Vol. II. obftinately rejected, as he is, when the Condition fuppos'd is complied with, as in the Cafe of the Ninevites; yet can I not see what Ground Men have to hope he will. Is there any room for Sacrifice or Mediation beyond the Day of Judgment, when the Son fhall have refign'd up his Mediatory Kingdom to the Father? Or if there be, is there a greater Sacrifice to be found than the Son of God? Will the Spirit of God enlighten the Darkness of Hell, and will he dwell in the Bofoms of Devils and Fiends, when he has been refifted,. chas'd away and defpitefully us'd by them, when they were Men? Why then, fhould any think God will not fulfil his Threats upon the Damned?

If Sinners would fpeak out, they would fay, that those Threats in this fense are fevere, nay unjuft. But, I am fure, it can neither become the Wisdom nor the Goodness of God to threaten, what it can never become his Juftice to execute. If therefore this be their meaning, they had better keep to their firft Shift, and refolve, that God neither has, nor can threaten the Sinner with exquifite and Eternal Punishment; But how likely this is to be true, you may eafily judge by what I have faid before.

I have under this Head had my Eye Serm, continually on the Holy Scriptures, being VIII. fully satisfied, that if we deviate from thefe to follow pur-blind Reason, we fhall only run Riot after our own vain Fancies and Imaginations. And this is what they are guilty of, who ftart many ftrange Notions on this Occafion; for inftance, the love of God is boundless, and therefore, Love must triumph over all Oppofition at the laft, and convert his Wicked into Holy, and his Miferable into Happy Creatures. But what Warrant have we to extend the Love of God, further than himself has done? What ground have we to expect more glorious Manifeftations of Love than we meet with in the Gofpel, which contains the Riches, the Glory, the Fullness, the Treasure of Divine Grace and Goodness?

Others will have the Words Eternal and Everlasting fignify a longer or fhorter Duration according to the Nature and Condition of that State or Perfon it relates to. But who can prove, that the Impenitent fhall rife in a Mortal Corruptible Body? For if they fhould, what would become of the Immortal and Incorruptible Soul? Or, how does it appear that that state of Mifery does naturally tend to an End, and is necessarily

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Vol. II.to be fucceeded by a great and happy Revolution?

1

Some again think, that God cannot punish Sin by Sin, the Sins of this Life by condemning Men to a State where they will Sin for ever. But thefe do not confider matters right: Tho' God never did, nor ever will infufe Malice into any of his Creatures; yet certainly God may withdraw the Grace, which has been long abus'd, and bereave his Creatures of the Happiness, which they have justly forfeited. Pharaoh may be harden'd, and Judas abandon'd even in this World; and yet God not be the Author of Sin. What God has done, he certainly may do. Devils have been held in Chains of Darkness now for fome Thousands of Years, and he that was a Murderer and Liar from the beginning, is fo ftill; nor has Punishment reform'd him, or made any Satisfaction to God. Befides, it ought well to be confider'd, whether the miserable Inhabitants of that dismal World be not fo utterly caft off by God, that he exercises no Government over them, prefcribes no Law to them, I mean no Moral Law, demands no Obedience from them, and confequently where no Law is, Rom. iv. there is no Tranfgreffion: The Actions of fuch will be Evil, but ftrictly speaking they will not be Sins.

15.

There

There is but one Imagination more Serm. that I can think of, by which a wretched VIII. Sinner may deceive himself into a Perfwafion that Hell is not Eternal: He may be willing to hope, that the Juftice of God may in fome time be satisfied with his Punishment, but in what time he is never able to determine, whether a Hundred, a Thousand, or a Million of Years; nor is there any Countenance for fuch an Opinion in Scripture, but rather the contrary, as appears from all that I have faid. Nor will fuch a one ever be able to prove, that a miserable Eternity is not partly the natural refult as well as judicial Effect of a finful and impenitent Life.

I will conclude with befeeching every Sinner not to suffer himself to be deceiv'd with vain Words. We have to do with a God, a Holy God, who is Light, and in John xv. him is no Darknefs at all, a God to whose Eyes all things are naked, who fearcheth the Heb.iv.13 Heart and trieth the Reins, even to give Jer. xvii. every Man according to his Ways, and accor- 10. ding to the Fruit of his Doings. He is indeed a Gracious Father, but a terrible Judge; God is indeed Love, but he is too a Confuming Fire. Knowing therefore 2 Cor. v. the Terrour of the Lord, we perfwade Men 10. to break off their Sins, and to ferve him with Reverence and Godly Fear.

SER