Secondly This speaks abundance of comfort to all those whose Sins are pardon'd and they delivered from the Wrath to come Look what Spring-tides of Joy would rise in the Heart of a poor condemned Malefactor who every moment expects the stroke of Justice to cut him off to have a Pardon interpose and rescue him from Death Such yea far greater should be thy Joy who art freed meerly by a gracious Pardon from a Condemnation infinitely greater and worse than Death it self When we look into Hell and consider the Wrath that the Damned there lye under O to behold them there restlesly rolling to and fro in Chains and Flames to hear them exclaim against their own Folly and Madness and to curse Themselves and their Associates as the causes of their heavy and doleful Torments how should we rejoice that though we have been guilty of many great and heinous Sins and have ten thousand times deserved Hell and everlasting Burnings yet our good and gracious God hath freely pardon'd us our Debts and freed us from the same merited Punishments Vse 3 Thirdly This also should excite us to magnify the Love of our Lord Jesus Christ towards us who though he knew what the dreadful Wrath of God was how sore and heavy it would lye upon his Soul yet such was his infinite Compassion towards us that he willingly submitted himself to be in our stead took upon him our Nature that he might take upon him our Guilt and first made himself wretched that he might be made accursed He drank off the whole bitter Cup of his Father's Wrath at one bitter draught received the whole sting of Death into his Body at once falls and dies under the Revenges of Divine Justice only that we might be delivered from the Wrath that we had deserved but could not bear O Christian let thy Heart be inlarged with great Love and Thankfulness to thy blessed Redeemer and as he thought nothing too much to suffer for thee return him this Expression of thy Thankfulness to think nothing too much nor too hard to do or to suffer for him Vse 4 Fourthly You that go on in Sin consider what a God you have to deal withal You have not to do with Creatures but with God himself And do you not fear that increated Fire that will wrap you up in Flames of his essential Wrath and burn you for ever Consider that dreadful Expostulation that God makes Ezek. Ezek. 22.14 22.14 Can thy Heart indure or can thy Hands be strong in the Day that I shall deal with thee saith the Lord The very weakness of God is stronger than Man God can breath he can look a Man to Death Job 4.9 Job 4.9 By the Blast of God they perish and by the Breath of his Nostrils are they consumed They perish at the Rebuke of thy Countenance Psalm 80.16 Psal 80.16 O then tremble to think what a load of Wrath his heavy Hand can lay upon thee Isa 10.12 That Hand which spans the Heavens and in the Hollow of which he holds the Sea What Punishment will this great Hand of God in which his great Strength lies inflict when it shall fall upon thee in the full Power of its Might And tell me now O Sinner wouldst thou willingly fall into the Hands of this God who is thus able to crush thee to pieces yea to nothing O how shall any of us then dare who are but poor weak Potsherds of the Earth dash our selves against this Rock of Ages Indeed we can neither resist his Power nor escape his Hand and therefore since we must necessarily sooner or later fall into the Hands of God let us by true Repentance and an humble Acknowledgment of our Sins and Vileness throw our selves into his merciful Hands and then to our unspeakable Comfort we shall find that he will extend his Arm of Mercy to support us and not his Hand of Justice to crush and break us FINIS
therefore a Divine Faith must be an Assent to a Divine Testimony that is to the Word of God contained in the Holy Scriptures But now if this Faith rest only in a bare and naked Assent to the Truth of Divine Revelation it is but Historical and Dogmatical which though it be a Divine Faith in respect of the Objects believed yet is it but Humane and Natural in respect of its Principle and Motives But when this Assent to the Truths of the Scripture is joined with proportionable Affections to those Truths and doth excite us to Actions conformable to the Discoveries of the Divine Will there this Faith is Justifying and Saving And certainly this is not so very distant from Obedience as to be thought hardly reconcileable with it As for Instance A Man may give a bare Assent to this great Gospel-Truth that Jesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners and yet this Faith may not save him because it may be unoperative and pass no farther than the Act of the Understanding This is a dead Faith which can never bring any Man to Heaven yea such a Faith as the very Devils and Damned Jam. 2.19 Spirits in Hell have who believe and tremble Another Man believes the same Truth and assents to the same Proposition but this his Assent influenceth his Affections and governs his Actions in Conformity to the Nature and Consequences of such a Belief And because he is assured that Jesus Christ came into the World to be the Saviour of it therefore he loves him trusts in him relies upon him hopes in his Promises and obeys his Commands And this indeed What Saving Faith is is a true Saving Justifying Faith for Saving Faith is a firm Assent unto the Truths of God revealed in the holy Scriptures working in us proportionable Affections and Actions He who so believes the Glory of Heaven as to have his Endeavours thereby quickned to use his utmost Diligence for the obtaining of it He who so believes the Torments of Hell as thereby to be terrified from doing any thing that might expose him to so great and fearful a Condemnation He who so believes the Attributes of God as thereby to be excited to fear him for his Greatness to love him for his Goodness to imitate him in his Bounty Purity and Holiness He who so believes the All-sufficiency Merits and Mediatory Office of Jesus Christ as thereby to be engaged with all his Soul to love him to trust in him to rely upon him alone for Salvavation and to yield to him all sincere Obedience as the Law requires such an ones Faith is Saving and Justifying So that you see there is no such Discord between Faith and Works as some would imagine for that Faith that saves us must work by Love Gal. 5.6 and those Works which capacitate us for Salvation must be the Obedience of Faith Rom. 16.26 as it is called Rom. 16.26 Use Now What is the End of all this but to press you to true practical Holiness and a strict Obedience to the Commandments of God If I should go from one Person to another and ask you one by one Do you hope to be saved Where is the Man that would not testifie the Confidence of his Hopes by his Disdain at the Question Yea but remember that Salvation is a litigious Claim and you have a powerful Adversary that puts in a strong Plea against you even the Justice of God and his Eternal Wrath and Vengeance whose Title to us were it but better weighed and considered would wofully stagger the Hopes of most Men and make their Faces gather Blackness and smite their Hearts with Amazement and their Knees with Trembling In a Matter of such infinite Importance it highly concerns us to examine our Right and Title and to peruse and try our Evidences lest at the Day of Trial we be cast in our Suit and pay dreadful Damages unto the Justice of God Only those who do God's Commandments have this Right to the Tree of Life Christ hath indeed purchased Salvation for all Heb. 5.19 but he is the Author of Salvation only to those who obey him as the Author to the Hebrews speaks Heb. 2.14 And Without Holiness no Man shall ever see the Lord. The Inheritance is indeed purchased but where are your Evidences of your Heirship Sirs flatter not your selves with any vain Conceits of the Mercy of the Gospel in prejudice to the Authority of the Law The Commandments are the Statute-Law of God's Kingdom the Gospel is his Court of Chancery but neither Justice nor Equity will relieve those who have not done their utmost to observe his Statute-Law and therefore those who indulge themselves in their Sloth and wilful Neglect both of what they ought and might have done do but deceive their Souls with vain Hopes they have no Right to the Eternal Inheritance but their Portion must for ever be with Dogs and Swine without the holy City into which no unclean thing shall ever enter And if any think this Legal Preaching let mine ever be so THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST A SERMON PREACHED ON EASTER-DAY FROM ACTS II. XXIV BY EZEKIEL HOPKINS Late Lord Bishop of London-Derry LONDON Printed for Nathanael Ranew at the King's Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1691. THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST c. ACT. 2.24 Whom God hath raised up having loosed the Pains of Death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it CHristian Religion is founded upon such mysterious and supernatural Truths Introduction and the Principles of it are so paradoxal to the received Opinions of Mankind that the greatest Persecution it ever found in the World was not so much from Fire and Sword Racks and Tortures the evident Cruelties of the first Opposers of it as from the Magisterial Dictates of partial and corrupt Reason The Philosophers whom Tertullian calls the Patrons of Hereticks have established two peremptory Maxims utterly repugnant unto what the Scripture reveals to us both concerning our Happiness Comfort The one is Ex nihilo nihil habetur Out of nothing nothing can be made directly levell'd against the Creation of the World And the other is A privatione ad habitum non datur Regressus There is no Restoration of the same Being after a total Corruption and Dissolution of it which still continues a great Prejudice against the Resurrection of our Bodies which the Oracles of Reason have so much troubled the World with that whatsoever seem'd in the least contradictory to it they judged contradictory to common Sense and exploded it as ridiculous and impossible Under these great Disadvantages the Christian Religion labour'd whilst it not only own'd the Creation of the World out of nothing formerly described by Moses but more clearly and openly attested the Resurrection of the Dead which before was not either so clearly known or so clearly proved for these Doctrines were held so absurd by the great Sophisters of the
Occasion to that fond Opinion of some that Christ descended into Hell and there underwent the Pains and Penalties of that infernal Place as full Satisfaction to the Justice of God and that these were the Pains God raised or loosed him from in his Resurrection But this Conceit is erroneous and extravagant and deserves no serious Confutation especially because it plainly contradicts Christ's Consummatum est upon the Cross for when Christ had undergone his Sufferings on the Cross Joh. 18.30 he said It is finished and so gave up the Ghost If Christ therefore did undergo any farther Sufferings and Pains than those Sufferings he underwent on the Cross those Sufferings would have been so far from being compleated and finished that they would have been but the Praeludium and Beginning of his Sorrows Having loosed the Pains of Death it implies no more but that God raised Jesus Christ from Death which after many dolorous Pains he suffered It follows It was not possible he should be holden of it This is that I intend principally to insist upon and here I shall shew upon what Accounts it was altogether impossible for Christ to be detained under the Power of Death and my Arguments for the Proof hereof are these that follow Reasons why Christ could not be held under the Power of Death First It was impossible Christ should be held under the Power of Death because of that great and ineffable Mystery of the Hypostatical Union of the Divine and Humane Nature in the Person of Christ Because of the Hypostatical Vnion There are three Unions the Belief of which are the Foundation of the greatest part of the Christian Religion which are wholly beyond the reach of Reason The Mystical Union of a Believer unto Christ The Union or rather Unity of the three Glorious Persons the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost in one Nature and this Hypostatical Union of two Natures in one Person in the Mediator It is a Mystery Angels pry into and adore with Wonder and Astonishment how the Eternal only begotten Son of God should assume Flesh to himself in so close and intimate a Conjunction that though he be Eternal yet he should be born though he be Immortal yet he should truly die and though he were truly dead yet he should raise himself to Life again These are things that seem very inconsistent one with another yet they truly come to pass through this miraculous Union which transcends the Reach of Reason as far as these things do that of Nature That the same Person that is Eternal should be young yea be born in the Fulness of Time That the same Person that hath Immortality and Life dwelling in himself should also die a shameful and accursed Death That the same Person that was truly and really dead yet had a power to quicken and recover himself Joh. 10.18 And this was it which declared him to be the Son of God with Power as the Apostle speaks Rom. 1 4â— even by his Resurrection from the Dead And indeed if he had not risen from the Dead the Deity would have suffered in the Opinion of the World nor would they have believed him to be the Son of God who would suffer himself to lie under the Dominion of Death longer than the End of his Death required it And this I shall demonstrate to you by two Arguments only premising this which is a common and true Maxim among Divines That when the Natural Union between Christ's Body and Soul was dissolved yet both Soul and Body did retain the Hypostatical Union to the Divine Nature The Divine Nature was united to the Body of Christ when the Soul was separated from it I. If Christ could not have raised himself it must have been either from a Want of Power or from a Want of Will to do it He could not want Power to raise himself because he was God equal in Power and in all other Divine Attributes with the Father As the Resurrection of the Dead is not impossible to the infinite Power of God so neither can it be that that God who had a Will to assume our Flesh should want a Will to raise it up That that God who so lov'd the Humane Nature as to associate it into Oneness of Person with himself should yet suffer it to continue under the power of Death which is of all things most contrary to his natural Inclinations We see Christ in his Agony prayed most fervently that the bitter Cup might pass from him insomuch that he strained clotted Blood through him and certainly one Ingredient into that Cup was the Separation of Soul and Body by Death which is that which even innocent Nature it self abhorred as destructive to him yet having taken our Nature upon him for this very End that by Death he might destroy him that had the power of Death that is Heb. 2 14. the Devil he voluntarily submitted himself to undergo it and this End being fully accomplish'd by his Death and the Truth of his Death likewise attested by his lying three Days in the Earth it was altogether impossible that that Person who had an Abhorrence of Death and a Power to raise himself should continue longer under the Arrest and Dominion of it And this is the first Demonstration of the Necessity of the Resurrection of Christ upon the Account of both Natures in one Person As Man so he abhorred the Separation of Soul and Body as God so he was able to re-unite them So that having as Man a Desire to live and as God a Power to live it was impossible for him to be holden of Death II. Because of the Union of the Divine and Humane Nature in the Person of Christ it was impossible that his Flesh should see Corruption which yet it must certainly have done had he not been raised in a short space after his Death For since Christ's Body was not a phantastical Body as some of old held but made of true Flesh and of the same Temper and Constitution with ours it must without a Miracle have undergone such Changes after Death as ours shall do and to imagine the contrary is but to feign one Miracle to avoid the necessity of another even of the Resurrection But now it was utterly impossible that that Body that was united to both Natures by so close and unconceivable a Bond should ever see Corruption that is a Putrefaction in the Grave This the Scripture clearly asserts to us Act. 2.28 Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see Corruption And also because all Bodies that are corrupted turn into some other Thing and some other Nature according to that undoubted Maxim of the Philosophers Corruptio unius est Generatio alterius And so this horrid and blasphemous Consequence would follow that the Divine Nature of the Son of God might have been joyned to some other So that it was necessary that Christ should be
God that when Christ had satisfied his utmost Demands that any of the punishment due to our Sins for which he satisfied should have lain upon him longer for that would have been no other than punishing without an Offence Now nothing is clearer in Scripture than that Death is a punishment inflicted upon us for Sin Rom 6 23. So says the Apostle The Wages of Sin is Death And in another place and 5 1â— By Sin Death entred into the World and Death passed upon all because all have sinned From all which it follows that as Christ taking upon him our Sins became thereby liable to Death so having satisfied for our Sins and thereby freed himself from the Guilt that he lay under by Imputation he was no longer liable unto Death which is one part of the punishment he underwent so that it could not have been agreeable to infinite Justice that Christ should have been holden of Death who by his undergoing of Death hath sustained the whole Load of God's infinite Wrath and Displeasure and fully satisfied for all those Sins that were imputed to him and therefore ought in Justice to be acquitted from all Penalties and consequentially from Death Fourthly Christ could not be holden of Death because of his Mediatorship It was impossible Christ should be holden of Death in respect of his Office of Mediatorship For having as our Mediatour undertaken the desperate Service of bringing sinfull and fallen Man to Life and Happiness he must of necessity not only dye but rise again from the dead without which his Death and whatever else he did or suffered for us would have been of no avail There are two Things requisite before any real or eternal Benefit can become ours First A meritorious purchase procuring the Thing it self for us Secondly An effectual Application of that Benefit to us The Purchase of Mercy was made by the Death of Christ by which a full Price was paid down to the Justice of God But the effectual Application of Mercy is by the Life and Resurrection of Christ Wherefore if Christ had only dyed and not risen again if he had not overcome Death within its own Empire and triumph'd over the Grave in its own Territories it would have been to his Disappointment and not at all to our Salvation The Loss of Christ's Life would not have procured Life for us unless as he laid it down with Freedom so he had again restored it with Power Our hope of Salvation otherwise would have been buried in the same Grave with himself but what he died to procure he lives to confer It was Ignorance of Christ's Resurrection from the Dead Luk. 24.16 19 20 21. that so stagger'd the two Disciples going to Emaus They tell Christ himself a sad Story of one Jesus of Nazareth that was condemned and crucified who while he lived among us by his Word and Works testified himself to be the true Messiah we little thought of his Dying and when he told us of his Death he likewise foretold us of his Resurrection the third Day and behold the third Day is already come and yet is there no Appearance of this Jesus Verily we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel but now our Hopes grow faint and languish in us for certainly there can be no Redemption for Israel by him who cannot redeem himself from Death There was nothing in the World did so much prejudice the Gospel and hinder its taking place in the Hearts of Heathens in the Primitive Times as this of the Cross and Death of Christ for believing that he was lifted up upon the Cross but not believing that he was raised up from the Dead they assented to their Natural Reason which herein taught them that it was Folly to expect Life from him who could not either preserve or restore his own It is true it was Folly thus to hope but that his Life applies what his Death deserv'd and our Salvation begun on the Cross is perfected on the Throne And therefore the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 15.17 our Faith in a crucified Saviour and our Obedience to him is all vain if he had not risen again from the Dead For unless he had risen from the Dead he could not have acquitted us from the Guilt of Sin because he could not have been justified himself We are justified by the Righteousness of Christ as the Apostle speaks in his Epistle to the Romans Rom 4 25 which Righteousness he wrought out for us both by his perfect Obedience to the Law and by his Submission to the Punishment of the Law But yet this Righteousness could not have availed to our Justification had he not after the Fulfilling of it risen again from the Dead because he himself had not been justified much less could we have been justified by one who could not have justified himself And therefore we read 1 Tim. 3.16 Great is the Mystery of Godliness says the Apostle God manifested in the Flesh in his Incarnation justified in the Spirit by his Resurrection seen of Angels in his Ascension Had he not been raised and quickned by the Spirit that is by the glorious Power of his Divine Nature he had not been declared just nor could he have justified us For this Declaration that Christ was just was made upon the Resurrection of his Body from the Dead by which he was set free from all those Penalties due to our Sins that were imputed to him If therefore the Justification and Salvation of Sinners was a Design laid by the infinite Wisdom of God it must needs follow that it was impossible for Christ to be kept under Death because that would have obstructed their Justification and Salvation and so would have brought a Disappointment upon the infinite Wisdom of God which was impossible to be done and therefore consequentially Christ could not be holden of Death The Application of this great Truth shall be briefly in these following Inferences Use I First then If it was impossible for Christ not to have risen from the Dead it is evident then that Christ is the true Messiah For had he been an Impostor or False Prophet it would have been so far from an Impossibility that he should not have been raised that it would have been a very Impossibility for him to have risen again for neither could he have raised himself being a mere Man neither would God have raised him being a mere Impostor and Cheat. When therefore the Jews call'd for a Sign from Christ to prove him to be the true Messiah he gives them the Sign of his Resurrection in Matth. 12.38 39. Master Matth. 12.38 39. say they we would see a Sign from thee He answered and said unto them An evil and adulterous Generation seeketh after a Sign and there shall be no Sign given to it but the Sign of the Prophet Jonas For as Jonas was three Days and three Nights in the Whale's Belly so
Epist 22. That there are some Qui sic aliorum visiis irascuntur quasi invideant Who are so angry at other Mens Vices as if they they envied them It cannot be hoped that the Reproof of such should ever take place But when a Man of a clear and unspoted Name shall reprove the Sins and Vices of others his Rebukes carry Authority with them and if they cannot reform yet at lest must they needs daunt and silence the Offenders that they shall have nothing to reply no Subterfuges nor Evasions but they must needs be convinced that their Sins are as evil as he represents them by his own Care and Caution to be avoided Fiftly Motives for reproving our Brother The only Thing that remains is to propound to you some Motives that may quicken you to the conscientious discharge of this much neglected Duty And I shall but name some few and leave them to your consideration to be farther prest upon you And here next to the express Command of Almighty God whose Authority alone ought to prevail against all the Difficulties that we either find or fancy in the way of Obedience thereunto Consider Benefit of reproving others First the great benefit that may redound both to the Reprover and Reproved First Thou shalt hereby provide thy self a Friend that may take the same liberty to reprove thee when it shall be needful and for thy great good And it may very well be thought that the Apostle upon this Account requires us to Restore our fallen Brother Gal. 6.1 with meek Reproofs considering our selves lest we also be tempted That is that hereby we may purchase a true Friend who will be as faithful to us as we have been to him However certainly it is the best and most generous way of procuring to our selves true Love and Respect from those whom we have thus reformed Prov. 9.8 So says Solomon Rebuke a wise Man and he will love thee And in another place says he Prov. 28.23 He that Rebuketh a Man afterwards shall find more favour than be that flattereth with his Tongue Secondly Thou wilt hereby intitle thy self to that great and precious Promise Dan. 12.3 Daniel 12. That they that be wise shall shine as the Brightness of the Firmament and they that turn many to Righteousness as the Stars for ever and ever And to that other of the wise Man Prov. 24.25 To them that rebuke the Wicked shall be Delight and a good Blessing shall come upon them Thirdly Thou shalt increase thy own Graces and Comforts more than possibly thou couldst do by separating thy self from them Thy Graces will be more confirmed because reproving of others will ingage thee to a greater Watchfulness over thy self Thy Comforts also will be increased because a conscientious discharge of this Duty will be to thee a great Evidence of the integrity and sincerity of thy Heart First The practice of this Duty will be greatly profitable unto him that is reproved How knowest thou but it may be a means to turn him from his Iniquity and so thou shalt prevent a Multitude of Sins Jam. 5.20 and save a Soul from Death And hereby likewise we shall frustrate one of the great Designs and Artifices of the Devil which is to allure Men to Sin by the examples of those Wickednesses that pass uncheckt and uncontroul'd in the World Secondly Tit. 3.3 Consider that we our selves also were disobedient and foolish serving divers Lusts and Pleasures but were wrought upon either by publick or private Reproof And why then should not we use the same Charity towards others which God hath been pleased to make effectual towards us Thirdly Consider that the Text makes it an apparent sign of hating our Brother if we forbear justly to reprove him Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thy Heart 1 Joh. 3.15 thou shalt in any wise reprove him So that he who reproves not his Brother hates him Now he that hates his Brother is a Murderer says St. John And no Murderer hath Eternal Life Yea we are guilty of Soul-Murder which is so much the more heinous by how much the Soul is more precious than the Body Fourthly Consider that the performance of this Duty were it more universal would be the aptest and readiest means to prevent Schism and Division The grand pretence for Separation is the wickedness of many who are Church-Members Now our Saviour's Method is that such should be first reproved and admonish'd before they be cast out but it is a most preposterous and headlong Course that thousands in our Days take who cast themselves out of the Communion of the Church for the Sins of those who deserve to be cast out and rather than they will perform this ingrateful Work of Reproof choose to separate whereas if they would make use of our Saviour Christ's Advice Mat. 18.15 16. to reprove privately and in case of Obstinacy to convict publickly there would be as no need so no Pretence left for Separation but either their private Reproofs would prevail to reform or their publick Complaints and Accusations to remove Offenders Fifthly Consider that the neglect of this Duty brings the Sin and Guilt of others upon your own Souls See for this that Scripture Ephesians 5.11 Eph. 5.11 Have no Fellowship with the unfruitful Works of Darkness but rather reprove them If we reprove them not we are Partakers of their evil Deeds and deserve to be Partakers of their Torments FINIS The Dreadfulness of God's Wrath against Sinners explained IN SEVERAL SERMONS HEB. 10.30 31. For we know him that hath said Vengeance belongeth unto me I will recompence saith the Lord and again the Lord shall judg his People It is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the Living God THere are two principal Attributes of God An Introduction which the Scripture propounds to us as the most powerful and efficacious Motives to restrain us from Sin And they are his Mercy and his Justice Mercy tho it be a soft yet is it a strong Argument to encourage us to Purity and Holiness And therefore says the Apostle Rom. 2.4 Rom. 2.4 The Goodness of God leadeth us to Repentance And certainly that Mercy that expresseth it self so ready to pardon Sin cannot but lay a mighty Obligation upon the Ingenuity of a Christian Spirit to abstain from the commission of it He that can encourage himself in Wickedness upon the consideration of the infinite Free-Grace of God doth but spurn those very Bowels that yern towards him and strike at God with his own Golden Scepter yea he tares abroad those Wounds which were at first opened for him and casts the Blood of his Saviour back again in his Face But because Ingenuity is perisht from off the Earth and Men are generally more apt to be wrought upon by Arguments drawn from Fear than Love therefore the Scripture propounds to us the consideration of the dreadful
no small Torture to be burnt alive for Fire is a searching Thing and eats deep into the Senses but yet this kind of Death was a quick and merciful dispatch in comparison of the others Think what it is to be stretcht along and to have the sharp spikes of an Harrow tare up your Flesh and draw out your Bowels and Bones after them Or what it is to be sawn asunder in the midst and to have those small Teeth eat their way slowly thorow you while they jarr against your Bones and pull out your Nerves and Sinews thread by thread How many Deaths think you were these poor miserable Creatures compelled to suffer before they were permitted to die Yet alas these and all the witty Tortures that ever were invented by the greatest Masters of Cruelty are nothing in comparison of the Vengeance that God will take upon Sinners in Hell And therefore he says Vengeance is mine I will recompence As if he should say alas all that you can do one to another signifies nothing it is not to be called nor accounted Vengeance that is too great a Name for such poor Effects It is a Prerogative that God challengeth to himself to be the Avenger And whatever Creatures meddle with if they have not a Commission from him it is their Sin and therefore private Persons whom he hath not invested with any such Authority ought not to take upon them to avenge their own cause Or if they have a Commission yet all their execution of Vengeance is but feeble and weak We find in Ecclesiastical History that the Holy Martyrs have often mockt at all the cruel Tortures of their inraged Persecutors and God hath either taken from them all sense of their Pain or else given them in such strong Consolations that they have triumph'd and exulted in all the Extremity of them O how have they hugg'd the Stake at which they were to be burnt courted the Beasts that were to devour them and been stretched upon the Rack with as much content as formerly they have stretcht themselves upon their Beds and not so much suffered as enjoyed their Deaths God hath so mercifully taken off the Edg and Keeness of their Torments to shew that Vengeance is his Right and Due and that they are but contemptible things that one Man can inflict upon another scarce worthy to be called Vengeance And besides let it be never so sharp and cutting yet it cannot be long durable the more intolerable any Torments are the sooner do they work our escape from them And though Spite and Malice may wish the Perpetuity of our Pain yet it is not possible for mortal Men to prosecute an immortal Revenge the Death either of them or our selves will put a period to our Sufferings And what a small matter is it to undergo pain for a few days only this is not worthy to be called Vengeance nor is it like that which the great God will inflict which is both insupportable and eternal And therefore Secondly The Apostle calls it a falling into the Hands of the Living God And this denotes to us the Perpetuity and Eternity of this Vengeance God for ever lives to inflict it and Sinners shall for ever live to suffer it for they fall into his Hands God hath as it were leased out a Life to every wicked Man he hath his Term of Years set him wherein he lives to himself enjoying his Lusts and the Pleasures and Profits of this present World and all this while Vengeance intermedles but little with him but when his Life is expir'd and his Years run out he then falls into the Hands of the great Lord of all and becomes the Possession of his Vengeance and Justice for ever And then he is the Living God and such wicked Wretches must for ever live to endure the most dreadful execution of his Power and Wrath. Were there any Term or Period set to their Torments should they when they have endured them thousands of thousands of Years afterwards be annihilated the expectation of this Release at the last would give them some support yea it would be some solace to them in their Sufferings to think that at last they should be freed from them But this is the Accent of their Misery and that which makes them altogether desperate that it is for ever for ever they must lie and wallow in those Flames that shall never be quenched and shall always be bit and stung with that Worm that shall never die they are fallen into the Hands of the living God who will never let them go as long as he lives that is never to all Eternity He is a consuming Fire but yet spends not any part of his Fewel he consumes without diminishing them and destroys but yet still perpetuates their being A wise and intelligent Fire as Minutius calls him that devours the Damned but yet still repairs them and by tormenting still nourishes them for future Torments Sapiens ille ignis urit reficit carpit nutrit And when they have lain burning in this Fire all the Ages that Arithmetick can sum up Millions after Thousands and Thousands of Millions yet still it is but the beginning of their Sorrows O think with your selves how long and tedious a little time seems to you when you are in pain you complain then that Time hath leaden Feet and wish the Days and Hours would roll away faster with you and you never find them so slow paced as when they pass over a sick Bed Oh then what will it be when you shall lie sweltring under the dread Wrath and Vengeance of the living God the intolerableness of your Pain and Torment will make every Day seem an Age and every Year as long as Eternity and yet you must lie there an Eternity of those long Years Me thinks this consideration of Eternal Torments should astonish the Heart and sink the Spirits of every wicked Wretch for though they were not to be so excessively sharp as they are yet the Eternity of them is that which should make them altogether intolerable There is scarce any pain so small but it would make us desperate were we assured it would never wear off that we should never obtain any ease or freedom from it What ever Pain we suffer our usual incouragement unto Patience is that shortly it will be over But now in Hell there is no period fixt to their Torments they are all eternal and therefore whatsoever they are for the Degree and Measure of them yet are they utterly intolerable at least for their Duration and Continuance Couldst thou shove away Millions of Years with a Wish yet all this would avail nothing for there are as many Years in Eternity as there are Moments and as many Millions of Years as there are Years that is it is an infinite and boundless Duration and when thou hast struck thy Thoughts as deep into it as thou canst yet still thou art but at the top of the heap
have mention made of the Condemnatition of the Devil 1 Tim. 3.6 That is that state of Woe and Wrath to which the Devil is for ever sentenced And Damnation Mat. 23.33 How can you escape the Damnation of Hell And sometimes it is termed Judgment Heb. 10.27 Heb. 10.27 A certain fearful looking for of Judgment and Fiery Indignation And in Jude 15. Jude 15. to execute Judgment upon all the Ungodly Which denotes that their Punishment shall be inflicted upon them from God as he is a Just and Righteous Judg. And Secondly God is an Avenger as well as a Judge He is a Party concerned as having been wronged affronted and injured by their Sins And in relation to this the Punishments that God will inflict upon them are called Wrath and Fury smoaking Anger and Jealousy Deut. 29.20 Deut. 29.20 The Anger of the Lord and his Jealousy shall smoak against that Man Also Fiery Indignation Heb. Heb. 10.27 10.27 All which we find amass'd and heaped together Zeph. Zeph. 3.8 3.8 My Determination saith God is to gather the Nations to pour upon them mine Indignation even all my fierce Anger for all the Earth shall be devoured with the Fire of my Jealousy Now all these Expressions signify to us the terribleness of that Vengeance which God will take For when the Wrath of Man only stirs him up to revenge an Injury he will be sure to do it to the very utmost extremity of all his Power And if the Revenge of a poor weak Man be so dreadful a thing how insupportable will be the Vengeance of the great God who assumes it to himself as part of his Royalty Vengeance is mine See that terrible place Nah. 1.2 Nahum 1.2 God is jealous and the Lord revengeth the Lord revengeth and is furious the Lord will take Vengeance on his Adversaries and he reserveth Wrath for his Enemies God reserveth Wrath for Sinners and keeps it up in store even that Wrath which they themselves have treasured up against the Day of Wrath. Hâ—h Now this Revenging-Wrath of God hath these two things in it that justly make it dreadful First In that Revenge always aims at Satisfaction and seeks to repair Injuries received by inflicting Punishment on the Offender This gives ease to the Party grieved and if this Revenge be commensurate to the greatness of the Offence he rests satisfied in it And therefore God speaking of himself according to the Passions and Affections of Men solaces himself in the thoughts of that Vengeance he would take upon Sinners Isa Isa 1.24 1.24 Ah I will ease me of mine Adversaries I will avenge me of mine Enemies And O think how dreadful that Revenge must needs be that shall ease the Heart of God and give him satisfaction for all the heinous Provocations that Sinners have committed against him For consider First How great and manifold our Sins and Offences have been and every act of Sin yea the least that ever we committed is an infinite Debt and carries in it an infinite Guilt because committed against an infinite Majesty For all Offences take their Measures not only from the Matter of the Act but from the Person against whom they are committed As a reviling injurious Word against our Equals will but bear an Action at Law but against the Prince it is High-Treason and punishable with Death So here the least Offence against the infinite Majesty of the great God becomes it self infinite The Guilt of it is far beyond whatsoever we can possibly conceive and yet what infinite Numbers of these infinite Sins have we committed The Psalmist tells us They are more than the Hairs of our Head Psal 40.12 Psalm 40.12 Yea we may well take in all the Sands of the Sea-shore to cast them up by Our Thoughts are incessantly in Motion they keep pace with the Moments and are continually twinkling and yet Every Imagination of the Thoughts of our Hearts is evil What Multitudes of them have been grosly wicked and impious Atheistical Blasphemous Unclean Worldly and Malicious and the best of them have been very defective and far short of that Spirituality and Heavenliness that ought to give a Tincture unto them And besides the Sins of our Thoughts how deep have our Tongues set us on the score We have talkt our selves in debt to the Justice of God and with our own Breath have been blowing up our everlasting and unquenchable Fire And add to these the numberless crowd and sum of our sinful Actions wherein we have busily imployed our selves to provoke the Holy and Jealous God to Wrath and we shall find our Sins to be doubly infinite in their own particular Guilt and Demerit And now O Sinner when an angry and furious God shall come to exact from thee a full satisfaction for all these Injuries a Satisfaction in which he may eternally rest and acquiesce such as may repair and recompence his wronged Honour think sadly with thy self how infinitely dreadful this must needs be Assure thy self God will not lose by thee but will fetch his Glory out of thee and take such a Revenge upon thee as shall as much please and content him as his infinite Mercy doth in those whom he saves and glorifies And how great then must this Vengeance be Secondly Consider how dreadful a Revenge God took on his own dear Son our Lord Jesus Christ when he came to satisfy his Justice upon him for our Sins His Wrath fell infinitely heavy upon him and the pressure of it was so intollerable that it squeezed out drops of clotted Blood from him in the Garden and that sad Cry on the Cross My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And yet First Our Lord Christ was supported under all his Sufferings by the ineffable Union of the Deity He had infinite Power for him as well as against him infinite Power to bear him up as well as to crush him In Christ's Sufferings the Power of God seem'd as it were to encounter with it self and to run contrary to it self in the same Channel And as he had the support of infinite Power in his Sufferings so likewise had he in the greatest of his Angonies the Ministry of Angels to comfort him and to refresh the Droopings and Faintings of his Humane Nature And Secondly The infinite Dignity of Christ's Person being God as well as Man might well compound for the Rigour of his Punishments and stamp such a Value upon his Humiliation that less degrees of Suffering from him might be fully satisfactory For indeed it cannot be but an infinite Punishment for an infinite Person to be punished But thou that art but a vile contemptible Creature made up of Mudd and Slime hast nothing in thy Nature wherewith to satisfy the dread Justice of God but only the eternal Destruction and Perdition of it Thou hast no Worth nor Dignity the consideration whereof might perswade the Almighty to mitigate the least of his Wrath and