Page images
PDF
EPUB

of Hell.

We have seen there will be a day of Fudsment, and that the Fudge will judge the world in righteoufneffe. We have feen there will be a twofold fentence pronounced by him: Of abfolution upon the Godly, Mt.25.34. Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you: Of condemnation upon the wicked, v.41. Depart from me ye curfed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his Angels. We shall therefore here fpeak of the state of the wicked, after the righteous Fudge hath pronounced the fentence of condemnation upon them and fhall fhew how their bodies and fouls being re-uxited, shall be continued in that life for ever, to undergo the punishment due unto their fins. Here three thing are to be taken into confideration,

1. The duration and continuance of their pa fons, without ever dying or being destroyed or an

nihilated.

2. The duration of their pains, without e zer bting taken off.

3. The dreadfulneffe of those infernal pains and

torments.

I. The Scripture Speaks exprefly that the wicked after the day of judgment fhall not be confumed or annihilated, but remain alive in foul and body,

[ocr errors]

to endure the torments to be inflicted upon then by the Fuftice of God, for all the fins committed by them while they were in the body The Word of God indeed (peaks of the wicked as of fuch as fhall be destroyed, and perish, and die. But we must know that a man may be faid to be deftroyed and perish, to be loft and dead, who is rejected, feparated and disjoyn'd from God the fountain of glory and bleffedneffe. And that perfon may ftill fubfift, and be what in his own na ture he was before, and live the life which doth confift in the vital union of his foul and body, and fo fubfifting undergo the wrath of God for ever. The fame Scripture which faies the wicked fhill be defroy'd, and perish and die, faies also that they shall be tormented with never-dying paines, Mat.25.41. Depart from me ye curfed (hall the Judge fay to the wicked at the last day) into verlafting fire. And leaft any fhould imagine that the fire fhall be everlasting, but not the torments; at the 46 v. it followes, and thefe hall go away into everlasting punishment. Now if he fire be everlasting by which God punisheth he damned; and the punishment inflicted be allo verlafting, then must the damned everlastingly ubfift to endure that punishment: Otherwife here will be a punishment inflicted, and none enlured; which is a contradiction. Indeed the etervity of that fire prepared for the Devil and bis Angels is a fufficient demonftration of the eternity Rr 3

[ocr errors]

of fuch as fuffer in it. And as that fire is termed eternal, To that eternity is defcribed as absolate; excluding all limits and determination. The end of the burning of fire is by extinguishing, and that fire which cannot be extinguished, can never end: But fuch is the fire which shall torment the damned. For he whole fan is in his hand, fhall burn up the chaff with unquencheable fire, Mark 3.12. Luke 3.17. And he hath told us plainly, (and thereby given us a fair warning) Mat.18.8. that it is better to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands er twe feet, to be caft into everlasting fire: (Or as it is Mark 9.43.) To go into Hell, into the fire that never fhall be quenched. And he bath farther explained himself by that unquestionable addition, and undeniable defeription of the place of torments, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And that we may be yet farther jur'd, that this fire fhall never be extinguished, weread that the (moak of their torments afcendan up for ever and ever, Rev. 14. 11. And the those who are caft into the lake of fire and brimflow. fhall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. Rev. 0.10. If therefore the fire in which the damned are to be tormented, be everlafting; fo abfolutely everlasting, that it shall neverk quenched, if fo certainly never to be quenched, tha the moak thereof shall afcend for ever and eve if thofe that are to be caft into it fhall be torment

[ocr errors]

edfor ever and ever (all which the Scriptures exprefly teach) then fhall the perfons of the damned never be destroy'd or annihilated; but fhallifubfift for ever, and be coeternal to the tormenting flames. When therefore the Scripture fpeaks, that the wicked (after the refurrection) fhall be punished with death, and that a second death, it cannot be fo understood, that they shall be no more, nor (in any fenfe) be said to live, or fubfift: For the enduring of this fire is that very death, and they are therefore faid to die the fecond death, because they endure eternal torments. He that overcometh shall not be hurt by the fecond death, Rev.2.11. It feemes they which shall die that death, fhall be hurt by it; whereas if it were annihilation, and fo a conclufion of their torments, it would be no way hurtful, or injurious, but highly beneficial to them. But the living torments are the fecond death. For Rev, 21.8, It was revealed to St. John, that the fearful and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and forcerers, and idolaters, and all liars fhall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the fe cond death. Now if to have a part in the lake be the fecond death, if that part be à perpetual continuance and permanfion in torment, (as is before proved) then to fay that the wicked fhall die the fecond death, is not a confutation of their eternal being in mifery, but an aßertion of it; because

Rr 4

because 'tis the fame thing delivered in other terms, As is well obferved by the Learned Mr. Pearfon in his Expofition of the Creed. Neither will the phrafes of perdition and deftruction inter an annihilation of the perfons of the damned, & an ending of their torments. For eternity of deftruction in the language of the Scripture, fiz nifies a perpetual perpeffion and duration in mifery. As in the 2 Thef. 1. 8,9. When Chrift fhall come to take vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, 'cis faid, they fhall be punished with everlasting de ftruction, from the prefence of the Lord, and frem the Glory of his power. Wherefore from what hath been faid, we may conclude. that the dam ned fhall continue both in foul and body under the wrath of God, and the torments proceeding from it, never to be quitted of them by annihilation. Here they might have life, but would not; there they would have death, but cannot.

II. As the damned hill alwaies be continuedin life and being, to endure the torments due to their fins, fo the Fuftice of God will never fai to inflict those torments upon thein for their fiss. The favour of God is not to be obtained, where there is no means left to obtain it; but in the world to come there is no place for Faith, not vertue in Repentance. As no perfon once received into the Heavenly manfions fhill ever b; cast into outer daɛknes, fo certainly none, who

are

« PreviousContinue »