2. Ask men. The blind nations had a sense of eternity, and fancies of a heaven and hell, Elysian fields, and obscure mansions, and places of torment. There are some relics of this truth in the corrupt doctrine of the Gentiles. But we need not go so far back as tradition : look to conscience. Wicked men find in themselves an apprehension of immortality and punishment after death : Eom. i. 32, ' Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death.' Reason showeth that he that perfectly hateth sin will perfectly punish it ; not in this life, for abominable sinners are many times prosperous : here justice is not discovered to the utmost, there- fore guilty conscience presageth there is more evil to come. There is much in these presages of conscience, especially when we are more serious, however they dissemble the matter when well: Heb. ii. 15, ' And deliver them from the fear of death, who all their lifetime were subject to bondage.' Yet, when they come to die, when they are entering upon the confines of eternity, then they cannot hide their fears any longer. Oh ! the horrors and terrors of wicked men when they lie a dying ! If ever men may be believed, it is then.
3. The devils are orthodox in this point for judges. There are no atheists in hell : Mat. viii. 29, ' And behold they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God ? art thou come to torment us before the time ? ' They know there is a time when they shall be in greater torment than now they are. Therefore, if we will take God's word or authentic record for it, or man's word when he is not in a case to dissemble, or the devil's word, there is a hell, or everlasting torments prepared for the wicked.
Object. 1. But is it not an everlasting abode under death, and, to make it the more terrible to vulgar capacities, expressed by eternal fire ?
A71S. This were to make Christ a deceiver indeed, and to publish his doctrine with a lie or a handsome fraud. But clearly —
1. There is a state of torment, as well as a state of death. It is true it is called the second death, because deprived of eternal life,
80 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SeR. XXIV.
wliich is the only true life ; and because it is worse than the temporal death ; better never have been born : Mat. xxvi. 24, ' It had been good for that man that he had never been born.' He doth not say, It had been good, but, It had been good/or that man. If only death and anni- hilation were in it, what sense would there be in this speech ? There- fore there is a lively and effectual sense of the wrath of God. Besides, the consciences of wicked men do fear and presage other kind of punishment from God's wrath, or else why are they most troubled when they come to die ? Why is it so dreadful a thing to fall into the hands of the living God ? Heb. x. 31. We are mortal creatures, but God is a living God ; why should the eternity of God make his wrath terrible, but that there is a fear of an eternal subsistence on our part also ? We read of many and fewer stripes, Luke xii. 47, 48 ; Mat. xi. 22, ' It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you.' If it be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you, torments are measured out by proportion, according to our sins, and means of grace that we have enjoyed but not improved.
2. Tliere is a place of torment, a local hell, roirov (Saadvov : Luke xvi. 28, ' This place of torment.' And Judas went to his own place, Acts i. 25. As in all commonwealths, the prince hath not only his palace but his prison ; it must be somewhere, for the wicked are somewhere : God keepeth it secret with wise counsel, because he will exercise our faith, and not our sense : Job xxxviii. 17, ' Have the gates of death been opened to thee, or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death ? ' This is one of the secrets of providence.
Object 2. But how can it stand with God's love and mercy to punish his creature for ever ? Our bowels are troubled if we should hear the howling of a dog in a fiery furnace for a small space of time. Now God is love itself, 1 John iv. 8 ; thei-efore surely he will not damn his creature to everlasting torments.
Ans. Man is not fit to fix the bounds of God's mercy, but the Lord himself ; therefore take these considerations : —
1. God's punishments may stand with his mercy. It is very notable, in one place it is said, Heb. x. 31, * It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God;' but in another place it is said, 2 Sam. xxiv, 14, ' I am in a great strait ; let us fall now into the hands of the Lord, for his mercies are great' The one noteth God angry, the other God appeased. When God hath been long upon a treaty of love, patience abused is turned into fury. The one showeth what God is in him- self, love, sweetness, mercy ; the other, what he is when provoked. The sea in itself is smooth and calm, but when the winds and tempests arise, how dreadfully it roareth. God's attributes must not be set a-quarrelling. He is love and mercy, but he is also just, and true, and holy. If he were not angry for sin, he should not love his justice, make good his truth, manifest his holiness, and so hate himself. If God should pardon all sins, his abhorrency and hatred of sin could not be manifested, and so he would lose the honour of his infinite holiness ; therefore in men and angels he would declare his displeasure of it, and no less hatred of the sinner. God saw it best for his own glory to suffer some to sin, and by sin to come to punishment. Therefore do not wallow in thy filthiness, and think that God will be all honey, that