THE Worm that Dyeth not OR HELL TORMENTS In The CERTAINTY AND ETERNITY of Them Plainly Discovered in several Sermons Preached on Mark Chap. the 9th and the 48. v. By that Painful and Laborious Minister of the Gospel William Strong And now published by his own Notes as a means to deter from Sin and to stir up to Mortification LONDON Printed by T. R. and M. D. and are to be sold by Fra. Titon at the three Daggers in Fleet-street 1672. GOOD READER A Discourse of Hell cannot be unprofitable and unseasonable in an age wherein many deny the eternal recompenses others live as if they did not believe them yea among those that take on a stricter form of living many carry it on with such coldness and deadness that their conversations no way look like a flight from wrath to come or a pursuit after eternal life and therefore they need to be awakened Sermons of Hell may keep many out of Hell yea it concerneth the best and most serious to know what wrath they have escaped to quicken their thankfulness for that they are as brands plucked out of the burning As it heightned the sence of their deliverance to the Israelites when they looked back and saw the Egyptians tumbling in the waters of the Red-Sea which they passed through without harm surely they that cannot endure to hear of Hell or read of Hell discover too much of the guilt and security of their own hearts presumption is a coward and a run-away but Faith supposeth the worst Psal 23.4 and so encountreth its enemy in the open fields if the torments prepared for the disobedient and impenitent be so â—orrible and grievous we all need to be more srious in settling our eâ—erâ—â—â— interests upon a sure bottom and fâ—undation and to learn that holy mixture of serving God with fear and rejoycing with trembling and so to take sanctuary at the Lords Grace and enter our selves heirs to the priviledges of the Gospel that our claim may never be disproved nor our hope leave us ashamed This is the design of these Sermons of the reverend Author which were transcribed from his own Notes not indeed prepared for the Press but the Pulpit and if they want any thing of that accuracy which might be expected from one so able in the work of the Ministry The Candid Reader will distinguish between what is intended to be spoken to one Auditory and written to the World and how much is reserved to be uttered on the suddain in the heat and vigour of speaking for enlivening and polishment on such occasions What is left was conceived useful and therefore put into thy hands The Blessing of God Almighty go along with it and sanctifie it to thy Soul which is the hearty Prayer of thy Servants in the Lords Work Tho. Manton J. Rowe MARK 9.48 Where their Worm dyeth not and the Fire is not quenched MY purpose is to break up those Treasures of wrath which God hath reserved for his enemies Psal 90.11 Ephes 3.19 which not only passeth knowledge but also fear his love to his People passeth knowledge his wrath to his enemies passeth fear a full discovery by me you cannot expect seeing it passeth knowledge and answerable affections in you I cannot expect to the utmost seeing that it passeth fear but if it may be a means to deter you from sin and a motive unto mortification I shall have my end in the discourse as Christ his end in the exhortation The words are to be considered either respective in reference unto what goes before and so we see them several times repeated to press the duty of mortification of a mans dearest darling Lust his most pleasant and most profitable sin that sin is resembled unto a body in Scripture is clear Rom. 7 4. the body of sin and the body of death and that some sins are in this body â—s the right hand and the right eye is as clear also called a mans sweet morsel his own iniquity the peccatum in deliciis the right eye is in the body the dearest and the right hand is most usefull serviceable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 profitable and advantageous to the body but if it be a stumbling block to thee and cause thee to offend God and forsake the way of his obedience then cut it off pluck it out it is a hyperbolical expression Sic animo tuo comparatus esto though thou do not actually yet intentionally and in thy purpose and resolution of heart part with what is dearest to thee then that it should be a means or an occasion of sin unto thee and the reason it given better enter into life maimed that is though thou think'st if thou part with such a lust thou shouldest live uncomfortably and be as a maimed and but half a man all thy days yet in common reason the whole is better than any part therefore better suffer the excision of a member than the dissolution of the body in your own judgement and the judgement of the World be counted imperfect men all your days rather than suffer the destruction of the body and soul in Hell Hence we are to learn First that whatever is near and dear unto a man if it be an occasion of his sin either to hinder from duty in omission or to provoke unto any lust by way of commission a man is to reject it with ind gnation pluck it out â—ut it off cast it from him The dearest thing must be parted with either as a snare or as a sacrifice Secondly Even Gods own people may have some dear pleasant and profitable lusts right hands to be cut off and right eyes to be plucked out Thridly If they should part with them they may look upon themselves and the World may count them as maimed men but Fourthly though they may seem so to themselves and the World to judge of them yet it is their best course that they could take Fifthly The good and evill of all things is to be judged by the end and issue of it i'ts better because thou enterest into life and it 's worse because keeping them thou wilt indanger body and soul in hell Sixthly Legal motives are of use even to the regenerated and therefore Christians may use them and not be legal Christians indeed the more ingenious services are the better and the more freely and readily the heart comes off from sin upon the principles of the Gospel and performes duty from a spirit of love fearing the Lord and his goodness obeying from a cord of love and thankfulness the love of Christ constraining But yet this will work no longer than grace hath the upper hand and if corruption prevail to call in these helps is not only lawfull but necessary But to come to the words of my Text They are a description of that destruction that keeping a right hand or a right eye that offends a man will bring upon him It is destruction in hell even of
again the Lord shall judge his people It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God He forbids private revenges and saith to his disciples if he smite thee on the one cheek turne the other c. As there are none avenge here below but Magistrates his Vicegerents to shew that it is the priviledg of none but himself hereafter Now if he has reserved it unto himself here surely he will take it to himself hereafter in the disposing of the eternal estates of the greater part of the World Angels and Men to give this honour unto the creature that they should take vengeance the Lord will never do it but it is and shall be an act of his own immediate wrath and here the three persons hath in Scripture their opera appropriata if the Father be provoked the Son is an advocate with the Father and the Holy Ghost strives with him but when all the persons shall joyn together the Son will plead no more and the spirit strive no more but all joyn in this great work of vengeance and the spirit of God as in Heaven he shall be a spirit of Adoption and Glory so in Hell a spirit of bondage and torment for ever Isa 30. last There are two things in it to be observed First Here is fire and brimstone that is unquenchable fire for brimstone is pertinasissimum ignis fomentum and there is not a little but a River of brimstone and what is this fire and brimstone It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the spirit of the Lord burning in it his wrath is the fire and the brimstone also and his spirit for as the spirit is not onely fire but oil because his grace is upheld by the daily supplies of its own grace notwithstanding all mens unthankfulness so his wrath is not only fire but brimstone there is a continual supply of wrath to eternity that makes this fire of Tophet to be eternal and unquenchable fire Object But Satan is said to have the power of Death and is called Abaddon the destroyer and therefore it seems Satan is the instrument that God will use in tormenting them that as here they were commanded by him and subjected unto his temptations so they should be under him for ever tormenting them Answ First Satan is said to be the destroyer in respect unto sin which is the destruction of the creature and lays the foundation of a mans eternal destruction as he is called a murderer John 8. so he is called a destroyer because by him man was deceived and seduced and this is not spoken in refference to his inflicting of Death but in respect of drawing a man unto sin and so he is said to be the destroyer and in respect of many temporal punishments that the Lord by him doth bring in the destruction of persons and kingdomes and he is therefore called the destroyer because it his whole work to destroy and he intends nothing else in all that he doth but destruction and Satan is said to have the power of death it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which notes authority as well as power but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is strength and power only to do it so he doth inflict death upon men when God imploys him for Satan is used in such dishonourable services as to have the power of death as the executioner hath that puts men to death and torments them that the Judge doth give into his hand Secondly When a wicked man is put to death the devils attend and they take his soul and hurry it to the place of torment as the Angels do the souls of the Saints Luke 16. and therefore it is said thou Fool this night shall they require thy soul Luk. 12.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Devil is present and demands the soul and takes it and caries it into the place of torment that it is adjudged too even to its own place where Judas went so that the Devil inflicts upon men and carries them to Hell Thirdly At the last and general judgment Satan shall accuse them being condemned together with him he shall take them to Hell with him for this wrath is prepared for the Devil and his Angels But this kingdome of â—atan shall last no longer then the kingdome of the Angels and all rule and all authority shall be put down when Christ shall have given up the kingdome unto the Father and the Angels shall rule over the elect no more so the Devil shall rule over the reprobate no more but now God shall be all in all In Heaven he shall be all in all in mercy and in Hell he shall be all in all in wrath and there shall be no more any dominion of one Creature over another God will no more use one Creature to reward another or to punish another but himself shall be all in all Object But in Heaven there be many created comforts therefore in Hell there are many created miseries and therefore the wrath of God is not the only Executioner there as you affirm Answ It 's true there are many miseries there from the Creatures the place is a Dungeon of darkness it is the bottomless pit abissus the deep as there is a great deal of sweetness in the place in Heaven and Glory so there is much misery here from the place for there are Chambers of death Secondly From the Company the friends of a Soul and the enemies and all restraining grace and the Law of nature shall cease and sin shall be acted to the life as part of a mans punishment and they shall be set one against another for ever Dives had torment by the coming of his brethren the man shall be tormented by the coming of his wife and his children and his Companions here on earth c. Thirdly From the upbraidings of Satan for his malice shall never cease and therefore he will in this respect be shewing a man his folly and endeavour to torment him more and more Isa 21.14 and will deride him and there is nothing more bitter to a man then to be scorned in misery and derided and this men may look for in Hell at the hand of Satan he will mock at them for ever and never shew thee the least pity for thou art bound up amongst the Tares in the same bundle with the Devil and all his crew thus indeed there are some created miseries in Hell but yet it is the wrath of God that is the great torment that as in all created blessings here it is his love that is the root and the Fountain of them and they are all nothing unless that go before they all stand but for a Cypher so unless his wrath go before all these torments would be but Cyphers and the Soul would live there is no Creature that can kill the Soul they may indeed kill the body and a small Creature can do so if it be armed by
minister and matter of scorn to be examined by him fearing least they should bewray their ignorance God will charge it upon thy Conscience and make thee bear the shame of it before men and angels those sins thou hast commited and those things thou hast omited out of ignorance that such rules thou oughtest to have known Secondly The Lord will charge upon a man the sins that he commited upon false and eroneous principles Thou hast called the proud happy and because they that hate the Lord are exalted therefore thou hast fallen upon those wayes and thought their way to be the onely way to peace and prosperity thou hast thought Usury Sabbath breaking petty oathes officious lyes were little or nothing and that if a man performed the outward duties of Religion went to Church and heard a Sermon and kept himself unspotted before men and walked lovingly amongst his neighbours this was enough to bring him to Heaven and that what was more was but either needless scrupulosity or affected singularity which is but hypocrisie and therefore thou hast counted religious men the precise fools of the time when thou hast seen them with Dives as a Lazarus at thy door and regarded them not but men shall recant their corrupt opinions and publish their retractations and be ashamed of them before Men and Angels Psal 50.21 thou thoughtest wickedly that I was such a one as thy felf but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes Thirdly Conscience shall charge a man with the Truths he knew and imprison'd Rom. 1. last and 2.1 who knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death not only do the same but have pleasure in them that do them therefore thou art inexcusible thou knewest this to be a sin and yet commitedst it and such as thing to be a duty and yet neglectedst it and then all a mans omissions and comissions sins of ignorance and wilfulness or errour shal be charged upon him And here are three things in a special manner that shall be charged First in this life our memories are frail Heb. 12.5 and we let things slip out of them Heb. 2.1 and ye have forgotten the exaltation which c. We forget that we hear but there shall be no forgetfulness hereafter Conscience shall record all the rules of duty in their order Secondly Is 50 17. Here there are manifold diversions of our thoughts and men do cast these rules of duty and their sins against them behind their backs but it shall then be so set before a man that it shall be his study for ever and he shall never be able to turn from it Conscience shall always set his sins before him as David said my sin is ever before me Thirdly There is this difference between this life and the life to come here these rules are set before a man that he might learn and obey them but hereafter they are set before him to throw the neglect of them upon him that he might be upbraided with the guilt of them for ever Job 27.22 and Job 27.6 that our hearts might reproach us for ever there is a great deal of difference between the admonition of a father telling the son his duty or of a minister instructing a man and between a judg telling a malefactor his sin and his duty the one doth it in order to his direction and reformation and the other doth it in order to his execution and conviction that he may see and be silenced that the judgment and sentence past upon him is just and to lay the guilt of his own destruction upon his own head for ever Secondly an act of conviction here if sin be charged upon men every man hath a Counsellor within his own breast to plead for him which is his own carnal reason and that does many times seek to excuse à toto and the man pleads not guilty as David for the death of Vriah 2 Sam 11.25 and Pilate gives sentence against Christ and yet excuses himself that he had nothing to do with the blood of this just man and the Pharisies and Priests Acts 5.28 they had no hand in the death of Christ and therefore they are displeas'd that the Apostles had filled Jerusalem with their doctrine and intend to bring this mans blood upon us reatum invidiam mortis Christi or else it minceth the matter and excuseth à tanto if it be evil yet not so great an evil for it is the common custom Act. 28.22 it is a sect spoken against every where c. and by after inconveniencies Joh. 11.48 else the Romans will come and destroy place and Nation and so many plead for Ale-houses Game-houses Play-houses a trade of beging and usury for Widows and Orphans how shall they live else and a subtile distinction for swearing Mat 23.16 swear by the Temple for men to swear it is nothing but who ever shall swear by the Gold of the Temple he is a debtor so we hear men say to swear by God it 's a sin we will allow to be something but to swear by Faith and Troth by light c. by Creatures is no evil as Judg. 21.22 they elude their vow by saying we did not give them but they did take them with our knowledge and consent c. and with such kind of pleas as an ignorant judge is blinded by the subtleties of his Counsel casting a varnish over an evil cause and drawing a Cobweb â—awn over it so is Conscience also But after this life all these pleas shall vanish and men shall be convicted of their own Consciences that they shall have nothing to say for themselves a man shall be speechless Mat 22.12 he shall have no cloak for his sin John 15.22 he was without an excuse or apologie Rom. 2.19 a Deus foras in crepabit conscientia intus accusabit Greg. there shall be on means either to deny it or extenuate it for 2 Cor. 5.11 we are made manifest unto God and I trust unto your Consciences and this Conscience shall do by setting before a man First The unreasonableness of sin Jer 2.13 that I did forsake the Fountain of living water and digged to my self broken â—isterns so foolish was I and as a beast before thee Secondly The causelesness of it Jer. 2.5 what iniquity have your fathen found in me Mic. 6 3. oh my people what have I done to you testify against me have I been a Wilderness Thirdly God did forbear me with much patience 2 Pet. 3.5 did not cut me down but spared me this year also and I had horae plusquam amenae nunquam rediturae c. 4ly from several inducements to obedience the compassionate calls of God Act. 20.31 oh Ephraim what shall I do unto thee my repentings are kindled within me Christ weeps over Jerusalem and his ministers shed tears the promises of God and the society of the faithful the
are evil and the false reasonings of sin in the Conscience the man cannot see men are given over to believe the lyes of their own spirits and cannot say is there not a lye in my right hand and a seared Conscience with a hot Iron that man despises the threatning and judgment of God 1 Tim. 4.9 and is wholly insensible as seared flesh And all this defilement is not brought into the Conscience from without but grows out of it by custome in sinning And the ground of it is because Conscience is the highest faculty and has the highest office in the man and therefore it is by corruption of the Conscience that all the rest of the faculties are so exceedingly corrupted as they are because Conscience doth not its duty and therefore God will mainly lay load upon the Conscience after this life as this had the main hand in defiling the man so it shall be the great instrument in tormenting the man for could men walk on in sin as they do if Conscience did its duty if it did instruct suggest accuse truly as in the name of God and never excuse but upon grounds from the judgment that God gives of things c. The great pollution of the whole soul flows from the pollution of the Conscience and therefore when the Papists do crowd down the defilement of the soul unto the inferiour faculties the affections and passions as if they were the sink of the soul and all the filthiness were swept down upon them but as for the understanding the will they are in a great measure free the Mistress or Lady in the soul and if a light be brought into the understanding the will has a power to follow and so say the Arminians also and it is a doctrine that spreads much amongst us so when you hear Divines say that of all the faculties the Conscience is the least polluted take heed of it for the main filthiness of thy soul lyes there And the reason that is commonly given is because Conscience in the worst men doth many times take part with God against sin when Lust carries a man and his will is very violently bent upon it but consider in an unregenerate man this doth not proceed from the purity of his Conscience even at that time when it doth take part with God but because there is the spirit of God comes in and stirs up Conscience and lays a command upon it and forceth it to do its duty which it would be glad to let alone and let Lust revel in it without controle it would surely gratify the affection it has to Lust but that the spirit of God comes in and over-aws the Conscience and doth awaken and terrify it and force it to speak and therefore it doth not any more argue the purity of Conscience then Balaams blessing of the people of Israel in the wilderness did argue his love to Israel whom he did earnestly desire to have cursed and did greedily follow after the wayges of unrighteousness but that the Lord held a strickt hand upon his Convcience that he durst not sin in it being over-awd but it was no thanks to Balaam And so it is here no thanks to Conscience which is corrupt and will by degrees grow insencible and incourage a man desperately in a way of sinning even to despight of the spirit of Gods grace Now How shall this defilement be purged all these dead works how shall they be cleansed It is by the blood of Christ First From the Holyness of his nature as he is our Head For by the blood of Christ is meant all his active and passive obedience and in his active obedience the holyness of his nature must be taken in as he was man he received the spirit He had a union and an unction from the free grace of the Father calling him to this great work and by a glorious sovereignty appointed Christ to be the head of his Church and the second Adam to stand in their stead to perform all for them and to receive all for them c. So he did receive the spirit as an unction from the Father Isa 42.1 I will put my spirit upon him he shall be cloathed with the Holy Ghost and put it on as a garment and this spirit he doth receive as a head that he may disperse it for the infinite holyness of the Divine nature could no more be communicated then the infinite righteousness of the Divine nature could be imputed and therefore he must perform perfect obedience in his humane nature for our justification that it may be imputed to us and he must receive perfect holiness in his humane nature for our sanctification that it may be imparted to us John 17.19 For their sakes I sanctify my self that is recieved a spirit of sanctification that it might be unto them a principle of holiness and the fountain of their sanctification also which I conceive to be meant by the Law of the spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death Rom. 8.2 What is the Law of sin and death It is the power of sin to condemnation defiling and destroying and what is the Law of the spirit of Life it is put for the powerful and commanding work of the living and the quickning spirit of Christ and this Law not as it is in us but as it is in Christ it is this that frees us both in respect of justification and of sanctification also from the law of sin to defile and rule and also to condemn and to destroy and thus from the holiness of the nature of Christ it comes to pass that the same spirit that was in him is conveyed unto us his union did abundantly sanctifie him in himself it being persoual and therefore there was an inpeccability the actus est suppositi but his unction was for us he had a fulness of the spirit as he was our surety he paid our debt and as our head so he received a spirit for us and dispenced it to us c. thus you see the sanctification of the humane nature of Christ doth purge a mans Conseience from dead works even the Law of the spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus makes us free from the Law of sin Secondly There is in the blood of Christ a causa meritoria and it doth meritoriously purge the Couscience for though there was the fulness of all grace in the humane nature of Christ yet it could never have been conveyed unto us without a satisfaction had gone before God must be satisfied that men might be sanctified for there is in the sufferings of Christ two things First The payment of a debt Secondly There is a redundancy of merit some thing must be procured for man non solum instauratus est Aust sed melioratus à peccatis ablutus instauratus est in caeteris melioratus Aust Tom. 4.9 123. p. 613. First It
do conceive much rather the meaning to be as I sin every day and thereby do daily contract a new guilt so grant that I may have the righteousness of Christ imputed unto me every day and a penitent heart given me that thereby I may have the qualifications that God requires unto pardon and my iniquities be blotted out For though I conceive it a truth that justification as far as it respects a mans state is done at once and is perfect in instanti that a man is but once justified that is put unto a state of pardon and righteousness and acceptation as soon as made one with Christ yet I conceive the pardon of sin to be a continued act that as a man doth sin daily so he has an actual pardon daily by the imputation of Christ's righteousness unto him anew The sacrifice indeed was offered but once and never to be repeated but the imputation of it is continued to the end of the World and the application of it is the act of every day and therefore some say that God does give us the same things over and over again daily as we sin daily and stand in daily need of it as he doth the Sun it had as much light in it the first day it was made as it hath now and God has not given us a new Sun but the same daily shines so it is with the imputation of Christs obedience who is the Son of Righteousness So that though a man be for his state once for all put into a state of justification yet remission of sins is an act that is continued daily and shall never be perfected till sin shall be done away and till the soul shall cease to say Lord forgive us our trespasses and then God shall cease forgiving but while the Saints do sin so long there is a daily remission upon a daily repentance and a renewed application So if a man sins daily and would have the guilt of his sins taken off his Conscience it must be by a daily confession a daily repentance and humiliation a daily application of the righteousness of Christ and therein by prayer seeking unto God for pardon daily for I know no other means to take the guilt of sin off the Conscience These things I speak partly to awaken the people of God that are justified freely by grace that they might not dare to pass a day in a way of sinning and that they may not dare to lye down with any sin unrepented of also and partly that those abominable and dangerous doctrines that are now abroad in the world to turn the grace of God and the promises of the Gospel into wantoness may be avoided when men say all our sins are pardoned allready and therefore though we may have sin in our conversation yet we have none in our Conscience God sees no iniquity in his people and he loves them in Christ and therefore loves them never the worse for all their sins c. And therefore they need not pray for pardon for they have it already but onely they must believe that they are pardoned and must believe that they need not repent for all is done away in Christ and it is onely for persons that are unregenerate to repent for sin and to ask pardon but for them that are in Christ their sins are pardoned c But let me tell you and the Lord will make you know that as you sin every day and contract a new guilt so there is no way to get this guilt taken off thy Conscience but by a daily repentance for it and a daily application of the righteousness of Christ that thy sins may be blotted out from the presence of the Lord for though thou be washed yet thou hast daily need to wash thy feet There is nothing that the heart of man is more willing and ready to shift off then the duty of repentance though as Tertullian saith he was nulle rei nisi penitentiae natus and yet it is with men as Luther says of himself there was no word that he did hate and abhor so much as that word Repent it is that the heart of man goes against and you have most need to be exhorted to it Thirdly There is another way to keep the Conscience pure from the guilt of sin and that is for a man to get assurance of Gods favour the light of his countenance and to walk in it all day long Psal 89.15 Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound They shall walk O Lord in the light of thy countenance When a man hath the witnesses either of blood and water which are more remote and the spirit of God speaks in them and in all ordinances of the Gospel or else when a man has a more immediate testimony from the spirit of God the Lord saying to his soul be of good cheer thy sins be forgiven thee the Lord sends his spirit that speaks to the soul as the prophet Nathan to David God hath taken away thy sin and this is Gods speaking to the soul pardon and peace which is the portion of many of the Saints when a mans soul draws near to the grave and his life to the destroyers and the Lord comes in and says deliver his soul from death for I have found a ransome and truly there are souls that do walk in the light of Gods countenance all the day long and their souls are as the upper Region quiet and are allways Calme though sin they do yet they speedily repent and humble their souls for it and their peace is never interrupted nor the light of Gods Countenance taken from them but they receive of his pardoning mercy dayly and dayly bear witness to it that their sins are done away and so their Consciences are never clogged with them But as soon as God withdraws the light of his countenance from any poor soul by and by the guilt of sin ariseth and Conscience is terrified and there is a thick cloud over spreads the whole soul and a mans heart is like unto a troubled Sea that cannot rest see what restless tossings David was in while his sin lay upon his Conscience and God hid his face day and night they are so heavy upon me that all the night long I make my bed to swim with my tears oh take me not out of thy presence will the Lord cast off for ever and his mercy is it clean gone will he be gracious no more Thus a man that would have a clear Conscience in respect of guilt must make it his business to walk in the light of Gods Countenance all the day Having thus far seen how a man may keep a Conscience pure from the guilt of sin Let us now come to the second how a mans Conscience may be preserved pure from the defilement and the pollution of sin And here we are to consider that there are two things in Conscience and answerable unto them there is a
offering for sin there is a sacrifice and there is a fire that must consume it Christ was the sacrifice and the wrath of God was the fire to consume him and these are the extremities of the sufferings of Christ now in all this Christ dyed as our surety and paid our debt Lâ—k 23.3 and if this fire did burn so fiercely in him that was the Green Tree that was not so fit Fuel to burn because there was no sin in him what will it do in us that are dry Trees now if the main of Christs sufferings were from the wrath of God immediately we may safely conclude that the sufferings due to us and which the wicked shall undergo in Hell for the substance of them shall be the same from the wrath of God immediately upon the Soul though there be no Creature in Heaven or Earth to set it on this wrath that did seize so siercely upon the green Tree will surely consume the dry And it must needs be so Reasons that the wrath of God upon wicked men in Hell shall be their great and immediate torment for none can do it but God alone and that if we consider the offence to be punished or else the subject of this punishment First if we consider the offence that deserves it it is sin which is committed chiefly against God and the punishment of it must be a recompence The Wages of sin is death 2 Thes 1. 't is a righteous thing with God to recompence tribulation to every sinner c. Now who is able to take an estimate of the evil that is in sin and the wrong that it has done unto God there are two things in sin damnum injuria a wrong in point of goods and in point of honour sin has destroyed all the Creatures who is able to value the loss of a whole world but only he that made it and the loss of a Soul but he that purchased it and who is able to judge of the glory of God and the infinite wrong that is done him by sin no Creature in Heaven or in Earth can and therefore if all the powers of the Creatures were put into one to torment a man but for one sin they were never able to give unto him the wages and the recompence of one sin proportionable unto the wrong that God has susteined thereby either in point of goods or honour for there is more evil in one sin then there is or can be good in any of the Creatures therefore God must put his own Power the power of his wrath unto the work if he will have the wages of any one sin payd Judges here do condemn men themselves and pass the sentence upon them but they leave it unto others to execute them because they can do it as effectually as themselves but it is not so here if God will have a sinner pay the utmost farthing he must exact it of him himself for sin is out of measure sinful it passeth the thoughts of Men and Angels to conceive and therefore the punishment is greater then they can inflict it is God alone can do it Secondly If we respect the subject upon which this punishment is to light That is chiefly to be punished that has the chief hand in the sin Now Sin is mainly the sin of the Soul Mic 6.7 Rom 6.16 Though the creature might punish the body yet the mâ—â—â— torment is to be laid on the Soul but the Soul is capable of more to recent then all the creatures in Heaven and Earth can inflict God only is the Father of Spirits and the correction and discipline of Spirits do belong to him alone we commonly say that the Devils in Hell shall be the tormenters of souls there as if there work there were only to torment men for ever whereas they shall be chiefly tormented themselves for there is a Lake of fire and brimstone prepared for the Devil and his Angels and yet you say he can torment the soul being a spirit but alass the torment must be destruction 1 Thes 1.9 from the presence of the Lord c. Now all the devils in Hell could never inflict any thing that should distroy the soul or take away all good from the soul and fill it full of misery they can never satisfy the capacity of the Soul in good nor in evil the Soul is a vessel of wrath and will hold more then all the creatures can put into it and will live it 't is only under the wrath of God that the Soul dyes and therefore they that can kill the Body they are not able to kill the Soul God only can create Mat. 10.28 therefore God only can annihilate therefore God only can inflict a punishment worse then annihilation Mat. 26.24 It had been good for that man he had not been born that thus comes under the punishment of God this is a dreadful confideration Secondly It is an act fit for none but God for it is First An act of justice 2 Thes 1.5 In the day of Revelation of the righteous judgement of God when God will manifest his justice to the utmost Now Who is able to shew forth the justice of God in the extent and glory of it but himself When God will manifest an attribute to the World he doth it by himself immediately if he would shew his Power he will make a World if he would shew his Holyness he gives his Son and if his Glory he makes Heaven and if his Justice he makes Hell Now As nothing can do the former but Gods immediate hand so nothing can do the latter also for to manifest an attribute is an act and glory of God for as none can shew forth his mercy so none can shew forth and declare his Justice but himself Secondly It is an act of wrath Rom. 3.5 Rom. 2.5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up wrath against the day of wrath Now no creature is able to shew forth the wrath of the great God here there is a little wrath manifested in them his wrath is kindled but a little Psal 2. last c. And he corrects in measure but when the Lord shall cause his whole wrath to arise and punish man out of measure that no creature is capable of doing no creature can pour out all the grace of God neither and therefore God made choice of Christ who was God and man to lay up all his treasures of grace and mercy in answerable to those infinite thoughts of mercy and grace that were in himself 1 John 5.11 And this life is in his Son and so no creature can shew forth all Gods wrath he must do it by himself Thirdly It must be an act of vengeance which is the royalty of God that he claims to himself and he will not give unto any other Heb. 10.30 For we know him that has said vengeance belongs unto me I will recompence saith the Lord and
God and the greatest can do no more then kill the body as the life of the Soul comes from God only so does the death of the Soul also for he only is the father of spirits and the Lord loves variety in his dominion over us he will for a time govern by the Creatures and comfort by the Creatures and afflict by them but hereafter he will then govern by himself immediately and comfort and afflict by himself immediately the one in this life and the other in the life to come First Vse This informes us that there are certain men that are children of wrath knowing the terror of the Lord we would perswade you to fly from the wrath to come for it is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God Here first I will shew you who the persons are that be the children of wrath Secondly what we would perswade them to if the Spirit of God joyn with us therein First Who they are and unto whom this use is directed that there are some children of wrath is plain Isa 10.6 The people of my wrath that is appointed to wrath and Isa 34.5 a sword is bathed in Heaven which doth express the decree and purpose of wrath it is upon the people of his curse now if this be true of temporal wrath how much more of eternal wrath which the Apostle saith is the condition of all men by nature even of the elect of God as well as of others before they are converted Ephes 2.3 We by nature were dead in trespasses and sins as well as others and children of wrath now they are said to be the children of it because they were born to it and it is their inheritance all that ever they must look for men appointed to it as a child of death is a man deserving death and appointed thereunto and as the Saints are called the children of light so are these also children of wrath so if you would ask for whom is this wrath and who according to the rules of the word are under it it is every man that is in a state of nature and a state of unregenerasy But how should a man know who it is that is in a state of nature surely a man may know if he will but behold his face in the Glass of the Word and discerne what manner of person he is James 1.24 There is a judgment that passeth upon the eternal states of men in the Word of God 1 Cor. 14.25 Ezek. 20 The man is judged of all and the secrets of his heart are made manifest and he saith that God is in you of a truth a man looking into the Word may discerne what his estate is Now first they are children of wrath that are children of disobedience Col. 3.6 for these things the wrath of God comes upon the children of disobedience John He that is born of God sinneth not non operatur peccatum he that committeth sin is the servant of sin and he that commits sin is of the Devil that is that lives and lyes in any known way of sinning that he doth reserve unto himself a sweet Morsell that he cannot cast out that the comfort of his life comes in by he eats the bread of wickedness and drinks the Wine of violence he feeds upon huskes and upon ashes Isa 44.20 over whom sin has dominion and it reigns in their mortal body and they obey it in the lust thereof and take care to make provision for 't thou art yet in my sins and not only sins of commission but sins of omission for such also this fire is prepared Depart from me you cursed into everlasting fire Mat. 25 prepared for the Devil an his Angels for I was hungry and ye gave me no meat it is not you took away my meat and naked and ye robbed me of my cloathing I was amongst you and ye put me into prison but ye did not visit me and Minister unto me c. So that even sins of omission also prove an unregenerate state and will make a man lyable unto this wrath at the coming of the Lord. Secondly The wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men Rom. 1. who withhold the truthin unrighteousness When men are convinced that such things are duties and will acknowledge them and that such things are sins and yet for some worldly ends and base respects will not forbear to practise them as many of the Pharisees were convinced that Christ was the Messiah and yet for fear of the Jews durst not confess him Joh. 12.42 that go on in sin against their own light and convictions from day to day and against many warnings and admonissions and his own remembrances of the dealings of God both with himself and others that have been engaged in sinfull courses and truly this fire will not burn hotter upon any sort of sinners in the world then they that sin against light and in this manner do withhold the truth in unrighteousness Thirdly They are asted by no other spirit but the spirit of this world for there is a double spirit that men are acted by in all their actions the Spirit of God acts some men and the spirit of the world acts others they that are regenerate have received the Spirit of Christ and where the spirit of Christ is there are all the fruits of the Spirit and the inward man is in some measure conformed unto Christ whereas other men are acted by no other rules but the custom of the world for worldly ends that look no higher then the things of this life and the things that are seen whereas a man that is regenerate has received another spirit that acts him by another rule for he is led by the Spirit and unto a higher end he looks upon the things that are not seen Fourthly 2 Cor. 4. In this are the children of God manifest and the children of the Devil he that doth not righteousness is not of God and he that loves not his brother verse the 14. We know that we are translated from death to life because we love the brethren now when a mans heart is imbittered against the Saints of the most high he doth wish evil to them and if any evil doth befall them he rejoyceth and at least if he can do no more he will inwardly please himself that they are brought low it 's an argument that thou art one of the Serpents seed and thy envy is both thy sin and thy Plague as it is the Devils I will put enmity sayes God between the seed of the Serpent and the seed of the Woman the enmity is put into the Devils Curse and if thou didst love him that did beget thou wouldst love them that are begotten of him and thou that dost hate the Image of God wheresoever it is and the more thou dost see of the Image of God in the man the more thou
dost hate him as Christ said of the Pharisees which of you can accuse me of sin I heve done many good works amongst you for which of them do you stone me so the people of God may say you cannot accuse them but for the good that they have done you for wheresoever they are they are as dew upon the Grass thou shalt be a blessing only men hate the image of God in them as it 's said of Panther animal hominibus inimicissimum it doth so hate a man that it will fly at the picture of a man so it is but a little relemblance of God that is in the best of the Saints here in this life and yet men hate God so that they cannot endure his image in any man Tert. Bonus vir Caius seius sed ideo malus quia Christianus This shews that thou art an unregenerate man a child of the Devil and not new born unto God Now thou art a child of wrath and for thee is this eternal fire prepared Secondly Mark 3.7 I would exhort you all to flee from the wrath to come it is the greatest evil that can befall a soul and therefore that which above all things else a man should fly from Fuga is conversant only about that which is evil and that which a man apprehends to be so Now the greater the evil is the more hasty is the flight Now There is no evil like to that of the wrath to come therefore let the whole soul be put out in this to fly from it as the most dreadful destruction that can befall a soul First Consider there is a possibility to escape it truly it is in vain to exhort a man to fly from that which he cannot scape as it is a vain thing for men to think to fly from death or judgment that they cannot escape it will overtake them and so for them to think to fly from any threatening in the word of God if they do continue in their sins it will certainly overtake them Did not my word overtake your Fathers says the Lord But this wrath a man may so fly from as to escape for Christ wins souls from the kingdom of Satan every day he translates them out of the kingdome of Satan which is the kingdom of darkness into the kingdome of his dear Son and it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a metaphor taken from translating a man from his native soil translating a man as you do Colonies and so many are translated dayly and they pass from death to life Oh! That the Lord would perswade you knowing the terrour of the Lord to fly from the wrath to come Christs is a kingly conquest and he has not a subject in his kingdome but he has won him from the kingdome of Satan and all that number that are called and chosen and faithful that are with the Lamb were all once in Satans kingdome and all the Saints that are or shall be in glory they were all of them children of wrath as well as thou even Abraham the Father of the faithful who together with his Father Terah and Nachor and his brother Lot Josh 24.23 all served other Gods beyond the River only God called this righteous man to his foot Isa 41.2 And therefore there is as great a possibility for thee to escape this wrath as there is for any man in the World therefore fly from it Satan never wins again any one Soul out of the kingdome of Christ for the Father that gave them to Christ is stronger then all and no man can pluck them out of his hands and he doth now win ground of the kingdome of Satan and gains souls from him every day indeed after this life Heaven and Hell sha divide the World and there is a gulph set there is no changing places if a man would come from Hell to Heaven he cannot for a mans eternal state is cast and there is no change of it unto eternity and therefore the judgment passed upon a man at the last day is called eternal judgment Heb. 6.2 because the doom and sentence that shall be passed upon a man there is for eternity and therefore make hast fly from the wrath to come delay not the time for that hastens for if death should overtake thee before thou hast made this escape thou wilt be a child of wrath and lye under wrath for ever but here there is no gulf set but there may be a translation out of darkness Secondly Consider that after this Life you shall have to do with God immediately you shall fall into the hands of the living God immediately and Gods workings by the creatures shall have an end Now we find what fearful effects of wrath have been brought forth if God do but arme the creatures against a man if the Lord do but cause Lice to seise upon Herod they devour him immediately and he gives up the ghost and if the Lord give a man up into the power of Satan to torment him at his pleasure and we see how many thousand miseries he would bring upon him as we see in his dealing with Job when yet the Lord gives him only a power over the body and estate not over his soul and his life and yet How did he lay a load upon him That his life was a burden to him and he chused to dye rather Now if God can shew forth so much wrath by a creature how much more by his own immediate hand And if God in the creatures now do chastise with Rods by his own hand he will then do it with Scorpions His little finger will be heavier than the creatures loins for as a man cannot know Love by all that is before him because all the creatures cannot convey the Love of God unto the soul as it is so a man cannot know hatred by all that is before him for all the creatures together cannot dispence unto a man the whole displeasure of God that is Gods own work therefore fly from it if we should fly from it in the stream much more in the fountain Thirdly It is done by way of revenge and therefore it must needs be dreadful for Deut. 32.31.41 He has said vengeance is mine and I will repay there shall be a just recompence of reward to every sinner Heb. 2.1.3 Now if we consider what a wrong sin is it is such an infinite evil that all the created comforts and good things of this life cannot make satisfaction for they being only created good things but sin is an act committed against an infinite and an uncreated Good and between created and uncreated finite and infinite is no proportion Rom. 7.13 Sin is out of measure sinful and therefore the wrath of God is out of measure dreadful for it must be a just revenge a full recompence Isa 27.6.7 He will punish his people in measure but he will punish his enemies without measure because it is done in justice
mercy but there is a time when the door will be past opening Mat. 25.10 Eccl. 9.20 and all mercy will be shut out for ever there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the Grave whither thou goest The day of Grace has an end but the day of wrath will never end the days of Grace may be numbred but the days of wrath shall be numberless for the Scripture doth say that if the day of Grace be once overpast it will never return again Secondly An ungodly mans hope is said in Scripture to dye with him Job 11.20 his hope is as the giving up of the Ghost He breaths out his last hope and his last breath together for when a wicked man dyes his hope perishes Pro. 11.7 but the Righteous has hope in his death his hope is a living hope and therefore it dyes not with his body Now how comes it to pass a mans hope perishes this is grounded upon the eternity that is to come for were there not an eternity a mans hope would live but at a mans death a wicked mans eternal state being cast his hope dyes because there can be no expectation of a change in all afflictions here there is hope of an end or some mitigation Zac. 9 1◠they are all prisoners of hope c. And the Lord shall say to them in that day Turn you to the strong hold c. but in Hell there is no hope of any other state no not for one moment but the torment continues to eternity Rev. 20. Thirdly Hell is called a bottomless pit Luke 8.31 And this must needs express the eternity of it out of a pit in which there is no bottom there can be no redemption but a man must sink and sinks for ever it is eternity to the bottom there are pits here in which men may be cast not only into the prison but into the Sea or into the Dungeon in the prison and yet out of all these they may be delivered by the blood of the Covenant and brought out but this bottomless pit there is no blood of the Covenant to redeem from There is a great Gulfe set that is by a divine decree stablished and fixed a mans state is set for eternity and there is no hope of a change a passage here there is from death to life but there is none hereafter for there is a great Gulse that God has set between that there can be no passage no change of a mans condition there can be no translation for judgment pronounced against a man at the last day is eternal judgment Fifthly If a man that is under this torment would come forth there be Chains cast upon him to keep him under that darkness Jude 6. so that he cannot escape as Jude sayes the Angels that kept not their first estate but left their own habitation are kept in Chains under darkness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are kept in Chains that is the Judgment of God and the power of God significat potentiam Dei quâ tanqnam vinculis aeternis nunquam solvendis Estius and it is under darkness either in Hell the darkness there or under the darkness and the guilty thoughts of their own spirits now under both these the Devils are already and this is the wrath and these are the Chains that are prepared for all the seed of the Serpent which shall torment them Sixthly This fire can never goe out because there will be for ever a supply of the fuel now if there be always combustble matter added to fire here the fire will never go out but in this there will be always a supply the fire will still have an addition of fuel and of blowing the pile thereof is fire and much wood sa 30.33 the breath of the Lord like a stream of Brimstone doth kindle it c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies not barely a stream but a torrent a flood a violent and swift-running stream from much waters and Brimstone is the most fierce burning for fire to work upon and it is most hardly quenched and a River a Torrent of Brimstone the wrath of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 burning in it the fuel is the wrath of God as a River of Brimstone burning in it as in this life the spirit of God in a work of grace is not only fire but oil it is maintained and supplied by the same grace and the same spirit and is maintained by it so after this life the spirit of God will not only be fire but a River of brimstone and their will be a dayly maintanance a continual supply of the same wrath for ever therefore that fire can never be quenched Let us now look in the grounds of this eternity and that the rather because there is a principal in the minds of men ready to tax the Lord of cruelty and injustice that he should for the sins of a few years lay upon men punishment and torment to eternity the acts transient and but for a moment that the wrath of God should be permanent and never end and therefore say they these things cannot fland with the justice of God or with his mercy therefore they conceive that men shall be but punished for a time and a time for their deliverance will come when this worm shall dye and this fire shall be quenched and some say the persons shall be destroyed and others that they be annihelated as the Socinians and divers desperate Libertines at this day that will never be perswaded that it can agree with the merciful nature of God to make creatures eternally to destroy them for a few acts of sin committed a few years here in this life and Origen was so merciful in this kind that he would have the Devil saved after some years and Hell fire to be wholly put out and Austin in his time had to do cum misericordibus quibusdam qui nolunt credere poenam sempiternam futuram c. But that men after some certain time should be delivered de civet L. 21. c. 17. Now The grounds of this eternity of wrath are these First Gods intention from eternity was to shew his wrath and to make his power known unto the vessels of wrath Rom. 9.21.22 All men are in his hand as clay in the hand of the potter and it is in his power to make them vessels of honour or dishonour Now if the Lord will shew the riches of his glory and of his mercy unto the vessels of mercy it must be to eternity and to everlasting life so if the Lord will shew forth the power of his wrath it must be to eternity for the one must answer the other and if there be eternal mercy to manifest the one there will require eternal wrath to shew forth the other for there are but two things in which the love of God is seen and in which his wrath is seen and they are things