^ Exod. xxiii. 32 ; xxxiv. 12. If you would see the greatness and dangerousness of this sin, then read Ezra x. and 1 Kings xi., with Exod. xxxiv. 14-16 ; Judges iii. 6-8. When Dionysius the elder, tyrant of Syracuse, asked Aristides, a Locrian, his good- will to marry his daughter, I had rather see my daughter dead, said he, than married unto a tyrant.— Plutarch in the life of Timoleon. The application is easy.
74 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII, 14.
or change often. By what hath been said, it is most evident that God would not have the holy seed to mingle or marry with the unholy. And do you think that a holy God will mingle and marry with such in heaven, that he would not have his people to mingle or marry with on earth ? Surely no. Or do you think that that God, that would not in the law have an ox and an ass plough together, that he will be yoked to such wretches, may I say to such asses, whose ungodliness hath debased them below the very ox and ass ? Isa. i. 3. Surely no.
10. The tenth and last argument to prove that without real holi- ness there is no happiness, &c., is this; tinholy persons are adjudged, doomed and sentenced to another place, viz., to hell: Ps. ix. 17, ' The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.' In the Hebrew there are two ' intos ;' * into,' ' into' hell, that is, the wicked shall be turned into the nethermost hell, into the lowest and darkest dungeon of hell : ' They shall be turned into hell,' that is, they shall be certainly turned into hell ; they shall be vehemently, forcibly turned into hell : God will, as it were with both hands, thrust them into hell.i The wicked shall from hell to judgment, and from judg- ment they shall be turned with a witness into hell. The Photinians 2 hold that there is no heU, and many now-a-days say there is no hell but what a man finds in his own conscience ; and multitudes with Caesar 3 do think that all that is spoken of hell is false and fabulous. They will not believe that there is a hell, till they come to feel them- selves in hell, till they find everlasting flames about their ears. They are sentenced to the fire, to everlasting fire, they are doomed to fire and brimstone: Mat. xxv. 41, ' Then shall he say unto them on the left hand. Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.' This terrible sentence breathes out nothing but fire and brimstone, terror and horror, dread and woa The last words that ever Christ will speak in this world, will be the most tormenting, and amazing, the most killing and damning, the most stinging and wounding. ' Depart from me ;' there is rejection : pack, begone ! get you out of my sight ! let me never see your faces more ! It was a heavy doom that was passed upon Nebuchadnezzar, that he should be driven from the society of men, and in an extremity of a sottish melancholy spend his time amongst the beasts of the field, Dan. iv. 25 ; but that was nothing to this soul-killing word, ' Depart from me ;' it was nothing to men's being cast out of the presence of Christ for ever ; the remembrance of which made one to pray thus, ' 0 Lord, deliver me at the great day from that soul-kiUing word, depart.'^ And what saith another,
' This word " depart," the goats with horror hears. But this word " come," the sheep to joy appears.'*
* Ye cursed :' there is malediction. But, Lord, if we must depart,
^ Matt. xi. 23, and xxiii. 15, 33. The Hebrew word Sheol hath several significations ; sometimes it signifies the grave, sometimes it signifies extraordinary great anguishes and distresses ; and sometimes it signifies hell or the place of the damned, as here, and as in Job xi. 8, and Prov. xv. 11.
* A sect that arose in the fourth century, founded by Photinus, bishop of Sirmium. Q.
3 Sic: perhaps Caesar is named as along with Cicero discrediting the vulgar mytho- logy of the after-state.— Q.
* Bernard in Psalm xcL » In margin the ' Sphinx' : Quarles ?— G.
HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 75
oh let us depart blessed ! No, * depart ye cursed ! ' You have cursed others, and now you shall be cursed yourselves ; you have delighted yourselves in cursing, and now you shall be cursed for ever.i You shall be cursed in your bodies and cursed in your souls ; you shall be cursed of God, and cursed of angels, and cursed of saints, and cursed of devils, and cursed of your companions, yea, you shall curse your very selves, your very souls. You loved not blessing, and therefore you shall have cursing enough : ' Depart from me, ye cursed : ' all your curses, all your maledictions shall at last recoil upon your own souls. Now thou cursest every man and thing that stands in the way of thy lusts, and that crosses thy designs : but at last all the curses of heaven and hell shall meet in their full power and force upon thee.