-- CHAPTER IV: That this immediate wrath of God is in Scripture set forth unto us under the similitu
whole of the point in hand. It is Rom. 2:8, 9, Indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish unto every soul of man that doth evil, &c.
I observed afore from the second verse of this chapter, how that this punishment was termed both the 'judgment of God,' ver. 2, as denoting God to be the judge, and also 'wrath,' as of God the avenger.
Now, in these words, ver. 8, 9, the apostle pursueth the latter more fully, when he says, 'Indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish to every soul of man.' These are two pairs or conjugates of causes and effects: 1, 'indignation and wrath,' as the causes; 2, 'tribulation and anguish,' as the two effects; and that on the 'souls of men,' which are the vessels of this wrath and indignation, and subjects of that tribulation and anguish thence arising. And truly his instancing in the soul, which, though it often signifies the whole person, yet here seems purposely done, as being that in or of man, which alone is immediately capable of this indignation and wrath of God, and the impressions or effects of anguish therefrom, and is the proper seat of that anguish and tribulation; and that phrase of wrath, its being said to be 'treasured up,' in the 5th verse, suits this. For what is the treasury or magazine thereof, but the heart and bosom of God himself, in which it lies hid, as treasures use to do in some secret place? Even as the saints' life is said to be 'hid in God,' Col. 3:3, compare Deut. 32:24.
I shall but further superadd that noticed saying of Lather (which, out of deep experience of the wrath of God in his soul, at his first humiliation and conversion he had learned), The wrath of God is hell, the hell of devils and all damned spirits.
CHAPTER IV:
That this immediate wrath of God is in Scripture set forth unto us under the
similitude of fire, and fiery indignation.
The examples of persons devoured by fire in the Old Testament, shadows of this punishment by the immediate wrath of God.—This the fire wherein the devil and his angels are tormented
There hath been nothing more divertive of the thoughts of men from apprehending, or so much as imagining God's immediate wrath to be a cause of that punishment in hell, than that the Scriptures do so often make mention of fire, &c., as the instrument thereof, and so men's conceptions do terminate therein, and go no further.
But I shall rather on the other hand make an argument of it, namely, that indeed the Scriptures do set out this immediate wrath of God under the similitude, resemblance, and representation of fire, and that sometimes, when hell-fire is spoken of, the wrath of God is intended thereby.
Unto which I yet preface this, that I must not, nor dare I say that there is no material fire in hell ordained for punishment to men's bodies, but that it is rational, that the body having sinned as well as the soul, it should have a meet recompence of reward suited thereto, as well as that the soul should. But yet so, as either of them have this meted out to them, according to their vastly differing share, and hand, and acting which they had in sinning; in which the soul is always the principal actor, and in some sins the sole agent and subject. To be sure, in heaven there is a confluence of created excellencies, suited to the bodies of saints, made spiritual, as well as God himself, the happiness of their souls; and sure I am that, on the contrary, it is distinctly said of each apart, that God destroys 'both body and soul' in hell, Mat. 10:28; and accordingly each of them, with a punishment suited unto each.
The passage of Scripture unto which the gathering will be of several others, for the proof of this my present assertion (which is the subject of this chapter) is that of our apostle in the 28th verse of this
Heb. 10, a little afore my text; he there setting forth the judgment to come, in the causes and effects of it to be,
A 'fiery indignation, devouring the adversaries.'
I did but touch upon it before, when I drew out other arguments from this text, but then reserved a fuller handling of this by itself.
The original hath it, the indignation of fire. But indignation is in and from the heart of an intelligent person provoked, which is God, as the text shews. Grotius therefore interprets it, 'the anger of God,' but adds, 'putting forth itself by fire.' I suppose he means by corporeal fire, as its instrument. But why not rather the anger of God himself, devouring his adversaries as fire, and so to relate to the manner of his anger its working, as represented under the similitude of fire, seeing God himself is in this epistle styled a consuming fire, which interprets this?
And in this expression of fiery indignation which devoureth, he hath particular reference unto those, of all other the most extraordinary judgments upon Nadab and Abihu: Lev. 10:2, 'There came out fire from the Lord, and devoured them.' They are in terminis the very words of the apostle here; and we may take in also (that so we may have two witnesses too, to confirm this our interpretation of the apostle's allusion) 'That two hundred and fifty princes perished by fire from the Lord in the rebellion of Koran,' Num. 16:35. This as for what examples is referred unto.
Now, to raise up our thoughts unto how much a sorer punishment the fiery indignation that remained for those gospel adversaries should be, he suggests how transcendently the gospel exceeds the ministration of Moses's law, in these words that follow: 'He that despised Moses's law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, think ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified,
an unholy thing, and hath done despite to the Spirit of grace?'
Moses's law (the old covenant, as joined with the law ceremonial), was sprinkled or consecrated with the blood of beasts, chap. 9:19–21.
But the gospel of the new covenant, and the persons enlightened thereby, have been sanctified by the blood of the Son of God. If, then, such an extraordinary fiery judgment befell the despisers of this
Moses's law, thus sprinkled, &c., what fiery indignation proportionably must it be that shall befall the treaders down, both of the book, covenant, and sacred blood of Christ! And in this lies the weight and strength of the apostle's argument.
That maxim of the judicial law which, is annexed, that despisers 'died without mercy under two or three witnesses,' is brought in for that grand circumstance's sake, whereby the apostle heighteneth both the iniquity of those persons destroyed by fire, who sinned before many thousand witnesses, the whole congregation of Israel; as likewise this other far transcending guilt of these adversaries, who had renounced
Christ and his blood only, before the whole world and Christian church. So chap. 6:6, it is said they did put the Lord Jesus to an open shame, and they are the same persons whom he threatens this against here, and speaks of there.
But still, by what surpassing proportion may we estimate, or suppose (as the apostle calls us to do) how much this fiery indignation is sorer than that outward devouring them by fire. It is certain that Moses's law, and that sprinkling with beasts' blood, &c., which he argues from, held but the proportion of types, figures, and shadows; but the new covenant, and Christ's blood, &c., of the substance and reality comparatively to these. Then in like manner, his intent in proposing these examples of judgments by fire, was as of those that hold the proportion but of a type, a figure of this fiery indignation that is to come upon the treaders down of the blood of Christ. For indeed a mere bodily death, the sharpest (as those by fire were), is but as the shadow of death, unto the second death (the thing intended here), which is utterly another kind of thing.
In Heb. 10 ver. 1, he says of the good things of the gospel, that what the law held forth were but the shadows of those good things to come, as Canaan of heaven, chap. 4 &c.; the like, Col. 2:17. And why may it not be also said, that as all the good things under the law, the best were but shadows of those good things to come, so that the highest and worst of outward evil things executed then, were in like manner but shadows of those evil things which the gospel brings to light, as the punishment of sin? And we may see in his succeeding discourse in this same chapter, how he, having first instanced in the good, he after instanceth in the highest of evil, in these words I am upon, vers. 27–31. And in like manner the like extraordinary judgments then are expressly said to have 'happened to them as types;' so in Greek* and margin, 1 Cor. 10:11: types not merely monitory of like events, but withal prefigurative of punishment of an higher kind, &c. What death could be outwardly sorer than to be destroyed of serpents? ver. 9, and those fiery too, Num. 21:6, the effects of whose stings are described to be as dolorous as being burnt alive, But under the gospel, sin and the law, and so God's wrath, these as the substance are set out to be the sting of that death to come, 1 Cor. 15:55. Again, ver. 10, 'destroyed of the destroyer.' Who was the destroyer then? Angels: so Heb. 11:38. And what destruction or destroyer under the gospel is it that is typified out by these? Even
God himself, who, as by Christ, is said to 'kill the soul,' and 'destroy body and soul in hell.' So, ere the apostle took off his pen from prosecuting that argument, in the very same chapter he in full effect says as much, in setting before them how it was God's power and wrath, instead of those other destroyers, with which sinners have now to do. Ver. 22, 'Do you provoke the Lord to jealousy? are you stronger than he?' I might confirm this notion from other types, 1
Cor. 15:44, 45. This forelaid;— To approach nearer to our purpose in hand, there are two things further to be done. 1. As touching the type itself, what kind of fire that was which devoured them; and the manner of their deaths.
The fire was another manner of fire than this our elementary common fire. This was fire from heaven, and therefore said to be a fire from the Lord that devoured them; it was such a fire, as blasts of lightning are, which strike, and blast, and shrivel the spirits of a living body in an instant, which is evident by the manner of their deaths. The Hebrew doctors say of it, that it was a fire which burnt their souls, not their bodies; their meaning is, their bodies were not consumed or devoured by it: for Lev. 10:5, it is said, They carried their bodies and coats into the tent, as untouched. It was therefore such a fire (as lightning is from heaven) which useth to strike, and lick up men's spirits in an instant, when yet in the mean time it consumes not, breaks not so much as skin or flesh, which our elementary fire preys first and most upon. It was therefore a far subtiler fire than culinary or kitchen fire, which suitably served as the fittest and nearest type of this fiery indignation, and of the vengeance which it executes. And this was but the shadow.
The second is, What the substance answering to these types should be? This I shall set out by two things:
1. What is the thing or subject devoured by this fiery indignation? It is the immortal souls of men. These are the fuel which this fire doth prey upon. As to the truth of the thing itself, I need not insist on it; but the analogy of that as the shadow, and this as typified thereby, that is the matter afore me. Let it be considered, that the death and destruction of the immortal soul in man could not any other way be more lively shadowed forth than by such a devouring (as Moses's word is) or licking up the vital and animal spirits that run in the body, when yet the body itself remains unburnt; thereby demonstrating that it was such a fire as struck immediately at that which is the fountain of life itself in the body, and at that which is the bond, the vinculum, the tie of union between soul and body; for such are those spirits. And yet not so much as to singe the outward bulk or carcase of the body. There could have been nothing invented in the whole compass of nature, to have borne a resemblance so near to shadow forth the immortal soul, as those spirits running in man's
blood and arteries do, which some affirm to be the very animal and vital soul in man. Sure I am, they are as the oil whereby life is preserved and fed; and in the blood is the life, says Moses, our best interpreter in this. Neither doth this shadow hold a similitude in this particular only, but in another like case as evidently. The pouring forth of the blood of the beasts that were sacrificed under the old law was particularly ordained to signify Christ his 'pouring forth his soul unto death,' as Isaiah speaks; as well as in general, that the sacrifice of these beasts did typify forth Christ's sacrifice in the whole of it.
And this was as near a representation of that particular as could any way be made, by what was corporeal in beasts, or else in the whole creation (for a sacrifice of mankind, or the blood of men, God liked not to be made to him in his worship) could possibly have been found to pourtray it forth.
The second thing is, that the substance shadowed forth by that fire was no other than the indignation or wrath of the great God himself, which is termed fiery indignation here.
For proof of which, I insist not, that some shim thereof this shadow itself doth cast, in Moses his saying again and again in terminis, that 'a fire from the Lord,' &c., which hath a great emphasis and resemblance of this in it. But for proof I ask,
First, Where shall we find, or how shall we imagine any created fire so to exceed that fire from heaven, recorded in that story; and so far exceeding it as the substance doth a shadow, or such as should melt down immortal souls? You may sooner invent or imagine a fire so much comparatively hotter than that of the sun itself (which is the contract of fire and light), and so much exceeding it, as should be able to shrivel up this sun into a burnt black coal, as to imagine any such created fire, so transcending this of lightning from heaven, as shall thus devour reasonable souls and immortal spirits, that in the substance of them (as being spirits) do bear the image of God. In what furnace will you think to find such a fire? Nowhere but in the
bosom of him who hath here said, Vengeance is mine, even of God himself.
2. To confirm this. What created fire can be conceived more subtile or powerful, than the angels themselves are conceived to be? whom, as Heb. 1:7, out of the Psalms, the apostle compareth to flames of fire, that is, in our European language, to lightning. Now then I ask, when Christ says, Mat. 25:41, 'Go into the fire prepared for the devil and his angels' (shewing that man's punishment shall be from the same hand that the punishment of those evil angels is), what fire can be supposed such, that can work on angelical natures, who themselves have power over fire; of fire of lightning from heaven, as in Job's case was seen. None other but that, which, as the apostle resolves us (if we will rest in it), that 'our God is a consuming fire,'
Heb. 12:29. So that consideration, the state and condition of the devil, I cannot but celebrate that fore-cited conclusive speech of Luther's, Ira Dei est infernus diaboli et omnium damnatorum, it is the wrath of God that is the hell of the devil, and of all the damned: for there can be no other fire in which the devils can be tormented.
Outward washings may as soon reach conscience, as Heb. 9:9, 1 Peter 3:21, as such created fire to torment an angel.
3. Let us consider other scriptures, which, as I said, do gather about this, to give testimony to this interpretation.
First, That of the prophet Isaiah, chap. 33:14, 'The sinners in Zion are afraid, fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites: Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?' I shall afterwards have occasion to take notice of this scripture by way of use. In the mean time, observe, that it is
God himself who is meant by this devouring fire here; for in a smart and quick retortion (and it is a most elegant one), the prophet gives answer, 'He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly, he shall dwell with him' (whom you, that are hypocrites, so much dread, and have cause enough to do so); with him shall an upright man dwell, who is, and will be unto you, in the state you are in, a
devouring fire. And thus they are reproved, and taught what it is to be hypocrites, by the opposite condition of the upright, and the differing event of being such. And further, that it is God himself there the prophet intendeth, as with whom the upright should dwell, the words following do also shew: ver. 16, 'He shall dwell on high'
(namely, with that 'high and lofty One, that dwells in the high and holy place,' &c.). Do but punctually compare that Isa. 57:15 with this here; likewise ver. 17, 'Thine eye' (O thou upright soul) 'shall see the King in his beauty;' that is (as Christ says), 'the pure in heart shall see
God.' The result is, that the same God, who appears all in flames, and as a devouring fire, unto hypocrites in hell, is all light and beauty to the upright in heaven. Like as unto a sound and vigorous eye, 'it is a pleasant thing to behold the sun,' as Solomon speaks, but to sore eyes it is a terror.
Add to this Ps. 21:8, 9, 'Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies, thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee. Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: the Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them.' This the Chaldee paraphrast interprets of the fire of hell; and so you have all meet to interpret this fire to be meant of the wrath of God himself.
1st, God a consuming fire, Heb. 12:29; then, 2dly, God himself to be that devouring fire, Isa. 33:14; and, 3dly, his wrath interpreted to be that fire by the psalmist. And lo, how these all meet in this one saying, 'The fiery indignation that devours the adversaries!' which the apostle himself also interprets of God himself afterwards, 'We know him that hath said, Vengeance is mine; and it is a fearful thing,'
&c.
Particularly for that scripture, even now cited, Isa. 33:14, if we consult the context, the occasion of bringing in that horrid outcry,
'Who among us,' &c. (as interpreters agree), was that the prophet had set forth in the verses before, that most wonderful and prodigious slaughter of the king of Assyria's host, when an hundred fourscore and five thousand (as 2 Kings 19:35) were in one night destroyed by an angel. And thereupon the prophet, in this passage, is
to be understood either to have related what an impression of dread this so unparalleled a judgment had made upon, and struck the hearts of the hypocrites in Zion with; as that which had made them to cry out thereupon, 'Oh how then shall we dwell with everlasting burnings?' that is, with God himself; for they may well be supposed to have reasoned thus with themselves: If one angel, that is but a ministering spirit to God, is able to blast and consume such a multitude in one night, how shall we have to do with God himself, who is that infinite immense devouring fire, and all those angels but as sparks, and his ministers? And so, according to this meaning, themselves are brought in, speaking by the prophet, as the men of Bethshemesh did upon the like judgments: 1 Sam. 6:20, 'Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God?' Or else those words may be supposed to have been the prophet's own meditation and use of instruction, deduced from that example; which he uttereth, as forewarning the sinners in Zion to consider, that if God be so terrible in the judgments he executes by others, his angels, who are flames of fire, how will you endure to dwell with God himself, and have immediately to do with him for ever, who is a devouring fire and everlasting burnings? &c. And our Saviour's speech is not remote from this of Isaiah, when, speaking of hell, it is the 'fire prepared for hypocrites,' says he, Mat. 24:51. Even as here Isaiah professeth to speak this of, and unto the hypocrites in Zion, as the persons above all others forewarned when hell is threatened. Again, as in Isaiah,
God himself is called the devouring and everlasting fire, so here in the text, his wrath is termed 'fiery indignation devouring.' And the word translated adversaries here, falls out also to be a word deciphering hypocrites or false professors, ὑπεναντίους, under-hand enemies, who are also said to look for, in their trembling consciences, this fiery indignation; even as of those hypocrites Isaiah also speaks, as being the expectants of hell. And again, our apostle, chap. 12:29, 'Our God is a consuming fire.' So as upon several accounts it is, that God himself and his wrath is, more eminently, that fire in hell the Scriptures sometimes speak of.
If it be objected out of my text, 2 Thes. 1:8, 9, is it not said, 'He cometh in flaming fire with his mighty angels'? Will he not then use corporeal fire, as also the might of his angels, and both as instruments of his execution, and their destruction; and to that very end mentions the might of his angels?
I answer, 1, This fire here is not mentioned as that which is the cause of their everlasting destruction, but as that which is a concomitant of Christ's appearing; and also a forerunner or harbinger to that judgment he comes to pronounce sentence of, whereof the destruction that follows is the final execution. Judges use for terror, and for a demonstration of their authority, work, and office they are employed in, to have visible instruments of death carried before them, as ensigns of their power; a company of halberds, or the like, for their guard to go before, and environ them round; which yet are not to be the immediate instruments of the execution of malefactors itself, but accompany their persons at the examination and sentence.
And as to this or the like use, is this guard of angels, and of flaming fire mentioned, to be understood to serve; both these referring evidently unto that his appearing. 'Who shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire,' but not spoken of, as the causes of the destruction itself that follows.
The angels further serve to gather men from all the four corners of the world, Mat. 13:41, 42, to hale and bring them before the Judge; and after sentence to cast them into the place of torment, called there a furnace of fire; but not of their making, but God's. They do but deliver them into the dreadful place, wherein execution is acted and performed.
2. This fire which he appears with is to burn up this visible world, as a fore-running sign, to shew the fierceness of the fire of that wrath which shall after prey and seize upon the invisible world; that is, men souls and devils for ever. Not that men's souls are to be burnt up with no other fire than what the world is burnt withal, but that which burns the visible world, is an example and demonstration of that