The Punishment of Sin in Hell, Section 1 · Chapter 6

The Punishment of Sin in Hell · Section 1 · Chapter 6

p. 78CHAP. VI.

Thirdly: Reasons. 1. God's Justice. 2. Avenging Wrath, otherwise not satisfied. A Demonstration added.

I Come now to the Reasons of it, which will shew the necessity of this course, namely, of God's taking it into his own hands. It might be wondred at, that the great God having an Host or Army of creatures ready to be his Avengers, should over and above what they might do, himself set his hand to this: But God and Christ are so far from esteeming this a staining of their Glory, as earthly Judges think it would be to execute any themselves, that this being a Trophee of regaining Honour debased by the Creature, they account it a part of their Glory. Thus God here challengeth it to himself, Vengeance is mine, as a Glory he would not give to any other. And Christ is so far from accounting, that he staineth his Compare for this Interpretation, Revel. 19. with Isa. 63.Rev 19Isa 63Raiment with their Blood, Isa. 63. as that he glories to tread the Wine-press of his Father's Wrath alone. He glories in it.

p. 79There are two Reasons drawn from the final Causes of this Punishment, which makes this Dispensation necessary: 1. It is for the Glory of his Justice. 2. It is an Act of Avenging Wrath, retributing Vengeance. Which two do center in this as a third, That it is to be Destruction to the Persons it falls upon, as the issue of both. All which can never be attained but by an execution made by God's own immediate Wrath.

I shall found these Reasons, as I did the other Proofs, upon what I find Foundations for, in these very Texts I have chosen.

1. It is an Act of Justice; so in this Heb. 10. I will repay; and 2 Thess. 1. 6. It is a righteous thing in God. foreign, to repay again or recompence, and vers. 9. foreign, who shall pay or lay down a Punishment justly sentenced; which in Heb. 2. 2. is called a just Recompence of Reward. And Rom. 6. last, the Wages or Reward of Sin. And this is the last Payment, and all that for ever, Sin in them, or God for Sin, shall have; and therefore that whereby the Glory of God is to be fully recovered.

2. It is an Act of avenging Wrath, as in both these places is expressed.

p. 80Let us see what evidence of Reason each of these apart do afford, much more put together.

1. Justice. Concerning that the assertion is, That if there be a Satisfaction made for Man's Sin unto God's Justice, but so far as it may be attained upon the Creature to be punish'd in Hell, God himself will set his immediate hand to it, and Justice requires this.

The Explication.

1. I say, A Satisfaction, so far as may be attained upon the Creature that hath sinned, and which is to be the Subject of this Punishment. I put this in, because otherwise it must be affirmed of Christ alone, that he gave full satisfaction unto God's Justice, in whom there was foreign, a Manifestation or Rom. 3 25Rom 3:25Demonstration of God's Justice for Sins that were past: yet still, as although a full Satisfaction can never be had from or upon the Creature, (therefore in Hell they alwas suffer) yet God doth recover what can be had, and payeth himself out of them as far as it will go; as those Phrases, Paying the utmost farthing, Mat. 5. 26. and, Selling them and all they had, to make Money thereof, Mat. 18. 25. do shew.

p. 812. In this case, that which justice will require unto any tolerable equitable satisfaction in this Punishment, is, that as exact a proportion be observed, as possibly there may be, and as the Subject is capable of. The Justice of God as it is according to Truth, so exactness and equity: and the work of God is perfect in every kind; and performed in due Weight; Number and Measure, but above all else, where Justice is professed. You may hear Justice speak in Isaiah, Chap. 59. [According] to their Deeds, [Accordingly] he will repay recompence to his Enemies. There is an [According] and an [Accordingly] to that: So as all due Measures and Rules of Proportion every way shall be observed. Which Measures being set out in this matter, will evidently demonstrate that God's immediate Hand is necessarily required thereto.

1. Let the demerit of Sin be weighed: And for that in the General, I refer unto the first of these Treatises of the heinousness of Sin. And we shall find, that although the crasser part of Sin is an inordinate lusting after, or enjoyment of things created, or sinful Comforts in Creatures; yet that the great and Foundation evil of it lieth in an aversion or turning off from God, and therein and p. 82thereby there is a reflecting upon God an immediate slight or undervalue, to an infiniteness of dishonour and contempt cast upon his Goodness, Blessedness, that is to be had in him; as also to his Soveraignty, Prerogative, Supremacy, Holiness, &c. which are shewn forth and laid at Stake of every of his Laws, whereof Sin is the Transgression. Now if indeed it could have been supposed, that Sin were nothing else but that gross and crass part spoken of, the enjoyment of Creatures, than a punishment by Creatures only, might equivalently, have been even with that its obliquity of debasing its own excellency unto Creatures: But it being an immediate reflection upon God Himself, none can fill up the proportion of a meet and full Punishment, which Justice doth require for this, but God Himself. I may make use of Eli's speech, 1 Sam. 2. 25. If one Man sin against another, the Judg shall judg him, and revenge it: but if against God, who shall intreat for him? Thus he. And upon the same or like ground of Reason I infer, if one Creature wrong another, a Creature of the same kind can revenge it. If a Man shed Man's Blood, so far as it is wrong to the bare Creature, By Man shall his Blood be shed; so says the Law in relation to Man's p. 83day in this World: But if Man sin against God, who shall recompence it, when God's day comes wherein he is to be glorifyed? none, so as to give satisfaction to his most exact Justice, but God Himself.

Yea further, if we retained to that opinion of many Learned Men, That Adam's enjoyment of God for ever, in that holy Estate of Innocency, should have been of God, but as manifested in and by Creatures, and his holy Law, and not as in Himself, or as in Heaven, &c. yet this would not serve for a Rule whereby to estimate, or make proportion, that therefore this Punishment should oppositely be only from God, by and through Creatures. For whatever his enjoyment should have been, whether of God mediately, or of God as in Himself immediately, I dispute not: yet to be sure when God was cast off by him, or is by us immediately and directly reflected upon, [even God as God] which is that, whereby every Man's Sin is heightned in Rom. 1. 21. the meaning whereof is, that God as in Himself is debased by Sin. So that as the Apostle says in the like case, Rom. 5. 15. [Not as the Offence, so is the free Gift.] On the contrary, upon the like ground, Not as was the case or merit of p. 84Adam's Righteousness, so is the demerit of Sin; and so, nor of Punishment. Because there is so transcendent an undueness, yea, an injury done to the great God Himself by the Creature in Sinning, over and above the proportion of all created Grace or Obedience. For all Obedience was due, and all Man's Reward in obeying was from the meer goodness of God, which He, and his Obedience, and all depended upon: and so the proportion thereof is no way to be lookt at, either as the measure of the evil of Sin, or of what is to be the Punishment thereof. Sin we are sure is so great an Evil, as no meer Creature, but Christ God-Man, and his Obedience or Suffering could have satisfied God for, in the behalf of another. And why may it not also be said, that as none but He, that was subjectivè God, could satisfy God for the demerit of Sin, committed against God objectivè? so that Sin is such an evil, as cannot in the Sinner himself be throughly punished unto the satisfaction of Justice, but by God Himself efficiently; that is, God, to be the inflicter thereof immediately.

A second equitable rule of Proportion, that Justice (requiring the fullest satisfaction that may be had) will exact, is that p. 85the principal Author and Actor in the Sin should principally bear the Punishment. This not only Vengeance (which is the second Topick) doth in a more eminent manner aim at, and affect, but Justice doth call for it also; The Justice both of God, and Men. Now the principal in Sin is known to be the Soul of Man. Which I shall urge, when I come to shew how Vengeance also seeketh to wreck it self thereon. That which serves to my present purpose (which is this, that in the point of satisfaction, to be made unto God's Justice, it is most proper for God Himself to punish Sin in the Soul) in order thereunto, is,

First, to enquire, What is it in Soul or Spirit of Man, which God, when he comes to deal strictly and down-rightly, as a Judg of Mens Souls, hath principally to do withal? All must acknowledg that it is Conscience that hath to do with God as a Judge: for it must be that in Man, which is the most proper seat of the guilt of Sin, which guilt is the obligation unto Judgment and Punishment. And this to be Mens Consciences, the Scriptures hold forth, and every Man's own Soul feels. Hence also to be purged from an evil Conscience, is all one, and to be perfectly acquitted from the Guilt of Sin. And for God no more to remember our Sins, or p. 86to be atoned with us as a Judg; is all one as to say, that we on our parts have no more Conscience of Sins, Heb. 10. 2, 3, 10, 11, 17. verses compared. Conscience is that part of the Soul, whereby God as the Judg arraigneth every Man. It is the Hand which a guilty Soul holds up at God's Bar for all the rest of Man; and is God's Witness within Man against himself, Rom. 2. 15. and that in order unto Judgment, as follows in verse 16.

Again, 2. I enquire, when it shall come to the execution of the Punishment sentenced, What is it in the Soul or Spirit of Man that is most directly and naturally capable of Anguish and Torment, and what that part is, which God may most properly strike a Man's Soul in, when he would rebuke him for Sin? Certainly, still a Man's Conscience. All Beasts have one tender part above any other, that most grieves them, if smitten: This, in guilty Man is Conscience. We see it in Cain and Judas, God burnt them both in this Hand; in the Hand of Conscience in this World.

Having by these two Enquiries, stated the Principal, both in Guilt, and in being the Seat of the Execution; I shall for the Proof hereof, as also in order to p. 87the clearer making forth the Argument afore us, namely, that Justice requires God's immediate Hand, &c. I shall in a more ample manner set together these five ensuing Assertions.

The First, That Conscience, and the intellectual or understanding Power in Man's Soul, are God's Engagee, and the Principal in a double respect. 1. Conscience is responsible for the whole in Man: or if you will, principal in the Obligation. As being that, which, by its own acknowledgment of a Judgment, made unto God, when he shall come to judge, binds over it self, and with it self, the whole Soul for the Payment. And upon that account is to be reckoned the chief Obligee: and therefore the Execution is justly to be served upon it, and through it upon the whole Soul. 2. If we take in together with Conscience, the understanding part in Man; the Intelligentia, or the Spirit of the Mind in the summity of it; That is really to be accounted also the Principal, in respect of its share in the very acts of Sinning; so as justly the Guilt of every act is refunded upon it, as the principal Actor. For it is betrusted by God, with the steering and management of the whole Soul, with the conduct of it, as the General. By p. 88reason of that Light, God at first seated in it, it was appointed for ever to be the Guide and Leader of the Will and Affections. And therefore God justly requireth the account, or the defaults and miscarriages of the whole, at its Hands. According to the equity of those Rules declared concerning Rulers of the People, Jer. 5. 4, 5. These have known the way of the Lord, &c. As also from that other like to it, given forth touching the Priests, and which we find so often inculcated in Ezekiel, I will require their Blood at the Priests Hands. And all these founded upon one and the same common ground, common unto Conscience with these; namely, Conscience and Knowledg there being the Guides: And yet, in that Conscience gives but an ineffectual weak warning against Sin (which should powerfully sway the whole) and the Spirit of the Mind, or the practick Understanding doth still wickedly give secret consent unto Sin, &c. Hence therefore that denunciation in Ezekiel holds, that God will require the Blood of (the Soul) at its hands. Although the Soul (the Will and Affections) do perish too, in their Iniquity as it is there spoken. And, for this cause it becomes Justice to punish this chief Agent and p. 89Offender, or this great Minister of State in sinning, and to make these the Seat of the Execution above any or all other Faculties.

2. It will furthermore agree with the Rules of Justice, yea, it will be a special Trophy unto Justice, to have Sin it self in the Guilt of it, made as far as possibly to be it's own Tormentor, and Instrument of the highest Punishment in and unto the Soul that hath sinned. There is no Sword like unto that, will Justice say, to slay a Sinner withall. It is of all other the most proper and exquisite way of punishing. For the Sinner to eat (for ever) of the Fruit of his own Ways, and Prov. 1. 31.Prov 1:31to be filled with their own Devices; and their Iniquity to slay them. This is the justest and highest Doom which Wisdom it self can invent, or God's Power execute. The very same doth Jeremy also speak, Jer. 2. 19. Thine own Wickedness shall correct thee; know therefore, and see, that it is an evil thing and a bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God. Certainly for the Sinner to feel in the most intimate and immediate manner that may be, the bitterness of the Guilt of Sin; and to find that that, above all other Punishments that can be inflicted, is the sharpest and severest: this is a transcendent p. 90strain of Justice indeed. Now this is most exquisitely accomplish'd through that proper capacity which Conscience and the intellectual part in Man have as to this very thing: And in their being the Seat of the Guilt of Sin, they are thereby further fitted to become the Vessel or Receptacle of this the highest Punishment. This is in a great measure verified by that in Isa. 59. 11, 12. We roar all like Bears: And what was it that caused this? For our Transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our Sins testify against us: For our Transgressions are with us, (they dwell with and possess us, and we possess them, as Job also speaks): And as for our Iniquities, we know them. It was their very knowing of their Sins, as set on by God, that made them thus roar, which is the loudest and wildest Tone of Grief, and Note of insufferable Torment. And observe, how that that Knowledg had two things in contemplation, which caused the Roaring: 1. Sin, together with the Wrath of God. Our Transgressions are multiplied afore thee. And so they had God in their eye as a Judge; which those words shew, We look for Salvation, but it is far from us, v. 11. And, 2. They testify against us. This was the accusation of their own Consciences p. 91themselves. So as it was Conscience which was the Seat, the Habitation, (as it were) where these two took up their dwellings, continually quartered upon, and possessed. Jeremy says the same, To see and know how bitter a thing it is to sin, &c. And though these Scriptures speak not immediately of Hell, yet they do clearly point out to us, what, and wherein the most exquisite punishment of Sin lieth, and by what effected; namely, Knowledg of Sin and Wrath: whether it be in Men in forerunning Anguish in this Life, or hereafter in Hell in the fulness of it.

3. It is not, nor can it be the meer Spiritual evil that is in Sin, as Sin is Sin, and an opposite to true Holiness, and as it stands in a contrariety to the Holiness and Goodness of God; that is not it which Men in Hell shall spiritually know and see, so as to lay to heart the evil thereof in that respect: No, for that is the peculiar effect of Grace, and proper to the Saints; even as to see the Beauty that is in Holiness, as it is Holiness, likewise is—It is therefore Sin in the bitter effects thereof only, whereby Souls still remaining wholly sinful, (as those in Hell do) can come to know this bitterness of Sin.

p. 92Now to prosecute this: The evil of Sin is not sufficiently or perfectly felt, no, not in the effects of it, by the Conscience of a Sinner, (so as it may be) until it be felt in that which is the highest, and most transcendent, and proper, most immediate and first-born effect thereof, of all other. And that is no other than the Wrath and Indignation of the All-powerful God: For that his Wrath shall break in upon the Sinner, and so considered, it is the most proper effect of all other of the demerit of Sin, God being stirred up and provoked thereunto by Sin. Do you provoke the Lord to Jealousy? 1 Cor. 10. 22. The like, Jer. 7. 19. Sins are as a heap of Charcoal, wicked Mens Consciences the Oven, and God's Wrath the Fire: Let this Fire be put into this Coal, and let both meet in a guilty Conscience, and it instantly becomes a fiery Oven within it self. And as concerning all other Punishments, I may say it, That all other, of what kind or from whomsoever, although they are all the effects and deserts of Sin, according to that in Jeremy: [Thy way, and thy doings have procured these things to thee,] and this is thy Wickedness; as it follows there in Jer. 4. 18. Yet still these are all of them deficient, and fall p. 93short in representing unto the Heart and Conscience the demerit of Sin, even so far as by the effects it may be known, and the Soul yet further is capable to feel: But if once the Wrath and Indignation of the Great God come into the Soul and Conscience, this when felt doth bear some answerable proportion, as an effect, unto so great an Evil as Sin is, which it hath deserved; and when revealed unto and impressed upon the Sinner's Conscience, it hath also the fullest dimensions of such an Evil (even to the Sinner also) as Sin justly deserveth, as far as any way the Creature is capable. Then it is that the Sinner feels, and takes in the evil of Sin, not as in secundary outward effects only, (and such all other Punishments whatsoever are in comparison to the Wrath of God, and therefore fall short) but in this case it feels immediately the demerit of Sin, in that which is the Cause, the only Cause, the highest Cause of all other secundary Punishments which Sin hath also deserved, whereof it also is the cause. And this Dispensation of immediate Wrath riseth up unto the exactest demonstration of the evil that is in Sin, which any way from Effects can be made or given unto the Creature.

p. 944. Of this immediate Wrath (as it is an evil of Punishment) the Conscience and intellectual part in Man's Soul is not only capable to be made the Vessel, the Receptacle thereof, but it lies immediatly exposed unto it. It is bare and naked unto him with whom we have to do, Heb. 4. 13. as in respect to God's knowledg, so of God's punishing, as I have elsewhere shewn. Conscience is as an open Door or In-let; or as an open Window is to the Sun, so it to God, for him to come in at at any time. That when ever God will but take upon him to perform and execute the part of a Judg and Avenger, a Conscience that is guilty lies exposed nakedly and barely unto his Anger, to receive the strokes and impressions of it. For I ask, What is God's Justice against Sin, but his just Anger against Sin? (as Rom. 3. 5. the Original hath it.) And what is a guilty Conscience, but that in Man that is naturally suscipient or apprehensive of it? And these two are suited as Faculty and Object, and are (as it were) made one for the other; there needs no third or other thing (if God but please to hold forth his Anger, and apply the Corrosive to the Sore, so this unto the Soul) to convey his own displeasure by; Conscience hath an ear p. 95to hear what God will speak, without any Medium to convey the Voice. Look as Faith is a Principle peculiarly fitted to take in God's free Grace, and Christ's Righteousness; such is Conscience (when guilty) unto God's Wrath, immediatly susceptive of it. If God will but set a Mans Sins in order afore him, and withal say unto Conscience, I am angry; yea, look but angrily, and present himself as such; then Conscience instantly, like the sensible Plant, is struck, shrinks, and falls down. For if God be angry but a little, as Psal. 2. last, and rebuke us in his Anger, Psal. 6. 1. then, at the very rebuke of his Countenance we perish, Psal. 80. And it is most certain that God can reveal his Anger to the Soul immediatly, as well as his Favour. And what is this Punishment we are speaking of, but the Revelation of the righteous Judgment of God, revealed, as afore others, so principally to a Man's own Soul? as vers. 9. And what is that Judgment, but God's Judgment, expressed, as in sentencing, so in shewing his Anger and Wrath against Sin? as the whole stream of that Scripture shews. It is therefore the Wrath and Face of God and the Lamb, when discovered, which a guilty Conscience flies from, Rev. 6. 16. That, as Luther says, p. 96Animus sibi male conscius potius ad Diabolum ipsum ferretur, quam ad Deum accederet: It had rather be brought afore the Devil, and see his face, than see God's. Terror of Conscience, what is it, but all one and God's Wrath in Conscience? See it in its contrary: Peace (which we call Peace of Conscience) which passeth Ʋnderstanding, is rather denominated the [Peace of God] which passeth understanding, Phil. 4. 7. than Peace of Conscience, although Conscience be the Subject pacified, and whose Peace and Quietus est it is. And in like manner Terror is stiled, the Terror of the Lord, 2 Cor. 5. 11. And these things may perhaps afford as true a Light towards the understanding of that Maxim of the Apostle, Rom. 2. 8, 9. Indignation and Wrath, (viz. of God,) Tribulation and Anguish upon every Soul (as the seat of their Anguish) of Man that doth evil, as any other. And withal shew how it comes to pass, that this Tribulation is executed from that Wrath, even by the reception of Conscience. For of Conscience also the following words, vers. 15. do there speak, and that as in order unto Judgment, vers. 16.

5. I add, as a Corollary from this, that Conscience, though it be thus naked and p. 97open to God and his Wrath, yet it is so great a secluse, so fast and privy a Cabinet, so intimate a Power and Principle, in and unto the Soul it self; and so entirely reserved unto God himself, who is the Lord thereof: as it is not immediately subjicible to, or to be broke open by Creatures: No, not those who are superiour Spirits to it, either Angels or Devils; they are not able to terrify the Conscience, until it hath been first made raw and tender by God. God only made the Heart, and God only knows the Heart, and God only can come at and strike at the root of the Heart. The Devils or Angels can come but into an outward Room, the Fancy, and cast in Images thereinto; the Fancy being the Souls Looking-glass, wherein it vieweth its own thoughts, and from which it takes off into it self the Species that are cast in there. Also they may stir bodily Passions (both which I have elsewhere shewn) but they cannot enter into the Closet of the Soul. God only is intimior intimo nostro, as the Ancients express it; God only is greater than our Hearts, as the Apostle expresseth it. Conscience is a Book so fast clasp'd, as it is God's Prerogative alone to open it; which he then at that day will do: and p. 98thereunto, that likewise may be applied, He openeth, and none shuts; and he shuts, and none opens. That Speech holds as true of Conscience, as of any other thing. And as it is a Book which he alone can open, so in which he alone can write over every Man's Sins, not with Ink, but with Wrath, which, like Aqua fortis, every letter of it shall eat into the Soul. According unto that in Job: Thou writest bitter things against me, and causest me to possess the Sins of my Youth, Job 13. 26. Let no Man therefore imagine, that Devils are the greatest Tormentors of Men, or of their Consciences in Hell: or if any would affirm it, I would demand, Who it is that torments the Consciences of Devils themselves? Certainly none but God. They now believing there is a God, do tremble; but in Hell they fear him, and for ever have to do with him. And it is as sure, that the same God, with whom those Spirits and their Consciences have for ever to do, the Consciences of Men shall also.

And as for all other mediate or outward ways of Judgments executed, in which the Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven, but as at the second hand, take the sorest and severest of them that ever p. 99God executed by Creatures; yea, suppose all of the several kinds of Providential Judgments (I call them such which are executed upon Men in this World afore-hand) which God hath, as Judg of all the World, in his riding Circuit through all Ages since the Fall, revealed his Wrath from Heaven by, against all sorts of Unrighteousness of Men, (as the Apostle speaking of these Judgments says, in Rom. 1. 18.) Suppose, I say, they were let flie upon any one Sinner, all at once, yet would they not reach or touch that Man's Conscience, further than as God should, over and above the efficacy of them, strike the Conscience it self with his anger and displeasure, revealed more or less by himself therewith. And, although in all such Judgments his goings forth are as of a Judg, and he accompanies such Judgments more or less, but as with some ordinary light and glimmerings of an angry Deity; yet his coming as a Judg upon Mens Consciences, at the Day of Wrath, and Revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God (as if he had never revealed his Wrath before) this is another manner of coming, and shewing himself a Judg indeed, rendring Indignation and Wrath upon the Souls of Men: And of that Judgment it is, the p. 100same Apostle in the second Chapter treats, as of that other in the former.

And I may say of all the former, in comparison to this latter, that they all are but as the Batteries of the Out-works, and as Bullets shot against the Walls, in a Siege, which may indeed terrify the Inhabitants, and make them tremble; Deut. 32. Rom. 2.Deut 32Rom 2and so these the Soul, as by remote effects in the Suburbs of it. But the latter is as shooting in of Granadoes, which have been laid up with him in his Treasury, carrying Fire from thence in them, the Fire of his fierce and sorest Indignation; and these himself alone can shoot into the inwards of Mens Souls. And this is as shooting Fire into the the very Magazine, into that which is the most inward in the Soul, and fortified against the entrance of all created Powers; the Magazine where all the Gun-pouder lies, that is, the guilt of a Man's Sins: so as there needeth nothing else to blow up all. If his Wrath doth but touch, it takes, and sets all on Fire.

Yea, give me leave upon the same ground, and by the like reason, further to say, That all the material Fire in Hell, by which the Soul shall and will suffer by way of a Compatibility (as it is termed) or suffering by and with the Body an p. 101unspeakable Torment; and this for the Sins a Man is guilty of: yet these Flames nor these Punishments (taken materially, and abstracted from this Revelation of God's Wrath) would not break into Conscience; not until God did therewithal break in with the Fire of his Wrath, and make the Conscience and intellectual Spirit of the Mind a fiery Oven within it self, as the Psalmist expresseth it in Psal. 21. 9. almost in these very words.

This being the state of matters between God, the Judg of all, and the Souls and Consciences of Sinners, as touching that due and equitable Punishment for Sin, and the execution thereof, which Mens Souls are capable of: I shall now compleat the reason, why the Justice of God should move him to be willing; yea, and that there is in respect unto Divine Justice a kind of requisiteness (if not necessity) for the Great God to take this course to punish the Sinner, by the Revelation of his own immediate Wrath. And this I shall do, by gathering together what hath been said, from which the Arguments for both these two Assertions that follow, lie fair.

1. That God for his Justice sake should be willing. For Conscience being the principal p. 102Engagee obliged unto God as a Judg, and the understanding Power in Man the eminent Transgressor, and both lying so naked and immediately exposed unto God's Wrath, and capable to receive the Revelation of it. An Anguish made thereby in the Soul, is the most proper, natural, suitable Reward unto Sin, to pay the Sinner home in his own Coin; as also the most ready, direct, and short way for God to take.

If therefore we suppose Justice be left to have but its free and full course; if Justice (according to the Prophet's language, and God's own rule and direction given unto us) run down as Waters, and Righteousness as a mighty Stream, in its proper natural Channel, and so as to fall into that most capacious Vessel or Receptacle that is in Man to receive it. Again, if Divine Justice hath a will to put and lay its charge and execution where principally it is to be laid, even against the Principal, whether in the Obligation for Sin, or in the guilt of the Act of sinning. Or if it be deemed, that Divine Justice will take a recovery where the fullest and fairest advantage lies, and recover his principal Debt of that which is the principal Debtor; and from that in Man which is capable to p. 103afford the most due satisfaction and punishment, as being that which is the Treasury of all the Guilt of Sin, and most exquisitely capable to suffer, and thereby to make fullest payment for all. Then we may conclude that assuredly God is willing to wreck his just Anger, and in his Wrath to break forth upon the Conscience and Intellectual Faculty of the Sinner in Hell, by the immediate Revelation of his Wrath, and that upon all the accounts fore-mentioned, thereby to punish it.—And we may well suppose that his Justice is willing to do this, because God is (as the Psalmist with an Emphasis) Judg Himself, Psal. 50. 6. And judgeth for Himself, Prov. 16. 4. And for the Recovery of his own Glory, and Revelation of his Righteous Judgment. And this Course of immediate Wrath being a way above all other so natural, so ready, so direct, so compendious, and so suited to the demerit of Sin, (as hath been shewn) we may well think that God will be rather willing to shew his Wrath (as the Apostle speaks) this way, (if we could suppose there might be another,) because this so falls in with, and agrees unto the rules and proportions of Justice forementioned, which are most near and sacred to him.

p. 1042. The second Assertion, That it is also requisite, yea, necessary, (I speak it, as in relation to Justice attaining its ends.) For all mediate Punishments executed by Creatures being deficient, as unto that wherein the very Essence of this Punishment lies they all not reaching the Inwards of the Spirit of the Mind and Conscience; and seeing that without God's wrath revealed therewith by God himself, all such Punishments would not compleat the Justice of God in a Punishment in any tolerable measure suitable. Then if Justice will have its perfect work, and bring its Suit against the Sinner unto the ultimate issue, it is requisite God himself put his immediate hand to the execution. For otherwise this Work of Justice will not be perfect, (as yet every of his Works in their kind are said to be). And so he should not only fall short of satisfying his Justice, but also by not doing that towards it which is in his power to do, and which he is Lord of, he should not in any tolerable measure content it. Especially, if we further consider, that when all is done that can be done, this Punishment will not arise to a perfect satisfaction (for the Creature's punishment will not afford it, and therefore it doth for ever suffer) but only unto what p. 105may be had out of them towards it. I shut this Point up therefore with this, that If God be Judg Himself, he will do this work Himself, which none else can perform for him; and without which all else would be utterly imperfect and defective. For, upon what hath been afore argued, I may say of all other Punishments and Punishers (although set by God upon a Man) what the Apostle says of those legal Ordinances (though instituted by God for his Worship) That they could not make the Service perfect, as pertaining to the Conscience. So, nor all outward Torments, take them alone without God's Wrath accompanying them, they cannot make a perfect or compleat Punishment as pertaining to the Conscience.

And all this also shews one sufficient reason of Difference, why earthly Kings and Judges leave the Execution of Traytors and Offenders wholly unto others: Because they have no more Power, as in respect of Execution, to inflict a condign Punishment than other Men; but others can do it as exquisitely, and their Justice be as fully satisfied thereby: but it is not so here. And for these causes God is so far from staining his Glory thereby (which other Judges would esteem to be so) as that it is the only way fully to recover p. 106his Glory. And so much for that Argument drawn from satisfying of Justice.

A second Reason is drawn from satisfying of Vengeance, or Avenging Wrath as against Enemies; which heightens Justice. Thus in many places in the Old and New Testament, Deut. 32. Rom. 12. 19. 2 Cor. 10. 6. Rev. 6. 10. In which last place, God is stiled both a Judg and an Avenger, [Judg and Avenge] say the Saints there. A Judg most commonly doth acts of Justice in the behalf of others: but an Avenger is one that doth, or seeks Justice in his own Cause, and in his own behalf and Interest; therefore the next a-Kin, seeking the Life of a Murtherer, was termed an Avenger of Blood. Now God is more nearly concerned in this, than any Creatures can be, in what may concern Vengeance in them, for what ever Injury. This is therefore poena vindictae, as of one enraged and provoked; Patience having been abused, as Rom. 9. 22. and so is turned into Fury.

Now there are two properties of Vengeance, from whence I argue this, being put together.

First, that it is the property of Revenge to vent it self upon that which is p. 107principal in the Injury, and to make that the Vessel of its Wrath, it will never be satisfied else. Now that is the Soul of Man, which is the chief seat and subject of the Corruption of Sin, the chief Cause of the Act proceeding from thence, and that in which the Guilt arising from both doth principally abide. The Body is but instrumental in what the Soul doth; yea, and in some, and the greatest Sins, the Soul hath the sole and immediate Hand. This Soul therefore which is the chiefest Vessel of Sin, must be the chief Vessel of Wrath. Indignation and Wrath upon every [Soul] of Man that doth evil, Rom. 2. 8. whereof this undeniable Instance is given by God, that the Soul is it that suffers for the whole Man until the Resurrrection, as the Instance of the Rich Man shews. And it must be no less an immediate Sufferer, although not the alone Sufferer; but much more, after the day of Judgment, unto Eternity.

A second thing which Vengeance affecteth is, that the person that wrought the Injury dye by the hand of himself, that is, the Avenger: It loves to do that work it self. And this especially holds good in this cause of God's, and seeing it is to recover glory to God by shewing Vengeance; He comes to be glorified, rendring p. 108Vengeance from the glory of his Power.

I need not go about to form up any Argument from hence, for these two things, especially the latter, do speak home unto the Point: And being added unto what hath been spoken in the former Head of Justice, may be sufficient.

There is a third thing, which, as I said, both Divine Justice and Vengeance do conspire in; and that is, the utter Destruction of that which is the principal Offendor (which is the Soul) it is the nature of Vengeance to work the Destruction of that it is set against. And in this case of Sin, God's Justice also doth the same: the demerit of Sin is such, as it exciteth Vengeance to it. And therefore in both these places which are my Texts, Destruction is mentioned as the issue and product of this Revenge, and Wrath. So in 2 Thess. 1. 6, 7. To render Vengeance on them, who shall be punished with everlasting Destruction, and Rom. 9. 22. to make known the power of his Wrath on those Vessels of Wrath, fitted to Destruction. Destroyed they shall be, though not in regard of being, for they are to be Vessels of Wrath, and therefore to be still kept whole, in respect of being, else they could hold no Wrath: And that is another p. 109property of Vengeance, to have the Party made sensible of its Misery, and that his Enemy is even with him. And therefore God upholds their Being, but destroys their Souls in regard of well being. Now that is never till it be stript of every Comfort, and every corner of the Soul be filled with Misery. For if any corner be empty, it is not destroyed, it will not die.

Now this third or last thing, doth of it self afford, at least a Demonstration, ab effectis, from the event and effects of this Punishment: That therefore it is God's immediate hand that inflicts this Punishment. Which Demonstration is to be added, unto the former Reason, which was drawn from the Causes of it. For I argue, asking this Question, What is able to fill the Soul of Man, with good or evil? The Soul which was created in so large a Capacity, as to be filled with God, and with none but God himself; He only is able to fill the vast corners of it with either. Creatures like it self may afflict and torment it much, especially whilst in the Body, so much, as to cause it to desire Death, and a being out of the Body; but the Soul they are never able to destroy. The Soul is a Castle so strong built, as it can bear the Assaults of p. 110all its fellow-Creatures; and sustain it self, and not sink into Destruction. Nothing can destroy the well-being of the Soul but God's Power. For it is said, They may kill the Body, but God only can kill the Soul. And else, according to that Argument of Christ, Fear not them that can kill the body only, &c. they were to be feared as God himself is, if they could kill the Soul, as God can do. For Christ says, God is therefore to be feared, and only to be feared, because he can destroy both Body and Soul. And he redoubleth it with an Emphasis, Fear him, yea, I say unto you, Fear him, Luke 12. 5. Indeed one Evangelist says, Fear him, which after he hath killed, hath power to cast into Hell, which expresseth no more but an act of Authority to sentence and cast into Hell, as the Judge doth into Prison. Yet the other Evangelist puts it upon this, because he is able to kill the Soul, and that only he is able to destroy both Body and Soul in Hell. He says not barely to cast into Hell as by way of Authority, but adds, kills and destroys in Hell, when they are cast thither: For God is both Judg and Avenger. And therefore if it be Destruction, 'tis evident He only can, and must do the execution. And therefore, in the Text, 2 Thes. 1. 8, 9. their being punished with everlasting p. 111Destruction, is attributed to the glory of his Power. These are some of the Reasons of this great Point.