so$ SE R2140 N S upon Serm.XVI. damned ; Fiji, becaufe death to the wicked is an inlet to their final and eternal mifery. 'Tis dreadful to them,not only as a naturalevil,as it puts an end to their worldly comforts,but as a penal evil, Heb. 2.14, 15. Whó are all their life time fubjetl to bondage through fear of death; becaufe of theconfequenceséf ir, then their torment beginneth. Secondly, beta : :f 'tis more liable to fenfe. We know hell by faith, and death by fenfe ; now that notion that is more known,affe&s us more; all abhor death as a fearful thing. Briefly then, this death confifts not in an extin &ion and abolition of the creature, but in a de- privation of the fitvour and prefence of the bleffed God,who is the fountain of all com- fort ; and the everlafting pains and torments which the foul and body being cart out of Gods pretence feeleth in hell; all that weeping and gnafhing of teeth, that bit- ter remembrance of what is pail, the acute fenfe of what is prefent , that defpair and fearful looking for of the fiery indignation 'of the Lord ; what the Scripture fpeaketh of; 'tis all included in this word (ye fhalldie ) ; 'tis in fhort, to be feparated from God and Chrift, and the Saints and Angels, and to have eternal fellowship with Devils, and damned Spirits, together with thofe unknown pains infli&ed on us by the Wrath of God in the other world. 3. It would not be fufficient co reftrain men from fin, if God fhould only threaten temporal death, and not eternal ; every murtherer would venture to execute his ma- liee, every adultererfollow hislufts, and voluptuous man his fwinifh and brutith plea - fure,'if it were only to endure a fhort pain at death, and then be free from mifery for ever after : We, fee how offenders venture on mans punifhment, and how many (hort- en their days for their vain pleafure ; therefore unlefs the death were everlafling, the world would be little awed by it, unlefs the bitternefs be greater than the prefent finful pleafure ; therefore eternal torment is that which God threatneth, and will furely exe- cute on the fenfual and carnal ; fo that the tanner bath no hope to efcape, unlefs by re- pentance,and.breaking this courre of living after the fleh. Secondly, Now by way of Confirmation, We muft Phew the fit Connexion between thefe Two Things, the carnal living,and this terrible Death; and there we muft fhew you, r. That this threatning is every way confrftent with the Juftice, and Wifdom, and Goodnefs of God. 2. Since 'tis threatned, the certainty of its accomplifhment. 1. Its confiflency with the juflice, Wifdom, and Goodnefs of God. a. His Juftice : Firft, Becaufe theft that live in the .flefh, continue in the defeelion nd apoflacy of mankind. And fo the old fentence is in force againft them, In the day thou eatefl thereof, thouflialt die, Gen. a. 17. To thew you this let me tell you, That by the Creation Man was to be fu'bje& to God, and by his owri make and conftitution was corn- poled of a body and a foul, which two parts were to be regarded according to the worth and dignity of each ; the body was fubordinated to the foul, and bath body and foul to God: The flcfh was a fervant to the fpirit, and both flesh and fpirit unto the Lord ; but fin entring,defaced the beauty, and difturbed the order and harmony of the Creation, for man withdrew his Subordination and Obedience unto God his Maker, and letup himfelf inflead of God, and the flehh is preferred before the foul ; reafon and confcience are inflaved to fettle and appetite, and the beaft doth ride the man, the flehh becoming our Principle, fiule, and End ; now 'tishorrible wickednefs if you confider either of there diforders;our contempt of God,for it is great depreciation, and difefteem of his holy and bleffed Welly, which is neglected and flighted for a little carnal fatis- ft &ion and every perifhing vanity is preferred before his favour; the hainoufnefs of the fin is to be meafüred by the greatnefs of him who is offended by it, 1 Sam. 2.25-if one man fin againft another,the fudglhalljudghimibut if a man fn againft the Lord, who !hall intreat for him? Now for creatures to leek their happinefs without God, and apart from God, in fuch bale things, deferveth the greater punihment. The other diforder is, we love the happinefs of the body above that of the foul ; man carrieth it as if he had not an ImmortalSpirit in him, Pfal. 49. 12, is as the Gull that perifheth: And is altogether flefh, his Wifdom and Spirit is funk into flefli, and fin bath transformed him into a brutih nature. Well now, if men will continue in this apoftacy ; what then more juif, than th,t God fhoul'd (land to his old fentence, and deprive him of that happinefs which he defpífeth, that thofe whondi(honour their own fouls, hould never be acquainted with a ble(led immortality ; and thofe that contemn their God, and banifh him out of their thoughts, and do in effect fay to the Almighty, Job 21. 14. Depart from ne, we defre not
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