â3 THE ETERNAL DURATION Or (nrsc, XIII. great God, who is infinitely offended, is bound to finish his wrath one.day, and return in mercy to the offenders, whether they return to him by repentance or no. What ! may the criminal rebel creature with impudence and spite affront the Creator infinitely, and must not the Creator have a right to demand equal vengeance ? No, he must not, according tel these writers.; For if the es, sential goodnesss ,of God do certainly forbid eternal punishments, these absurdities, as gross as they appear, will be the necessary con,sequents,of it : And though the creature be not restrained from sinning, yet the blessed. God will be utterly restrained from punishing ; And is this a doctrina fit to be believed by Christians, onto be taught by thosewho have no commission for it from their Bible ? Or, indeed, will the light of ,nature and reason ever justify and support this sort of pleading ? Objection the sixth is drawn from the wisdom of God 'in his government of the world. Surely, will the sinner say, it was for some valuable end that God at first pro-, nounced punishment to.attend the sins of his creatures, for he does not afflict willingly, nor delight to grieve the children of men," Lam. iii. 33. His design must be therefore pneof these two things :. either to correct and reform the sinner whom he punishes, and reduce then to their duty, in order to partakeof his mercy; or else it must be to maintain a public monument and demonstra- tion of his justice, and to support the - authority of his law, and honour of his government, that he might deter other creatures from sinning against him.. But when this world is come to its period, -and his governing pro- vidence over it is finished, and all the means of grace are ended, the first end, viz. correction and reformation ceases : There is no more hope of reforming such sin- ners as these. And what further need- can there be of the secondary design of punishment, viz. the .demon -, stratiòn of his justice in so terrible a manner to restrain, ethers from-sinning, when the state of our trial is ended, . añd all mankind are sent either to heaven or hell ? Answer 1. I might here reply, by way of concession, that if there were no other intelligent - creatures to, be witnesses of these eternal demonstrations of God's boIiuess, his justice, and his hatred of sin ; and,if God ibiseif was the only being who knew of these eternal
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