1. First, then. Oh labour to set up God as the great object of your fear. This grand lesson Christ commands us to take out, ' Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul ; but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell ; yea, I say unto you, fear him,' Mat. x. 28. Christ doubles the precept, that it might stick with more life and power upon us, Luke xii. 5. As one fire, so one fear, drives out another. Both the punishment of loss and the punishment of sense may be the objects of a filial fear, the fear of a son, of a saint, of a soul that is espoused and married to Christ. The fear of God, and the fear of sin, will drive out the fear of death, and the fear of hell, 2 Cor. xi. 2 ; Hos. ii. 19, 20. 0 sirs, will you not fear that God that hath the keys of hell and death in his own hand, that can speak you into hell at pleasure, that can by a word of command bring you to dwell with a devouring fire, yea, to dwell with everlasting burnings ? Rev. i. 18.
Ah, friends, will you fear a burning fever, and will you not fear a burning in hell ? Will you fear when the house you live in is on fire, and when the bed you lie on is on fire, though it may be quenched, and will you not fear that fire that is unquenchable ? Isa. xxxiii. 14. When men run through the streets and cry, Fire, fire, fire ! how do your hearts quake and tremble in you'; and will you not fear the fire of hell ? will you not fear everlasting fire ? Mat. iii. 12, xxv. 41. Sir Francis Bacon, in his history of Henry the Seventh,! relates how it was a by- word of the Lord Cordes, who was a profane, popish, atheistical French lord, that he could be content to lie seven years in hell, so he might win Calais from the English ; but had this popish lord lain but seven minutes under unsupportable torments, he would quickly have re- pented of his mad bargain. It was good counsel that one of the ancients gave, Descendamus in infernum viventes, ne descendamus morientes, Let us go into hell while we are. alive, by a serious medita- tion and holy consideration, that we may not go into it when we be dead, by real miseries, [Bernard.] God can kill, and more than that, he can cast into hell. Here is both temporal and eternal destruction, both rods and scorpions. He can kill the body, and then damn both body and soul, and cast them into hell ; and therefore it becomes every one to set up God as the great object of their fear. Yea, I say unto you, fear him ; yea, I say unto you, fear him. This redoubling of the speech adds a greater enforcement to the admonition. It is like the last stroke of the hammer, that rivets and drives up all to the head. Thus David uses this ingemination, ' Thou, even thou, art to be feared,
^ As before. See Index sub nomine. — G. >
136 THAT THE TORMENTS OF HELL ARE MATCHLESS, ETC.
and who may stand in thy sight ; when thou art angry, thou canst look them to death, yea, to hell,' Ps. Ixxyi. 7. And it is worth the observing, that this ingemination and reinforcement liere annexed is to the affirmative clause, not to the negative. Oar Saviour saith not, ' Yea, I say unto you, fear not them ; ' but he places the reduplication upon the affirmative precept, ' I say unto you, fear him.' 0 sirs, tem- poral judgments are but the smoke of his anger, but in hell there are the flames of his anger. That fire burns fiercely, and there is no quenching of it Excuse me, saith the father, thou breakest i bonds and imprisonments, 0 emperor, but God's threatenings are much more terrible. He threatens hell torments and everlasting damnation ; and certainly, where there is the greatest danger, there it is fit that there should be the greatest dread. But,
2. Secondly, Then /?ee/rom ^7ie4f;ra^^ ^0 CO we. Mat. iii. 7.^ 0 sirs, that you would seriously and frequently dwell upon those short hints !
[1.] Wrath to come is the greatest lorath, it is the greatest evil that can befall a soul. ' Who knows the power of thy wrath ?' Ps. xix. 11. Wrath to come is such wrath as no man can either avoid or abide, and yet such is most men's stupidity, that they will not believe it till they feel it. As God is a great God, so his wrath is a great wrath. I may allude to that which Zebah and Zalmunna said to Gideon, ' As the man is, so is his strength,' Judges viii. 21. So may I say, as the Lord is, so is his wrath. The wrath of an earthly king is compared to the roaring of a lion, Prov. xix. 12 ; Heh., of a young lion, which, being in his prime, roars most terribly. He roars with such a force that he amazes the creatures whom he hunts, so as that they have no power to fly from him. Now if the wrath of a king be so terrible, oh how dreadful must the wrath of the King of kings then be ! The greater the evil is, the more cause we have to flee from it. Now wrath to come is the greatest evil, and therefore the more it concerns us to flee from it, Kev. xvii. 14. But,
[2.] Secondly, Wrath to come is treasured-up lorath. Sinners are still ' a-treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath,' Kom. ii. 5. In treasuring there is, 1. Laying in; 2. Lying hid; 3. Bringing out again as there is occasion.
Whilst wicked men are following their own lusts, they think that they are still adding to their own happiness ; but alas, they do but add wrath to wrath, they do but heap up judgment upon judgment, punishment upon punishment. Look, as men are daily adding to their treasure more and more, so impenitent sinners are daily increas- ing the treasures of wrath against their own souls. Now, who would not flee from treasures of wrath ? But,
[3.] Thirdly, Wrath to come is pure wrath. It is ' judgment with- out mercy,' James ii. 13. The cup of wrath which God will put into sinners' hands at last will be a cup of pure wrath, all wrath, nothing but wrath, Eev. xiv. 10, ' The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation ; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone
^ Query, ' threatenest ' ? — Ed.
* Though destruction by the Romans is not here excluded, yet the principal thing that he means by wrath to come is hell-fire, Mat. xxiii. 33.
A FIVEFOLD IMPROVEMENT OF HELLISH TORMENTS. 137
in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the lamb.'l Look, as there is nothing but the pure glory of God that can make a man perfectly and fully happy, so there is nothing but the pure wrath of God that can make a man fully and perfectly miserable. Eepro- bates shall not only sip of the top of God's cup, but they shall drink the dregs of his cup. They shall not have at last one drop of mercy, nor one crumb of comfort. They have filled up their lifetime with sin, and God will fill up their eternity with torments. But,