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How will it even cut them to the heart to look each other in the face! What an interview will there then be, cursing the day that ever they saw one another! O that sinners would now remember, and say, “ Will these delights accompany us into the other world? Will not the remembrance of them be then our torment? Shall we then take this partnership in vice for true friendship? Why should we sell such lasting incomprehensible joys for a taste of seeming pleasure? Come, as we have sinned together, let us pray together that God would pardon us; and let us help one another towards heaven, instead of helping to deceive and destroy each other." O that men knew but what they desire, when they would so fain have all things suited to the desires of the flesh! It is but to desire their temptations to be increased, and their snares strengthened.

§ 8. (II.) As the loss of the saint's rest will be aggraved by losing the enjoyments of time, it will be much more so by suffering the torments of hell. The exceeding greatness of such torments may appear by considering, the principal author of them, which is God himself; the place or state of torment;-that these torments are the fruit of divine vengeance; that the Almighty takes pleasure in them ;—that Satan and sinners themselves shall be God's executioners; that these torments shall be universal, without mitigation,-and without end.

§ 9. (1) The principal author of hell torments is God himself. As it was no less than God whom the sinners had offended, so it is no less than God who will punish them for their offences. He hath prepared those torments for his enemies. His continued anger will still be devouring them. His breath of indignation will kindle the flames. His wrath will be an intolerable burden to their souls. If it were but a creature they had to do with, they might better bear it. Woe to him that falls under the strokes of the Almighty! It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.(f) It were nothing in comparison

(f) Heb. x. 31.

to this, if all the world were against them, or if the strength of all creatures were united in one to inflict their penalty. They had now rather venture to displease God than displease a landlord, a customer, a master, a friend, a neighbour, or their own flesh; but then they will wish a thousand times in vain, that they had been hated of all the world, rather than have lost the favour of God. What a consuming fire is his wrath? If it be kindled here but a little, how do we wither like the grass? How soon doth our strength decay, and turn to weakness, and our beauty to deformity! The flames do not so easily run through the dry stubble, as the wrath of God will consume these wretches. They that could not bear a prison, or a gibbet, or a fire, for Christ, nor scarce a few scoffs, how will they now bear the devouring flames of divine wrath.

§ 10. (2) The place or state of torment is purposely ordained to glorify the justice of God. When God would glorify his power, he made the worlds. The comely order of all his creatures declareth his wisdom. His providence is shown in sustaining all things. When a spark of his wrath kindles upon the earth, the whole world, except only eight persons, are drowned; Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, are burnt with fire from heaven; the sea shuts her mouth upon some; the earth opens and swallows up others; the pestilence destroys by thousands. What a standing witness of the wrath of God is the present deplorable state of the Jews! Yet the glorifying the mercy and justice of God, is intended most eminently for the life to come. As God will then glorify his mercy in a way that is now beyond the comprehension of the saints that must enjoy it; so also will he manifest his justice to be indeed the justice of God. The everlasting flames of hell will not be thought too hot for the rebellious; and when they have there burned through millions of ages, he will not repent him of the evil which is befallen them. Woe to the soul that is thus set up as a butt, for the

wrath of the Almighty to shoot at! and as a bush that must burn in the flames of his jealousy, and never be consumed!

§ 11. (3) The torments of the damned must be extreme, because they are the effect of divine vengeance. Wrath is terrible, but revenge is implacable. When the great God shall say, "My rebellious creatures shall now pay for all the abuse of my patience. Remember how I waited your leisure in vain, how I stooped to persuade and entreat you. Did you think I would always be so slighted?" Then will he be revenged for every abused mercy, and for all their neglects of Christ and grace. O that men would foresee this, and please God better in preventing their woe!

§ 12. (4) Consider also, that though God had rather men would accept of Christ and mercy, yet when they persist in rebellion he will take pleasure in their execution. He tells us, Fury is not in me; yet he adds, Who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together.-Wretched creatures! when he that made them will not have mercy upon them, and he that formed them will show them no favour.(g) As the Lord rejoiced over them to do them good; so the Lord will rejoice over them to destroy them, and to bring them to nought.(h) Woe to the souls whom God rejoiceth to punish! He will laugh at their calamity, he will mock when their fear cometh; when their fear cometh as desolation, and their destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon them.(i) Terrible thing, when none in heaven or earth can help them but God, and he shall rejoice in their calamity. Though scripture speaks of God's laughing and mocking, not literally, but after the manner of men; yet it is such an act of God in tormenting the sinner, which cannot otherwise be more fitly expressed.

§ 13. (5) Consider that Satan and themselves shall be God's executioners. He that was here so

(g) Isa. xxvii. 4, 11. (h) Deut. xxviii. 63. (i) Prov. i. 26, 27.

successful in drawing them from Christ, will then be the instrument of their punishment, for yielding to his temptations. That is the reward he will give them for all their service; for their rejecting the commands of God and forsaking Christ, and neglecting their souls, at his persuasion. If they had served Christ as faithfully as they did Satan, he would have given them a better reward. It is also most just, that they should be their own tormentors, that they may see their whole destruction is of themselves; and then who can they complain of but themselves?

§14. (6) Consider also that their torment will be universal. As all parts have joined in sin, so must they all partake in the torment. The soul, as it was the chief in sinning, shall be the chief in suffering; and as it is of a more excellent nature than the body, 80 will its torments far exceed bodily torments; and as its joys far surpass all sensual pleasures, so the pains of the soul exceed corporeal pains.-It is not only a soul, but a sinful soul, that must suffer. Fire will not burn except the fuel be combustible; but if the wood be dry, how fiercely will it burn! The guilt of their sins will be to damned souls like tinder to gunpowder, to make the flames of hell take hold upon them with fury.-The body must also bear its part. That body which was so carefully looked to, so tenderly cherished, so curiously dressed; what must it now endure! How are its haughty looks now taken down! How little will those flames regard its comeliness and beauty! Those eyes which were wont to be delighted with curious sights, must then see nothing but what shall terrify them! an angry God above them, with those saints whom they scorned enjoying the glory which they have lost; and about them will be only devils and damned souls. How will they look back, and say, " Are all our feasts, and games, and revels, come to this!" Those ears which were accustomed to music and songs, shall hear the shrieks and cries of their damned companions; chil

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dren crying out against their parents, that gave them encouragement and example in evil; husbands and wives, masters and servants, ministers and people, magistrates and subjects, charging their misery upon one another, for discouraging in duty, conniving at sin, and being silent, when they should have plainly foretold the danger. Thus will soul and body be companions in woę.

15. (7) Far greater will these torments be, because without mitigation. In this life, when told of hell, or if conscience troubled their peace, they had comforters at hand; their carnal friends, their business, their company, their mirth. They could drink, play, or sleep away their sorrows. But now all these remedies are vanished. Their hard, presumptuous, unbelieving heart, was a wall to defend them against trouble of mind. Satan was himself their comforter, as he was to our first mother; "Hath God said, ye shall not eat?-ye shall not surely die. Doth God tell you, that you shall lie in hell? It is no such matter; God is more merciful.-Or if there be a hell, what need you fear it? Are not you Christians? Was not the blood of Christ shed for you?" Thus as the Spirit of Christ is the comforter of the saints, so Satan is the comforter of the wicked. Never was a thief more careful lest he should awake the people, when he is robbing the house, than Satan is not to awaken a sinner. But when the sinner is dead, then Satan hath done flattering and comforting. Which way then will the forlorn sinner look for comfort? They that drew him into the snare, and promised him safety, now forsake him, and are forsaken themselves. His comforts are gone, and the righ teous God, whose forewarnings he made light of, will now make good his word against him to the least tittle.

§ 16. (8) But the greatest aggravation of these torments, will be their eternity. When a thousand millions of ages are past, they are as fresh to begin as the first day. If there were any hope of an end,

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