than any fire we on earth are acquainted with; as will appear by the following confiderations.

1. As in heaven grace being brought to its perfection, profit and pleafure do alfo arrive at their height there; fo fin being come to its height in hell, the evil of punishment doth alfo arrive at its perfection there. Wherefore, as the joys in heaven are far greater han any joys which the faints obtain on earth, fo the punishments of hell must be greater than any earthly torments whatsoever; not only in refpect of the continuance of them, but alfo in refpect of vehemency and exquifiteness.

2. Why are the things of the other world reprefented to us, in an earthly drefs, in the word; but that the weaknefs of our capacities in fuch matters (which the Lord is pleafed to condefcend anto) does require it; it being always fuppofed, that these things of the other world are in their kind more perfect, than that by which they are reprefented? When heaven is reprefented to us under the notion of a city, with gates of pearl, and the street of 'gold; we look not to find gold and pearls there, which are fo mightily prized, on earth, but fomething more excellent than these fineft and moft precious things in the world: when therefore we hear of hell-fire, it is neceffary we understand by it fomething more vehement, piercing, and tormentiug, than any fire ever leen by our eyes. And here it is worth confidering, that the torments of hell are held forth under feveral other notions than that of fire fimply and the reafon of it is plain; namely, that hereby, what of horror is wanting in one notion of hell, is fupplied by another. Why is heaven's happiness reprefented under the various notions of a treafure, a paradife, a feaft, a reft, &c. but that there is not one of these things fufficient to exprefs it? Even fo hell-torments are reprefented under the notion of fire: which the damned are caft into. A dreadful reprefentation indeed! yet not fufficient to exprefs the mifery of the ftate of finners in them. Wherefore we hear alfo of the fecond death, (Rev. xx. 6.) for the damned in hell fhall be ever dying: of the wine-prefs of the wrath of God," (chap. xiv. 19.) wherein they will be" trodden in anger, trampled

in the Lord's fury," (Ifa. Ixiii. 3.) preffed, broken, and bruifed, without end the worm that dieth not, (Mark ix. 44.) which thall eternally gnaw them: a bottomless pit, where they will be ever finking, Rev. xx. 3 It is not fimply called a fire, but "the lake "of fire and brimitone," (ver. 19)" a lake of fire burning with "brimftone," (chap xix. 20.) than which, one can imagine nothing more dreadful. Yet, becaufe fire gives light, and light (as Solomon obferves, Ecclef. xi. 7) is fweet, there is no light there, but darknefs, utter darkness, Matth. xxv. go. For they must have an everTafting night, fince nothing can be there, which is in any measure comfortable or refreshing.,

3. Our fire cannot affect a fpirit, but by way of fympathy with the body, to which it is united; but he-fire will not only pierce into the bodies, but directly into the fouls of the damned; for it is prepared for the devil and his angels, thefe wicked fpirits, whom no fire on earth can hurt. Job complains heavily under the chaftifeinent of God's fatherly hand, faying, "The arrows of the Almighty

are within me, the poifon whereof drinketh up my fpirit," Job vi. 4. But how will the fpirits of the damned be pierced with the arrows of revenging juftice! how will they be drunk up with the poifon of the curfe on thefe arrows! how vehement mult that fire be that pierceth directly into the foul, and makes an everlasting burning in the Spirit, the most lively and tender part of a man, wherein wounds or pain are most intolerable!

Laftly, The preparation of this fire evinceth the inexpreffible vehemency and dreadfulness of it. The text calls it prepared fire, yea, the prepared fire, by way of eminency. As the three children were not call into an ordinary fire, but a fire prepared on a parla ticular defign, which therefore was exceeding hot, the furnace being heed feven times more than ordinary Dan. ii. 19, 22. So the damned fhall find in hell a prepared fire, the like to which was never prepared by human art; it is a fire of God's own preparing, the product of infinite wifdom on a particular defign, to demonftrate the most ftrict and fevere divine justice a inft fin; which may fufficiently evidence to us the unconceivable exquifitenefs thereof. God always acts in a peculiar way becoming his own infinite greatnefs, whether for, or against the creature: and therefore as the things he hath prepared for them that love him, mre great and good beyond expreffion or conception: fo one may conclude, that the things he hath prepared against thofe who hace him, are great and terrible beyond what men can either fay, or think of the n. The pile of Tophet is fire and much wood, (the coals of that fire are coals of juniper, a kind of wood, which fet on fire burns moft fiercely, Pfal. cxx. 4.) and the breath of the Lord, like a Stream of brimstone, doth kindle it, Ifa. xxx. 33. Fire is more or lefs violent, according to the matter of it, and the breath by which it is blown: what heart then can fully conceive the horror of coals of juniper, blown up with the breath of the Lord? Nay, God himfelf will be a confuming fire (Deut. iv. 24) to the damned; intimately prefent, as a devouring fire, in their fouls and bodies. It is a fearful thing to fall into a fire, or to be fhut up in a fiery furnace, on earth: but the terror of these evanitheth, when one confiders, how fearful it is to fall into the hands of the living God," which is the lot of the damned; for "who fhall dwell "with the devouring fire? Who fhall dwell with everlafting burnings?" Ifa. xxxii. 14.

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As to the fecond point propofed, namely, the properties of the fiery torments in hell.

1. They will be univerfal torments, every part of the creature being tormented in that flame. When one is caft into a burning fiery furnace, the fire makes its way into the very bowels, and leaves no men er untouched; what part then can have ease, when the damned swim in a lake of fire burning with brimstone? There will their bodies be tormented, and fcorched for ever. And as they finned, fo fhail they be tormented, in all the parts thereof; that they fhall have no found fide to turn them to: for what foundness or eafe can be to any part of that body, which being Separated from God, and all refreshment from him, is fill in the pangs of the fecond death, ever dying, but never dead? But as the foul was chief in finning, it will be chief in fuffering too, being filled brimful of the wrath of a fin-revenging God. The damned fhall ever be under deepest impreffions of God's vindictive juftice against them: and this fire will melt their fouls, within them, like wax. Who knows the power of that wrath which had such an effect on the Mediator, ftanding in, the room of finners, Pfal. xxii. 14. "My heart is like wax, it is melted in the midst of my "bowels?" Their minds fhall be filled with the terrible apprehenfions of God's implacable wrath: and whatever they can think. upon, pail, present, or to come, will aggravate their torment and anguish. Their will shall be croffed in all things for ever-more: as their will was ver contrary to the will of God's precepts; fo God, in his dealings with them, in the other world, fhall have war with their will for ever. What they would have, they fhall not in the leaft obtain; but what they would not, fhall be bound upon them without remedy. Hence no pleafant affection fhall ever fpring up in their hearts any more: their love of complacency, joy, and delight, in any object whatsoever, fall be pluckt up by the root; and they will be filled with hatred, fury, and rage, againft God, themselves, and their fellow-creatures, whether happy in heaven, or miferable in hell, as they themselves are. They will be funk in forrow, racked with anxiety, filled with horror, galled to the heart with fretting and continually darted with defpair; which will make them weep, gnash their teeth, and blafpheme for ever. Matth. xxii. 13. "Bird him hand and foot, and take him away, and caft him into utter-darkness; there fhall be weeping and gnashing of "teeth." Rev. xvi. 21." And there fell upon men, a great hail "out of heaven, every ftone about the weight of a talent: and men blafphemed God, because of the hail; for the plague thereof 66 was exceeding great. Confcience will be a worm to gnaw and prey upon them; remorfe for their fins fhall feize them, and torment them for ever, and they fhall not be able to fhake it off, as fometimes they did; for "in hell-their worm dieth not," Mark ix. 45, 46. Their memory will ferve but to aggravate their torment, and every new reflection will bring another pang of anguish, Luke xvi. 25." But Abraham said, (viz. to the rich man in hell) Son, member, that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things."

a. The

2. The torments in hell are manifold. Put the case, that a man were, at one and the fame time, under the violence of the gout, gravel, and whatsoever difeales and pains have ever met together in one body; the torment of fuc one would be but light in comparison with the torments of the damned. For as in hell there is an abfence of all that is good and defirable, fo there is the confluence of all evils there; fince all the effects of fin and of the curfe take their place in it, after the laft judgment, Rev. xx. 14. “And death and hell were caft into the lake of fire." There they will find a prifon they can never efcape out of; a lake of fire, wherein they will be ever fwimming and burning: a pit, where they will never find a bottom. The worm that dieth not, hall feed on them, as on bodies which are interred: the fire that is not quenched, fhall devour them, as dead bodies which are burned.. Their eyes fhall be kept in blackness of darkness, without the least com fortable gleam of light: their ear's filled with the frightful yellings of the infernal crew. They fhall tafte nothing but the vinegar of God's wrath, the dregs of the cup of his fury. The stench of the burning lake of brimstone will be the smell there; and they shall feel extreme pains for evermore.

3. They will be most exquifite and vehement torments, caufing weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth, Matin. xiii. 42. and xxii. 13. They are reprefented to us under the notion of pangs in travail, which are very fharp and exquifite. So fays the rich man in hell, Luke xvi. 24. I am tormented, (to wit, as one in the pangs of childbearing) in this flame. Ah! dre:diul pangs; horrible travail, in which both foul and body are in pangs together; helpless travail, hopeless and endless? the word u'ed for hell, Matth. v. 22. and in divers other places of the New Testament, properly denotes the valley of Hinnom; the name being taken from the valley of the children of Hinnom, in which was Tophet, (2 Kings xxii. 10.) where idolaters offered their children to Molech. This is faid to have been a great brafen idol, with arms like a man's: the which being heated by fire within it, the child was fet in the burning arms of the idol; and, that the parents might not hear the thrieks of the child burning to death, they beat drums in the time of the horrible facrifice; whence the place had the name of Tophet. Thus the exquifitenefs of the torments in hell are pointed out to us. Some have endured grievous tortures on earth, with a furprising obftinacy and undaunted courage: but mens courage will fail them there, when they find themfelves fallen into the hands of the living God; and no out-gate to be expected for ever. It is true, there will be degrees of torment in hell: It shall be more tolerable, for Tyre and Sidon, than for Chorazin and Bethfaida, Matth. xi. 21, 22 But the leaft load of wrath there, will be unfupportable; for how can the heart of the creature endure, or his hands be strong, when God: himfelf is a confuming fire to him? When the tares are bound in bundles.

for

for the fire, there will be bundles of covetous perfons, of drunkards, profane wearers, unclean perlons, formal hypocrites, unbelievers, and defpifers of the golpel, and the like: the feveral bundles being caft into hell-fire, fome will burn more keenly than others, according as their fins have been more heinous than these of others: a fiercer flame will feize the bundles of the profane, than the bundle of unfanctified moralifts; the furnace will be hotter to thofe who finned against light, than to these who lived in darkness, Luke xii. 37, 38. That fervant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, fhall be beaten "with many fripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of ftripes, fhall be beaten with few ftripes." But the fentence common to them all, (Matth. xiii. 30.) Bind them in bundles to burn them, fpeaks the greaselt vehemency and exquifiteness of the lowest degree of torment in hell.

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4. They will be uninterrupted there is no intermiffion there'; no eafe, no not for a moment. They shall be tormented day an✩ night for ever and ever, Rev. xx. 10. Few are fo toffed in this world, but fometimes they get reft; but the damned fhall get none: they took their rest in the time appointed of God for labour. No ftorms are readily feen, but there is fome fpace between fhowers: but no intermiffion in the storm that falls on the wicked in hell. There deep will be calling unto deep, and the waves of wrath continually rolling over them. There the heavens will be always black to them, and they fhall have a perpetual night, but no reft, Rev. xiv. 1o. They have no reft day nor night.

5. They will be unpitied. The punishments inflicted on the greateft malefactors on earth, do draw forth fome compaflion from them who behold them in their torments: but the damned fhall have none to pity them. God will not pity them, but laugh at their calanty, Prov. i. 26. The bleffed company in heaven fhall rejoice in the execution of God's righteous judgment, and fing while the fmoak rifeth up for ever, Rev. xix. 3. And again they faid Allelujah: and her smoke rofe up for ever and ever. No compaffion can be expected from the devil and his angels, who delight in the ruin of the children of men, ' and are, and will be for ever void of pity. Neither will one pity another there, where every one is weeping and gnathing his teeth, under his own infopportable anguifh and pain. There natural affections will be extinguifhed: the parents will not love their children, nor children. their parents: the mother will not pity the daughter in these flames, nor will the daughter pity the mother: the fon will fhew no regard to his father there, nor the fervant to his mafter, where every one will be roaring under his own torment.

Laftly, To complete their mifery, their torments fhall be eternal, Rev. xiv. 11. And the fmoke of their torment afcended up for ever and ever. Ah! what a frightful cafe is this, to be tormented in the whole body and foul, and that not with one kind of torment, but many; all of