Chapter VI
A third sort of proofs from 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 won dered 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 trophy 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 raiment with their blood,
* tread the wine-press of his Father s wrath
Isa. Ixiii., as that he glories to
alone. He glories in it. There 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 centre 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. x., I will repay ; and 2 Thes.
i. 6, It is a righteous thing in God, To blxoucv dva^odovvai, to repay again, or recompense, and ver. 9. Oinvsg dlxqv ricovciv, who shall
* pay or lay down a punishment justly sentenced, which in Heb. ii. 2 is called a just recompence of reward ; and Rom. vi. 23, 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. Let 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 punished in hell, God himself will set his immediate hand
to it ; and justice requires this.
(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 afiirmed of Christ alone, that he gave full
satisfaction unto God s justice, in whom there was svdn^ig 8/xaiuevvvif tov,
a manifestation or demonstration of God s justice for sins that were past, Rom. iii. 25 ; yet still, as although a full satisfaction can never be had from
or upon the creature (therefore in hell they always suffer), yet God doth
CHAP. VI. J IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 515
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. v. 26, and, selling them, and all they had, to make money thereof, Mat. xviii. 25, do shew.
(2.) In this case that which justice will require unto any tolerable equit able 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, lix., According to their deeds, accordingly he will
repay, recompense 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.
[l.J 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 foundationevil of it lieth in an aversion or turning off from God, and therein and thereby 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 sovereignty,
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, then a punishment by crea
tures only, might equivalently have been even with that its obliquity of debas
ing 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 punish ment, which justice doth require for this, but God himself. I may make use
* If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him and revenge it ; but if against God, who shall entreat for him ? thus he. And upon the same or like ground of reason, I infer, if one
of Eli s speech: 1 Sam. ii. 25,
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 day in this
world; but if man sin against God, who shall recompence it when God s day comes wherein he is to be glorified ? 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 what
ever 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 heightened, in Rom.
i. 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. v. 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 Adam s righteousness, so is the demerit of sin ; and so, nor
of punishment. Because there is so transcendent an undueness, yea, an
516 AN UNREGENEBATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK XIII.
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 mere goodness of God, which he and his obedience and all depended upon ; and so the pro portion thereof is no way to be looked 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 mere creature, but Christ God-man, and his obedience or suffer
ing, 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 subjective God, could satisfy God for the demerit of sin, committed against God objective, so that sin is such an evil as cannot, in the sinner himself, be thoroughly punished unto the
satisfaction of justice but by God himself efficiently ; that is, God to be the
inflicter thereof immediately ?
[2.] A second equitable rule of proportion, that justice, requiring the full
est satisfaction that may be had, will exact, is, that the principal author and
actor in the sin should principally bear the punishment. This not only vengeance (which is the second topic) 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 show how vengeance also seeketh to wreak itself
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,
1st, To inquire what it is in the soul or spirit of man, which God, when he comes to deal strictly and downrightly, as a judge of men s souls, hath prin
cipally to do withal ? All must acknowledge 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 men s 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 to be atoned with us as a
judge, is all one as to say that we on our parts have no more conscience of
sins, Heb. x. 2, 3, 10, 11, 17, verses compared. Conscience is that part of
the soul, whereby God as the judge, 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. ii. 15, and that in order unto
judgment, as follows in vr. 16.
Again, 2dly, I inquire, when it shall come to the execution of the punish ment 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 the clearer making forth the argument before us, namely, that justice re
quires God s immediate hand, &., I shall in a more ample manner set
together these five ensuing assertions.
1. That conscience and the intellectual, or understanding power in man s
soul, are God s enyagee, and the principal in a double respect
: 1st, con
science is responsible for the whole in man ; or, if you will, principal in the
CHAP. VI.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 517
obligation, as being that which, by its own acknowledgment of a judgment made unto God when he shall come to judge, binds over itself, and with
itself, 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. 2dly, If we take in together with conscience, the understanding part in man, the inteUiyentia, 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 reason 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 de
faults and miscarriages of the whole, at its hands. According to the inquiry of those rules declared concerning rulers of the people
: Jer. v. 4, 5,
4 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
* I will require their blood at the priest s hands. And all these founded upon one and the same common ground, common unto conscience with these, namely, conscience and knowledge there being the guides ; and
in Ezekiel,
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
practic understanding, doth still wickedly give secrect consent unto sin, &c. ; hence therefore that denunciation in Ezekiel holds, that God will require the blood of the soul at his 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 offender, 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 itself in the guilt of it, made as far
as possibly, to be its own tormentor and instrument of the highest punish ment in and unto the soul that hath sinned. There is no sword like unto
that, will justice say, to slay a sinner withal. 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 to be filled with their own devices, and their
iniquity to slay them, Prov. i. 32. This is the justest and highest doom
which wisdom itself can invent, or God s power execute. The very same
* Thine own wickedness shall correct
doth Jeremiah also speak, chap. ii. 19,
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 strain of justice indeed. Now this is most exquisitely accomplished 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. lix. 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 transgression 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
518 AN UNREGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK XIII.
and wildest tone of grief and note of insufferable torment. And observe, how that that knowledge had two things in contemplation, which caused the
roaring. 1st, Sin, together with the wrath of God, our transgressions are
multiplied before 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, ver. 11 ; and, 2dly, They testify against us. This was the accusation of their own consciences themselves. 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. Jeremiah 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, knowledge of sin and wrath, whether it be in men in forerunning anguish in
this life, or hereafter in hell in the fullness of it.
8. It is not, nor can it be the mere 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 spirit
ually 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 there
fore 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.
Now, 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 pro
per, 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 pro voked thereunto by sin. Do you provoke the Lord to jealousy ? 1 Cor.
x. 22. The like, Jer. vii. 19. Sins are as a heap of charcoal, wicked men s 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 be comes a fiery oven within itself. 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 Jeremiah : Thy way and thy doings have procured these things to thee, and this is thy wicked ness ; as it follows therein, Jer. iv. 18. Yet still these are all of them de
ficient, and fall short in representing unto the heart and conscience the demerit of sin, even so far as by the effects it may be known, and the sonl
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 con
science, 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 second
ary 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 secondary punishments which sin hath
also deserved, whereof it also is the cause. And this dispensation of im mediate 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.
CHAP. VI.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 519
4. 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 immediately exposed unto it. It is bare and naked unto him with whom we have to do, Heb. iv. 13, as in respect to God s knowledge, so of God s punishing, as I have elsewhere shewn. Con
science is an open door or inlet ; or as an open window is to the sun, so is
it to God, for him to come in at any time, that whenever God will but take upon him to perform and execute the part of a judge 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. iii. 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 corro
sive to the sore, so this unto the soul) to convey his own displeasure by ; conscience hath an ear to 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, immediately susceptive of it. If God will but set a man s sins in order before 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 Ps. ii. 12, and rebuke us in his anger, Ps. vi. 1, then, at the very rebuke of his countenance we perish, Ps. Ixxx. And it is most
certain that God can reveal his anger to the soul immediately, 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 before others, so principally to a man s own soul ? as ver. 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. vi. 16. That, as Luther says, Animus sibi male
conscius potius ad diabolum ipsum ferretur, quam ad Deum accederet ; it had
rather be brought before the devil, and see his face, than see God s. Terror
of conscience, what is it, but all one with God s wrath in conscience ? See
it in its contrary. Peace (which we call peace of conscience), which passeth understanding, is rather denominated the peace of God which passeth understanding, Philip, iv. 7, than peace of conscience, although conscience be the subject pacified, and whose peace and quietus esi it is. And in like
manner, terror is styled the terror of the Lord, 2 Cor. v. 11. And these
things may perhaps afford as true a light towards the understanding of that maxim of the apostle, Rom. ii. 8, 9, indignation and wrath (viz. of God), tribulation and anguish unto 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, ver. 15, do there
speak, and that as in order unto judgment, ver. 16.
5. I add, as a corollary from this, that conscience, though it be thus naked and open 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
itself, 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 superior spirits to it, either angels or devils ; they are not
520 AN UNREGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK XIII.
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 Gcd 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 fanc^i being the soul s looking-glass, wherein it vieweth its own thoughts, and from which it takes off into itself 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 clasped, as it is God s prerogative alone to open it, which he then at that day will do ; and thereunto that likewise may be applied,
* He openeth, and none shuts ; and he shuts, and none opens. That speech holds as true of con
science, 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 aquafortis, 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 xiii. 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 God 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 aforehand), which God hath, as judge 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 Kom. i. 18), sup pose, I say, they were let fly 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 itself 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 judge, and he accompanies such judgments more or less, but as with some ordinary light and glimmer ings of an angry deity, yet his coming as a judge upon men s 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 judge indeed, rendering indignation and wrath upon the souls of men ; and of that judgment it is the same 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 seige, which may indeed terrify the inhabitants, and make them
tremble, Deut. xxxii. ; and so these the soul, as by remote effects in the suburbs of it, Rom. ii. But the latter is as shooting in of grenadoes, 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 men s souls. And this is as shooting fire into
the very magazine, into that which is the most inward in the soul, and forti-
CHAP. VI.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 52l
fied against the entrance of all created powers ; the magazine where all the
gunpowder lies, that is, the gnilt 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
fill 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 unspeakable 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 itself, as
the psalmist expresseth it in Ps. xxi. 9, almost in these very words. This being the state of matters between God the judge of all, and the souls and consciences of sinners, as touching that due and equitable punishment for sin, and the execution thereof, which men s souls are capable of, I shall now complete 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 engagee obliged unto God as a judge, and the understanding power in man the eminent transgressor, and both lying so naked and im
mediately exposed unto God s wrath, and capable to receive the revelation of it, an anguish made thereby in his 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 capa cious 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 afford the most due satisfaction and punishment, as being that which is the treasury of all the guilt of sin, and most exqui
sitely capable to suffer, and thereby to make fullest payment for all : then we may conclude that assuredly God is willing to wreak 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 forementioned thereby to punish it. And we may well sup pose that his justice is willing to do this, because God is (as the psalmist with an emphasis) judge himself, Ps. 1. 6, and judgeth for himself, Prov.
xvi. 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 will
ing 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
AN UNREGENERATE MAN*S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK XIII.
rules and proportions of justice fore-mentioned, which are most near and sacred to him.
2. 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 there with by God himself, all such punishments would not complete 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, 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, 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 may be had out of them towards it. I shut this point up there fore with this, that if God be judge 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 per taining to the conscience. So, nor all outward torments, take them alone without God s wrath accompanying them, they cannot make a perfect or
complete 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 traitors and offenders wholly unto
others, because they have no more power, as in respect of execution, to in
flict a condign punishment than other men ; but others can do it as ex
quisitely, 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 is the only way fully to recover his 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. xxxii., Rom. xii. 19, 2 Cor. x. 6, Rev. vi. 10, in which last place God is styled both a judge and an avenger; judge and
avenge, say the saints there. A judge 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 murderer, was termed an avenger of blood. Now God
is more nearly concerned in this, than any creature can be, in what may concern vengeance in them for whatever injury. This is therefore pmna vindicta, as of one enraged and provoked; patience having been abused, as Rom. ix. 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 itself upon that which is
principal 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
CHAP. VI.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 523
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
* Indignation and wrath upon every soul of man that doth evil, Rom.
wrath.
ii. 8, whereof this undeniable instance is given by God, that the soul is it
that suffers for the whole man until the resurrection, 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 die by the hand of himself, that is, the avenger
: It loves to do
that work itself. And this especially holds good in this cause of God, and
seeing it is to recover glory to God by shewing vengeance, he comes to be
glorified, rendering vengeance 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, maybe 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 offender (which is the soul), it is the nature of vengeance to work the de
struction 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 men
tioned as the issue and product of this revenge and wrath. So in 2 Thes.
i. 6, 7, to render vengeance on them, who shall be punished with everlast
ing destruction. And Rom. ix. 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 there
fore to be still kept whole, in respect of being, else they could hold no wrath ; and that is another property 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 stripped of every comfort, and every corner of
the soul be filled with misery ; for if any corner be empty, it is not de
stroyed, it will not die. Now, this third or last thing doth of itself 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 itself may afHict and tor ment 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
all its fellow-creatures, and sustain itself 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, ac
cording 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,
524 AN UNEEGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK XIII.
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 xii. 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 judge and avenger, and therefore if it be
destruction, it is evident he only can and must do the execution. And,
therefore, in the text, 2 Thes. i. 8, 9, their being punished with everlasting destruction is attributed to the glory of his power. These are some of the reasons of this great point.