"and Honours, and thought on him as often, and "fought him as painfully, O how happy had I now "been! But juftly do I fuffer the Flames of Hell, "for buying them fo dear, rather than have Heaven "when it was purchased to my Hands!"

$19. O THAT God would perfuade thee, Reader, to take up thefe Thoughts now, for preventing the unconceivable Calamity of taking them up in Hell as thy own Tormentor! Say not, that they are only imaginary. Read what Dives thought, being in Torments (d). As the Joys of Heaven are chiefly enjoyed by the rational Soul in its rational Actings, fo muft the Pains of Hell be fuffered. As they will be Men ftill, fo will they feel and act as Men.

(d) Luke xvi.

CHAP.

CHAP. VI.

The Mifery of those, who, befides lofing the Saint's Reft, lofe the Enjoyments of Time, and fuffer the Torments of Hell

§1. The Connection of this with the preceding Chapter $2. (1) The Enjoyments of Time which the Damned lofe: $3. (1) Their presumptuous Belief of their Intereft in God and Chrift: §4 (2) All their Hopes: § 5 (3) Ail their Peace of Confcience: § 6. (4) All their carnal Mirth: $7. (5) All their fenfual Delights. § 8. (II) The Torments of the Damned are exceeding great: $9. (1) The principal Author of them is God him elf: $10. (2) The Place or State of Torment: $ 11. (3) Thefe Torments are the Effects of divine Vengeance: 12 (4) God will take Pleafure in executing them: $13. (5) Satan and Sinners themselves will be God's Executioners: $14. (6) Thefe Torments will be univerfal; § 15. (7) without any Mitigation; § 16. (8) and eternal. $17. The obftinate Sinner convinced of bis Folly in venturing on thefe Torments; $18. and intreated to fly for Safety to Chrift.

$ 1.

•A

S Godliness bath a Premife of the Life that now is, and of that which is to come; and if we feek firft the Kingdom of God, and his Righteousness, then all meaner Things shall be added unto us: So alfo are the Ungodly threatened with the Lo's both of

fpiritual

fpiritual and temporal Bleffings; and because they fought not first God's Kingdom and Righteousness, therefore fhall they lose both it and that which they did feek, and there fhall be taken from them that little which they have. If they could but have kept their prefent Enjoyments, they would not have much cared for the Lofs of Heaven. If they had loft and for faken all for Chrift, they would have found all again in him; for he Weald have been All in All to them. But now they have forfook Chrift for other Things, they fhall 18fe Chrift, and that alfo for which they forfook him; even the Enjoyments of Time-befides fuffering the Forments of Hell.

§2. (1) AMONG the Enjoyments of Time, they fhall particularly lofe their prefumptuous Belief of their Intereft in the Favour of God, and the Merits of Chrift; -all their Hopes; all their falfe Peace of Confcience; all their carnal Mirth; and all their

fenfual Delights.

$3. (1) They shall lose their prefumptuous Belief of their Intereft in the Favour of God, and the Merits of Chrift. This falfe Belief now fupports their Spirits,. and defends them from the Terrors that would otherwife feize upon them.. But what will eafe their Trouble, when they can believe no longer, nor rejoice any longer? If a Man be near to the greatest Mifchief, and yet ftrongly conceit that he is in Safety, be as chearful as if all were well. If there were no more to make a Man happy, but to believe that he is fo, or fhall be fo, Happiness would be far more common than it is like to be. As true Faith is the leading Grace in the Regenerate, fo is falfe Faith the leading Vice in the Unregenerate. Why do fuch Multitudes fit ftill, when they might have Pardon, but that they verily think they are pardoned already? you could afk thoufands in Hell, what Madness

he

If

may

F.

brought

Ch. 6. brought them thither? they would most of them anfwer, "We made fure of being faved, till we found "ourselves damned. We would have been more "earnest Seekers of Regeneration, and the Power of "Godliness, but we verily thought we were Chrifti66 ans before. We have flattered ourselves into these "Torments, and now there is no Remedy." Reader, I muft in Faithfulness tell thee, that the confident Belief of their good State, which the carelefs, unholy, unhumbled Multitude fo commonly boast of, will prove in the End but a Soul-damning Delufion. There is none of this Believing in Hell. It was Satan's Stratagem, that being blindfold they might follow him the more holdly; but then he will uncover their Eyes, and they fhall fee where they are.

4. (2) They hall lofe alfo all their Hates. In this Life, though they were threatened with the Wrath of God, yet their Hope of efcaping it bore up their Hearts. We can now fcarce fpeak with the vilest Drunkard, or Swearer, or Scoffer, but he hopes to be faved for all this. O happy World, if Salvation were as common as this Hope! Nay, fo ftrong are Mens Hopes, that they will difpute the Caufe with Chrift himself at Judgment, and plead their having eat and drank in his Prefence, and prophefied in his Name, and in his Name caft out Devils; they will ftifly deny that ever they neglected Chrift in Hunger, Nakedness, or Prifan, till he confutes them with the Sentence of their Condemnation. O the fad State of thefe Men, when they must bid farewell to all their Hopes! When a wicked Man dieth, his Expectation fhall perish; and the Hope of unjust Men perisheth (a). The Eyes of the Wicked fall fail, and they shall not escape, and their Hope fall be as the giving up of the Ghost (b). The giving up the Ghoft, is a fit, but terrible Refemblance of a wicked

(a) Prov. xi. 7.

(b) Job xi. 20.

wicked Man's giving up his Hopes. As the Soul departeth not from the Body without the greatest Pain; fo doth the Hope of the Wicked depart. The Soul departs from the Body fuddenly, in a Moment, which hath there delightfully continued fo many Years; juft fo doth the Hope of the Wicked depart. The Soul will never more return to live with the Body in this World; and the Hope of the Wicked takes an everlasting farewell of his Soul. A Miracle of Resurrection shall again unite Soul and Body, but there fhall be no fuch miraculous Refurrection of the Damned's Hope. Methinks it is the moft pitiable Sight this World affords, to fee fuch an ungodly Perfon dying, and to think of his Soul and his Hopes departing together. With what a fad Change he appears in another World! Then if a Man could, but ask that hopeless Soul," Are you as confident of "Salvation as you were wont to be?" What a fad Anfwer would be returned! O that careless Sinners would be awakened to think of this in Time! Reader, reft not till thou canst give a Reafon of all thy Hopes, grounded upon Scripture Promifes; that they purify thy Heart; that they quicken thy Endeavours in Godlinefs; that the more thou hopeft the lefs thou finneft, and the more exact is thy Obedience. If thy Hopes be fuch as thefe, go on in the Strength of the Lord, hold faft thy Hope, and never shall it make thee afhamed. But if thou haft not one found Evidence of a Work of Grace on thy Soul, caft away thy Hopes. Defpair of ever being faved, except thou be born again; or of feeing God, without Holiness; or of having Part in Chrift, except thou love him above Father, Mother, or thy own Life. This Kind of Defpair is one of the firft Steps to Heaven. If a Man be quite out of his Wa Vay, what must be the firft Means to bring him in again? He must despair of ever coming to his JourF 2 ney's