ledge than Ideots, or brute Beafts; or if they knew no more in Hell, than they did upon Earth, their Lofs would lefs trouble them. How happy would they then think themselves, if they did not know there is fuch a Place as Heaven! Now, when their Knowledge would help to prevent their Mifery, they will not know, or will not read and study that they may know; therefore, when their Knowledge will but feed their confuming Fire, they fhall know whether they will or no. They are now in a dead Sleep, and dream they are the happiest Men in the World; but when Death awakes them, how will their Judgments be changed in a Moment? and they that would not fee, fhall then fee, and be afhamed.

$9. (2) As their Understanding will be cleared, fo it will be more enlarged, and made more capacious to conceive the Warth of that Glory which they have loft, The Strength of their Apprehenfions, as well as the Truth of them, will then be increafed. What deep Apprehenfions of the Wrath of God, the Madness of finning, the Mifery of Sinners, have thole Souls that now endure this Misery, in Comparison with those on Earth that do but hear of it? What Senfibility of the Worth of Life has the condemned Man that is going to be executed, compared with what he was wont to have in the Time of his Profperity? Much more will the actual Lofs of eternal Bleffedness make the Damned exceedingly apprehenfive of the Greatnefs of their Lofs; and as a large Veffel will hold more Water than a Shell, fo will their more enlarged Understandings contain more Matter to feed their Torment, than their fhallow Capacity can now do. $10. (3) Their Confciences alfo will make a truer and clafer Application of this Dctrine to themselves, which will exceedingly tend to increase their Torment. It will then be no haid Matter to theit to fay,

"This is

66 my. Lofs and this is my everlasting remedilefs "Mifery!" The Want of this Self- Application is the main Caufe, why they are fo little troubled now. They are hardly brought to believe that there is such a State of Mifery; but more hardly to believe that it is like to be their own. This makes fo many Sermons loft to them, and all Threatenings and Warnings in vain. Let a Minifler of Chrift fhew them their Mifery ever fo plainly and faithfully, they will not be perfuaded they are fo miferable. Let him tell them of the Glory they must lose, and the Sufferings they muft feel, and they think he means not them, but fome notorious Sinnefs. It is one of the hardest Things in the World, to bring a wicked Man to know that he is wicked, or to make him fee himself in a State of Wrath and Condemnation. Though they may eafily find by their Strangeness to the new Birth, and their Enmity to Holiness, that they never were Partakers of them; yet they as verily expect to fee God, and be faved, as if they were the most fanctified Perfons in the World. How feldom do Men cry out, after the plaineft Discovery of their State, I am the Man? or acknowledge, that if they die in their prefent Condition, they are undone for ever? But when they fuddenly find themfelves in the Land of Darkness, feel themselves in fcorching Flames, and fee they are fhut out of the Prefence of God for ever; then the Application of God's Anger to themselves. will be the eafiet Matter in the World: They will then roar out thefe forced Confeffions, my Mifery! O my Folly! O my unconceivable, irrecoverable Lofs!"

§ 11. (4) Then will their Affections likewise be more lively, and no longer Rupified A hard tieart now

makes Heaven and Heil feem but Trifes. We have hewed them, everlafting Glory and Mifery, and they

are

are as Men afleep; our Words are as Stones caft. against a Wall, which fly back in our Faces: We talk of terrible Things, but it is to dead Men; we fearch their Wounds, but they never feel us; we fpeak to Rocks, rather than to Men; the Earth will as foon tremble as they. But when thefe dead Soule.. are revived, what paffionate Senfibility! what working Affections! what Pangs of Horror! what Depth of Sorrow will there then be! How violently will they fly in their own Faces! How will they rage against their former Madnefs! The Lamentations of the most affectionate Wife for the Lofs of her Hufband, or of the tendereft Mother for the Lofs of her Children, will be nothing to theirs for the Lofs of Heaven. O the felf-accufing and felf tormenting Fury of thofe forlorn Creatures! How will they even tear their own Hearts, and be God's Executioners upon themfelves! As themselves were the only meritorious Caufe of their Sufferings, fo themselves will be the chief Executioners. Even Satan, as he was not fo great a Caufe of their finning as themfelves, he will not be fo great an Inftrument of their Torment. How happy would they think themselves then, if they were turned into Rocks, or any Thing that had neither Paffion nor Senfe! How happy, if they could then feel, as lightly as they were wont to hear! if they could fleep out the Time of Execution, as they did the Time of the Sermons that warned them of it! But their Stupidity is gone; it will not be..

$12. (5) Their Memories will moreover be as large, and ftrong as their Understanding and Affections. Could they but lose the Ufe of their Memory, their Lof, of Heaven being forgot, would little trouble them. Tho', they would account Annihilation a fingular Mercy, they cannot lay alide any Part of their Being Under-, flanding, Confcience, Affections, Memory, must all,

live

live to torment them, which should have helped to their Happiness. As by these they should have fed upon the Love of God, and drawn forth perpetually the Joys of his Prefence; fo by these must they feed upon his Wrath, and draw forth continually the Pains of his Abfence. Now they have no Leisure to confider, nor any Room in their Memories for the Things of another Life; but then they fhall have nothing else to do; their Memories fhall have no other Employment. God would have had the Doctrine of their eternal State written on the Pofts of their Doors, on their Hands and Hearts; he would have had them mind it, and mention it when they lay down and rose up, when they fat in their Houfe, and when they walked by the Way; and feeing they rejected this Counsel of the Lord, therefore it fhall be written always before them in the Place of their Thraldom, that which Way foever they look, they may ftill behold it.will torment them to think of the Greatness of the Glory they have loft. If it had been what they could have fpared, or a Lofs to be repaired with any Thing elfe, it had been a fmall Matter. If it had been Health, or Wealth, or Friends, or Life, it had been nothing. But, oh! to lofe that exceeding eternal Weight of Glory!It will alfo torment them to think of the Poffibility they once had of obtaining it. Then they will remember, "Time was, when I " was as fair for the Kingdom as others. I was fet << upon the Stage of the World; if I had played my

-It'

Part wifely and faithfully, I might now have had "Poffeffion of the Inheritance. I might have been *among yonder bleffed Saints, who am now tor"mented with thefe damned Fiends. The Lord did "fet before me Life and Death; and having chofe Death, I deferve to fuffer it. The Prize was held out before me; if I had run well, I might have

obtained

1

66

"obtained it; if I had ftriven, I might have had the Victory; if I had fought valiantly, I had been “crowned."It will yet more torment them to remember, that their obtaining the Crown was, not only poffible, but very probable. It will wound them to think, "I had once the Gales of the Spirit ready to "have affifted me. I was purpofing to be another "Man, to have cleaved to Chrift, and forfook the "World. I was almoft refolved to have been wholly "for God. I was once even turning from my base "feducing Lufts. I had caft off my old Compani

ons, and was affociating myself with the Godly. "Yet I turned back, loft my Hold, and broke my "Promises. I was almost perfuaded to be a real "Chriftian, yet I conquered thofe Perfuafions. What "Workings were in my Heart, when a faithful "Minifter preffed home the Truth! O how fair 66 was I once for Heaven! I almost had it, and yet I "have loft it. Had I followed on to feek the Lord, I " had now been blessed among the Saints."

$13.IT will exceedingly torment them to remember their loft Opportunities. "How many Weeks, "and Months, and Years, did I lofe, which if I "had improved I might now have been happy? "Wretch that I was! could I find no Time to study "the Work, for which I had all my Time? no "Time among all my Labours, to labour for Eter"nity? Had I Time to eat, and drink, and fleep, ❝ and none to fave my Soul? Had I Time for Mirth "and vain Discourse, and none for Prayer? Could "I take Time to fecure the World, and none to try "my Title to Heaven? O precious Time! I had once enough, and now I must have no more. I " had once so much, I knew not what to do with "it; and now it is gone, and cannot be recalled. "O that I had but one of those Years to live over

❝ again!