- John iii. 17, 18, 36 ; Luke i. 68-71, 74 ; Rom. vi. 23, and viii. 1, 31-35, 37 ; 1 Cor. iii. 21-23, and xv. 54-58 ; 1 Thes. i. 10 ; Eev. ix. 5, 6.
212 London's lamentations on [Isa. XLII. 24, 25.
furnace, so lii'll-fire shall never sinoe one hair of your heads. Your interest in Christ is a noble and sufficient security to you a^^ainst the flames of hell. Fliny saitli, that nothing in the world will so soon quench fire as salt and blood ; and therefore in many countries where they can get plenty of blood, they will use salt and blood rather than water to (juench the fire. If you cast water on the fire, the fire will (|uickly work it out ; but if you cast blood ui)on it, it will damp it in a moment. 0 sirs, Christ's blood has so quenched the flames of hell, that they shall never be able to scorch or burn those souls that are in- terested in him. The effusion of Christ's blood is so rich and avail- able, saith my author,! tliat if the whole multitude of captive sinners would believe in their Kedeemer, not one should be detained in the tyrant's chains. All those spots that a Christian finds in his own heart, shall first or last be washed out in the Lamb : 1 John i. 7, ' The blood of Jesus Christ his Son clcanscth us from all our sins.' Now such as are washed and cleansed from their sins in the blood of Jesus, such shall never experimentally know what everlasting burnings or a devouring fire means. Such as are washed in Christ's blood needs no purifying by hell's flames. Pliny saith of polhim that it is a preserva- tive against serpents. Sure I am that the blood of Christ is an effectual preservative against all infernal serpents and infernal tor- ments.''^
You believing citizens, who have set up God as tlie object of your fear, and whose hearts are inflamed with love to Christ, know, for your everlasting refreshment, that Christ has freed you, and secured you from everlasting fire, from unquenchable fire, from eternal fire ; and therefore bear up sweetly, bear up cheerfully under that fiery dispensation that has passed upon you. What is the burning of your houses and substance, to the burning of bodies and souls in hell? What was the fire of London, to infernal fire ? What is a fire of four or five days' continuance, to that everlasting fire, to that unquenchable fire, to that eternal fire that you have deserved, and that free grace hath preserved you from ? A frequent and serious consideration of hell-fire, as I have opened it unto you, and of your happy deliverance from it, may very well bear and cheer up your hearts under all your greatest sufferings by that dreadful fire, that has turned beloved Lon- don into a ruinous heap.
Sir, you have been a-discoursing about hellish torments; but, for the further clearing up of the truth, we desire your serious answer to this sad question — viz.,
Ohj. How will it stand with the unspotted holiness, justice, and righteousness of God, to punish a tenqiorary oft'ence with eternal punishments ? for the evil of punishment should be but commensurate to the evil of sin. Now what proportion is there betwixt finite and infinite ? Why should the sinner lie in hellish torments for ever and ever for sinning but a short time, a few years in this world ?
Ans. I judge it very necessary to say something to this important
' Leo de Pas., Seim. xii. c. 4.
' Nero liad a sliirt made of a salamander's skin, so that if lie did walk through the fire in it, it wouhi keep him from burninij. O sirs! Christ is the true salamander's Bkiu that will certain!}- keep every gracious soul from burning in everlasting flames.
ISA. XLII. 24, 25] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION, 213
question, before I come to discourse of those duties that are incumbent upon those citizens whose houses are turned into a ruinous heap ; and therefore take me thus : —
[1.] First, God's will is the rule of righteousness, and there/ore ivhat he doth, or shall do, must needs he righteous. He is Lord of all ; he hath a sovereign right and an absolute supremacy over the creature. He is the only Potentate, King of kings, and Lord of lords ; he is the Judge of the whole world ; ' And shall not the Judge of all the earth do right ?' 1 Tim. i. 15 ; Gen. xviii. 25. But,
[2.] Secondly, I answer, There is a ^^rinciple in man to sin eter- nally; and therefore it is hut just luith God if he punish him eternally. The duration of torment respects the disposition of the delinquent. Foence singulorum incequales intentione, poence omnium cequales dur- atione, [Aquinas.] If the sinner should live ever, he would dishonour God ever, and crucify the Lord of glory ever, and grieve the Spirit of grace ever, and transgress a righteous law ever ; and therefore it is just with God to punish such sinners for ever. Etsi peccator in ceter- num viveret, in a^iernum peccaret, If the sinner might live eternally, he would sin eternally ; if he might live still, he Avould sin still. Though the sinner loses his life, yet he does not lose his will to sin. Sinners sin as much as they can, and as long as they can, and did not the grave put a stop to their lusts, their hearts would never put a stop to their lusts. Feccare si veils tu in ceterno tuo, punire cequum est te Deum in mterno sua, The sinner sins in his eternity, and God punishes in his eternity. The sinner never loses his will to sin. His will to sin is everlasting ; and therefore it is but just with God that his punishment should be everlasting. A will to sin is sin in God's account. God looks more at the will than at the deed ; and therefore that being lasting, the punishment must be so. The mind and inten- tion of the sinner is to sin everlastingly, eternally. If the sinner should live always, he would sin always ; and therefore as one saith, [Gregory,] Quia mens in hac vita nunquam voluit carere peccato,justum est ut nunquam careat supplicio. Because the mind of man in this life would never be without sin, it is just that it should never be without punish- ment in the life to come. Many of the men of the old world lived eight or nine hundred years, and yet faith and repentance was hid from their eyes : that patience, forbearance, long-suffering, gentleness, and goodness, which should have led them to a speedy repentance, 1 Pet. iii. 20, to a serious repentance, to a thorough repentance, to that repentance that was never to be repented of, was only made use of to patronise their lewdness and wickedness.^ This is certain: wicked men left to themselves will never be weary of their sins, nor never repent of their sins ; and therefore God will never be weary of plaguing them, nor never repent of punishing them. The sinner never leaves his sin till sin first leaves him: did not death put a stop to his sin, he would never cease from sin. This may be illus- trated by a similitude thus, A company of gamesters resolve to play all night, and accordingly they sit down to chess, tables, or some other game ; their candle accidentally or unexpectedly goes out, or is