SERMON I. The Eternity of Future Punishment Proved and Vindicated. MATTH. XXV. 46. And thefe fhall go away into Everlasting Punishment. Hough God hath revealed the Eternal duration of Future Punishment in thePlaineft and most Pofitive terms; yet the Impious gloffes of fome, and the dictates of an Immoderate self-love in others have represented this Important Article of our Faith as Abfurd and Incredible. 'Tis the Intereft of fome men, and therefore their Endeavour, to rafe out B of of their Minds all the notions of a Future State. Senfual pleasures have so intirely ingroffed their Affections, that they would not Willingly leave this present world, though in exchange for mansions of Bliss in the next: Or, if there be fome faint defires of Heaven ftill remaining, as doubtless they muft defire it upon this account, that this State of things, which is fo dear to them, muft Neceffarily have an End; yet when, upon reflection, they find no hopes of attaining what they thus wish for out of Neceffity, not of Choice, they then Wreft and Force their Reason in contriving Schemes of Imaginary Comfort: They then boldly play all the engines that can be invented against the Authority of the Holy Scriptures, or Industrioufly pervert the proper fenfe of them: They then labour to perfuade themselves and others, by Arguments which themfelves can never Heartily believe, that though there be a fupreme Being, which made the earth and created man upon it, yet there is no reafon to doubt, that a Being of fuch wonderful Excellency and Perfection will be fo favourable to them, the work of his own hands, let their behaviour be what it will, as not to plunge them into Endless and Intolerable Mifery; that therefore they seem to be under no very ftrict obligation to afflict themselves continually with fevere and Vexatious reftraints, but may reasonably enough venture to gratify all their Inclinations and Defires; that therefore they do not seem to have any other business in this world but that of the Leviathan in the deep, to take their pastime therein. And there is too plain an occafion given to these Enemies of the Lord thus to Blafpheme, by others, who though they profefs a Belief of the Scriptures, do yet, in a great measure, deftroy the expectation of eternal Punishment, by fome mistaken opinions concerning God and ourfelves. They cannot apprehend how any thing fo Terrible and Amazing as Everlasting mifery, Terrible and Amazing beyond all expreffion, fhould be the portion of fuch a Noble and Excellent Being as Man, the Perfection and Excellency of whofe Nature God himself B 2 hath |