III. As the future punishment of the wicked consists in sensible misery; so it shall not only continue for a very long time, but shall be absolutely without end.

Of those who have held that the torments of hell are not absolutely eternal, there have been two sorts. (1.) Some suppose, that in the threatenings of everlasting punishment, the terms used do not necessarily import a proper eternity, but only a very long duration. (2.) Others suppose, that if they do import a proper eternity, yet we cannot necessarily conclude thence, that God will fulfil his threatenings.

Therefore I shall,

FIRST, Show that the threatenings of eternal punishment do very plainly and fully import a proper, absolute eternity, and not merely a long duration.

This appears,

1. Because when the scripture speaks of the wicked's be ing sentenced to their punishment at the time when all temporal things are come to an end, it then speaks of it as everlasting, as in the text, and elsewhere.....It is true that the term for ever is not always in scripture used to signify eternity. Sometimes it means, as long as a man liveth. In this sense it is said, that the Hebrew servant, who chose to abide with his master, should have his ear bored, and should serve his master for ever.....Sometimes it means, during the continuance of the state and church of the Jews. In this sense, several laws, which were peculiar to that church, and were to continue in force no longer than that church should last, are called statutes for ever. See Exod. xxvii. 21. chap. xxviii. 43, &c.....Sometimes it means as long as the world stands. So in Eccles. i. 4. One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth for ever.

And this last is the longest temporal duration that such a term is ever used to signify. There is no instance of using such a term, for a longer duration, when it signifies a temporal duration: For the duration of the world is doubtless the longest of any of those things that are temporal, as its beginning was the earliest of any of those things that are temporal.

Therefore when the scripture speaks of things as being be fore the foundation of the world, it means that they existed from eternity, and before the beginning of time. So those things which continue after the end of the world, are eternal things, and are after the end of time.....Doubtless when the temporal world is at an end, there will be an end to temporal things. When the time comes that heaven and earth are shaken and removed, those things that remain will be things that cannot be shaken, but will remain for ever. Heb. xii. 26, 27.....This visible world contains all things that are seen and are temporal; and therefore when that is at an end, there will be an end of all things that are temporal, and therefore the things that remain after that will be eternal.

But the punishment of the wicked will not only remain after the end of the world, but is called everlasting after that, as in the text," These shall go away into everlasting punishment." So in 2 Thess. i. 9, 10. "Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; when he shall come to be glorified in his saints," &c.....Now, what can be meant by a thing's being everlasting, after all temporal things are come to an end, but that it is absolutely without end?

2. Such expressions are used to set forth the duration of the punishment of the wicked, as are never used in the scriptures of the New Testament to signify any thing but a proper eternity. It is said, not only that that punishment shall be for ever, but for ever and ever. Rev. xiv. 11.; "The smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever.".... Rev. xx. 10.; "Shall be tormented day and night, for ever and ever."....Doubtless the New Testament has some expression to signify a proper eternity, of which it has so often occasion to speak. But it is ignorant of any higher expression than this: If this do not signify an absolute eternity, there is none that does.

3. The scripture uses the same way of speaking to set forth the eternity of the punishment of the wicked, that it us. es to set forth the eternity of the happiness of the righteous,

or the eternity of God himself. Matth. xxv. 46. These shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous intò life eternal..... The words everlasting and eternal, in the original, are the very same. Rev. xxii. 5. And they (the saints) shall reign for ever and ever. And the scripture has no higher expression to signify the eternity of God himself, than that of his being for ever and ever; as Rev. iv. 9. "To him who sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and evèr," and in the 10th verse, and in chap. v. 14, and chap. x. 6, and chap. xv. 7.

Again, the scripture expresses God's eternity by this, that it shall be for ever, after the world is come to an end; Psalm cii. 26, 27. "They shall perish, but thou shalt endure : Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end."

4. The scripture says, that wicked men shall not be delivered, till they have paid the uttermost farthing of their debt; Matth. v. 26. Nor till they have paid the last mite; Luke x. 59, i. e. the utmost that is deserved, and all mercy is excluded by this expression. But we have shown that they deserve an infinite, an endless punishment.

5. The scripture says absolutely, that their punishment shall not have an end; Mark ix. 44. "Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." Now, it will not do to say, that the meaning is, Their worm shall live a great while, or that it shall be a great while before their fire is quenched. If ever the time comes that their worm shall die; if ever there shall be a quenching of the fire at all, then it is not true that their worm dieth not, and that the fire is not quenched. For if there be a dying of the worm, and a quenching of the fire, let it be at what time it will, nearer or further off, it is equally contrary to such a negation, it dieth not, it is not quenched.

SECONDLY, There are others who allow, that the expres slons of the threatenings do denote a proper eternity; but then, they say, it doth not certainly follow, that the punishVOL. VII.

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ment will really be eternal; because, say they, God may threaten, and yet not fulfil his threatenings. Though they allow that the threatenings are positive and peremptory, without any reserve, yet they say, God is not obliged to fulfil absolute positive threatenings, as he is absolute promises, because in promises a right is conveyed that the creature to whom the promises are made will claim; but there is no danger of the creature's claiming any right by a threatening..... There fore I am now to show, That what God has positively declared in this matter, does indeed make it certain, that it shall be as he has declared. To this end, I shall mention two things:

1. It is self evidently contrary to the divine truth, positively to declare any thing to be real, whether past, present, or to come, which God at the same time knows is not so. Absolutely threatening that any thing shall be, is the same as absolutely declaring that it is to be. For any to suppose, that God absolutely declares that any thing will be, which he at the same time knows will not be, is blasphemy, if there be any such thing as blasphemy.

Indeed, it is very true, that there is no obligation on God, arising from the claim of the creature, as there is in promises. They seem to reckon the wrong way, who suppose the neces sity of the execution of the threatening to arise from a proper obligation on God to the creature to execute consequent on his threatening. For indeed the certainty of the execution arises the other way, viz. on the obligation there was on the omniscient God, in threatening, to conform his threatening to what he knew would be future in execution. Though, strictly speaking, God is not properly obliged to the creature to execute, because he has threatened, yet he was obliged not absolutely to threaten, if at the same time he knew that he should not, or would not fulfil, because this would not have been consistent with his truth.....So that from the truth of God there is an inviolable connexion between positive threatenings and execution. They that suppose that God absolutely threatened, or positively declared, that he would do contrary to what he knew would come to pass, do therein suppose,

that he absolutely threatened contrary to what he knew to be truth. And how any one can speak contrary to what he knows to be truth, in declaring, promising, or threatening, or any other way, consistently with inviolable truth, is inconceivable.

Threatenings are significations of something; and if they are made consistently with truth, they are true significations, or significations of truth, or significations of that which shall be. If absolute threatenings are significations of any thing, they are significations of the futurity of the things threatened. But if the futurity of the things threatened be not true and real, then how can the threatening be a true signification? And if God, in them, speaks contrary to what he knows, and contrary to what he intends, how he can speak true is inconceiv able.

Absolute threatenings are a kind of predictions; and though God is not properly obliged by any claim of ours to fulfil predictions, unless they are of the nature of promises; yet it certainly would be contrary to truth, to predict and say such a thing would come to pass, which he knew at the same time would not come to pass. Threatenings are declarations of something future, and they must be declarations of future truth, if they are true declarations. Its being future alters not the case any more than if it were present. It is equally contrary to truth, to declare contrary to what at the same time is known to be truth, whether it be of things past, present, or to come; for all are alike to God.

Beside, we have often declarations in scripture of the future eternal punishment of the wicked, in the proper form of predictions, and not in the form of threatenings. So in the text, These shall go away into everlasting punishment. So in those frequent assertions of eternal punishment in the Revelation, some of which I have already quoted. The Revela tion is a prophecy, and is so called in the book itself; so are those declarations of eternal punishment..... The like declarations we have also in many other places of scripture.

2. The doctrine of those who teach, that it is not certain that God will fulfil those absolute threatenings, is blasphe