Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

And how sad is it, to think that God lays his Eternity to pawn for the punishment ⟨p. 194⟩of obstinate Sinners, and engageth it by an Oath, that he will whet his glittering Sword, that his hand shall take hold of Judgment, that he will render Vengeance to his Enemies, and a Reward to them that hate him, a reward proportioned to the greatness of their offences, and the glory of an eternal God?^* I lift up my hand to Heaven, and say, I live for ever, i. e. as surely as I live for ever, I will whet my glittering Sword. As none can convey good with a perpetuity, so none can convey evil with such a lastingness as God. 'Tis a great loss to lose a Ship richly fraught in the bottom of the Sea, never to be cast upon the Shore; But how much greater is it, to lose eternally a Sovereign God, which we were capable of eternally enjoying, and undergo an evil as durable as that God we slighted, and were in a possibility of avoiding? The miseries of men after this Life are not eased, but sharpened by the Life and Eternity of God.

And how sad is it, to think that God lays his Eternity to pawn for the punishment ⟨p. 194⟩of obstinate Sinners, and engageth it by an Oath, that he will whet his glittering Sword, that his hand shall take hold of Judgment, that he will render Vengeance to his Enemies, and a Reward to them that hate him, a reward proportioned to the greatness of their offences, and the glory of an eternal God?^* I lift up my hand to Heaven, and say, I live for ever, i. e. as surely as I live for ever, I will whet my glittering Sword. As none can convey good with a perpetuity, so none can convey evil with such a lastingness as God. 'Tis a great loss to lose a Ship richly fraught in the bottom of the Sea, never to be cast upon the Shore; But how much greater is it, to lose eternally a Soveraign God, which we were capable of eternally enjoying, and undergo an evil as durable as that God we slighted, and were in a possibility of avoiding? The miseries of men after this Life are not eased, but sharpen'd by the Life and Eternity of God.

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