in saying That Men are drowned in Perdition and Destruction one would think for him to have expressed Death and Destruction it might have been enough to have said that a Man were drown'd or sunk down to the bottom of Waters or the like Materials that would suffocate a Man But to say he is drowned in Perdition it self or that Perdition and Destruction are the Pit the Lake he is plunged into what can be said beyond it And yet here he is not content with one single Word to express that by neither as to have said drowned in Perdition but must double it and add another Word Destruction also Destroyed therefore over and over Drowned over Head and Ears as we say and all that is in them drowned and sunk into Perdition the whole Soul yea the whole Man No part above Water Destroyed with a double Destruction both for Object double and also for the Subject of it both Body and Soul So Christ says §. III. A third Head of Demonstrations drawn from the final Causes formerly mentioned As 1. The Glory of God 2. The Manifestation of his Power THe third Head that affords matter of Exaggeration to our Thoughts whereby to infer the fearfulness of this Punishment is taken from the Ends or Final Causes mentioned in that first Section The Ends I say which God hath in and is provoked by unto this Punishment And as I then singly argued from each of them the immediateness of God's Hand therein so now I shall from each of the same The dreadfulness hereof There were three Attributes of God in Special and his Glory in Common which God aimeth at the Manifestation of in this ultimate Guerdon or Reward for Sin 1. The Manifestation of the Glory that 's in Common then particularly 1. Of his Power 2. The satisfying of his Justice 3. Of his Wrath. The Scriptures I then had recourse to do specify all these I shall speak to these in this Section and to the other in the following 1. In General that he aimeth at his Glory in it which is God's general aim and is common to these and all other Attributes is evident His Glory as it is to be manifested to us is but the result or shine of all or any of his Attributes manifested In that place of Prov. 16. 4. The Lord hath made all things for himself that is for his Glory for that is himself My Glory I will not give to another it follows yea even the wicked for the day of evil The day of evil there is the day of Punishment the Wicked themselves also making and preparing themselves by Sin thereto but so as thereupon God manifests his Glory upon them as well as upon all things else which he hath made in their several seasons and kinds And Solomon doth mention this of Punishment as one Eminent Instance of all things else whatever that are for his Glory and which will be ordered then by him thereunto in a special manner And because it being so great an evil Men might think otherwise Yea but says Solomon God seeks and will have a Glory out of this Punishment as well as out of all things else of which ye all acknowledg that God made them for himself And so in that 2 Thess 1. 9. They are said to be punisht from the Glory of his Power that is from his Power glorifying himself on them as I afore expounded it And as it is for the Glory of this his Power so by the same reason of all or any of those other Attributes he is pleased to put forth therein I shall premise two Maxims from whence fore-laid the Inference for the dreadfulness of this will more readily rise in an infinite height unto our more serious and sober Apprehensiions The first That all things which God doth for his own Glory he will perform them like himself that is like God and so make the utmost of every thing that that subject Matter whatever it be will afford of Glory to him This Rule is ascertained to us as from the Nature of God so from that saying of the Apostle Rom. 1. 21. where he condemns the Gentiles that they glorified him not as God that is in such a manner as was worthy of him they came not up to that height of Glory so great a God must have given unto him from Creatures Now if it be the Sin of Creatures that they fall short in glorifying God as God then be assured that if God himself undertakes and professeth to do a thing for his Glory he will in the whole of it and issue thereof either glorify himself as God or never begin to essay or meddle with it but would have let it alone for ever 2. From hence take this also along with you to carry it in your view through each particular that follows That then if God seeks to glorify himself in a way of Punishment that Punishment must be answerably great and proportioned to raise up a Glory unto God such as shall glorify him As God in that way For it is the Punishment or the Judgment it self which he executes as the Psalmist says out of which this Glory must spring This Punishment as it is a Punishment is that wherein God will be glorified as God That is it is the Soil which this Crop of his Glory is to grow up out of and the Crop or Harvest of Glory can be but what the fertility of that Soil as such affords These things in general fore-laid Now 3. The greatness or vast comings in of that Glory God reckons upon from this may rise up in your view by these Particulars 1. Had it not been that in comparison of
other works of his an infinitely exceeding Revenue of Glory would have arisen unto him from this God would never have set his Heart or Hand to this work of all other I say it again He would never have set his Hand to this work of all other For as he is Creator he hath a love to all and hates nothing that he hath made he loves no such bloody work for it self nor would have ever embrued his Hands in the Destruction of his Creature had it not been for an exceeding weight of Glory and as being justly provoked thereto it becometh a just Prize on that Hand presented to him which he will be sure withal to manage and perform with the utmost Righteousness It is certain that this is to him opus alienum a work strange to his Nature as the Prophet speaks He does not naturally no nor willingly says the Lamentations afflict or grieve the Children of Men. Lament 3. 33. Mens Quarrellings and Cavils hereabout did put him long since to his Oath and he hath cleared himself by Oath in Ezekiel As I live I will not the Death of a Sinner that is not simply as if I delighted in it for it self as a God that is cruel which was objected and therefore I say peremptorily it must be an infinite mass of Glory after much long-suffering and impenitency of Men that moves him to it And if so then according to the Principles even now mentioned do you that are impenitent Sinners look to it for ex vestro cario I allude to Job's Speech Skin for Skin out of the Blood of your Souls and their Destruction shall this Tribute and Tax of Glory be raised according unto what your sinfulness shall be found to have been And oh then do you collect how fearful it is like to be View it in a contrary and indeed though an Instance far transcending the Proportion of this yet in respect of holding some likeness to God's proceeding in this will conduce to heighten our Thoughts about this It is a Consideration that helps our Faith and 't is a great one that for God to deliver up his own Son to Death and for himself to bruise him you have it all in a short Saying Isa 53. 10. It pleased the Lord to bruise him and that this should be the Object of his good Pleasure there must have been some incomprehensible vast design of Glory to accrue there-from to be attained by doing it some high End and far transcending Design that was to be the Issue and Product of it Which as you know was the Glory of his Mercy and Love in the Salvation of Men Glory to God on High Good Will to Men. And this is as great an Evidence and Argument to our Faith that God is resolved to save Sinners as can be given For what hath been thus done to Christ is past recalling not to be recompensed any other way than by saving many by the Knowledg of him as God there speaks Now as this Instance of the highest kind serves to evidence this thing to us so though in a far lesser Proportion you may take somewhat alike Illustration at least in the Point in Hand That certainly it must be a great surpassing mass of Glory that will come in unto him by this Punishment for Sin which should any way gain him to be so much as willing to it against which otherwise he hath so much in his own Nature who had it withal in his absolute Power to have given effectual Grace to all as well as to some which latter all acknowledg he hath done Even as it was in his Power to have saved the World without Christ's Death Mark 14. 36. Oh! ye Sons of Men know and understand your God and be moved thereby to turn unto him and the more by this that it must and will prove an infinite Punishment that is coming upon you because were it not an immense sum of Glory would accrue to him out of it and that but upon your final impenitency He that is a God so good in himself would never else bring it upon you And according to that first Maxime premised it must be the soreness of the Punishment from whence that Glory must arise 2. Consider herewith how that he hath reserved this as his last work in that other World when this World shall come to be folded up as a Garment and a final conclusion be put to all these other Dispensations and Works of Glory that are now on Foot And as Solomon told us that he hath made the wicked for himself and for the day of evil So Job also tells us That the Wicked is reserved to the day of Destruction and shall be brought forth at or to the day of Wrath Reserved by God till after all his other works of wonder are ended and gone then to be brought forth as a Trophie of his Glory Both themselves and all their Sins are reserved till then and laid up amongst God's Treasures to be then made publick The Salvation of his Elect and the Destruction of the Wicked are the last and only Works that then remain and do remain and are purposely kept unto that time when he means to shew himself to be God indeed and to make all Men and Angels know that he is God It is an Argument of the fearfulness of that Punishment the Devils shall undergoe Jude 6. 2 Pet. 2. 4. That he hath reserved them in everlasting Chains unto the Judgment of the great day It is a certain Rule that God's latter works do still exceed and put down the former So far as the former shall not in comparison be remembred Isa 65. 17. Jer. 3. 16. When God would make his Apostles as to this World the greatest spectacle of Misery that excepting what he made his own Son who was the first-born among many Bretbren he ever put upon Saints Prophets or Martyrs that had preceeded and were afore them How doth the Apostle express his Design in it 1 Cor. 4. 9. I think says he that God hath set forth us the Apostles last as it were Men appointed to Death for we are made a Spectacle unto the World and to Angels and to Men. Alluding to those Gladiators brought up last upon the Stage as a Spectacle to the People The thing I cite it for is that the greatest work in that kind he appointed to be at last As also was that which immediately preceded it the coming of his Son in the last days And but this of punishing the Wicked is his last and very last of all that he will do for ever Especially let us withal 3. Consider besides how all his Actings and Works whereby to glorify himself for ever shall be reduced and contracted to these two He gives over all other of Providence and Spiritual Dispensations by Ordinances and sets down and betakes himself to these two alone God hath nothing else to do in the other World And he hath no other revenue
the King of terrors Job 18. 19. were setting down his siege about him and that all the Iniquities of his heels or ways which are Deaths strongest Forces The Sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law 1 Cor. 15. 5 6. were as an Army formed up encompassing him round which out of Psal 40. 12. I have shewed to have been his case and the very Metaphor he there also useth But now David was so steeled as though he placed himself thus aforehand in the full view and face of all these single and alone in the midst of them he yet outdares them all as the Apostle did Rom. 8. ult strengthned with this for the Lord will receive my Soul which Phrase of Speech to be the same that a dying Saint useth you all know And this part of his Speech v. 5. might have come in as comfortable an Use as any other of that former Doctrine the innumerable number of Sins but that this other part that now follows doth properly belong unto what hath been now last insisted on and so I rather placed both here The second thing is The opposite state of wicked Men in their Lives and in relation to their dying and also at and after Death by which he both illustrates and expounds his meaning in ver 5. to be to utter his own blessed condition at his Death v. 15. and to that purpose it is he further dilates upon the death of wicked Men in the rest of the Psalm And which is indeed a kind of Summary of what in the former Meditation I have prest During their Lives they trust in their Wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their Riches v. 6. and yet they see as the word is v. 10. that they cannot redeem their own or others precious Souls from bodily Death or obtain of God by a Ransom that they should live for ever For he sees the wise Man die like as the Fool and so leave their Wealth to others Thus in v. 7 8 9 10. That which therefore miserable Wretches they relieve themselves with against this is Their inward thought is that their Houses shall continue for ever and their Dwelling-places to all Generations They call their Lands after their own Names and their Posterity approve their Sayings v. 13. Tho when he dies he shall carry nothing away his Glory shall not descend after him c. And whither goes he when he dies His Soul so 't is in the Original and varied in the Margin shall go to the Generation of his Fathers to the Company of those Giants of the Old World from whom Hell hath its Name so oft in the Proverbs And where are they all The Spirits in Prison So the Apostle resolves us speaking of the Men of the old World 1 Pet. 3. 19. And they shall never see Light or comfort more says the Psalmist But as for me says David v. 15. God shall receive me into the bosom of his Love and Bliss And then again upon their dying They are laid as Sheep in the Grave Death shall feed on them and prey upon them The first Death upon their bodies in the Grave the second Death upon their Souls And their Beauty shall consume in the Grave so as at the morning as there of the Resurrection the greatest Personages that have had such a Gleam of Glory to attend them whilst they lived accompanied perhaps also with dominion over others shall then rise such ugly shabby Death-eaten and Hell-eaten Creatures as we use to say Moth-eaten all their Beauty being preyed upon that 's his word and consumed And such shall they appear in Judgment where the upright whom they despised shall have dominion over them ver 14. But says David God shall redeem my Soul from the power of the Grave For he shall receive me Selah And for the further illustration of all this and how it relates unto Death I shall only cast in a manifest parallel between what David here had meditated about the condition of wicked Men at Death with what our Lord himself hath seconded it withal in expressions fully herewith agreeing treating of wicked mens dying also Luke 12. 16. unto ver 21. 'T is the Parable of that rich Man whose Soul was taken away that night 1. Says David Their inward thought is c. ver 11. And says Christ He thought within himself so ver 17. 2. Whilst he lived he blessed himself so David ver 18. namely in those his inward Thoughts about his Goods and Posterity And the like speaks Christ to be the inward speech and applauding himself of his rich Man He says to his Soul Soul thou hast many Goods laid up for many years take thine ease and be merry Again 3. of this Man Christ says Thou Fool this night c. ver 20. And David of his This their way is their Folly ver 10. 4. And finally the reason of that their Folly which both Christ and David give do center in one and the same This Night thy Soul shall be required thee then whose shall these things thou hast provided be Thus Christ ver 20. and David correspondently His Soul shall go c. They shall never see light ver 19. and he shall carry nothing away but leave his Wealth to others verses 10 17. But still withal let us remember what David's conclusion is concerning himself at his Death and which he placeth in the midst as the center of his Discourse which hath all this other about wicked Men round about it to the end to magnify the Mercy thereof to himself But God shall redeem my Soul and shall receive me Selah The Mercy of both which the last Use of all that next follows doth concern and so shuts up this Discourse USE Let all Believers from hence learn how to set a due and full value upon that Salvation which they profess to expect and which God hath designed to give them Our great and gracious God the more to bind and oblige the redeemed of the Sons of Men unto himself hath twisted their Salvation of a double Cord of Love 1. A privitive one seen in what they are snatcht out of which is termed a being saved from Wrath Rom. 5. A delivering from Wrath 1 Thess 1. 10. An escaping the Damnation of Hell Mat. 23. 33. A not so much as entring into Condemnation John 5. 24. 2. The other a positive part The Glory to be revealed the greatness of which no Tongue can utter or Heart conceive That Blessedness or Glory conferred on the elect Angels and that favour shewn them hath not this privative part of Salvation to greaten it further then as by way of prevention in that God upheld them from falling into the Merit or Desert of it Whereas we Men are all become guilty afore God were actually under Wrath Children of Wrath even as others one as well as another Ephes 2. And the weight of this he in that Scripture would have them put
it self out fairly to its full length yet some last but a very little while and those of the greatest size cannot long Oh but how many intervening Casualties are there that afore do put it out The Candle of the Wicked shall be put out and Destruction cometh upon them Job 21. 17. that is ab extrinseco from without How many Thieves in the Candle or fatal Accidents do Men meet with that unawares consume it Immoderate Sorrows and Cares swale it Intemperance like too much Oyl poured thereon to feed it choaketh and extinguisheth it Too much Intention of Mind turns the Flame downwards upon it self and so it evaporates Often another Mans Breath in seasons of Malignity which fall out more or less every year blows and puffs it out A Friends Breath comes in with an infectious Vapour and throws his Soul out who visits him Yea an unskilful or else a mistaking hand of a Physician who undertakes to snuff and brighten it unwarily clean snuffs the Candle out Yea Men strong and vigorous go to the Grave in a moment as in the same 21. chapter of Job ver 13. Yea as Psal 55. 15. they go quick to Hell it is an allusion to Corah Dathan c. Numb 16. 30 33. of whom 't is said twice They went alive to Hell Many die so suddenly that they are in Hell in a trice and as it were ere quite dead And truly the most of Men live in this World like silly Sheep in a Pasture as David's Similitude is Psal 4. 9. 14. They are See Ainsw put into Hell like Sheep so some It notes out their Security in respect of that slaughter which comes upon them This Man dies then that then another and they regard it not even as the Sheep do not when the Butcher as his Pleasure is takes out first one then another and carries them to the Shambles whilst the rest feed on and know not that themselves are a fatting to the day of Slaughter also Let us consider also what millions of Transgressions are we guilty of in one Day Oh then what in thy whole Life And what a reckoning will the Sins of thy whole Life come to when every Commandment shall bring in their Bills and that thou hast to do with a God who 1. hath all thy Sins before him Isa 65. 6. Behold it is written afore me but I will recompence c. 2. That will never forget any one of them Amos 8. 7. The Lord hath sworn Surely I will never forget any of their Works 3. With a God who will bate thee nothing Every Transgression shall receive a just recompence of reward He spared not his own Son Rom. 8. and will not thee unless by regeneration thou hast a Portion in his Son Think with thy self what a case thou art in if thou must answer Justice for all and every one of these DAVID's Meditation Psal XLIX The most of these things hitherto by way of Use spoken by me are no other than what David himself spends one whole Psalm together upon it is Psal 49. and styles it The Meditation of his Heart vers 3. which caused me to entitle that former about what it is to dye a Meditation rather than an Vse as I had done that of Moses also Psal 90. This of David's I shall here add to set the deeper seal and weight upon all that hath been treated He begins the Psalm and shews the moment of these matters though in view but ordinary with as solemn a Preface and Proclamation calling upon attention and heed hereto as any where we find in Scriptures 1. In the first verse he summons all the World into a Ring about him Hear ye this all the People give Ear all the Inhabitants of the World And 2. particulariseth forth his Auditors into all sorts of Conditions vers 2. Both low and high rich and poor together For why what he was to utter to them did as much concern the one as it did the other and behoved them all alike to look to as being that which especially concerned them in respect unto their Being in the other World how different soever their Condition was in this And 3. he cries up the matter it self as the greatest Wisdom vers 3. and a deep mysterious Parable and dark saying vers 4. My Mouth shall speak of Wisdom and the Meditation of my Heart shall be of Vnderstanding I will incline mine Ear unto a Parable I will open my dark saying upon the Harp Now what should this matter be It was to declare two things which take up that whole Psalm The first how in the style of a Be it known to all Men for we have seen he publisheth it to all he aloud declares I for my part am not afraid to die and go into that other World Which confidence of his he greatens by this Supposition superadded That if when he should come to die all the Sins of his whole Life were presented afore his view yet notwithstanding he should not be afraid thus ver 5. Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil when the Iniquities of my heels shall compass me about A strange confidence which yet he found reason for from God For he challengeth all or any thing to bring in reason to the contrary let them all say Wherefore should I fear And yet his other Psalms as well as his Story tell us what an infinite number of Sins were upon his score and how sensible he was thereof And that this bold Speech of his relates specially to the day of Death or days wherein he might have cause to fear it though I will exclude no other times of Trouble that were yet to come before in this Life to be intended by him which Interpreters wholly carry it unto that this is his scope I shall make appeal to the whole drift of what follows throughout the Psalm which concerns the state of wicked Men in their Death which I shall by and by shew But specially I argue it from the reference and correspondency this Speech hath with and to vers 15. God will redeem my Soul from the Power of the Grave for he shall receive me Selah There you have the reason or ground of this his Confidence which he had at first uttered in ver 5. perfectly expressed as that which he opposed unto all Therefore 's or Wherefore's to the contrary yea though they should be fetch'd from his very Sins that might if any thing make him afraid But there in that resolve of his ver 15. he centers and landeth this which he had so confidently uttered in ver 5. And all the rest of his discourse that comes between is apparently about the opposite condition of wicked Men As that they must die and what their estate is in and after Death all which was but to illustrate this Confidence of his He plainly in this ver 5. puts himself into the supposition as if he were then to die and as if Death