b[sC. XIII. THE PUNISHMENT$ IN HELL. 69 confirm it ; 4.Escl. v. 33. " Then said the Lord untó me, thou art sore troubled in mind for Israel : Lovest thou that people more than be that made them ?" And ins the same book, chapter viii. 47. " Thou comest far short, that thou shouldst be able to love my creature more than I." Now, since no good man could wish such a curse or mischief to his worst and most wicked enemy, as a torment without end, surely we cannot conceive the great God will ever be so severe as to inflict it. Answer 1. It is readily allowed, that God. has more goodness than any creature, but God has also More wis dom anti knowledge, which concur with his goodness in all his actions, and he forms a much juster judgment concerning the evil and demerits of sin and rebellion, against himself, than it is possible for any creature to form : And I think I may boldly assert, none can know the complete evil of sin, or its full desert, but that same glorious being against whom sin is committed, who knows well the dignity of his own nature and his own law, and what unspeakable injury is done thereto by the sins of men. Now his goodness in all his transactions must be regulated and limited by this infinite wisdom and if aman does not see and-consent to the just deme- rits of sin against his Maker, it is because he has less wis- dom and knowledge than the great God has, and his tenderness and compassion may run into very great ex- cesses, and may be in some instances a sign of his weak- ness and folly, as well as of his goodness and pity, as I shall shew under the next answer. At present let u$ represent the case in a common in- stance. When criminals go to execution from month to month, or from year to year, in this great city; and especially if some of them have a handsome and agree- able appearance, and if they are wringing their hands with outcries, and vexing their own hearts, and are stung by their own consciences for their havingbrought this misery upon themselves, you will find several of the spectators of so tender a make as to grieve for the exe- cution of such criminals, and to wish in their hearts it was in their power to save them. And yet further, if there are numbers of these wicked creatures that are sent at once to the punishment of the sword or the gallows, there may. be many of these spectators grieving for them, an4 ßs3
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