I. Circumstances to be observed touching present punishments.
- 1. They often follow acts which produce present pleasure or advantage.
- 2. The sufferings often far exceed the pleasure or advantage.
- 3. They often follow remotely.
- 4. After long delay they often come suddenly.
- 5. As those remote effects are not certainly foreseen, they may not be thought of at the time; or if so, there is a hope of escaping.
- 6. There are opportunities of advantage, which if neglected do not recur.
- 7. Though, in some cases, men who have sinned up to a certain point, may retrieve their affairs, yet in many cases, reformation is of no avail.
- 8. Inconsiderateness is often as disastrous as wilful wrong-doing.
- 9. As some punishments by civil government, are capital, so are some natural
punishments.
- 1.) Seem intended to remove the offender out of the way.
- 2.) Or as an example to others.
II. These things are not accidental, but proceed from fixed laws.
- 1. They are matters of daily experience.
- 2. Proceed from the general laws, by which the world is governed.
III. They so closely resemble what religion teaches, as to future punishment, that both might be expressed in the same words.
e.g. Proverbs, ch. i.
The analogy sufficiently answers all objections against the Scripture doctrine of future punishment, such as
- 1.) That our frailty or temptations annihilate the guilt of vice.
- 2.) Or the objection from necessity.
- 3.) Or that the Almighty cannot be contradicted.
- 4.) Or that he cannot be offended.