The souls exaltation A treatiseThe soules exaltation A treatise

Secondly, the eternity of the punishments, say they, for if Christ suffered the pains of the second death, then he must be in hell for ever. It is a weak and a sinful plea; I say our Saviour might and did suffer the second death, and yet not the eternity of it: I beseech you to take notice of two things herein.

Secondly, the eternitie of the punishments, say they, for if Christ suffered the pains of the second death, then hee must be in hell for ever. It is a weake and a sinfull plea; I say our Saviour might and did suffer the second death, and yet not the eternitie of it: I beseech you to take notice of two things herein.

First you must take notice of the difference between the death threatened, and the death denounced, and between the torments of hell: also between the eternity of time, and the circumstances of time, that may be altered and changed, as the debt or punishment is fully suffered or not suffered: As for example, the time of a mans lying in prison is no part of the payment, but he doth lie in prison because he cannot pay the debt: as thus; A man is in prison for a thousand pound, & he must lie in prison ten years, because he can pay but a hundred pound a year; but now let a rich man come that can discharge the ⟨p. 234⟩payment within ten months, or ten days, or ten hours; it is as well if he do it in ten hours, as if he did it in ten years, nay it is better done: Just so it is here, the debt is this; In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt die the death: the punishment is death, and every poor creature must die the first and second death: Now because a poor creature cannot satisfy Gods justice […] this life, (for if God should but let in the power of his wrath in this life into the soul, and fill the soul with his fierce indignation, it would kill a man even in this life) therefore the Lord by death takes away a poor creature, and drags him down to hell; he doth arrest him by conscience here, and saith, Thou hast sinned and deserved wrath, and thou canst not bear my wrath here; therefore thou shalt die and be made immortal, that thou mayest bear it for evermore; because a man cannot pay it now, therefore he is paying of it to all eternity, for he is never able to pay and satisfy for the whole sum: but now the Lord Jesus Christ hath cash ready at hand, and is able to lay down the payment for all the faithful to the full: he lays down the life natural, and he also suffers the pains of the second death: therefore he is able to deliver himself, and all those that are his.