669 / 674
1ÍISC.
XIIL
TIM
PUNISHMENTS IN
HELL.
649
Notwithstanding
all the express language
of scripture
on our
side
of
the
question, and all
our arguments
drawn
from
it,
yet there are
some
of
the
reasoners and the dis-
puters of
this world, who
will
still
suppose
that it
is
more
for
the honour
of
God, and for the
glory
of
our
blessed
Saviour, for ministers to
dwell always
upon
the
promises
of
the
new
covenant, and the
riches
of
the grace
of
Christ, and the
overflowing
measures
of
the
love
of
God,
in
order
to
save
sinful
men.
"
Surely," say
they,
"
preachers
have
tried
long enough
what the
words
of
terror
will
do
;
let
us
now
allure sinful
men to be
recon-
conciled to
God
by
a ministry
of
universal
love
and
grace and let
us see
whether the
boundless compassions
of
a God,
in
putting
a
final
period
to the miseries
of
his
guilty creatures
after
a
certain
number
of
years,
will
not
draw
sinners
with
a
sweeter violence to the love
and
obedience
of
their Maker, than
all this
doctrine
of
seve-
rity
and
terror." In
the first place
I
answer,
Ans.
I.
That
surely
Jesus
himself, who
is
the
prime
mi-
nister of
his
Father's
kingdom,
and
the
divinest messen-
ger
of
his love,
knew
better
than
we
do how
to
pay
the
highest
honour
to his heavenly
Father, and
to display his
own grace. Surely
he was well
acquainted
with the
best
way to begin with sinners
in
order
to
their reconciliation
to
God,
and
knew
also
the most
effectual avenues
to
the
consciences
of
sinful
creatures, incomparably beyond
what
any
of
us,
can
pretend
to.
Had
he
not
as
tender
a
sense
of the
honour
of
his
Father's
mercy,
as
warm
a
zeal
for the glory
of
his own
grace and the
gospel,
and
as
wise
and
melting
a
compassion for the souls
of
men
as
the
best of
us
can
boast of? And
yet
he
thought it
proper
to
lay
the
foundation of
his own,
and
his
apostles'
ministra-
tions
of
grace,
in
this
language
of
terror,
in these,
threat
-
enings
of eternal
punishment.
And in the
course
of
his
providence
throughout
all ages he has,
in
some
measure,
made, this
doctrine
successful to
recover
souls from
the
sign
and
to
bad purpose ;"
so
that
if this
were a
true doctrine, yet the
learned author
agrees,
that neither
the
holy writers of
the
Bible,
nor
the
fathers,
think
it proper
that
the bulk of the people
should
know it.
But
if
it should
not
be
translated,
I
would ask, why
dici
the author write
it
and
leave
it
to
be published?
Did
he suppose all men and boys, who
understood
Latin,
to be
sufficiently
guarded against the
abuse
of
such
an
opinion?
.
VOL.
II.
`
U