those that he has denounced, do not, in SERM.IV. many Cafes, check the Growth of Vice

and awe a wicked World into a Compliance with his Will,

3

It is a Miftake therefore, and a dangerous one too, to admit, as fome late Writers have done, of no penal Evils in the next World, but what terminate in the Benefit of the Sufferer, and are for the Amendment of the immoral Agent. Upon that Suppofition, there would be no Hell properly speaking; there would only be a Purgatory: And the abandoned and incurably bad, who merit the greatest Severity, would efcape with abfolute Impunity; becaufe no Punishment could produce an Amendment in them. Befides, all Punishments, which come from God, have not even in this Life been intended for the Reformation of the Criminal; fome of them have been for the utter Excifion and Extirpation of the irreclaimable, when once they have filled up the Meafure of their Iniquities: Such were the Deluge, and the unprecedented Destruction of Jerusalem, not to mention many other Inftances, Hell is every where in Scripture reprefented as the very Reverse of a Place intended for

the

SERM.IV. the Exercise of benevolent Affections, without which none fhall inherit the Kingdom of God. It is described as a State of Horror and Despair, where, as St. John says, they blafphemed the God of Heaven, and repented not to give God the Glory. It cannot therefore be a proper Scene to reclaim the Guilty, and to purify the Soul.

Some there are, who take Shelter in the Thoughts of Annihilation, and hope, or pretend to hope, that God will uncreate the Soul, and deprive it of Being. And is Annihilation then their only Hope? A fad gloomy Hope, and an horrid Consolation ! To be as if they had never been, devoid of Consciousness, Senfe and Motion, to have all those busy Workings of the Mind, all thofe active Thoughts, which wander through this World, and lofe themselves agreeably in the next, loft and swallowed up for ever in utter Extinction of Being; is this their only Resource ? this, at which Nature, which always ftruggles hard for Self-Prefervation, ftarts back with Horror?

Yet, alas! they are even cut off from this dreadful, this, I had almost faid, defperate Hope. For if Annihilation be the only Punishment which fhall be inflicted

on

on Sinners; then all Sinners, however un-SERM.IV. equal their Crimes may be, would be equally punished. If all were alike to be deprived of Being; God would make no Diftinction, where there is a very material Difference, between the greatest and the leaft of Sinners.

Farther, the Soul is an uncompounded, immaterial Being, and therefore not corruptible as Matter is. Now if God has created the Soul in it's Nature immortal; then he cannot uncreate, or render it mortal, without acting contrary to the fixed and stated Laws of Nature: But God never acts contrary to his ftated Laws, except upon fome extraordinary Emergency. Well then, where is the extraordinary Occafion, that the Deity should fuperfede his own Laws, and put forth an immediate Act of Almighty Power, to reduce thofe Souls to nothing, which he had empowered to fubfift for ever? How can it be expected, that He, who never annihilates the leaft Particle of Matter, the leaft infignificant Atom, should annihilate a spiritual Substance? Why a Set of obftinately rebellious Creatures have plunged themselves into Mifery, by wilfully, deliberately, and frequently breaking the Laws of Morality: And VOL. II.

I

do

SERM.IV do they expect, that God will remove that Mifery, by breaking through the Laws of Nature, which he has established upon the matureft Wisdom, for the Good of the Whole?

This we

Yes, fay the Objectors: For he does not love to inflict ufelefs and unavailing Mifery upon his Creatures: And it is afked, what Use the Punishment of these unhappy Objects can be of? To which I answer, that we, whofe Judgments are very shallow, muft not pretend to arraign his Proceedings, which are like the great Deep. may take for granted, that no Evil is fuffered to continue in the Creation, but to prevent or avoid a greater. And the Continuance of these Beings in their wretched Existence may be of Advantage to let the World in general know the deplorable Confequences of an audacious Perfeverance in a wilful Rebellion to their Creator, and to confirm the Blessed in particular in their Happiness. For the Bleffed in Heaven are endued with Freedom of Will. We know indeed, because God hath promised it; that, notwithstanding this Freedom of Will, they will never fall from that blissful State.

But whether the Reflection on the

Punishment

Punishment of the Wicked may not be one SERM.IV. confiderable Means, among others, to keep them invariably firm in an uninterrupted Practice of Goodnefs, and confequently in an uninterrupted Enjoyment of Happiness; this, I prefume, we cannot determine. In God's House, the World, there are many Manfions; and Variety of Beings may still continue to people the Variety of Apartments in the Univerfe, after this Earth is diffolved. Perhaps, as the Fall of the Angels is revealed to us; fo these unhappy Sufferers may serve to give awakening Notices to others, who inhabit fome other Part of the Creation, left they also fall into the fame State of Condemnation. that as it will; God has a thousand Ways of bringing Good, general Good, out of partial Evil, and making the Punishment of the Bad, as well as Happiness of the Good, terminate in his own Glory.

Be

This may serve as an Answer to those, who afk, why God would produce into the World Beings, who he forefaw would be eternally miserable? The Reply is obviWhy did he produce into the World Beings, that he forefaw would be exposed here to innumerable Misfortunes? Why

ous.