Sermons preached

(1.) To the Place, he was not in Hell. It was not necessary that Christ should descend into the Hell of the damned. One that is bound as a Surety for another, needs not go into Prison, provided that he pay the Debt. All that Justice requireth is, that he satisfy the Debt. Indeed if he doth not, nor cannot satisfy the Debt, he must to Prison. So here, the Justice of God must be satisfied, the Holiness of God and Hatred to Sin sufficiently demonstrated, but Christ need not to go into the place of Torments.

(2.) For the Time of Continuance. The Damned must bear the Wrath of God to all Eternity, because they can never ⟨p. 172⟩satisfy the Justice of God, therefore they must lie by it World without end. As one that pays a thousand Pounds by a penny a Week, is a long time in paying; a rich Man lays it down in cumulo, in an heap of Gold all at once. Christ hath made an infinite Satisfaction in a finite Time; he bore the Wrath of God in a few Hours, which would overwhelm the Creature. Christ did not suffer the Eternity of Wrath, but only the Extremity of it, intensive, not extensive. The Eternity of the Punishment ariseth from the weakness of the Creature, who cannot overcome this Evil, and get out of it.

(3.) There is another Thing unavoidably attending the Pains of the second Death in Reprobates, and that is Desperation, an utter Hopelessness of any Good, yea a certain Expectation of continual Torment, Heb. 10. 27. The Gates of Hell are made fast on them by an irresistible Decree: and the Gulf is fixed between the place of the Damned, and the place of the Blessed, so that there is no coming from the one to the other,