Fire to torment an Angel 3. Let us consider other Scriptures which as I said do gather about this to give Testimony to this Interpretation First That of the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 33. 14. The Sinners in Sion are afraid fearfulness hath surprized the Hypocrites Who among us shall dwell with the devouring Fire Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings I shall afterwards have occasion to take notice of this Scripture by way of Use In the mean time observe that it is God Himself who is meant by this devouring Fire here For in a smart and quick Retortion and it is a most Elegant one the Prophet gives Answer He that walketh Righteously and speaketh Vprightly He shall dwell with Him whom you that are Hypocrites so much dread and have cause enough to do so with him shall an Vpright Man dwell Who is and will be unto you in the State you are in A Devouring Fire And thus they are reproved and taught what it is to be Hypocrites by the opposite condition of the Upright and the differing Event of being such And further that it is God Himself there the Prophet intendeth as with whom the Upright should dwell The Words following do also shew ver 16. He shall dwell on High namely with that High and lofty one that dwells in the High and Holy Place c. Do but punctually compare that Esay 57. 15. with this here likewise ver 17. Thine Eye O thou upright Soul shall see the King in his Beauty that is as Christ says the pure in Heart shall see God The result is that the same God who appears all in Flames and as a devouring Fire unto Hypocrites in Hell is all Light and Beauty to the Upright in Heaven Like as unto a sound and vigorous Eye It is a pleasant thing to behold the Sun as Solomon speaks but to sore Eyes it is a Terror Add to this Psal 21. 8 9. Thine Hand shall find out all thine Enemies thy right Hand shall find out those that hate thee Thou shalt make them as a fiery Oven in the time of thine Anger The Lord shall swallow them up in his Wrath and the Fire shall devour them This the Chaldee Paraphrast interprets of the Fire of Hell And so you have all meet to interpret this Fire to be meant of the Wrath of God himself First God a consuming Fire Heb. 12. ult Then 2. God himself to be that devouring Fire Isa 33. 14. And 3. his Wrath interpreted to be that Fire by the Psalmist And loe how these all meet in this one saying The fiery Indignation that devours the Adversaries Which the Apostle himself also interprets of God himself afterwards We know him that hath said Vengeance is mine And it is a fearful thing c. Particularly for that Scripture even now cited Isa 33. 14. If we consult the Context the occasion of bringing in that horrid out-cry who among us c. as Interpreters agree was that the Prophet had set forth in the Verses before that most wonderful and prodigious slaughter of the King of Assyria's Host when an hundred forescore and five thousand as 2 Kings 19. 15. were in one Night destroyed by an Angel And thereupon the Prophet in this Passage is to be understood either to have related what an impression of dread this so unparallel'd a Judgment had made upon and struck the Hearts of the Hypocrites in Sion with As that which had made them to cry out thereupon Oh how then shall we dwell with everlasting burnings That is with God Himself For they may well be supposed to have reasoned thus with themselves if one Angel that is but a ministring Spirit to God is able to blast and consume such a Multitude in one Night how shall we have to do with God Himself who is that infinite immense devouring Fire and all those Angels but as Sparks and his Ministers And so according to this meaning themselves are brought in speaking by the Prophet as the Men of Bethshemesh did upon the like Judgment 1 Sam. 6. 20. Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God Or else those Words may be supposed to have been the Prophets own Meditation and use of Instruction deduced from that example which he uttereth as fore-warning the Sinners in Sion to consider That if God be so terrible in the Judgments he executes by others his Angels who are Flames of Fire how will you endure to dwell with God Himself and have immediately to do with him for ever who is a devouring Fire and everlasting Burnings c. And our Saviour's Speech is not remote from this of Isaiah when speaking of Hell it is the Fire prepared for Hypocrites says he Mat. 24. 51. Even as here Isaiah professeth to speak this of and unto the Hypocrites in Sion as the Persons above all other forewarned when Hell is threatned Again as in Isaiah God himself is called the devouring and everlasting Fire so here in the Text his Wrath is termed fiery Indignation devouring And the Word translated Adversaries here falls out also to be a Word decyphering Hypocrites or false Professors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under-hand Enemies Who are also said to look for in their trembling Consciences this fiery Indignation even as of these Hypocrites Isaiah also speaks as being the expectants of Hell And again our Apostle Chap. 12. 31. Our God is a consuming Fire So as upon several accounts it is that God himself and his Wrath is more eminently that Fire in Hell the Scriptures sometimes speak of If it be objected out of my Text Is it not said He cometh in flaming Fire with 2 Thess 1. 8 9. his Mighty Angels Will he not then use corporeal Fire as also the might of his Angels and both as Instruments of his Execution and their Destruction and to that very end mentioneth the might of his Angels I answer 1. This Fire here is not mentioned as that which is the Cause of their everlasting Destruction but as that which is a concomitant of Christ's Appearing and also a fore-runner or Harbinger to that Judgment he comes to pronounce Sentence of whereof the Destruction that follows is the final Execution Judges use for terror and for a Demonstration of their Authority Work and Office they are employed in to have visible Instruments of Death carried afore them as Ensigns of their Power A company of Halberds or the like for their Guard to go before and environ them round which yet are not to be the immediate Instruments of the Execution of Malefactors it self but accompany their Persons at the Examination and Sentence * And in such an equipage the Psalmist and the Prophets set forth Gods coming to judg in particular judgments as Psal 18. and else where And as to this or the like use is this Guard of Angels and of flaming Fire mentioned to be understood to serve Both these referring evidently unto that his Appearing Who shall be revealed from Heaven with
of it For I argue asking this Question What is able to fill the Soul of Man with good or evil The Soul which was created in so large a Capacity as to be filled with God and with none but God himself He only is able to fill the vast corners of it with either Creatures like it self may afflict and torment it much especially whilst in the Body so much as to cause it to desire Death and a being out of the Body but the Soul they are never able to destroy The Soul is a Castle so strong built as it can bear the Assaults of all its fellow-Creatures and sustain it self and not sink into Destruction Nothing can destroy the well-being of the Soul but God's Power For it is said They may kill the Body but God only can kill the Soul And else according to that Argument of Christ Fear not them that can kill the body only c. they were to be feared as God himself is if they could kill the Soul as God can do For Christ says God is therefore to be feared and only to be feared because he can destroy both Body and Soul And he redoubleth it with an Emphasis Fear him yea I say unto you Fear him Luke 12. 5. Indeed one Evangelist says Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into Hell which expresseth no more but an act of Authority to sentence and cast into Hell as the Judge doth into Prison Yet the other Evangelist puts it upon this because he is able to kill the Soul and that only he is able to destroy both Body and Soul in Hell He says not barely to cast into Hell as by way of Authority but adds kills and destroys in Hell when they are cast thither For God is both Judg and Avenger And therefore if it be Destruction 't is evident He only can and must do the execution And therefore in the Text 2 Thes 1. 8 9. their being punished with everlasting Destruction is attributed to the glory of his Power These are some of the Reasons of this great Point CHAP. VII A fourth sort of additional Confirmations drawn from the Harmonies that are between it and other Divine Truths I Shall in the last place cast in some Harmonies or Congruities and Correspondencies which this holds and makes up with other Divine Truths And in such Harmonies and Concords there is much of Reason at least to confirm if not demonstrate Truths in Divinity 1. To begin where I left Hereby it comes to pass that as the Souls of Men and other Spirits were immediately made and created by God who is therefore in a peculiar respect and with an opposite distinction to the Fathers of our Bodies said to be the Father of Spirits and the God of the Spirits of all Flesh So that their last termination or end should be into and by his immediate Hands also This makes up a congruous and suitable Dispensation That look as they receive their first Being from him likewise they should return to him as Ecclesiastes speaks as to their sole and immediate Author and Creator and so receive from him as a Father of Spirits their Portion at his immediat Hands And Man 's ultimate end either way is called their Portion Psal 11. 6. Mat. 24. 51. whether it be in blessedness as their Inheritance out of his Love or Misery as the wages of their Sin And thus hereby God himself is made the end and the beginning or terminus the Alpha and Omega of Souls to whom be Glory for ever 2. Thereby also there comes to pass an answerableness and a proportion held between the two conditions of Heaven and Hell Which the Apostle seems to make the ultimate aim and determination of God's Counsels Unto which all in this World are but preparations as he calls them Thus Rom. 9. 22 23. for the shewing forth of his own immediate Glory What if God willing to shew his Wrath and to make his Power known endured with much long-suffering the Vessels of Wrath fitted to Destruction And that he might make known the riches of his Glory on the Vessels of Mercy which he had afore prepared unto Glory And thirdly also It is said that after that Christ the Judg of All hath delivered up his Administration and Kingdom unto his Father then God should become all in all 1 Cor. 15. 28. not in respect of Being that is not as if the Being of all things shall return into God again as some have wickedly dreamed Or that God's blessed Being and the Creatures should become one that can never be 'T is a contradiction to say a Creature made out of nothing should come to be of it self and such God in his Being is But all in all in respect of immediate Dispensation And so look as to the Vessels of Mercy he will then be all in all so that they shall not need the light of the Sun and the Moon c. that is the comfort of any Creature though all created Excellencies in the Spirit and quintesence of them shall be there why should it not be also meant that the same God which makes up a Parallel seeing Mens Sins deserve it shall be all in all in Hell too in a contrary way to the other 4. And the rather this may be thought because when God shall have caused this visible World to pass away the Earth and the Heavens we now behold as some judicious Divines have inclined to think from Job 14. 12. and other Scriptures either by turning them into nothing or into their first Chaos And so there being none that is of this old World left but pure Heaven and Hell which are as two spiritual Places or Worlds and therein these two sorts of Creatures rational either those who are wholly Spirits as Angels good and bad or the Spirits of Men whose Bodies are raised Spiritual and so fitted for that other kind of World both of which are capable of Happiness or Wo from him That then these two sorts of intelligent Natures God and they being left thus alone the bruitish part of the World being done away should have to do with him for ever immediately either in a way of Wrath or Blessedness And so God shall be all in all in either Worlds and this to be the final ending and Catastrophe of all But these I urge not but only mention THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN in HELL SECT II. The dreadfulness thereof argued from all and each of the Particulars treated of in the former Section HEB. 10. 31. It is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the Living God THe second thing at first propounded to be handled was the dreadfulness of this Punishment It is a fearful thing to fall into the hand of the living God Which being an inference from the foregoing words and not a simple affirmation only do come in with an amazing kind of implication wherein the Apostle leaveth it to our own Thoughts to conceive
Spirit and in the substantial Faculties of it assimulated to him made in his Image a Spirit as God is that hath an Understanding and other Faculties to receive and take in from him what he is pleased to pour forth into it by them and is accordingly more sensible thereof than the Senses of the Body are or can be supposed to be from Creatures The Prophet Nahum seems to have considered this chap. 1. v. 5 6. When setting out God's Wrath to Men in the effects of it he first considers how it works upon inanimate Creatures that are at such a distance in respect of the kind of their being from God's It kindleth a Fire says he which maketh the Hills to melt and the Eaath is burnt up at his presence yea the World and all that dwell therein which he will one day burn up with Fire Now from these the Prophet infers and raiseth up our thoughts Doth he work thus upon insensible Creatures as the Hills and the Earth and the whole World Do the Elements melt with fervent heat Are the Heavens shrivel'd up as a Scrole of Parchment afore him by the violence of that Fire which he sends forth Consider then O consider ye Sons of Men how will the Fire of his Wrath work upon your intellectual Souls And as unto this Scope and Coherence with the former I understand what follows verse 6. Who can stand afore his Indignation who can abide in the fierceness of his Anger He here turneth his Speech and applieth it to Men. For the Souls of Men being in their beings and kind nearer of kin to him Spirits as he is the great Spirit and the Father of Spirits which were made only for God and to be filled with God have accordingly a more intimate sense of his Workings on them And 't is as if he had said If then he sends forth such a Fire as melts and dissolves the Earth Mountains of Iron or Brass how much more will it be able to melt Wax And such are Mens Souls to God comparatively to other Creatures Christ speaking of his Soul when he had thus to do with God in the Day of his Anger Psal 22. 14. that Psalm was all made of him My Heart is melted like Wax it is melted in the midst of my Bowels And towards this Sence doth Sanctius seem to understand that Complaint of Job's uttered to his Friends concerning those Terrors of God which he felt within him Job 6. 4 11. verses compared Is my Strength the Strength of Stones Or is my Flesh my Nature or Constitution of Brass that I should be able to encounter with this Indignation of the Almighty Stones and Brass have no sense in them or but a dull sense if their Opinion should hold true de sensu rerum they have no Blood nor Spirits to make them sensible of these Arrows of God's Anger he had spoken of vers 4. Ay but Job meaneth to say I have a Soul made of other Metal suited to God the great Spirit whose Arrows I feel which is exquisitely sensible of all his Actings Take the Statue of a Man made of Brass or cut out of Stone and slash and cut him and he feels it not but cut the same Limbs that answer to these in a living Man made of Flesh and Blood with the same knife and what Torture is it You may see this and aggravate it to your selves by what inferior Spirits to this great Father of Spirits as Angels and Devils can work upon Man's Soul that is a Spirit like themselves being yet inferior to them When Saul had but one evil Spirit sent from the Lord how distracted and terrified was he tho in the midst of the enjoiments of a Kingdom 1 Sam. 16. 14. Also that great Apostle that had his Spirit fortified as having been newly feasted with the Joys of Heaven and that not as at a distance only but as a Spectator that stood by present there 2 Cor. 12. Yet one Angel Satan buffeting him he was so disturbed and put to it as he knew not what to do or how to bear it only God told him My Grace is sufficient for thee Well but do Mens Souls in Hell fight with Flesh and Blood yea or with Principalities and Powers chiefly No that is but whilst they are the Rulers of this World as there 't is added And yet if these Spirits have such power over our Spirits to buffet and terrify them what hath God the Father of them Again consider how the Soul is capable of more Joys and Sorrows than the Bodily Senses are and this by how much it doth exceed them in its Eminency and Capacity The Soul is able to drink up all the Pleasures the whole Creation can afford the Bodily Senses or they bring in to drink them up I say even at one Draught and yet would in the midst of it still cry Give Give Now as it is in the Body of a Man look whatever part is capable of more Pleasure it is also capable more of Pains So the Soul proportionably look how capable it is of greater Joys as it is from God it is as much of Sorrows also unto the same extention and intention of them Add II. As to this Point That as the Soul is thus vastly capable of more Sorrow and Anguish So further that these Souls to be punisht are filled with Sin and in that respect termed Vessels of Wrath fitted to Destruction Rom. 9. 22. Take a Barrel of Wood and of it self it will burn as it is Wood but if withal it be Pitcht within and full of Tar and combustible Matter it will burn more rageingly Of unfruitful Branches Apostatizing from Christ it is said John 15. 6. That they are cast into the Fire and they are burned that is they burn to purpose make a mighty Fire That Clause And they are burned is added by way of Auxesis or Emphasis else it needed not We see when Sins were but laid upon Christ by Imputation who in himself was separate from Sinners and had no Conscience of Sin how yet the Anger of God against Sin dealt with him as undertaking to be a Surety for Sin And can you drink says Christ the Cup that I am to drink of that is so as to bear it and not be overcome with it Now in Luke 23. 31. you may see how Christ infers from his Sufferings as being the Sufferings of one who had not been himself personally guilty of Sin what therefore with difference those in whom Sin is inherent must expect Weep for your selves says he for if they do those things to the green Tree what will be done in the Dry that is who are fit combustible Matter for the Fire and as the Prophet says are as Stubble fully dry Nahum 1. 10. And of the terribleness of God's Anger he had afore discoursed as was even now observed in all that Chapter Again III. In the Soul some Faculties are more capable of Anguish from his