DISCOURSE XIII. 263 Hebrew, by which God expresses his own eternity, which is ab- solute and complete without end. Ile is the everlasting God ; Gen. xxi. 33. The eternal God, and his everlasting arms ; Deut. xxxiii. 27. Rom. i. 20. and xvi. 26. and several other places. These are the words also by which the scripture expres- ses the duration of the felicities' of heaven, and the eternal life and happiness of the saints I)an. xii. 2. Rom. vi. 23..-John iii. 15 -18.. Now why should we not suppose the same words to signify the same duration, when the Old or New Testament speaks of everlasting burnings as the vengeance of God against the wicked ; Isaiah xxxiii. 14. or everlasting shame and contempt I+ Dan. xii. 2. And especially where the joys of the saints, and the misery of sinners, are set in opposition to one another in the same text, as in Dan. xii. 2. and Mat, xxv. 46. The wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment, and the righteous into life eternal 2 And yet further, when we find this doctrine sufficiently confirmed by many other places of scripture which set forth the eternity of these torments ? I grant that the eter- nity of God himself, before this world began, or after its con- summation, has something in it so immense and so incomprehen- sible, that in my most mature thoughts I do not chose to enter into those infinite abysses ; nor do I think we ought usually, when we speak concerning creatures, to affirm positively, that their ex istence shall be equal to that of the blessed God, especially with regard to the duration of their punishment ; perhaps this sort of language may carry in it something beyond what we are called to discourse about, at least in this mortal state, and therefore such comparisons are more safely omitted. But I would remark here still, that these Atone; or ages both of reward and punishment, which are pronounced concerning saints or sinners, do but begin in their perfection at the end of this world ; and thence it follows, that they must enter far into the eternity of God's existence yet to come: And the saints will be made happy, and the sinners will be punished for long ages after the end of this world, and all the Atweeç or ages of it. And though sod, by his Spirit, has not been pleased to make this comparison expressly, nor assert our duration commensurate with his own, yet he is pleased to express the duration of the punish., ment of sinners in 'the same common language and phrases, whereby he expresses his own duration, and the happiness of the saints ; and hereby he encourages us to express these punish- ments by the same common words in our language too, rather than venture to cut them short by a Greek or Hebrew criticism, without any divine warrant or necessity.* The word a,b,mç, perpetual, is applied to the chains of devils; Jude, verse 6. as well as to God; Rom. n. $0. and however the w I ore and a weie May be used for ages or periods in Ibis world, yet a,wv,ç env na we, or ages of ages, is never applied in all tïte New Testament'to any thing but God or Christ,
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