If we liften to a Spira, who has laid afide all hopes of mercy, we shall hear him crying out in the anguifh of his foul one day, I am fealed up to eternal wrath: I tell you I deferve it; my own confcience condemns me, what needeth any other judge? and another day again we may hear him crying out, Though there were not another damned, yet God is juft in making me an example to others; and I cannot justly complain. There is no punishment fo great but I have justly deferved it. These confiderations do fufficiently evince, that fin deferves eternal punishment; and therefore God has good reafon to demand it.

2. Our great Lord and Master has great reafon to punish you with fuch a punishment, not only because your offences deferve it, but because he, in the inftitution and promulgation of his laws, did actually declare that he would fo punish the tranf greffors of it. Sin and eternal punishment were then linked together. With that fame very breath. that God faid to Adam, Thou shalt keep my commandments; he also faid to him, In the day thou breakeft them, thou shalt furely die. That the anpihilation of his foul should be there intended, is contrary to fcripture, and has no ground in reafon; and if only temporal death is meant, then this would be implied, to fay, thou shalt be rewarded with eternal life if thou fin, which were ridiculous to imagine. That therefore which is intended is certainly eternal death. And God having annexed this penalty to the violation of his law, there is great reafon that it fhould be punctually executed. For,

1. The honour-of his wifdom requires it. To' what purpofe fhould this penalty be annexed, if it were not on defign that it should be put in ex

ecu

ecution? or at least it would reflect upon his wif dom, if it might not with great reafon be put in execution.

2. Juftice to his honour, as he is the righteous judge of the earth, calls for the execution of this law. What, I pray, is the bufinefs of one placed in that high ftation, if hot to fee laws executed, to fee the compliers with them rewarded, and the offenders condignly punished?

3. Juftice to the law requires the punishment of finners: for if the law in one part may be neglected, why not in all? The threatening, as well as the precept, has upon it the imprefs of the fupreme authority; and therefore, as by the violation of the precept, fo by the non-execution of the penalty, the honour of the law fuffers. If the penalty be required, then the honour of the precept is repaired; but if the penalty be neglected, then the law is entirely affronted, and there is no reparation, than which there can be nothing more unreasonable.

4. Justice to onlookers. To neglect the punishment of offenders, is of dangerous influence to beholders; it betrays them into one of two or three dangerous mistakes; it has a tendency either to make them entertain light apprehenfions of fin; or else to make them call in queftion either the knowlege, power or wifdom of God, and his zeal for his own glory: therefore juftice to them requires that the penal fanction of the law be vigoroully put in execution.

5. Juftice to God's faithfulness. The honour of the divine veracity requires it. God engaged his faithful word for the accomplishment of the threatening; therefore either the truth of God muft

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muft ly open to fufpicion, or else the punishment muft be inflicted upon you.

(6.) To add no more confiderations under this head; by annexing eternal punishment to the commiffion of fin, all the divine attributes were engaged to fee it execute; of the juftice, wifdom, and fovereignty of God, it has already been made appear; and it might with equal facility be evinced, as to the unchangeablenefs of God, his goodnefs, power and knowlege; therefore he has reafon to demand fo high a fatisfaction.

3. Sin not only deferves that heavy and eternal punishment we have been difcourfing of, and not only has God adjudged, by an irreversible appointment, that it fhould be fo punished; but we fay moreover, That God has just reason to inflict it, because this appointment of God, linking fin and punishment together, is most just and equal, This puts it beyond all rational doubt, that God has reason to treat you as he will do. Now, the juftice of this penal fanction, I fhall open to you in feveral confiderations. And,

(1.) This is plain from that which we have at great length difcourfed of already, in reference to the demerit of fin. We have proved, by many incontroulable evidences that fin deferves the higheft punishment that can be inflicted. Now, juft authority can never be but juft, in punishing a crime, or annexing a penalty to it, that is proportioned to its own nature; and this is plainly the cafe here.

2. God has made this fanction; therefore it is juft. This I think needs no proof, the Judge of all the earth cannot do wrong, he is a God of truth, and without iniquity. Our ways may be unequal, his can never be fo: for were God un

righteous, how could he then judge the world? fays the apostle, Rom. iii. 6. His will is the meaS fure of justice to us. He doth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can fay to him, What doft thou? Dan. iv. 35. If once we quite the will of God for the ftandard and measure of juftice, then we wander and lofe ourselves, and are never like to find any other thing that can with any shadow of reafon pretend to the place.

(3.) This appointment of God is moft juft, because it was made in way of a contract. There was a covenant between God and Adam; God did propofe the whole matter to him; and the fubftance of it was this, Do, and live, fin, and die. Man was content, and that upon deliberation, with the terms; and therefore the justice of God is clear in this matter.

(4.) God did warn man beforehand of this punishment; and therefore he is very juft in the matter which will appear very confiderable, if we obferve that, as man is unquestionably obliged to obey God, fo God has an unquestionable right to command; and that not only upon account of his fupereminent excellency, but on account of his creation, prefervation, and innumerable benefits; therefore he commanding to man what is just and equal, may do it upon what penalty he pleafes, without any fhadow of injuftice; as I fhall make appear by this plain and familiar inftance. I fuppose the lord of a mannor to have placed or made a precipice in fome part of his land, and that he forbids his fervant to go there, and tells him if he do, he will be fure to fall there and be killed. Who would fay that he were guilty of that fervant's death, if the fervant should go there? And,

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I fay,

I fay, God can with as little juftice be charged with the death of finners, or with feverity, fince he gives them fair warning. They choose damnation, and their deftruction is of themfelves. This was perfectly the cafe with man at first: and that afterwards he fell under a fatal inability to abftain from fin, no more clears him, or makes God faulty, than it would clear the fervant formerly mentioned, or make his master blame-worthy, if the way to that precipice lay stooping downward, and the fervant fhould, upon the beginning of the defcent, run with fo full a carreer, that he were not able to halt till he had broke his neck. This I fuppofe would not reflect upon the mafter, that he did not remove the precipice, or alter the way; and this is the cafe between God and man.

5. Confider the influence that this penal fanction has upon them that are faved; and wherein we may fee that God was most just in appointing it. It is the means to bring them to heaven. It moves minifters to preach, Knowing the terrors of the Lord, we perfuade men, 1 Cor. v. 11. And it moves the hearers to accept of falvation; as appears from the frequent ufe our Lord makes ofthis argument. And in the original conftitution of the law, it was defigned as a mean, not only for the reparation of its violated honour, but alfo to deter men from breaking the law: Therefore God is most just in the whole of his conduct in this matter; fince the greater the penalty was, the more likely a mean it was to hold men in the

way.

6 I thought to have further cleared the equity of this appointment of God, whereby fin is or dained thus to be punished, from the confideration of the neceffity thereof in order to the govern

ment