The Punishment of Sin in Hell, Section 1 · Chapter 1
CHAP. I.
The Subject of this Discourse, set out and reduced to two Heads: The first, That God's Wrath is the immediate Cause of the Punishment of Sin in Hell.
I Shall confine my self to these two Heads. And in handling thereof, what the one of these Scriptures is wanting in, the other will supply; in what the one is dark, the other explains.
The Heads themselves, I shall take as I find them in the first of these Scriptures, Heb. 10. 31. First, that God himself, by his own Hands, that is, the power of his Wrath, is the immediate Inflicter of that Punishment or Destruction of Men's Souls in Hell: [It is a falling into the Hands of God.] Secondly, the dreadfulness of that Punishment, inferred and argued there-from; It is a [fearful thing] to fall into the Hands of the Living God.
Which two are the Doctrinal parts of this Discourse.
For the first, That God himself is the immediate Inflicter, &c.
For Explication. We must distinguish; how that God performs two parts herein. 1. Of a Judg, to give forth the Sentence by his Authority. 2. Of an Avenger, a party injur'd and provoked, and, as such, the Inflicter. My scope in this distinction, is, that we may in reading the Scriptures that speak of this Punishment, know how to put a difference, and not transfer the whole of God's Agency in this matter, unto that of sentencing it as a Judg only. And besides that many Scriptures do apart shew this distinction, there are some that still carry along with them both these Agencies, or Hand of God, in it together, and yet as distinct; the one under the term of Wrath and Vengeance, the other under the Notion of its being a Judgment, [the Judgment of God, and the Judgment of Hell-Fire] *Quid à justo Dei infligitur. G…rard de inferno. Sect. 30.as Mat. 23. 33. Thus first the Text, Heb. 10. terms it some while [Vengeance and fiery Indignation, ver. 30. 27.] then again—Judgment, as ver. 27. a [fearful looking for of Judgment, and ver. 30. The Lord will judge, &c.] The like, Rom. 2. 5, 8, 9. where all is reduced in like manner to these two, God's righteous Judgment, and his Wrath and Indignation treasured up. Also, 2 Thess. 1. [The righteous Judgment of God] ver. 5, 6. there is the Sentence, and [destroyed from the glory of his Power] as the inflicting cause, ver. 9. likewise Rom. 9. as Soveraign Lord he shews, foreign Authority in this Punishment, ver. 21. and then as the immediate Inflicter, Wrath and foreign, the Power of his Wrath. And ver. 22. that speech of our Saviour, about this matter. One Evangelist, Luke 12. 5. records it, Who is able to cast into Hell: *foreign.namely, as a Judg who casts a Malefactor into Prison. The other, Mat. 10. 28. Who is †foreign.able to kill the Soul, and to destroy Body and Soul in Hell. Noting thereby that he useth his Intrinsick Power and Force as the Inflicter.
I shall be large in handling and proving this latter, as a great Truth, concerning which I further premise, That, I would not be understood to exclude other Miseries as inflicted by Creatures, used as God's Instruments accompanying this, but that which I contend for, is, that principally and eminently above all such, it is the Wrath and Indignation of God himself, working immediately in and upon Mens Souls and Consciences, that is intended in these and other Scriptures. This is the Subject of the first Section of this Discourse.
And let it be noticed now at the entrance, that the same Scriptures and Reasons that shall be brought to prove this in this first Section, will be found again to serve as new Arguments by way of inference to set out and infer the latter also; that is, the dreadfulness of it, as will appear in the second Section.