SERMON XXXiV. 417_ On this account, he is exposed to the execution of thesentence of God for ever His punishment has no end. Perhaps this will be counted an old-fashioned argument, and not so generally re- ceived inour day, as it was in thedays of our fathers : Therefore I have examined it afresh with all the skill I have; and having surveyed the objectionswhich are raised_ against it, I think they are not hard to be answered : And, after all, so far as I can judge in a may of reasoningupon what scripture has revealed, this argument seems to have weight and strength in it still. Wereit not for the supposition of the infinite guilt and de- merit of sin, I do not so plainly seethe justice or equityof God in preparing everlasting chains of darkness; and eternal fire, for the devil and his angels, as a proper punishmentdue to their first act ofrebellion against him, and because they kept nottheir oren first estatet ; Jude 6. Nor indeed do I see such evident reason, why sinners among men should be threatened with eternal punishments, and punished with everlasting destruction, as a legal penalty due tó past sins; Mat. xxv. 46. and 2 "Tess. i. 9. which sins were done perhaps in a fewdays or hours, unless upon a supposition that all "offences committed against the infinite majesty of God, have a sort of infinite demerit in them. I beg leave to add this one thoughtmore, and that is, if sin has not a sort of infinite demerit in it, I cannot see why man himself, by some years of penal sufferings, might not make full atonement for his own sins) But the language and current of scriptureseems to represent sinful man as for ever lost to all hope in himself, and then the necessity of aMediator appearswith evi- dence and glory. VI. Though man be incapable, to satisfy for his own viola- tion of the law, either by his obedience or his punishment, and so to restore himself to the favour of God, yet God would not suffer all mankind to perish. Therefore out of his abundantmercy, he appointedhis own Son to undertake this work. His own, his only begotten Soh, who is the brightness of his Father's glory, and who lay in the bosom of the Father before all worlds, his Son who was one with the Father, by a' communion of the godhead, and who is himself, on this account, called God over all, blessed for ever ; this well-beloved Son of God is ordained and appointed to be the great Reconciler between God andman. j- f grant, 1. That their continual persistence and obstinacy in sinful prat. tices, may naturally render them continually miserable; and E. This continued obstinacy may also, in a legal sense, merit continal new punishment. And per. baps, on these two reasons, the actual eternity of hell may be justly supported. But unless we suppose every. wilful rebellion against the infinite Majesty of God, to have also a sort of infinite evil in it, I do not see that everlasting chains, and eternal fire, are a proper deserved punishment, legally due to their first rebel- lion, that is, to one act ofsin.
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