bISC. xII.] THE NATURE OF THÉ PUNISHMENTS IN HELL. 401 fancy he is all made up of gentleness and forbearance, and without holiness and justice ! 1 Gor. xv. 34. Alas, Sirs, these attributes are as necessary in a God as grace and- compassion : He is and must be a wise, a righteous Governor of the world ; and his wisdom requires that impenitent sinners should be punished, to secure the ho- nour of the law, and to guard his gospel from contempt*. These awful perfections of the blessed God are as neces- sary to vindicate his authority and his government front insult and rebellion, as his goodness is needful to encou- rage sinful creatures to repent and return to their duty. The word of God expressly tells us, he is " a God of .holiness and consuming fire;".Heb. xii. 2,9. but there is many a sinner that will never learn this lesson till the torments of hell teach it him by dismal experience. They have trifled with his majesty, and mocked at his threatenings all their life, till at the moment of death he awakes like a lion, and. tears their spirits with everlasting anguish. I might take notice also in this place, that there is another mistaken notion of God, into which some per- sons have unhappily fallen, as " though God were the cause and author of sin," and have spoken unadvisedly with their lips, in such language as borders too near upon blasphemy. But it is evident, that a God, who will pu- nish the sins of men with such intense pain and torment, can never be so inconsistent with himself as to be the author or cause of those sins. It is granted, that his universal providence has a concern in every thing that is ,transacted among men ; but since he has informed us in what a dreadful manner he will execute his vengéance against sinners in the world to come, it is insolence and indignity against the blessed God to represent him as introducing sin into our world. " Let God be true, * A governor made up of mere goodness and mercy could be no gover- nor at all; for it is absurd tocall that a government; where every subject may do what iniquity and mischief he pleases with impurity. The laws of such a government would cease to be laws, and become mere rules and directions for living, which every one might observe or not, just accord- ing to his inclination. To say that it became the wisdom of God to threaten offenders, but that his goodness will interpose in the end and hinder the punishment, is tosay, that God is not wise, for if he were he would cer- tainly have taken care not to let those Inea into the secret. Bishop ltorts'$ sermons, page 315.
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