pafs from hence to you, cannot: neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. They fhall for ever, have the horrible fociety of the devil and his angels. There will be no change of company for evermore, in that region of darkness. Their torment in the fire will be everlafting: they muft live for ever in it. Several authors both ancient and modern, tell us of earthen flax, or Salamander's hair; that cloth made of it, being caft into the fire, is fo far from being burnt or confumed, that it is only made clean thereby, as other things are by wafhing But, however that is, it is certain, the damned fhall be tormented for ever and ever in hell fire, and not fubstantially destroyed, Rev. xx. 10. And indeed nothing is annihilated by fire, but only dif folved. Of what nature foever hell-fire is, no queftion, the fame God who kept the bodies of the three children from burning in Nebuchad. nezzar's fiery furnace, can also keep the bodies of the damned from any fuch diffolution by hell-fire, as may infer privation of life.

ftly, Their knowledge and fenfe of their mifery fhall be eternal, and they fhall affuredly know that it will be eternal. How defirable would it be in them, to have their senses for ever locked up, and to lofe the confcioufnefs of their own mifery; as one may rationally fuppofe it to fare at length with fome, in the punishment of death inflicted on them on earth, and as it is with fome mad people in their miserable cafe! but that agrees not with the notion of torment for ever and ever, nor the worm that dieth not. Nay, they will ever have a lively feeling of their misery, and ftrongeft impreffions of the wrath of God against them. And that dreadful intimation of the eternity of their punishment, made to them, by the Judge, in their fentence, will fix fuch impreffions of the eternity of their miferable flate upon their minds, as they will never be able to lay afide, but will continue with them evermore, to complete their mifery. This will fill them with cverlafting defpair, a moft tormenting paffion, which will continually rent their hearts, as it were in a thousand pieces. To fee floods of wrath ever coming, and never to ceafe; to be ever in torment, and witlial to know there fhall never, never, be a releafe, will be the capeftone put on the mifery of the damned, If hope deferred, maketh the heart fick, (Prov xiii. 12.) how killing will be, hope rooted up, flain outright, and buried for ever out of the creature's fight! this will fill them with hatred and rage against God, their known irreconcileable enemy; and under it, they will roar for ever like wild bulls in a net, and fill the pit with blafphemies evermore.

Laftly, I might here thew the reasonableness of the eternity of the punishment of the damned; but having already fpoke of it in vindicating the juftice of God, in his fubjecting men in their natural state to eternal wrath, I only remind you of three things, (1.) The infinite dignity of the party offended by fin, requires an infinite punifoment to be infled for the vindication of his honour: fince the demerit of fin rifeth according to the dignity and excellency of the perfon against whom it is committed. The party offended is the great God, the chief

good:

good: the offender, a vile worm; in refpect of perfection infinitely difiant from God, to whom he is indebted for all that ever he had, implying any good, or perfection whatfoever. This then requires an infinite punishment to be inflicted on the finner, the which, fince it cannot, in him, be infinite in value, muft needs be infinite in duration, that is to fay, etérnal. Sin is a kind of infinite evil, as it wrongs an infinite God; and the gult and defilement thereof is never taken away, but endures for ever, unless the Lord himself in mercy do remove it. God, who is offended, is eternal, his being never comes to an end: the finful foul is immortal, and the man fhall live for ever: the finner being without ftrength, (Rom. v. 6.) to expiate his gult, can never put away the offence; therefore it ever remains, unless the Lord do put it away himfelf, as in the elect, by his Son's blood. Wherefore the party offended, the offender, and the offence, ever remaining, the punishment cannot but be eternal. (2.) The finner would have continued the course of his provocations against God, for ever without end, if God had not put a check to it by death. As long as they were capable to act against him, in this world, they did it; and therefore juftly he will. act against them, while he is; that is, for ever. God who judgeth of the will, intents, and inclinations of the heart, may juftiy do against finners, in punishing, as they would have done against him, a finning. Laftly, (though I put not the ftrefs of the matter here, yet) it is jult and reafonable the damned fuffer eternally, fince they will fin eternally in hell, gnashing their teeth (Matth viii. 12.) under their pain, in rage, envy, and grudge, (compare Acts vii. 54. Pfal. cxii. 10. Luke xiii. 28.) and blafpheming God there, (Rev. xvi. 21.) whither they are driven away in their wickedness, Prov. xiv. 42. That the wicked be punished for their wickednefs, is just: and it is noways inconfiftent with justice, that the being of the creature be continued for ever:" wherefore, it is juft, that the damned, continuing wicked eternally, do fuffer eternally for their wickedness. The mifery, under which they fin, can neither free them from the debt of obedience, nor excufe their finning, and make it blameless. The creature, as a creature, is bound unto obedience to his Creator, and no punishment, inflicted on him, can free him from it, more than the malefactor's prifons, irons, whipping, and the like, do fet him at liberty, to commit anew the crimes for which he is imprisoned, or whipt. Neither can the torments of the damned excufe or make blameless their horrible finning under them, more than exquifite pains, inflicted upon men on earth, can excuse their murmuring, fretting, and blafpheming against God under thein: for it is not the wrath of God, but their own wicked nature, that is the true caufe of their finning under it: and fo the holy Jefus bore the wrath of God, without fo múch as one unbecoming thought of God, and far lefs any one unbecoming word.

USE 1. Here is a meafuring reed: O! that men would apply it. Firft, Apply it to your time in this world, and you will find your time to be very fhort. A profped of much time to come, proves the ruin of

many

for the fire, there will be bundles of covetous perfons, of drunkards, profane wearers, unclean perfons, formal hypocrites, unbelievers, and defpifers of the gospel, and the like: the feveral bundles being caft into hell-fire, fome will butu 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 those who finned against light, than to thefe 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 tripes. 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 grea eft vehemency and exquifiteness of the lowest degree of torment in hell.

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 reft 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 ftorm 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. 10. They have no reft day nor night.

T

5. They will be unpitied. The punishments inflicted on the greateft malefactors on earth, do draw forth fome compaffion 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 fmoke rofe up for ever and ever. No compaflion 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 infupportable 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 Smoke 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

of thefe moft exquifite, and all this without any intermiffion, and without pity from any! what heart can conceive those things without horror? Nevertheless, if this moft miferable cafe were at length to have an end, that would afford fome comfort: but the torments of the damned will have no end; of the which more afterwards.

USE. Learn from this, (1.) The evil of fin. It is a fiream that will carry down the finner, till he be fwallowed up in an occean of wrath. The pleasures of fin are bought too dear, at the rase of everlasting burnings. What availed the rich man's purple clothing and sumptuous fare, when, in hell, he was wrapt up in purple flames, and could not have a drop of water to cool his tongue? Alas! that men fhould indulge themselves in fin, which will be fuch bitterness in the end; that they fhould drink fo greedily of the poisonous cup, and hug that ferpent in their bofom, that will fting them to the heart, and gnaw out their 'bowels at length! 2. What a God he is, with whom we have to do; what a hatred he bears to fin, and how feverely he punisheth it. Know the Lord to be most juft, as well as moft merciful; and think not that he is fuch an one as you are away with that fatal mistake ere it be too late, Pfal. 1. 21, 22. "Thou thoughteft that I was altogether "fuch an one as thyfelf; but I will reprove thee, and fet them in

order before thine eyes. Now confider this, ye that forget God, " left I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver." The fire prepared for the devil and his angels, as dark as it is, will ferve to difcover God to be a fevere Revenger of fin. Laftly, The abfolute neceffity of fleeing to the Lord Jefus Chrift by faith; the fame neceffity of repentance, and holiness of heart and life. The avenger of blood is pursuing thee, O finner! hafte and escape to the city of refuge.. Wash now in the fountain of the Mediator's blood, that you may not perifh in the lake of fire. Open thy heart to him, left the pit clofe its mouth on thee. Leave thy fins, elfe they will ruin thee: kill them, elfe they will be thy death for ever.

Let not the terror of hell-fire put thee upon hardening thy heart more, as it may do, if thou entertain that wicked thought, viz. There is no hope, Jer. ii. 25. which, perhaps, is more rife among the hearers of the gospel, than many are aware of. But there is hope for the worst of finners, who will come unto Jefus Chrift. If there are no good qualifications in thee (as, certainly, there can be none in a natural, man, none in any man, but what are received from Chrift in him) know, that he has not fufpended thy welcome on any good qualifications: do thou take himself and his falvation, freely offered unto all, to whom the gofpel comes. Whofoever will, let him take of the water of life freely, Rev. xxii. 17. Him that cometh to me, I will in no ways caft out, John vi. 37. It is true, thou art a finful creature, and cant not repent; thou art unholy, and canft not make thyself holy: nay, thou haft effayed to repent, to feriake fin, and to be holy, but ftill miffed of repentance, reformation, and holinefs; and therefore, Thou faidft, there is no hope. No, for I have loved strangers, and after them

will I go. Truly, no marvel, that the fuccefs has not anfwered thy expectation, fince, thou haft always begun thy work amifs. But do thou, first of all, honour God, by believing the teftimony he has given of his Son, namely, that eternal life is in him: and honour the Son of God by believing on him, that is, embracing and falling in with the free offer of Chrift, and of his falvation from fin and from wrath, made to thee in the gospel, trufting in him confidently for righteoufnefs to thy juftification, and alfo for fanctification; feeing of God he is made unto us both righteoufness and fanctification, 1 Cor. i. 30. Then, if thou hadít as much credit to give to the word of God, as thou would allow to the word of an honest man offering thee a gift, and faying, take it, and it is thine; thou mayeft believe that God is thy God, Chrift is thine, his falvation is thine, thy fins are pardoned, thou had ftrength in him for repentance and for holinefs: for all the fe are made over to thee in the free offer of the gofpel. Believing on the Son of God, thou art justified, the curfe is removed. And while it lies upon thee, how is it poffible, thou thouldft bring forth the fruits of holiness? But, the curfe is removed, that death, which feized on thee with the firft Adam, (according to the threatning, Gen. ii. 17.) is taken away. In confequence of which, thou fhalt find the bands of wickednefs (now holding thee fast in impenitency) broken afunder, as the bands of that death: fo as thou wilt be able to repent indeed from the heart: thou fhalt find the spirit of life, on whofe departure that death enfued, returned to thy foul; fo as thenceforth thou fhalt be enabled to live unto righteousness. No man's cafe is fo bad, but it may be mended this way, in time, to be perfectly right in eternity: and no man's cafe is fo good, but another way being taken, it will be marred før time and eternity too.

III. The damned fhall have the fociety of devils in their miferable ftate in hell: for they must depart into fire prepared far the devil and bis angels. O horrible company! O frightful affociation! who would chuse to dwell in a palace haunted by devils? To be confined to the moft pleafant spot of earth, with the devil and his infernal furies, would be a moft, terrible confinement. How would mens hearts fail them, and their hair ftand up, finding themselves environed with the hellish crew, in that cafe! but ah! how much more terrible must it be, to be caft with the devils into one fire, locked up with them in one dungeon, fhut up with them in one pit! to be clofed up in a den of roaring lions, girded about with ferpents, furrounded with venomous afps, and to have the bowels eaten out by vipers, all together, and at once, is a comparifon too low, to fhew the mifery of the damned, fhut up in hell with the devil and bis angels. They go about now as roaring lions, feeking whom they may devour: but then fhall they be confined in their dens with their prey, they fhall be filled to the brim with the wrath of God, and receive the full torment, (Mat. viii. 29.) which they tremble in expectation of, (James ii. 19.) being caft into the fire prepared for them. How will thefe lions roar and tear! how