Discourses, or, Sermons on several Scriptures

That God himself will be the immediate Inflicter of the Punishments of the Damned.

It is therefore here likewise called a falling into the Hands of the living God, which denotes his immediate Efficiency in their Torments.

It is true, God doth use several Instruments of Torture in Hell. There is the Worm that never dies, and the Fire that never goes out, which I suppose to be not only a Metaphorical, but possibly a Material Fire, elevated to such a degree of Subtlety, as that it shall at once torture the Soul, and not consume the Body. And this Fire the Devils, who are their Executioners, will be still very officiously raking about them, using all their malicious Art to increase their eternal Misery. But yet these things are but small Appendages, and only the slighter Circumstances of their Torments; the most exact and intolerable part of their Torture they shall feel inflicted upon them from another Fire, an intelligent Everlasting, and therefore an unquenchable ⟨p. 75⟩Fire, and that is God himself, for so he is said to be, Heb. 12. ult. ¹Our God is a consuming Fire.

It is true, God doth use several Instruments of Torture in Hell. There is the Worm that never dies, and the Fire that never goes out, which I suppose to be not only a Metaphorical, but possibly a Material Fire, elevated to such a degree of Subtilty, as that it shall at once torture the Soul, and not consume the Body. And this Fire the Devils, who are their Executioners, will be still very officiously raking about them, using all their malicious Art to increase their eternal Misery. But yet these things are but small Appendages, and only the slighter Circumstances of their Torments; the most exact and intolerable part of their Torture they shall feel inflicted upon them from another Fire, an intelligent Everlasting, and therefore an unquenchable