284 TOE 'WORLD TO COME. Now are there any sinners so void of understanding, of so daring and desperate a mind, as to venture their eternal all upon such a poor criticism of wortis ? Even upon supposition these terms in the Greek and Hebrew might signify any long duration short of eternity ; yet there is a terrible hazard in confining them to this sense, since they do denote a proper eternity, when they describe the duration of the blessed God ; and I think we may add also, the duration of the happiness of the saints. Besides, let it be remembered, that the other expressions of scripture, which denote and pronounce the perpetuity or eternity of these punishments, are not liable to the same criticism or am- biguity of a word. Their fire shall be unquenchable, or is not quenched, their worm dieth not. They have no rest day nor night, they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever; Rev. xiv. 10, 11. and xx. 10. These expressions seem to carry with them a more certain signification of the perpetual continuance of the punishment. Now can the temper and the deceiverof souls have so unhappy an influence over you, as to persuade you to venture onward in the paths of sin, to put off religion and delay your repentance, and neglect the means of salvation, in hopes that hereafter this weak criticism, upon some of the threatenings, may take place before the Judge of the whole earth, and thus excuse or save you ? Is not such a sorry refuge and presumption a dangerous and a dismal sign upon impenitent sinners, that sin and Satan have darkened your understanding, and confounded your judgment, as well as hardened your hearts, in order to your everlasting destruction ? Answer II. Suppose the punishments of hell continue only fora long time, and not for an endless immortality, yet this time would certainly be found exceeding long for sinners to bear the torment even according to their own criticisms. Let us consider this matter under some particulars. The Jewish dispensation, which is sometimes called everlasting, stood near about fifteen hundred years, from Moses to Christ ; and are ye content to lana guish and groan under torments and miseries, for fifteen hundred years, merely to satisfy your vicious appetites of pleasure for a few days or a few years of this mortal life ? Again, The rebellious sinners who were destroyed at the flood and their spirits, which were sent hito the prison of hades or hell, were certainly confined there four and twenty-hundred years : And if they were released then, as some imagine, by the preach- ing of Christ to them, it is a long and dreadful time to continue under the vengeance of God ; and is it worth while for any man to continue in sin on earth, and to venture this length of punish- er the blesse.fnerr of saints, ut the punishment of slooers; and therefore we may well amniotic, `et sit these four run into an eternity beyond all the supposed pennds of this world, and fat beyond all our ceneaptions.
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