Homer's For my part I am apt to think that Hell is of a Vast Extent and that the bounds and limits of it are not so strict and narrow as the most imagine It may not be confined within the Air nor within a certain Cavity and Hollow under the Earth Happily it is as large and comprehensive as the whole Elementary World which that indeed it is what already hath been urged about it upon the several Opinions does in some degree Evince And it may be Hell hereafter will not be the same with that which now is Hell But secret things belong to God This for the Place of Hell and for the Kind and Nature of the Punishment which is therein It doth not only consist in Loss and Deprivation but also in Pain and Exquisite Torments For this Reason it is called Fire and the rather called so because that Hell it self is styled in the Sacred Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word deriv'd from others in the Hebrew which signifie the Valley of Hinnon a Place wherein the superstitious Israelites with an Inhumanity that cannot be expressed did offer up their Children in the Fire to Moloch Not that Infernal Fire is Material and Corporeal or that it is a Proper but only Metaphorical Fire A Fire it is but such an one as is prepared for the Devil and for his Angels which if it were Corporeal or Material since Corporeal and Material Beings act not on Incorporeal Immaterial Spirits it could not be imagined to be Again as the Worm that never dyes is Metaphorical and Figurative so is the Fire that never goeth out Besides Hell is generally called Tartarus and that as Plutarch tells us for the Coldness of it ex frigore Tartarus appellatus est Nor is this a Fancy only of Poets or of some few Philosophers 't is Scripture That in Hell is Weeping and Wailing and Gnashing of teeth and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est algentem quassari contremiscere to shake and gnash ones Teeth for cold In Plato's Hell which he describes in his Phâ—do there is both Fire and Water But though in Hell there be no Proper Fire yet since the torments in it are frequently compared to Fire and with the addition of Brimstone it must needs consist whatever some imagine in some thing equally as Dire as Insupportable as Tormenting and as Vexatious as that Which that it does we have not only Plato's Testimony but if we will believe him the common sentiment of all the World to Evince and Prove iâ— It is saith he a Common and Receiv'd Tradition that Infernal Torments are most Atrocious and Insupportable a Tradition so received in his time that he most Pathetically inveighs against the Irreclaimable Obdurateness and Obstinacy of men whom that Consideration could not awe and terrifie You may read it in his own terms in his Book of Laws Again Infernal Torments are not only most Atrocious and severe but extended both to body and soul. And it is so great Reason that the Body should as well suffer as the Soul That some have thought it not unlikely that the soul as it did not sin but in the Body so it doth not suffer but with it That 't is Soul and Body in conjunction that do make man and it is man not the Soul without the Body not the Body without the Soul but Soul and Body soder'd into one Compositum that sins and that which sins must suffer The Man sins and the man must suffer But I drive it not so far for the Soul in state of Union to the Body as it liveth in it so it acteth by it the Soul as so is Actus corporis and is nothing but what relateth to the Body and consequently all its Actions are Organical yet since it can be separated and though not as Anima yet as Ens can subsist alone without the Body It is in that Estate Responsible and just it should for what it did in the other I say just it should For the Soul it guides the Body it governs it and to use a comparison that hath had the Honour to have been a Philosophers is to it as a Rider to his Horse who though he goeth no where but where the Horse carries him and Acteth nothing but by it yet since he governs the Horse which goeth as Directed no wonder if unhors'd and on his own legs he suffer for the Trespasses he made his Horse to commit He suffers on foot for what he did on Horseback All I infer is That 't is highly Reasonable that the man who sinned with his Body should suffer in it as well as in his Soul and that 't is Just that they who were together in the Crime should also be conjoyn'd in the Punishment as indeed they shall for we must all Appear before the Iudgement seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his Body 2 Cor. 5.10 So much for the first Particular that there are Eternal and Atrocious Punishments ordained to be inflicted in the other World both on Soul and Body for the sins of Men committed in this I am now in Prosecution of the Order I proposed to my self to Evidence the Second which is That there is not any Inequality in the Punishment ordained to the sin but great Equality and Proportion Which to effect with all imaginable Evidence and clearness I will first lay down a Truth acknowledged by all that know any thing viz. That every sin is committed against God who not only is most Excellent Majesty but also Infinitely Good unto the sinner himself and consequently that 't is Infinite in Aggravation Then in the second place I will make it Evident and Undenyable that that Infinite Aggravation which is in every sin by Reason of its Object is the Bottom Ground and Foundation whereon the Perpetuity of its Punishment is Erected Thirdly I will fully prove to Obviate some exceptions which may lye before me that though Insernal Punishments be all of them Perpetual and consequently Infinite protensively and in duration yet that Intrinsecally and Subjectively they are but Finite And when I have acquitted me of what I promise you on these points then in the fourth place I shall lay before your eyes in a full and more express delineation the great Equality and Proportion between the Sin and Punishment which I will abundantly confirm by many more considerations I shall add And for the first That every Sin is committed against God who not only is most Excellent Majesty but also Infinitely Good and to the sinner himself cannot be denyed by one that Understands the Nature of sin Against thee the Royal Psalmist saith thee only have I sinned The Wrong and Injury may be against man as that of David was against Uriah but the Sinfulness therein is only against God There is in every sin a Transgression Their Transgressions in all their sins or a Breach and Violation of the Law of God
and in this the sinfulness of sin consists This importing in it Inexcusable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and contempt of God Such is the Nature and such the Object of Sin Now the Moral Evil is in any Action receives an Aggravation from the Object of it and that Relation the Offender stands in towards that for instance what is but Assault and Battery upon an Ordinary Man is Treason on the Prince To strike ones Soveraign is a Capital and hainous Crime Unexpiable but by the Blood of him that does offend in that kind when yet to give a Private Person a Blow is not so So Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any be so Hardy as to strike a Magistrate he ought not only to have Blow for Blow but to be severely Punish't Thus the Philosopher and it was one of the Laws of the Twelve Tables Re Persona Tempore Loco Atrociores injuriae judicantor That Injuries were to be esteemed to receive Aggravations by the Person offended so Labeo interprets it Persona atrocior injuria sit cum Magistratui cum Parenti Patronóve fiat The Injury is rendred more Atrocious by the Person when it is done to a Magistrate a Parent or a Patron And granting This Then How immense and infinite an aggravation must we of force Acknowledge in all sin when we consider in it that Contempt Scorn and Parvipension of God which does compose it That it is against a Majesty so Excellent and High against the King of Kings the Lord of Lords against the Heavenly Father the Great Creator the Great Benefactor him from whom the sinner hath Receiv'd his own Being and all the Goods Comforts and Advantages of it Most certain it is that those considerations in inferior Objects which scatter'd and dispersed do render Actions under greatest Guilt and aggravation are all Concentred to aggravate what ever Action man is guilty of against God For if it be an Aggravation of the Crime among men for the Subject to Affront his King for the Child his Father for the Vassal his Lord for the Obliged his Benefactor God is King is Father is Lord or Owne◠is Benefactor c. and the Sinner is his Subject his Child his Own his Obliged Yes and all the Aggravations Reflected on the faulty Action by this Transcendent Object are as much Superiour to those deriv'd from any other as those Considerations which in God are aggravating do transcend the same that are so in man As much as God himself in Excellency is above Man This King above all other Kings the Heavenly Father above an Earthly this Soveraign Benefactor above Inferiour Benefactors of so much greater Guilt and aggravation in all respects is a crime against the former than it can be against the latter The Degree of Aggravation bears Proportion to the Excellency which Effects it This the Antient Romans had some understanding of and therefore to Protect Persons invested with the Soveraign Power and Authority from all Affronts they were wont to style them Sacred to the End that by consideration of the Name and Character of God upon them Subjects Apprehending so much more Horror in the Crime might be scared from Attempting what otherwise perhaps without it they would have soon presum'd to do So Floccus Romanis Legibus cautum est saith he u◠omnes Potestatem habentes quò plus apud eos majestatis esset Sacrosancti appellarentur ut si quis quempiam in magistratu violasset Religio judicaretur By this time I make no question but a small Objection which hath ministred but too much matter of Perplexity to some will offer none to you namely that it will not follow that Sin is therefore Infinite because against an Infinite God no more than that it is Good and Iust and Holy and Omnipresent and the like because against a Good a Iust an Holy and Omnipresent God For you see I argue not the Infinity of the sin barely from that Infinity which is in God so as if this Attribute in him did Physically as some would speak and Naturally imprint its like upon the faulty Action no this Infinity in sin is not a Natural Infinity but a Moral not Infinity of Being but of Guilt and Aggravation and consequently such an one as cannot be derived but from such Considerations Moral as are able to Reflect it It is not deriv'd Physically but Morally I doubt not but you comprehend my meaning that Sin is not to be affirmed Infinite meerly because it has an Infinite and Transcendent Being for its Object For this the mentioned Objection fully evidences but because there are Perfections in the Divine Nature such as Goodness Greatness and the like that are of a Quality to Greaten the Offence and Fault against them which Perfections being Infinite do make the Aggravations they Reflect upon the crime or sin Proportionable For it is a manifest a Plain and an Infallible consequence that if a crime against obliging Goodness or the like Consideration for what is instanced in One will hold in All be great and against a greater Goodness it be a greater crime then a crime against an Infinite and inconceivable Goodness must needs be a crime of Infinite and inconceivable Guilt Ut se habet simpliciter ad simpliciter ita magis ad magis maximè ad maximè Hence it follows that no sin is small For not to stand on this Subtilty that there is a kind of Boundlesness and of Infinity in Sin Sin being in its very Nature a transgression or Excess of Bounds the Law it setteth bounds and limits unto mens Affections but sin transgresseth them I say not to stand on that Consideration the Conclusion Evidently follows from what I have already offer'd For if every Sin be Transgression and essentially imply a Violation of the Law of God a Preferring of Our Unruly Profane Unrighteous Evil Wills before His which is Holy Just and Good and consequently be an offering of Indignity and as it were affront to Him it is easie to inferr that None is small since to violate the Divine Authority and Pleasure and to despise it and contemn it for our Own cannot be imagin'd so I the rather do Enforce this great Truth because I know many Atheistically inclined who deride the Doctrine of the Fall of man occasion'd by the eating of an Apple as a senseless and absurd conceit It cannot penetrate their Understandings that a Wise and Just and Good God should conceive so great Anger and Indignation for so small and poor a thing that He should expose the First man and all Descendants from him to the danger of Eternal Ruine for no more than eating an Apple And what is an Apple to be compared with Mankind and with all its comforts In the day thou eatest thou shalt dye the death looketh better like one of Draco's Laws which for their Inhumanity were noted to be written in Blood than like a Sanction of Gods And indeed an Apple is
when the Sin for which it is inflicted is only Possible Hypothetical and on Supposition only That which would be never was in Act and it seemeth very hard and most unworthy Infinite and Soveraign Righteousness and Justice That there should be Punishment inflicted actually for sin that never was in Act. Non-entities have no Praedicates and can do Nothing if the Sin never was it can merit no Punishment 'T is â—rue the Intention of evil is sometimes Punisht where there is no evil Effect but then the Intention is the Crime In all I have said I suppose the Objection to proceed of the Event and not of the Design that the Damned would for ever sin if they liv'd for ever not that they Actually and explicitly resolv'd to sin for ever For this case is rare if possible In this the malice of the Will would be Infinite and so he that had an Actual Will or Resolve to sin for ever if he could would deserve for that to be punished for ever The will which is the Cardinal and Grand Principle of what is Moral in an Action might justly pass for the Deed. But of all the Damned few if any can be conceiv'd to have such Resolves and Intentions Nor is the second Opinion That the Damned are subject to Eternal Punishment in Hell because they sin there Eternally of more Importance than the former For though the Damned sin materially and perpetrate in Hell the same Actions some of them which they did on Earth and for which they suffer in Hell yet 't is a great Question whether they may rationally be affirmed formally to sin there since there is no Law there Hell is no part of Gods Kingdom those in it are not subjects but condemned Rebels and there is no Transgression and consequently no Sin where there is no Law Nor is their doing Actions which in themselves were sinful formerly and which perhaps are still so in Others an Argument they sin now in it For as the Beasts that are not under Law though they do the same Actions that men do yet do not sin in doing them as men sin so the Damned that do the same Actions yet being now Exiled and Banished by God from under his Protection and from his Kingdom into DUCER Darkness and consequently are no longer under the Law of his Kingdom they do not sin in what they do but suffer for what they sinn'd Hell is not a Place of Sinning but of Punishing Their Sin there is their Punishment Again a Person once condemn'd to dye for Treason cannot in our Law be Judicially called in question for any subsequent Act because he is Civiliter mortuus His former Attainder of Treason is the highest and last work of the Law in the eye of which he is Dead after that and so unable to commit offences And why after Sentence pronounced by Divine Justice on the Guilty Sinner may not he be looked on as Dead in Gods Law and as uncapable of doing any thing against it more Is not the State of Hell in Scripture call'd the Second Death But to Destroy the both Opinions at Once with one Argument Eternal Death is threatned unto men for sin in this life and the sentence of it is Pronounced on the Damn'd for this Depart from me you cursed into Everlasting Fire and why for I was an hungred and you gave me no meat I was a thirst and you gave me no Drink I was a stranger and you took me not in Naked and you cloathed me not Sick and in Prison and you visited me not Therefore Depart from me you Cursed into Everlasting Fire Now is Eternal Death be threatned unto men for sin in this Life and the Sentence of it be pronounced upon them for what they have committed here it cannot Rationally be presumed that the Everlastingness of the Punishment should not be founded on some thing in the sin already acted in the present world but only either on the Hypothetical Perpetuation of it in this or on a Fancied Continuation and Persistance in it Hereafter in the Other And having said thus much you cannot doubt of my sense of what the Learned Parker further offers out of the Schoolmen in his Treatise de Descensu which because it is a Learned Passage and one that by Representing the Variety of Opinions about the thing whereon I now discourse will also represent the Difficulty of deciding in it I shall give you entirely Atqui nostrum quòd in medio tutissimum iter est Christum nempe c. But our Opinion lyes in the middle in which it is most safe to go namely that Christ endured the very Pains of Hell as to their Substance which were due to us and yet avoided their Eternity To make this clear We Deny that Infernal Eternal Pain is absolutely due to All Sins and withal with the Schoolmen particularly with Iohanne's Scotus and with Iohannes Picus C. of Mirandula affirm that some Distinction must be made in this matter There are Three things then that ought to be considered by us in sin The first is the Aversion that is in it from God and to this the Pain of Loss which is Infinite is due forasmuch as it is the Amission of an Infinite Good The second is a Conversion to what is Perishing and Transient and to this the pain of sense is Due which is Intensively Finite Agreeably as that delight and pleasure the sinner takes therein is Finite But thirdly there is to be considered also in sin either the Continuation and Persistence of the sinner in it or his Cessation from it It is only with the first of these that Eternity of Pain doth hold proportion The second is adjusted by a but Temporal enduring of the Pain It is Objected that every sinner sins in his Eternity as Gregory speaks forasmuch as he hath cast himself upon a necessity of sinning from which he cannot possibly be Restrained by any endeavours of his own This indeed is true and therefore the Eternity of Punishment doth naturally follow their sin But yet this hinders not but that if sin be supernaturally interrupted by Repentance in that case Extremity only and not Eternity of Punishment should be the Due as which answers the greatness of the sin but finitely committed And this is that which Scotus contends for and which the Count of Mirandula demonstrates at large namely that to sin continued to Eternity both in the Guilt and Filth Eternal Punishment is due but that it is in no wise necessary nor exacted by Divine Justice that Eternal Punishment should be inflicted for sins that are not continued to Eternity but abandoned by Repentance Now things being so 't is easie for Every Body to discern how Iesus Christ endured the Pain of Hell without the Eternity especially That being remembred which we said before That He sustained not the Infernal Pains of those actually Damned but only of those that were to be so Non Damnatorum poenam
such as your own is sufficient to account to any that Reflects upon it for the Difficulty he may find his Thoughts to make to conceive it consistent with Divine Goodness That Infinite and Eternal Punishments should be inflicted on the sinner but for Temporal and Finite Transgressions But for your fuller satisfaction in the present Scruple and an Impregnable and clear Assertion of Divine Godness as well as Iustice which also is concerned from all the Ignominious Apprehensions under which they seem to lye in this Matter I shall here particularly Evidence First That it hath pleased God to order and appoint for sin Infinite or Everlasting Punishments and Torments to be inflicted Hereafter Secondly That there is not any Inequality or Improportion between the Punishment ordained and the Sin but a great Equality and Proportion Thirdly That it is a great Instance of Divine Benignity and Goodness to ordain Eternal Punishments and to threaten men with them as a suitable means in order to their Reformation in the present World and to their salvation in the future Fourthly That it being Goodness to Ordain the Punishment and to threaten men with it in order to the compassing those Good and Gracious Ends upon them It is no Want of Goodness no more than 't is Injustice to Inflict it on the Obstinate and Irreclaimable on whom these Good Designs are lost and defeated Of these in Order And First That it hath pleased God to order and appoint for sin not only Temporal and Momentany but Infinite and Eternal Punishments and that he threatens men with them is a great Truth such an One as is so fully setled in the Holy Scriptures that I Admire how any who Pretend to read these can make any Qâ—estion of it For what expression can be more significant and full than that of Iohn that the Blessed Jesus when he once hath gathered â—all his Wheat into his Granary 〈◊〉 burn up the chaffe with Unquenchable Fire Alluding in it likely unto that of Isaiah their worm shall not dye neither shall their Fire be quench'd Nor is that of Iesus Christ himself in the Form of the Sentence hereafter in the day of Judgement to be pronounced on the Wicked less Pregnant Depart from me ye Cursed into Everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels And as full as either is this of our great Apostle that the Lord Jesus shall hereafter be Revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming Fire taking Vengeance on them who know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ who saith he shall be punished with Everlasting Destruction from the Presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his Power Everlasting Destruction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same word to shew the Everlastingness of that Destruction as to shew the Everlastingness of God himself It is here 〈◊〉 Everlasting Destruction and otherwhere it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Everlasting God I know 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes used to signifie a Duration that is not Everlasting but you see it also used to signifie One that is And the Subject Matter must determine the Sense And who can once Question the Perpetuity and Everlastingness of Future Punishments that seriously considers the Greatness and Infinity of the Wrath that shall inflict them They are to be the Issues of the Utmost Wrath of God and therefore are not simply called Wrath but Wrath in the Day of Wrath Men treasuring up unto themselves infernal Torments being Affirmed in the Sacred Writings to treasure up Wrath unto themselves against the Day of Wrath. And Judge how great a Wrath that is since all Resentments in the heart of God proportion and adjust him Without Question whatever is in God is in him according to the Vastness and Capacity of God so that seeing God is absolutely Infinite in Being and also is Immutable and Unchangeable Wrath and Hatred as well as Love and Good Will as they exist in him are also so The Wrath of the King is as the Roaring of a Lion what then is the Wrath of the King of Kings It is true the Anger of Almighty God is in the present Dispensation trusted in the hands of Jesus Christ All Iudgement is committed to the Son and therefore for the present since He who hath the letting out of Wrath is partaker of the Flesh and Blood of the Brethren and so of kin to us no wonder if it be let out according to Humane Measures and with some consideration and respect for man which yet hereafter in the World to come when things shall be no longer in a Mediators hands but God himself who is inexorable and inflexible but in his Son shall immediately be All in All and do All in All is not to be presumed or hoped So that though Divine Wrath break not out on sinners altogether in this World yet in another it will There is a Day of Wrath and of the Revelation of the Righteous Judgement of God Here perhaps it may be offer'd that Jesus Christ is so invested in the Government of things that he has not only the managery of them before the day of Judgement but is also to conclude the Scene in it and consequently that the Sentence then to be pronounced since it is to be so by a man will be past on men with some allay and abatement But it must be minded that though the Son of man shall Judge the World yet that he shall come to do so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Glory of his Father or in Divine Majesty as who would say that when he Judges He will lay aside those Humane considerations and Respects he had before and as he appeared more like man in all Precedent Transactions so that He will shew himself like God in this last Beside He will immediately resign the Government assoon as he hath passed sentence and as I noted before then God shall be All in All so no Mutation no Alteration after that of States or Things I confess Philosophy as clear and quick-fighted as she was in other Articles of Christian Doctrine was but obscure and dimm in This. For though she saw a day of Judgement and Rewards and Punishments in the Future Life for whatever should be done in the Present as is evident not only in Plato both in the Story of Erus in his Rep. and in that fabulous tradition of which in Gorgias he maketh Socrates Relater but also in Plutarch in his Consolation to Apollonius and in his Golden Treatise of Divine deferring of Punishment So in Seneca in Iamblicus and in many other of the grave and antient Philosophers Yet for want of Understanding of the Interest that Jesus Christ hath in Things Now and by consequence unhappily mistaking in taking measure of the Distribution of Rewards and Punishments hereafter by what is at present She saw not their Eternity and Infinite duration For whoever readeth Plato in his Book of Laws
performed in so little a time as the offence is excepting the fourth which yieldeth every man the same measure that he meteth unto Others according to that of the Law An Eye for an Eye and a Tooth for a Tooth Indeed one may lose his eye by this Law in as small a time as he put out another mans by violence But if a man kiss another mans Wife and be therefore adjudged to be whipt is not that which he did in a moment paid for by a good deal longer sufferance Is not his short pleasure paid with a longer pain And what for Imprisonment Is every one judged to lye there no longer than he was a doing his Villany Nay that Servant who hath but violently touched his Master is by a Just Law doomed unto many years Imprisonment And as for Damages Disgraces are not many of them dateless and lasting a mans whole life wherein they bear a Proportion with the pains Eternal Thus the Father Further I propose it to the serious consideration of Intelligent and Prudent men if that Punishment how great how long soever be too great or too long which for all its greatness and for all its length is Unsufficient in the threatning of it to deterr from the sin it is the End that Measures and Proportions all the Means that lead to it and the sole Intention Design and End of God in menacing and threatning Punishment is to Deterr and fright from sin If the End be considerable enough the Punishment threatned can never be too great Besides it argues great malice when great Threatnings can't deterr However It becomes God to threaten and punish too as a God Sin is Indignity and Gods Anger is his Defence if mortal men kill the Body Temporally in their Anger it is like the Immortal God to Damn the Soul Eternally in his In fine What if in an Age wherein Hypotheses are taking I should offer this which yet what I have proposed already evinces to be more than so that perhaps the Constitution of the other World may require that what ever state is in it be Perpetual as the Make of this requires that all things in it should be Otherwise and consequently that 't is as agreeable and natural that all Punishments as well as all Rewards should be Eternal in the Future Life as that all in this should be Temporal But when I say it may be as agreeable and as natural that all Punishments in the other Life should be Eternal as that all Rewards I would not have you to conceive I think that to be a Demonstration which is generally current and passeth with the most for One namely That because the Rewards of Heaven are Eternal therefore the Punishments of Hell are also so I acknowledge that it will not follow For to do Good for so it is to Reward or to Remunerate it carries in it more Agreeabless and more Congruity to the Divine Essence and is an Emanation from it more Connatural and consequently more Free than to Punish is or to inflict Evil This being call'd his strange work which that is not It is for this Reason that God is so much more Benign and Liberal as the Holy Scriptures plainly shew us in Assigning Large Rewards than He is Severe and Rigorous in Ordaining Dreadful Punishments For if as he is said to do in the second Command He visit the Iniquity of the Fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth Generation of them that Hate him He sheweth Mercy to the thousandth of them that Love Him So wide a Difference there is The Allotment both of Rewards and Punishments depends on the Divine Will and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Lenity Moderation Propensity to Favour is the Natural Vertue of the Will And thus much by way of Demonstration of this Great Truth that there is no Inequality or Improportion in the Punishments Ordained though Endless to crimes or sins but great Equality and Proportion and that the Soveraign Rector was neither Arbitrariâ—us and Wilful nor Unjust but both Wise and Righteous in assigning them What I am next engaged to Perform is to evince him Good therein as well as Iust and that in ordaining and threatning Endless and Eternal Punishments to sin he has as much Consideration of the Humane Interest and Concern as of his Own But before I may Proceed to argue and Evince this Verity it will be necessary for a clearer and fuller stating of it to distinguish between the threatning of Eternal Punishments and the inflicting of them Which I note here because I hold my self obliged but to demonstrate now that there is Goodness in ordaining and in threatning of Eternal Punishments as hereafter I shall prove that there is great Justice and no want of Goodness in the inflicting on laying them on and those who merit them And who can question the Goodness and Benignity of God appointing and threatning unto men Eternal Punishments if he seriously consider that his doing so was absolutely necessary for the whole World to Regulate it and to keep it in order by awing mens minds and by repressing their exorbitant and wild Emotions and consequently by preparing and qualifying of them for Instruction in and for Performance of the common Offices and Duties of the humane life as well as of the divine The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom saith Solomon Knowing the Terror of the Lord we Perswade men saith the Apostle Plato in his Politicks makes the Establishment of Punishments in another Life fundamental to Government in this And even Mr. Hobbs acknowledges that the Punishment instituted before sin serveth to the Benefit of mankind because it keepeth men in peaceable and vertuous conversation by the Terror and Pythagoras knew as much for he so pressed this consideration of a Judgement and Wrath to come in order to the restraining men from Vice and to the inciting of them to Vertue that he is celebrated for it by Iamblicus as Author of the Doctrine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And he speaking of Pythagoras invented another way and method of Reclaiming men from Injustice which was to threaten them with Future Judgement to be passed on Souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He understanding it of Infinite Advantage to strike fear of wrong and Injustice c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this saith Clement of Alexandria is a Gracious Method to strike men with fear and terror that they may not sin Now no scruple can be made of This that to design the Present and the Future happiness of man is a worthy and adorable effect of infinite and transcendent Goodness and if the End be so how can the most agreeable and proper means to compass and effect it be the contrary It is the Goodness of the End that makes the means Good Certainly we ought to hold belief that God hath very much obliged and engaged us by dealing with us in a way so congruous as that of menacing
order to the stating and inlightning of the present point I will offer all my Notions and Conceptions about it under three Heads First I will endeavour to Establish this Truth That Eternal Punishments are not Inflicted but on the Obstinate and Irreclaimable Secondly I will Demonstrate that it is but just to Punish them Eternally that are Obstinate and Irreclaimable Lastly I shall evidence there is no want of Goodness in inflicting of Eternal Punishments on such So far the doing so is from being thwarting and inconsistent with it That Infernal Torments are not inflicted but on the Obstinate and Irreclaimable cannot but be manifest to all that soberly consider that the Divine Heart as well as Divine Arms are ever open to the Penitent and Converting and that the great God Resenting as he is of injuries and wrongs yet sheweth not his wrath for any but on the vessels of dishonour those whom he hath first endured with much long-suffering who notwithstanding all his Obligations on them and all his endearments Audaciously persist as long as life enables to Provoke him Can any thing be more Express or more full than is the Declaration which he makes in favour of the Penitent If the wicked will turn from All his sins that he hath committed and keep all my Statutes and do that which is Lawful and Right He shall surely live he shall not dye All his transgressions that he hath committed they shall not be mentioned unto him in his Righteousness that he hath done he shall live Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should dye faith the Lord God and not that he should return from his wayes and live Again when whensoever the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed and doth that which is Lawful and Right he shall save his soul alive because he considereth and turneth away from all his Transgressions that he hath committed He shall surely live he shall not dye So manifest it is that none Perish but the Irreclaimable and Unrepenting For this Reason as well as Others are such forlorn wretches on whom infernal Torments shall hereafter be inflicted compar'd to chaff to wild Trees to dry Trees they being so Perverse so Corrupt so desperately Overgone with Wickedness and Lusts that there is as little hope of working on them in the Methods Appointed by Divine Wisdom to that End as of converting chaff into wheat or of Receiving fair and good and pleasant fruit from a wild and crabbed Tree or from a wither'd and dry one The Chaff only shall be burned up with Fire Unquenchable And the Tree only that will not bring forth Good fruit is to be cut down And what Husband-man would not cut down a Tree that is but Cumber and Burthen to the Ground And this Re-minds me of the second thing which I propounded to be evinced namely That for God to Punish with Eternal Torment the Obstinate and Unreclaimable is so far from being Hard and Unrighteous that there is nothing more Agreeable to Justice and to the common sentiment and notion which we all have of it than This. For First If God inflict Eternal Torments on men it is but what he told them of before that he would do if they did not Reform which was fair He striketh not but after He hath threatned so that if they would themselves they might avoid the Effects of his Anger which if they do not the blame and Imputation is not to be laid on God who deplores them and who gave them warning but on themselves that would not take it On this consideration God himself insists to Justifie his dealings and when he had Accounted thus for them he upbraids the Israelites with great Injustice and Unreasonableness for not acknowledging the Equity and Righteousness of his Procedure Yet ye say the way of the Lord is not equal Hear now O house of Israel is not my way equal are not your wayes unequal When a Righteous man turneth away c. and when the wicked man turneth away Ezek. 18. 25 26 27 28 29. Again if God were Good and Wife and Just in threatning as we have evinced him he cannot be Unrighteous Evil or Unjust in inflicting it is but Vindication of his Word and what he is obliged to in point of Honour and in point of Justice to himself to make them to feel the Verity and Truth of Comminations and Threats who heretofore did mock and scorn them They who do not Reform and Convert upon the threatening of Eternal Death when God makes it do by interpretation laugh at That and dare him it is as if they should say we care not for his threats nor fear them let him that makes them do his worst And what shall God in Honour then do when he is challeng'd to do his Utmost but the Justice which he owes himself to make them feel the Dire Effects of his extream displeasure who so despis'd it and him Should he only threaten and not inflict what were his Threatnings but Ridiculous Fooleries Once Threatned He has and he will execute his Threatnings He cannot deny himself And supposing it to be a piece of high Justice to God it cannot be unjustice to the sinner to make him an Eternal Instance of Divine Displeasure for ut Verum vero sic justum justo consonat There is as great a Consonancy and Agreement in all things which are Just as there is in all things which are True What is but Just to One that cannot be Unjust and Unrighteous to Another Indeed it is the Goodness of the great God to bear with men so long and to try so many and so likely methods to reclaim them But it is but Justice when all endeavours to Reduce them become Unprofitable and vain to let Justice to himself and to the sinner take its course I say Justice to the sinner for He inflicts but what the sinner merits We have already proved an Infinity of Guilt in every Sin Finally There is so great Reason that the Obstinate and Irreclaimable should be Eternal Instances of wrath that by the Light of Nature many wise and knowing men among the Heathen thought so For Socrates Plato Plutarch and many others though as I have shewn already They held infernal Pains to be Medicinal and Purgatory and in that respect to be Finite yet they also held that Persons overgone with Wickedness and Vice who were Obstinate Perverse and Irreclaimable are given up unto ERINNYS to abide in Torments with that most Dreadful Fury for ever The crime is Great saith Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is Immedicable If sayes Plato Any for the Greatness of their Crimes do seem Incurable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Them a Iust Fate does Hurry into Tartarus or Hell from whence they never Return Thus He in Phaedo And I find the like in his Gorgias Thespesius in Plutarch reports the same So Just it
Pain him For the Form it importeth a Relation to committed sin in recompence of which and as a thing deserved the Pain or Evil is inflicted for Pain inflicted without Relation unto some Offence and Transgression may indeed be called an Affliction but to make that Pain a Punishment it must regard some Injury some wrong done for expiating which it is inflicted Thus Punishment it is Retributive and that it is so the very Terms that signifie it in the Greek do also manifestly show in which Language it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all which imply a Retribution and so the Learned Selden understood it who sayes Ex ratione essentiâ Poenae proprie dictae est ut pro peccato seu culpa aliqua impendatur c. Omnigena enim est partim Retributiva c. In this Notion Punishment is really Revenge and indeed in general is styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Revenge by Plato in Gorgias Vindicta by A. Gellius and Ulpian that great Lawyer defineth it Vindicta noxae A Vindication of received wrong For what other is Revenge than what I have described Punishment a Retribution of Evil a rendring Evil back again for evil received or a making him to suffer evil that hath first done it Only it looks in common Usage as if in some formalities they differ'd and that to make Revenge Punishment there were requir'd a Sanction of it by Law as if to render Evil where there is no Law to countenance and favour it were bare Revenge but where there is it were Punishment This I say it seems for whether any such Distinction be indeed to be allowed or not I make a great Question For as much as all Revenges antiently were called Punishments Genuine and Proper So Pausanids 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Antients were wont to call Revenges Punishments Nor is Castigation or Chastisement whatever Scaliger and others think to be excepted for as Punishment it is Retributive it looketh backward and is inflicted in the name of merit for some transgression past and consequently is Revenge though as it looketh forward to the Future and is intended to Reform the Party and to prevent his doing so again it is but a Remedy or Medicine I say it again that Castigation in the Prospect of it is not Punishment and in the Retrospect it is Revenge and so saith Selden in the place before quoted Omnigena enim est partim â—altom Retributiva tametsi simul etiam fuerit medicinalis ut in Scholis loquuntur seu emendationi sive ipsius peccantis sive aliorum adhibita Neque sanâ— Platonicum illud neminem Prudentem Punire quia Peccatum est sed ne peccetur verum satis esse potest nisi intelligas c. And from what I have already offer'd it doth evidently follow First That it is not warily expressed by you that Punishment is not inflicted to Torment the Criminal you might as well have said that Punishment is not inflicted to be Punishment it is Essential unto Punishment to be Afflictive for otherwise it could not be the issue and effect of Wrath or Anger which yet I shall evince it presently to be To vex and grieve the offender is the proper end of Anger and its proper design and it is in this as Aristotle tells us that it differs from Hatred and Malice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this brings me to the Second Consectary That all Punishment as inflicted on transgressors for Offences Pâ—stâ—iniaâ— issue and effect of Anger for what else is Anger but as Aristotle hath defin'd it and as our own Experience sensibly evinces it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Appetition in Desire of Revenge and consequently Punishment is in satisfaction and contentment to Anger Hence the Scripture Paraphrases Punishment by the letting out of wrath or Anger I know the famous Scaliger defineth Anger otherwise that it is not Appetitâ—â—s Ultionis but Depulsinis not a Desire of Revenging but â—verting Evil. A Notion not a little opposite to common sense and to be admired how possibly it could be his who was so wrathful and Vindictive a Man and when from his own experience was as capable is ever any was of knowing better But I take the Answer to him to be very Pertinent which Cardan a Scholar as Substantial and as Real and every way as great as himself has given long ago on this occasion Verum locum saith he 〈◊〉 open invenit quibas suaes ineptias dissunderet Utinam vera esseâ—t quae definit saepe anim â—â—lia quaerâ—râ— soleo que non nvenio â—piud uliquem Sed absit ut ab illo accipiam qui nec ab aliquo veterum significata haec accipit nec ostendit quod ita fiâ—â— sed vult quae simplics narrationi 〈◊〉 dictatori atquiâ—e ovacula â—â—ipiam c. Again the Sentiment of Sâ—necâ— that Noble Stoick which also Gratius owns as his That Justice is not Ira but Ratio that Justice is Reason and not Aâ—ger is alledged Aâ— if it were impossible that Justice should be Reason if it were Anger A Notion worthy only oâ— Persons who believe the Affection to be Intrinsecally evil or who understand them in their Irrationâ—â— excesses only as Seneta did when he talked so and not of those that can believe that they be natural that they are ascribed to God that under Regulations and within their Bounds they are not Evils but Perfections We may be â—ngâ—â— and not sin For my part I am with those Philosophers of whom I read in Plutarch who think that there is Reason in Passion Once Animal in man is Rationale Humane Passions Regulated and Conducted by the Mind are no Irrational Extravagancies or Emotions Opposite to Humane Reason but Vertues that partake it and in themselves Accomplishments that Integrate the Humane Nature without which it would be Lame Imperfect Defective In a word Vindictive Justice as Justice it is Reason as Vindictive it is Anger and though it be not that Anger which is excessive and extravagant a thing so far from being governed by Reason and participating of it that 't is inconsistent with it and is a Perturbation that transports a man beyond all Bounds Yet Anger it is as Anger is that Rational Inclination that a Person hath to vindicate himself for those Indignities and those Affronts that are done him In this sense all Punitive Justice is Anger and in this sense also 't is Reason so that 't is not true to say that Justice is Reason and not Anger For Punitive Justice is both it is Reason and Anger or Reasonable Anger In fine I oppose to Seneca's Authority that of Plato and of Aristotle So much in general for the Nature of Punishment Now touching the Ends of Punishment and that Division which is made thereof in reference to them I say that seeing there are several Parties in every Punishment that is Inflicted of which the One is Agent