raised again before any Corruption or Putrefaction by ordinary Course of Nature siezed upon him Thus I have proved by these two Arguments that because of the Hypostatical Union of the Divine and Humane Nature of Christ in one Person it was altogether impossible he could be holden of Death Secondly Another Argument is this It was impossible Christ should be holden of Death because of God's Veracity and the Truth of those Predictions which were before made concerning Christ in those many Types and Prophesies of the Old Testament all which God's Faithfulness stood engaged to fulfil I shall only mention that famous Prediction which St. Peter here subjoins as a Proof of the Subject I am now treating upon It was not possible Act. 2 25 27. says he that Christ should be holden of Death for God saith the Apostle as David saith concerning him Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell nor suffer thine Holy One to see Corruption And this Prophesie the Apostle quotes out of the Psalmist Psal 16.10 which that it did not belong to David nor did he speak it concerning himself when he indicted that Psalm the Apostle proves Act. 2.29 30. Ver. 29 30. of this Chapter where he proves that David was dead and buried and underwent the common Lot that all other dead Bodies did putrefying and mouldering away in the Earth and therefore he was not that Holy One that should never see Corruption because that Prophecy must belong to such an one who must so taste of Death and this is clearly implied in the former Expression Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell that is in the State of the Dead for so is Hell to be understood there as I shall shew more at large Neither could it belong to any of those who before Christ were raised miraculously from the Dead and brought back out of the State of Death yet was it not in such a manner that they were not to return again to it So that if they did not in the first yet in their second Dying they saw Corruption This then could belong to none of them and therefore must of necessity belong to Christ And since the Apostle lays so much stress on this Argument give me leave a little to consider the meaning of it and how it is applicable to him And here I shall not trouble you with the various Opinions of those that have attempted to interpret these Words Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell that by this Hell into which Christ descended is meant the place of the Damned where he preached the Gospel to them freeing those that would beleive from their Pains Others think that this Hell into which Christ descended was one great Partition of it called Lymbus Patrum the Repository of the Souls of those Fathers who died in Obedience to God and in Faith to the Messias before Christ came in the Flesh And the Reason of his Descent thither was that he might release those Souls from Chains and carry them with him to Heaven so that ever since that Mansion in Hell hath been left void without any Inhabitants But this Opinion is not capable of any sufficient Proof I shall therefore give you that Interpretation and Judgment which carries with it the strongest Current both of Scripture and Reason The Word Hades that we translate Hell is very often by the Septuagint in the Old Testament used to signifie the Grave or the State of the Dead So in Gen. 44. Ishades Gen. 44 31 we translate it the Grave but it is the same Word that is used for Hell in the Text. And thus the Word is used in other places of Scripture as also in other Authors to signifie the Place and State of the Dead and of separate Souls And for the leaving the Soul of Christ in Hades or in Hell we must know that it is a thing that is not unusual in Scripture to call a Man that is dead by the Name of Soul So the Septuagint translate that place in Leviticus Levit. 21.11 They shall not be defiled with dead Souls meaning dead Carcases neither shall they go into any dead Souls the Word is dead Bodies But not to detain you any longer on this Speculation though of great use for the right understanding of this excellent place of Scripture If we take Hell for the Grave we must take the Soul for the Body Thou wilt not leave my Body in the Grave But if by Hell be here understood the State of Death that is the State of Separation of Soul and Body the Interpretation will be more easie and natural Thou wilt not leave my Soul in a State of Separation from the Body but wilt certainly unite them together again and raise me up before I shall feel Corruption Thus I have given you the Interpretation of the Prophecy of David which upon the Account of God's Truth and Veracity was to take effect in the Resurrection of our Saviour and therefore being foretold he should not see Corruption the Faithfulness of God was obliged within that time inviolably to raise him up And that is the second Reason why it was impossible Christ should be holden of Death because it was foretold of him that his Soul should not rest in Hell that is either his Body in the Grave or his Soul in a State of Separation from his Body Thirdly God's Justice would not suffer Christ to lie in the Grave Another Argument is this It was impossible Christ could be holden by Death upon the Account of God's Justice For Justice as it doth oblige to inflict Punishment upon the Guilty so also to absolve and acquit the Innocent Now though Christ knew no Sin yet was he made Sin for us that is our Sins were imputed to and charged upon him and so through a voluntary Susception and Undertaking of them he became guilty of them Hereupon Divine Justice siezed upon him as being our Surety and demanded Satisfaction from him for our Offences Now no other Satisfaction would be acceptable unto God nor commensurate to our Sins but the bearing of an infinite Load of Wrath and Vengeance which if it had been laid upon us must have been prolonged to an Eternity of Sufferings for because we are finite Creatures we cannot bear infinite Degrees of Wrath at once and therefore we must have lain under those infinite Degrees of Wrath to an infinite Duration But now Christ being God he could bear the Load of infinite Degrees of Wrath at once upon him In that one bitter Draught the whole Cup of that Fury and Wrath of God that we should have been everlastingly a drinking off by little Drops Christ drank off at once Now it is the Nature and Constitution of all Laws that when a Person by undergoing the Penalty that those Laws require hath made satisfaction for the Offence committed the Person satisfying ought to be protected as innocent It could not therefore consist with the Justice of
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
World whose Minds were too deeply tinctur'd with contrary Notions that they look'd upon the Christian Religion as a Design rather to destroy Reason than to save the Soul accounting it a very absurd thing to believe in a crucified Saviour as being a Person weak and impotent or the future Resurrection as being a thing utterly impossible We find the Apostle to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 1.24 complaining that the Greeks who were then the great Masters of Wisdom and Learning esteemed a crucified Christ Foolishness and thought those Men little befriended by Reason that would depend for Life upon one that lost his own and venture to take off the Shamefulness of the Cross or to silence those Scoffs that were cast upon them for their Credulity who affirm the wonderful Resurrection of a dead Saviour and his glorious Triumph over Death and the Grave For this seemed to them no other than to solve an Absurdity by an Impossibility and make Reason more suspicious in that they judged the Fundamentals of Reason must be overthrown to make the Fundamentals of Christianity any way tolerable or possible Wherefore we find that even at Athens that great Concourse of Wits where all the Sect of Philosophers made their common Retreat yet when St. Paul preached to them Jesus and the Resurrection this Doctrine seem'd so absurd and foolish to them and so contrary to all Principles of right Reason that they forgot that Civility that usually is found in Men of inquisitive Spirits and brake out into open Reproaches and Revilings Act. 17.18 What will this Babler say because he preached to them Jesus and the Resurrection No doubt they wanted not very specious Arguments to urge against the Resurrection of the Body As first The Impossibility of a Recollection of the dispersed Particles of Men resolved into their Elements and scatter'd by the four Winds of Heaven though it might be very well retorted on the Epicureans who disputed with St. Paul against the Resurrection that it was not so unlikely a thing that there might be a Re-union of the scatter'd Parts of the same Man as the fortuitous Concourse of Attoms at the first Making of the World yet this Objection overbore and prevaild with Heathens that when they burnt the Bodies of Christians they cast their Ashes into the Rivers to confute their Hopes of ever being raised again from whenee they should be carried away into an unknown Ocean and there be made the Sport of Winds and Waves But what our Saviour says upon the same Occasion to the Sadduces may be said unto these Men You err Matth. 22.29 not knowing the Scriptures nor the Power of God For unless their Parts could be scatter'd beyond the reach of Omnipotency unless they could be ground so small as to scape the Knowledge and Care of God who ordereth and rangeth every Mote that plays up and down in the Sun-beams this Dispersion of the Body proves not the Impossibility of their Union because the Power and Providence of God will gather up every Dust and rally them together again into the same Place and Order as now they are Objection Another Argument against the Resurrection of the Body may be the various Changes dead Bodies undergo being first turn'd into Earth that again turn'd into Grass and Herbs that becoming Nourishment for other Men or Beasts that Nourishment again passing into their Substance making a kind of Transmigration of Bodies as Pythagoras would have there was of Souls which is very evident in the Case of Anthropomorphites and Men-Eaters who have of several parts of other Men's Bodies compounded their own And so the same Question may be demanded which the Sadduces asked our Saviour concerning the seven Brethren that married the same Woman whose Wife of the seven she should be at the Resurrection So here those Parts that belonged to so many Men to which of them belong they in the Resurrection without detriment to the rest Here the same Answer occurrs that Christ gave them Matth. 22.29 You err not knowing the Scriptures nor the Power of God who is the best Judge of Property and can resolve all those Parts by which any Nourishment hath been received by any other Creatures unto their own proper Bodies again And thus it appears these Arguments against the Resurrection of the Body amount not to prove the Impossibility of the Effect but only the Supernatural Almighty Power of the Efficient Wherefore granting the Resurrection impossible according to the Original Course of Natural Things yet when an Omnipotent Arm doth interpose which gives Laws unto it who dares to say the Creature may be brought to such a State of Dissolution as may out-reach the Dominion of the Almighty Creator Upon these Grounds it is that the Apostle urgeth Act. 26.8 why it should be thought a strange and incredible thing that God should raise the Dead and in the Text that he asserts the Resurrection of Christ And to prevent any fallacious Cavils against it he shews First Division of the Words That God raised him from the Dead and therefore it was not to be accounted a thing impossible since to God nothing could imply a Contradiction Secondly He doth not only assert the Possibility but the Impossibility of his final Continuance under the Power of Death The Grave that grasps and retains all other Mortals was not able to detain him who hath Immortality and Life dwelling in himself It was not possible he should be holden of it therefore God hath raised him up loosing the Pains of Death Whom God raised up Here is the Efficient Cause of Christ's Resurrection in the concurrent Action of the whole Trinity for all that God doth out of himself is ascribed to all the Three Persons Sometimes it is ascribed to the Father Act. 3.13 15. as the Apostle speaks The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob the God of our Fathers hath glorified his Son Jesus whom ye delivered up and denied the Holy One and the Just desiring a Murtherer and killed the Prince of Life whom God hath raised from the Dead Sometimes it is ascribed to the Son who by the infinite Power of his Divinity raised up his Humane Nature from the Grave So our Saviour himself tells us I lay down my Life of my self Joh. 3.18 I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up again The same may be collected of the Holy Ghost from the Words of the Apostle Rom. 8.11 If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the Dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies by his Spirit Now if the Spirit of God can quicken our Bodies the same Spirit also can quicken the Body of Christ since it is the same Spirit that quickens both the Head and the Members Having loosed the Pains of Death In some Copies it is Having loosed the Pains of Hell which possibly gave
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
their Torture they shall feel inflicted upon them from another Fire an intelligent Everlasting and therefore an unquenchable Fire and that is God himself for so he is said to be Heb. 12. ult Heb. 12.29 Our God is a consuming Fire And though we ordinarily speak only of Hell Fire yet not only Hell but Heaven it self is full of this Fire consult that place Isa 33.14 Isa 33.14 Who among us shall dwell with the devouring Fire who among us shall dwell with everlasting Burnings Would not one think at the very first sound of the Words that the Prophet speaks only of such as should be damned of such as should be cast into Hell to remain there in everlasting Fire and Burnings And demands of them who among them could endure this No but it appears plainly that this Fire and Burning is in Heaven it self and the Prophet by putting this Question Who shall dwell with the devouring Fire and everlasting Burnings asks who shall be saved and not who shall be destroyed And therefore in the 15th Verse he tells us that he shall do it who walketh uprightly and speaketh uprightly that despiseth the gain of Oppression that shaketh his Hands from holding of Bribes that stoppeth his Ears from hearing of Blood and shutteth his Eyes from seeing of Evil. Such a one shall dwell with the devouring Fire that is he shall for ever dwell and remain with God in Heaven So that we see God is a Fire both to the Wicked and to the Godly to the Wicked he is a penetrating torturing Fire and they are combustible Matter for the Wrath and Vengeance of God to prey upon but to the Godly he is a purifying and cherishing Fire only And as Lightning doth not only cleanse and refine the Air but rends Trees and Rocks in pieces dissolves Metals and breaks thorow whatsoever opposeth it in its passage So this great and Almighty Fire only refresheth and comforteth the Godly whereas it breaks and tears the Wicked in pieces and melts them down like Wax before the scorching Heat of it And though I deny not but there may be somewhat like that which we commonly apprehend when we speak of Hell some unquenchable Flames prepared by the Wisdom and Power of God for the eternal Torment of those Wretches that shall be cast thereinto yet withal I think that their most exquisite Torments shall be from that Fire that is God himself For if we observe it it is said to be everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Matth. 25.41 Matth. 25.41 Now the Devils are spiritual Substances and flames of Fire themselves Psalm 104.4 He maketh his Angels Spirits and his Ministers that is his Ministring Spirits whether good or evil whether the Ministers of his Wrath and Vengeance or the Ministers of his Mercy He makes them Flames of Fire Psalm 104.4 They are such piercing and subtile Flames that Lightning it self is but gross and dull compared to them Yet here is a Fire that shall even torture Fire it self a Fire that shall burn those Flames of Fire and that is God who being a Spirit and the God of Spirits can easily pierce and insinuate into the very Centre of their Beings So that the Damned in Hell shall for ever find themselves burnt up with a double Fire a Material Fire suted and adapted to impress Pain and Torment upon the Body yet without wasting and consuming it And an invisible intellectual Fire that shall prey upon the Soul and fill it with unspeakable Anguish and Horror and this is no other than God himself And in this there is a true Parallel between Heaven and Hell for as in Heaven though there are many created Excellencies and Glories which contribute to the Beatitude of the Saints yet their most substantial Happiness is derived from their immediate fruition of God So likewise in Hell though there be many created and if I may so call them many invented Tortures yet the highest and most intolerable Misery of the Damned is from the immediate infliction and infusion of the Divine Wrath into them which no Creature doth or can convey to them in such a Manner and Measure as they there feel it but God himself pours the full Vials of it into their Souls And therefore as the Saints are called Vessels of Mercy Rom. 9.22 so the Wicked are called Vessels of Wrath fitted for Destruction Rom. 9.22 Such Vessels into which God will pour in of his Vengeance and fill brimm-full with his Wrath and Fury for ever The Apostle 2 Thess 1.9 speaking of wicked Men tells us 1 Thes 1.9 That they shall be punished with everlasting Destruction from the Presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his Power Where we must not think that this Phrase From the Presence of the Lord denotes only that part of their Punishment which we call poena Damni or the punishment of Loss but rather that it denotes the efficient Cause of their poena Sensus or the punishment of Sense not that their punishment shall only be to be for ever banished from his Presence but that this Presence shall be active in inflicting Punishments upon them and we may well read it thus They shall be punished with everlasting Destruction by the Presence of the Lord and by the Glory of his Power For as God's glorious Power is effective of their Destruction so also is his Presence the dread Presence of that consuming and tormenting Fire And thus much briefly for the first Thing observable in the Text namely God's appropriating Vengeance unto himself Vengeance belongeth unto me and it is a falling into the Hands of the Living God I come now to the second Thing observable in the Words and that is the dreadfulness of this Vengeance inferred from the consideration of the Author and Inflicter of it for because it is Divine Vengeance and a falling into the Hands of the living God therefore it must needs be very terrible And here I shall first take notice of those Expressions that my Text affords to set forth the Terrour of this Wrath. And then consider other Demonstrations of it And here First Consider that all other Vengeance is as nothing in comparison of that which God takes on a damned Soul You may possibly have heard of strange and horrid Revenges that some cruel Men have carved out unto themselves putting those that have offended them to such Tortures as were altogether unfit for Men either to inflict or suffer All Histories abound with such Barbarities I am loth to offend your Ears so much as to recount them let us only take an estimate by the dreadful Revenge that David took on the Ammonites 2 Sam. 12. last 2 Samuel 12. last where it is said He put them under Saws and Harrows of Iron and made them pass thorow the Brick-Kilns And all this Severity if not to say Cruelty was to revenge the insolent Affront done to his Embassadours It is doubtless
and it is still a whole Eternity to the bottom Thirdly Consider also that the Wrath and Vengeance of God is most dreadful not only from the Eternal Continuance and Duration thereof but also from the excessive Anguish and Smart of those Torments that he inflicts nothing that we have ever felt or can feel in this present Life can come into any comparison with them and therefore the Text calls it A falling into the Hands of God Here on Earth God's Hand doth sometimes fall upon us and it falls very heavy too and lays upon us fore and weighty Burthens but these are nothing considerable to our falling into the Hands of God There is as much difference between his Wrath and Displeasure falling upon us and our falling upon it as there is between our having a few drops of a Showre falling upon us and our falling into a River or into the Sea and being overwhelmed with the great Waters thereof and yet how dreadful is it when God's Hand only falls upon us It was a sad Complaint of the Psalmist Psalm 32.4 That God's Hand lay heavy upon him And Psalm 38.2 That God's Hand prest him sore Grievous Burthens and sore Pressures may be laid upon us by this Hand of God and that both as to outward Afflictions and inward Troubles First As to outward Afflictions How dreadfully doth God stretch out his Hand against some making wide and terrible Breaches upon them Some in their Estates some in their Relations and some in their bodily Health and Strength Have you never been about the sick Beds of those that have roared out through the extremity of their Pains when every Limb hath been upon the Rack and God hath filled them with a Complication of loathsom tormenting and incurable Diseases and yet all this is but only a falling of God's Hand upon them Secondly As to inward Troubles We see how God cramps some Mens Consciences breaths Fire and Flames into their very Souls and makes deep Wounds in their Spirits forcing them thorow the extremity of their Anguish to cry out they are damn'd they are damn'd yea some have even wisht that they were in Hell supposing those everlasting Torments would not be more unsufferable than what they here felt And indeed these inward Troubles are far more grievous than any outward can be We hear Heman crying out that because of these Terrours of the Lord he was ready to die fron his Youth up And whilst he suffered this Wrath of God he was even distracted with it Psal 88.15 Psalm 88.15 And Job whose Patience is celebrated for bearing all his outward Afflictions his loss of Estate of his Children of his Health with an heroick Constancy You have heard says St. James of the Patience of Job yet when God comes to touch his Spirit with his Wrath then we hear of his Impatience he curseth the Day of his Birth and wishes that God would destroy him that he would let loose his Hand and cut him off Job 6.9 Job 6.9 And wherefore are these passionate Requests why he tell us Ver. 4. The Arrows of the Almighty are within me the Poison whereof drinketh up my Spirit The Terrors of God do set themselves in array against me And therefore though he could patiently bear all that the rage and spite of the Devil could do against him when he toucht his Wealth when he toucht his Children yea when he toucht his Body yet his Patience could no longer hold out when God came to touch his Soul and Conscience And yet the greatest Terrors of Conscience whether in the Children of God to their Reformation or in the Wicked to their Desperation are still but light and small touches of his Hand in comparison with what shall be exprest hereafter on the Damned in Hell For First To the Godly all these Afflictions are mixed with Love and Mercy They are brought upon them not as Plagues but as Medicaments to do them good But in Hell all is Wrath all is Fury pure Wrath and Judgment without Mercy And certainly if those Sufferings which are inflicted in Love and allay'd with Mercy are yet so very dreadful to the People of God how dreadful will the Wrath of God be in Hell where it shall be pure and unmixed and nothing put into that Cup which the Damned are there to drink of but the rankest Venome that can be squeezed out of all the Curses that ever God hath donounced And then Secondly To the Wicked all the Troubles and Terrours which they here indure are nothing in comparison with what they must eternally suffer in Hell They are now only sprinkled with a few drops of God's Wrath but in Hell all his Waves shall go over them for ever Here they do but sip a little of that Cup and taste a little of the Froth of it and should they drink deeper Earth could not hold them but they would grow drunk and reel and stagger into Hell but there they must for ever drink the very Dregs of that Cup of Trembling and Astonishment And thou who now roarest and struglest like a wild Bull in a Net when God's Hand is only upon thee what wilt thou do when thou shalt eternally fall into his Mighty Hands Thou now cryest out of the Intolerableness of thy present Pain but alas hadst thou but felt one gripe of the Torments of the Damned in Hell had God and the Devil had but one blow apeice at thee thou wouldst choose to live for ever here on Earth in the most exquisite Torture that could be devised choose to bear the sharpest Paroxisms of the Stone or Gout to be stretcht upon the Rack to lye broke upon the Wheel to have thy Flesh pluckt off by fiery Pincers thou wouldst choose to suffer all these to all Eternity yea and choose them too as Recreations and Divertisements rather than return again to that place of Torment where not only the Eternity but the Smart and Anguish of them is infinite and unconceivable And as one Day in the Joys of Heaven is better than a thousand Days nay than a thousand Years in all the impure and low Delights of Earth So one Day in the Torments of Hell is far worse than a thousand in the sharpest Miseries we can possibly indure in this Life Here our Pains usually are but partial God aimes and shoots with his Arrow but at some one part of us If he wounds our Spirits yet this invisible Shaft like Lightning passeth thorow without making a Breach in our Bodies or in our 1Estates we have still our Health and our Plenty left us Or if he strike the Body usually it is but in one or at most but in some few Places and we enjoy ease in the rest But in Hell God doth as it were wrap the whole Man up in Searcloth and set it on fire round about them so that they are tormented in every part neither Soul nor Body escaping nor any Power or Faculty of the one
nor any Part or Member of the other When we fall into the Hands of God we are plunged into an Ocean of Wrath and are covered all over with his Fury and Indignation the Understanding Will Conscience Affections are all as brim-full of Torments as they can hold For what can be greater Anguish to the Mind than to know our Misery and to know it to be remediless And what can be greater Anguish to the Will and Affections than most ardently and vehemently to desire freedom from those Torments but yet to dispair of ever obtaining it And what can fill the Conscience with greater Anguish than to reflect with infinite Horrour and Regret that it was only Sinners own Folly and Madness that brought them to this woful and miserable Condition How will they be ready even to rend and tear themselves in pieces their Consciences curse their Wills and their Wills curse their Affections and their Affections the Objects that enticed them to the commission of those Sins the Revenges of which they must now eternally suffer And as for the Bodies of these Damned Souls they shall after the Resurrection and dreadful Day of Judgment become all Fire like a live Coal Fire shall be imbibed into the very Substance of them and they not have so much as a drop of Water afforded them to cool the tip of their Tongues Luke 16. Every Limb shall drop whole flakes of Fire and Brimstone and they shall be so scourged with knotted and twisted Serpents as to be made all over one great fiery Wound and Ulcer And this is a third Consideration of the dreadfulness of everlasting Vengeance It is a falling into God's Hands Fourthly Consider it is a falling into the Hands of the Living God himself and not of any Creature 2 Sam. 24.14 Indeed we read in 2 Sam. 24.14 that David chose rather to fall into the Hands of the Lord than into the Hands of Men. It is true when there is true Repentance and hopes of obtaining Mercy this is far more eligible for the Chastisements of the Lord are full of Mercy but the tender Mercies of the wicked are cruel But where all hopes and expectations of Mercy are excluded as they are in Hell certainly there it is infinitely more dreadful to fall into the Hands of a Sin-revenging-God than into the Hands of all the Creatures in Heaven or Earth yea or Hell it self One would have thought it had been terrible enough if the Apostle had said It is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of Devils and so indeed it were if we consider either their Power or their Malice Certainly they can easily find out such tormenting Ingredients and apply them also to such tender Parts that it would transcend the Patience of any Man on Earth quietly to bear but what one Devil can inflict Do we not often see in the Illusions of black and sooty Melancholy what strange Fears and Terrors they can imprint upon the Fancy what Horrour and Despair they can work in the Conscience so as to make Men weary of their Lives and many times perswade them to destroy themselves only to know the worst of what they must suffer And all this he can do out of his own Kingdom what then can he do when he hath got Sinners into his own Territories and under his own Dominions What exact Tortures can he inflict upon them there such indeed as we cannot tell what they are and may it please God we never may And yet the Devil is but a fellow-Creature but wicked Men are to fall into the Hands not of a Creature but of the great Creatour into the Hands of God himself whose Power is infinitely beyond the Devils so that he is the Tormentor even of them Think then with thy self O Sinner that if God binds and scourges and torments the very Devils who yet do so insufferably torment the Damned how infinitely intollerable then is that Wrath which God himself shall inflict upon them Consider with thy self if thou canst not bear those Pains and Torments which the Devils inflict and if the Devils cannot bear those Pains and Torments which God inflicts upon them how wilt thou then O Sinner be able to bear the immediate Wrath Fury and Vengeance of the great God himself Nay let me go yet a great deal lower and suppose that God should make use of common and ordinary Creatures for the punishment of wicked Men who is there that could bear even this If God should only keep a Man living for ever in the midst of a Furnace of gross and earthly Fire how dreadful would this be If but a Spark of Fire fall upon any part of the Body consider what an acute Pain it will cause much more if thy whole Man should be all over on a light Flame and thou for ever kept alive to feel the piercing Torment of it And yet what is our dull unactive Fire in comparison of that pure intelligent Fire which shall melt down the Damned like Wax and lick up the very Spirits of their Souls Or suppose God who knows the several Stings that are in all his Creatures should take out of them the most sharp Ingredients and from them all make up a most tormenting Composition if he should take Poison and Venome out of one and Fire and Scorching out of another and Smart and Stinging out of a third and the Quintessence of Bitterness out of a fourth and by his infinite Skill heighten all these to a preternatural Acrimony if now God should apply this Composition thus fatally mixed and blended together unto any of us what an intollerable Anguish would it cause in us And if Creatures can cause such Tortures what a dreadful thing then is it to fall into the Hands of God himself For when God conveys his Wrath to us by Creatures it must needs lose infinitely in the very Conveyance When God takes up one Creature to strike another it is but as if a Gyant should take up a Straw or Feather to strike with for though he be never so strong yet the Blow can be but weak because of the weakness of the Instrument and yet alas how terrible are even such weak Blows to us What will it then be when God shall immediately crush us by the unrebated strokes of his own Almighty Arm and shall express the Power of his Wrath and the Glory of his Justice and Severity in our eternal Destruction And this is the fourth Demonstration of the dreadfulness of Divine Vengeance Fifthly Consider that the Apostle calls this Wrath which the living God will inflict upon Sinners by the Name of Vengeance Vengeance is mine I will recompence it Now Vengeance when it is whet and sharpned by Wrath will enter deep and cut the Soul to the very Quick God acts a two-fold part in the punishment of Sinners First of a Judge In relation to which their Eternal Torments are sometimes called Condemnation so 1 Tim. 3.6 we
Misery wherein Horrour Despair and Torture for ever dwell and are in their most proper Seat and Habitation It is called a drowning of Men in Destruction and Perdition 1 Timothy 6.9 One would think that to be drowned might signify Death enough of it self but to be drowned in Perdition and Destruction signifies moreover the fatalness and the depth of that Death into which they are plunged It is called a being cast bound Hand and Foot into utter Darkness Mat. 22.13 Matth. 22.13 A being thrown into a Furnace of Fire to be burnt alive Matth. 13.42 50. It is called a Lake of Fire Rev. 20.15 Rev. 20.15 into which wicked Men shall be plunged all over where they shall lye wallowing and rowling among Millions of damned Spirits in those infernal Flames And this Lake is continually fed with a sulphurous stream of Brimstone Rev. 19.20 And this Fire and Brimstone is that which never shall be quenched Mat. 3.12 Matth. 3.12 He will burn up the Chaff with unquenchable Fire And lastly to name no more it is called everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Matth. 25.41 Mat. 25.41 And now we are arrived at the highest pitch of what Sence can feel or Imagination conceive Or if it be possible that in your deepest Thoughts you can conceive any thing more dreadful than this you may call it a Sea of molten Brimstone set all on fire and continually spewing out sooty dark Flames wherein endless Multitudes of sinful Wretches must lye tumbling to all Eternity burnt up with the fierceness of a tormenting and devouring Fire scourged with Scorpions stung with fiery Serpents howling and roaring incessantly and none to pity much less to relieve and help them grinding and gnashing their Teeth through the extremity of their Anguish and Torture If now you can fancy any thing more terrible and dreadful than this Hell is that yea and much more For these things are Metaphorical and though I cannot deny but some of these may be properly and litterally true yet the litteral sense of these Metaphors do but faintly and weakly shew us what the least part of those everlasting Torments are Secondly Another Demonstration of the dreadfulness of this Vengeance is this That it is a Wrath that shall come up unto and equal all our Fears You know what an inventive and ingenious thing Fear is what horrid Shapes it can fancy to it self out of every thing Put but an active Fancy into an Affright and presently the whole World will be filled with strange Monsters and hideous Apparitions The very shaking of a leaf will sometimes rout all the Forces and Resolutions of Men And usually it is this wild Passion that doth inhance all other Dangers and make them seem greater and more dreadful than indeed they are But now here it is impossible for a wicked Man to fear more than he shall certainly suffer Let his Imaginations be hung round with all the dismal Shapes that ever frighted Men out of their Wits let his Fancy dip its Pencil in the deepest Melancholy that ever any Soul was besmeered with and then strive to pourtray and express the most terrible things that it can judge to be the Objects of Fear or the Instruments of Torment yet the Wrath of the great God vastly exceeds all that Fear it self can possibly represent See that strange Expression Psalm 90.11 Who knows the Power of thine Anger according to thy Fear so is thy Wrath. That is according to the fear Men have of thee as dreadful and as terrible as they can possibly apprehend thy Wrath to be so it is and much more Let the Heart of Man stretch it self to the utmost bounds of Imagination and call into its Aid all the things that ever it hath heard or seen to be dreadful let it as that Painter who to make a beautiful Piece borrowed several of the best Features from several beautiful Persons borrow all the dreadful all the direful Representations that ever it met with to make up one most terrible Idea yet the Wrath of God shall still exceed it He can execute more Wrath upon us than we can fear Some wicked Men in this Life have had a Spark of this Wrath of God fall upon their Consciences when they lye roaring out under Despair and fearful Expectations of the fiery Indignation of God to consume and devour them But alas this is nothing to what they shall hereafter feel God now doth but open to them a small chink and crevice into Hell he now doth but suffer a few small drops of his Wrath to fall upon them And if this be so sore and smart that their Fears could never think of any thing more dreadful than what they now suffer O what will it be then when he shall overwhelm them with a whole deluge of his Wrath and cause all his Waves to go over them Fear him says our Saviour who is able to destroy both Soul and Body in Hell yea I say unto you Mat. 10.28 fear him And yet when we have feared according to the utmost extent of our narrow Hearts yet still his infinite Power and Wrath is infinitely more fearful than we can fear it Thirdly Consider the principal and immediate Subject of this Wrath of God and that is the Soul and this adds much to the dreadfulness of it The acutest Torments that the Body is capable of are but dull and flat things in comparison of what the Soul can feel Now when God shall immediately with his own Hand lash the Soul that refined and spiritual Part of Man the principle of all Life and Sensation and shall draw Blood from it every Stripe how intolerable may we conceive those Pains and Tortures to be To shoot poison'd Darts into a Man's Marrow to rip up his Bowels with a Sword red hot all this is as nothing to it Think what it is to have a drop of scalding Oyl or melted Lead fall upon the Apple of your Eyes that should make them boyl and burn till they fall out of your Heads such Torment nay infinitely more than such is it to have the burning Wrath of God to fall upon the Soul We find that Spirits which are infinitely inferiour unto God can make strange Impressions upon the Souls of Men and shall not the great God much more who is the Father of Spirits Yes he can torture them by his essential Wrath. And that God who as the Prophet Nahum speaks Nahum 1.6 can melt Mountains and make Hills and Rocks flow down at his Presence can melt the Souls of the Damned like lumps of Wax for in his Displeasure he doth sometimes do it to the best of Men even in this Life Psal 22.14 Psalm 22.14 My Heart is melted like Wax in the midst of my Bowels Fourthly The Dreadfulness of this Wrath of God may be demonstrated by this That the Punishment of the Damned is reserved by God as his last Work It is a Work