(2.) The wisdom of God lietli in this, that the love of pleasure, which is the root of all sin, should end in a sense of pain. Man is a very slave to pleasure : Tit. iii. 3, ' Serving divers lusts and pleasures.' It is engrained in our natures ; therefore to check it, the Lord hath threatened the pains of the second death ; and this method our Lord approveth as most useful to draw us from our beloved sin: Mat. v. 29, 30, ' Better one member suffer, than the whole body to be cast into hell.' In short, God hath so proportioned the dispensation of joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, that it is left to our choice, whether we will have it liere or hereafter, whether we will have pleasure as the fruit of sin, or as the reward of well-doing ; both we cannot have, you must not expect to enjoy the pleasures of earth and heaven too, and think to pass from Delilah's lap into Abraham's bosom : Luke xvi. 25, ' Son, in thy life time thou receivedst thy good things ; ' and Jam. v. 5, ' Ye have lived in pleasure upon earth ; ' you have been merry and jocund ; but your time of howling and lamenting then cometh, far beyond the degree of your former rejoicing.
(3.) By setting eternal pains against momentary pleasures, that ye may the better escape the temptation ; momentaneum est quod delectaf, eternuvi quod crucial. ' The pleasures of sin are but for a season,' Heb. xi. 25 ; but the pains of sin are for evermore ; if the fearful end
44 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. [SeR. XVI.
of this delightful course were soundly believed or seriously considered, it would not so easily prevail upon us. It is the wisdom of our law- giver that things to come should have some advantage in the proposal above things present ; that the joy and pain of the other world should be greater than the comfort and pleasure of this world, which is a matter of sense ; for things at hand would certainly prevail with us, if things to come were not considerably greater ; therefore here the pain is short, and so is the pleasure, but there it is eternal. Those that will have their pleasure here, they shall have it, but to their bitter cost ; but those that will work out their salvation with fear and trembling, will by the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body, will pass through the difficulties of religion, shall have pleasure at his right hand for ever- more, Ps. xvi. 11.
[3.] It is consistent with his love and goodness. This is necessary to be considered, —
(1.) Because we are apt to think hardly of God for liis threatenings. It is for our profit to give warning, and to bring us to repentance, and that we may take heed and escape these things ; he threateneth that he may not punish ; and he punisheth in part, that he may not punish for ever. The first awakening is by fear, afterwards shame, sorrow, and indignation ; the curse driveth us to the promise ; first, we look upon sin as damning, then as defiling ; first, as it fits us for hell ; then, as it unfits us for heaven.
(2.) It is a benefit to the world. Punishment among men, because of the degeneracy of the world, is a more powerful engine of government than reward ; we owe much of our safety to prisons and executions ; so in God's government, though love be the mighty gospel piotive, yet fear hath its use, at least for those who will not serve God out of love; slavish fear tieth their hands from mischief.
(3.) For the converted, they find all help in this part of the Spirit's discipline, to guard their love. When their minds are in danger of being enclianted by carnal delights, or perverted by the terrors of sense ; when the flesh presents the bait, faith shows the hook, Mat. x. 28 ; or are apt to abuse their power, because none in the world can call them to an account : Jol) xxxi. 23, ' Destruction from God was a terror to me.' He stood in awe of God, who is a party against the oppressor, and will right the weak against the powerful.
2. Since it is threatened, we may conclude the certainty of its accomplishment. The world will not easily believe that none shall be saved but the regenerate, and those that live not after the flesh but the Spirit, and love God in Christ above all the world, even their own lives ; that besides these few, all the rest shall be tormented in hell for ever ; flesh and blood cannot easily go down with this doctrine ; but God's threatenings are as sure as executions.
[1.] Because of the holiness of his nature: Ps. xi. 6, 7, 'Upon the wicked he will rain snares, fire and brimstone, and horrible tempest ; this shall be the portion of their cup, for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness.' But men feign God as they would have him to be, and judge of God's holiness by their own interest : Ps. 1. 21, ' Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself.' As if God were less mindful because he is so holy ; and will not be so indulgent