Use \st. Here is thunder and lightning to the wicked. God is eternal, therefore the torments of the wicked are eternal. God lives for ever; and as long as God lives he will be punishing the damned. This, methinks, should be as the handwrit- ing upon the wall, Dan. v. 6., it should make their joints to be loosed, &c. '1 he sinner takes liberty to sin ; he breaks God's laws, like a wild beast that breaks over the hedge, and leaps into forbidden pasture ; he sins with greediness, Eph. iv. 19., as if he thought he could not sin fast enough. But remember, this is one of God's names. Eter- nal ; and as long as God is eternal, he hath time enough to reckon with all his enemies. To make sinners tremble, let them think of these three things : the torments of the damned are without intermission, — without mixture, — and eternal.
1. Without intermission. Their j)ains shall be Jicute and sharj), and no rela\ati(»n ; the fire shall not be slackened or abated, Rev. xiv. 11., " They have no rest day nor night;" like one that hath his joints stretch- ed continually on the rack, and hath no ease ; therefore the wratli of God is com- pared to a stream of brimstone, Isa. xxx. 33. Why to a stream ? 1 because a stream runs without intermission ; it runs, and doth not stop ; so God's wratii runs like a stream, and pours out without any intermission. In the pains of this life, there is some abate- ment and intermission ; the fever abates,—
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OF THE ETERNITY OF GOD.
after a fit of the stone, the patient hath some ease, — but the pains of liell are in- tense and violent, in summo gradu ; the damned soul never saith, " I am now more at ease."
2. Without mixture. Hell is a place of pure justice. In this life, God in anger remembers mercy; he mixeth compassion witli suffering, Deut. xxxiii. 25. Asher's shoe was of iron, but his foot was dipt in oil. Affliction is the iron-shoe, but mercy is mixed with it ; here is the foot dipt in oil. But the torments of the damned have no mixture: Rev. xiv. 10., "The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture." No mixture of mercy. How is the cup of wrath said to be full of mixture, Ps. Ixxv. 8., " For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red ; it is full of mix- ture, and he poureth out of the same ; but the dregs thereof all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out and drink them." Yet in the Revelation it is said to be with- out mixture. It is full of mixture, that is, it is full of all the ingredients tliat may make it bitter ; the worm, — the lire,— the curse of God, — all these are bitter ingre- dients. It is a cup mixed, yet it is without mixture, viz. there shall be nothing to af- ford the least comfort, — no mixture of mercy ; so it is a cup without mixture. In the sacrifice of jealousy, Numb. v. 15., there was no oil put to it ; so, in the tor- ments of the damned, there is no oil of mercy to abate their sufferings.
3. Without cessation, eternal. The plea- sures of sin are but for a season, but the tor- ments of the wicked are for ever. Sinners have a short feast, but a long reckoning. Origen erroneously thought that after a thousand years the damned should be re- leased out of their misery : but the worm, — the fire, — the prison, — are all eternal, Rev. xiv. 11., " The smoke of their torment as- cendeth for ever and ever." PocncE gehen- nates piinlnt^ nonfinunt^ Pkospek. Eterni- ty is a sea without bottom and banks. Af- ter millions of years, there is not one mi- nute in eternity wasted ; and the damned must be ever burning, but never consum- ing,— always dying, but never dead : Rev. ix. 6., " They shall seek death, but shall