But how can it stand with the justice of God, for a momentary action to cast men into everlasting torment ? I answer —
1. God will govern the world by his own reasons, and not by our fancies ; for we are told, he giveth no account of his matters ; he hath made a holy law, and that law hath a sanction, it is established by penalties and rewards. Now if God make good his threatenings, and bring the misery upon the creature, which he hath foretold, where lieth the injustice ? What part of the punishment would you have relaxed ?
86 SERMOXS UPON 2 CORINTHLAJNS V. [SeR. XVII.
the loss or the pain ? The loss is double, of God's favour, and of his natural comforts. Would you have God admit those to the sight and fruition of himself who never cared for him ? or to return to their natural comforts, that they may again run riot with them, and abuse them to an occasion of the flesh, and to quiet and beguile his conscience with the enjoyments of the world, that he may the better bear the loss of these, or to lessen the pain, when the sin and impenitency obsti- nately doth still continue ?
2. It is meet for the government of the world, that the penalties should be thus stated, to give us the more powerful argument against fleshly lusts, which, being more pleasing and suitable to corrupt nature, need to be checked by a severe commination. Man is a very slave to sensitive pleasure ; which, being born and bred with him, is not easily renounced ; therefore God hath told us aforehand, that if ' we live after the flesh, we shall die/ The pleasing of the flesh will cost us dear ; the sinner's paradise is guarded with a flaming sword, and delight balanced with fear, that l3y setting eternal pains against mo- mentary pleasures, we may the better escape the temptation. ' The pleasures of sin, which are for a season,' Heb. xi. 25, bring torments which are everlasting. The fearful end of this delightful course may deter us from it : Eom. viii. 13, ' If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die.* God hath so proportioned the dispensation of joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, that it is left to our own choice, whether we willhave it here or hereafter ; whether we will enjoy pleasure as the fruit of sin, or as the reward of obedience ; both we cannot have. And it is agree- able to 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, which is a matter of faith, should be greater than the joy and pain of this world, which is a matter of sense. Tilings at hand will certainly more prevail with us than things to come, if they be not considerably greater ; therefore here the pain is short, and so is the pleasure, but there it is eternal. Well then, it becometh the wisdom of God, that those who would have their pleasure here, should have their pain hereafter, and that eternally. And those that will work out their salvation with fear and trembling, and pass through the difficulties of religion, should have pleasures at his right hand for evermore : James, v. 5, ' Ye have lived in pleasure upon earth ; ' and Luke. xvi. 25, ' Kemember that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things.' You must not think to pass from Delilah's lap to Abra- ham's bosom.
3. No law obsen^eth this, that the mora pa:nce, the continuance of the punishment, should be no longer than the mora culjjm, than the time of acting the offence. Amongst all the punishments which human laws inflict, there is no punishment but is longer. Loss, shame, exile, bondage, imprisonment, may be for life, for a fact done in a day or hour ; punishment doth not repair so easily, as offence doth pervert, public right and good. Therefore the punishment may continue longer than the time wherein the crime was committed.
There are many reasons in the cheap commission of sin which justify this appointment, as —
[L] A nwjestoie Dei, against whom the sin is committed, and who
VeR. lU.] SERilONS UPON 2 CORIKTHIAXS V. 87
is depreciated, and contemned by the creature's offence. What base things are preferred before God, and the felicity we might have in the enjoyment of him ! at how vile a price is his favour sold!
[2.] A nattira peccuti, which is a preference of a sensitive good before that which is s[)iritual and eternal. Men refuse an eternal kingdom offered to them, for a little carnal satisfaction, Heb. xi. 25 ; and if they be eternally miserable they have but their own choice.
[3.] A voluntate 2:)eccatoris, he would continue his sin everlastingly if he could. They are never weary of sinning, nor ever would have been, if tliey had lived eternally upon earth ; they desire always to enjoy the delights and pleasures of this life, and are rather left by their sins than leave them. Well then, since they break the laws of the eternal God, and the very nature of the sin is a despising his favour for some temporal pleasure or profit, and this they would do everlast- ingly, if they could subsist here so long, this doth sufficiently justify this appointment.