I. Scripture-light the most sure light ... delivered in three sermons on 2 Pet.…

Quest. But is it possible that one may endure the very torments of Hell in this Life?

Answ. Yes: For as a man may have a taste of Heaven before he come there, so possibly a man may have a taste of Hell even in this Life also. The Wrath of God in Scripture, is compared to, and called Fire, Psal. 84.46. And if ye look into the Parable of Dives and Lazarus, ye shall find that Dives cries out to Abraham, to send one with a drop of water to cool his Tongue. Why but says Austin, the body of Dives is not yet in Hell; what fire therefore is this, that doth so torment him? to which he answers, Quali• lingua talis flamma; as the Eyes, wherewith he sees Abraham afar off, such is the Fire; and as his Tongue, such is the Fire that he is tormented in, the fire of the Wrath of God: this Fire of Gods Wrath, was our dear Saviour scorched with, whilst he was in his ⟨p. 71⟩Arg. 1 Travel: For (by way of Reason, and Argument, whereby the former Propositions also, shall be the more fully proved) if Christ did bear our Griefs, then whatever miseries were inflicted upon us, and our Nature, by virtue of the Threatening it self, under which we were, those Christ did bear, and endure for us. But he did bear our Griefs, I do not say that he did bear, and endure all that we should have done. Whatever misery or punishment we should have born, or the Reprobates do, or shall bear in Hell, doth either proceed from the Threatening it self as the proper effect thereof; or it doth proceed from the disposition and condition of the Person whom the execution of the Threatening doth fall upon: the threatening it self doth produce death, The day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt die the death. Therefore death, evil, and the Wrath of God for sin, doth proceed from the Threatening it self. Now when this falls upon man, he despairs, and blasphemes, and lies under the Wrath of God for ever: yet despair, and eternal blasphemy, is not the punishment of the Threatening it self, proceeding from the Threat in it self considered, but proceeds from the disposition of Man, upon whom the execution of the Curse falls: for no sin comes from Gods Threatening in it self considered. Punishment properly, is satisfaction for injury done, but sin is a continuing of the injury: