of thefe moft exquifite, and all this without any intermiffion, and without pity from any! what heart can conceive thofe 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 hemselves in fin, which will be fuch bitterness in the end; that they fhould drink fo greedily of the poifonous 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 just, 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 fim. 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 efcape to the city of refuge. Wash now in the fountain of the Mediator's blood, that you may not perish in the lake of fire. Open thy heart to him, left the pit clofe its mouth on thee. Leave thy fins, else 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. fi. 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 gospel comes. Whosoever 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 forsake fin, and to be holy, but ftill miffed of repentance, reformation, and holiness; and therefore, Thou faidft, there is no hope. No, for I have loved ftrangers, and after them

will I go. Truly, no marvel, that the fuccefs has not answered 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 gofpel, trufting in him confidently for righteoufnefs to thy juftification, and alfo for fanctification; feeing of God he is made unto us both righteousness and fanctification, 1 Cor. i. 30. Then, if thou hadit as much credit to give to the word of God, as thou wouldst 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 first Adam, (according to the threatning, Gen. ii. 17.) is taken away. In confequence of which, thou fhalt find the bands of wickedness (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 righteoufnefs. 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 state in hell: for they must depart into fire prepared for the devil and his angels. O horrible company! O frightful affociation! who would chufe to dwell in a palace haunted by devils? To be confined to the moft pleafant fpot 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, shut 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

will thefe ferpents hifs! thefe dragons vomit out fire! what horrible anguish will feize the damned, finding themfelves in the lake of fire, with the devil who deceived them; drawn hither with the filken cords of temptation, by these wicked fpirits; and bound with them in everlafting chains under darknefs! Rev. xx. 10. "And the devil that de"ceived them, was caft into the lake of fire and brimftone, where "the beast, and the false prophet are, and fhall be tormented day "and night for ever."

O! that men would confider this in time, renounce the devil and his lufts, and join themselves to the Lord in faith and holiness. Why should men chuse that company in this world, and delight in that fociety, they would not defire to affociate with in the other world? Thofe who like not the company of the faints on earth, will get none of it in. eternity: but as godlefs company is their delight now, they will afterwards get enough of it; when they have an eternity to pass in the roaring and blafpheming fociety of devils and reprobates in hell. Let those who ufe to invocate the devil to take them, foberly confider, that the company fo often invited will be terrible at laft, when come.

IV. And lafly, Let us confider the eternity of the whole, the everlafting continuance of the miferable state of the damned in hell.

First, If I could, I fhould fhew what eternity is, I mean, the creature's eternity. But who can measure the waters of the occean, or who can tell you the days, years, and ages of eternity, which are infinitely more than the drops of the occean? None can comprehend eternity, but the eternal God. Eternity is an occean, whereof we will never fee the fhore; it is a deep, where we can find no bottom; a labyrinth, from whence we cannot extricate ourselves, and where we fhall ever lofe the door. There are two things one may fay of it, (1.) It has a beginning. God's eternity has no beginning, but the creature's eternity has. Sometime there was no lake of fire; and those who have been there, for fome thousand of years, were once, in time, as we now are. But (2.) It shall never have an end. The firft who entered into the eternity of woe, is as far from the end of it, as the laft, who fhall go thither, will be at his entry. They who have launched out furtheft into that occean, are as far from land, as they were the first moment they went into it: and thousands of ages after this, they will be as far from it as ever. Wherefore, eternity, which is be"fore us, is a duration that hath a beginning, but no end. It is a beginning without a middle, a beginning without an end. After millions of years paft in it, ftill it is a beginning. God's wrath in hell, will ever be the wrath to come. But there is no middle in eternity. When millions of ages are past in eternity, what is paft bears no proportion of what is to come; no not fo much as one drop of water, falling from the tip of one's finger, bears to all the waters of the occean. There is no end of it: while God is, it fhall be. It is an entry without an out-gate, a continual fucceffion of ages, a glafs always running, which fhall never

run out.

U u

Obferve

State IV. Obferve the continual fucceffion of hours, days, months, and years, how one fill follows upon one another; and think of eternity, wherein there is a continual fucceffion without end. When you go out in the night, and behold the ftars of heaven, how they cannot be numbred for multitude, think of the ages of eternity; confidering withal, there is a certain definite number of the stars, but no number of the ages of eternity. When you fee a water running, think how vain a thing it would be, to fit down by it, and wait till it fhould run out, that you may pafs over; look how new water ftill fucceeds to that which paffeth by you: and therein you will have an image of eternity, which is a river that never dries up. They who wear rings, have an image of eternity on their fingers; and they who handle the wheel have an emblem of eternity before them: for to which part foever of the ring or wheel one looks, one will still fee another part beyond it; and on whatsoever montent of eternity you condefcend, there is ftill another beyond it. When you are abroad in the fields, and behold the piles of the grafs on the earth, which no man can reckon; think with yourfelves, that, were as many thousand of years to come, as there are piles of grafs on the ground, even thofe would have an end at length, but eternity will have none. When you look to a mountain, imagine in your hearts, how long would it be, ere that mountain fhould be removed, by a little bird coming but once every thousand years, and carrying away but one grain of the duft thereof at once; the moun tain would at length be removed that way, and brought to an end; but eternity will never end. Suppofe this with refpect to all the mountains of the earth; nay, with refpect to the whole globe of the earth; the grains of duft, whereof the whole earth is made up, are not infinite, and therefore the laft grain would, at long-run, come to be carried away, in the way fuppofed: but when that floweft work would be brought to an end, eternity would be, in effect but beginning.

These are some rude draughts of eternity; and now add mifery and woe to this eternity, what tongue can express it? What heart can conceive it? In what balance can that mifery and that woe be weighed?

Secondly, Let us take a view of what is eternal in the ftate of the damned in hell. What foever is included in the fearful fentence, de.. termining their eternal ftate, is everlasting: therefore all the dolefull ingredients of their miserable state will be everlasting; they will never end. The text exprefsly declares the fire, into which they muft depart, to be everlasting fire. And our Lord elsewhere tells us, that in hell the fire fhall never be quenched, (Mark ix. 43.) with an eye to the valley of Hinnom, in which, befides the already mentioned fire, for burning of the children to Molech, there was alfo another fire burning continually, to confume the dead varcafes, and filth of Jeru falem; fo the fcripture representing hell-fire by the fire of that valley, fpeaks it not only to be most exquifite, but also everlasting. Seeing

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then the damned must depart, as curfed ones, into everlasting fire, it is evidence that,

ift, The damned themselves fhall be eternal: they will have a being for ever, and will never be substantially destroyed, or annihilated. To what end is the fire eternal; if these who are caft into it, be not eternally in it! It is plain, the everlasting continuance of the fire, is an aggravation of the mifery of the damned: but furely, if they be annihilated, or fubftantially destroyed, it is all a cafe to them, whether the fire be everlafting, or not. Nay, but they depart into everlasting fire, to be everlaftingly punished in it; Matth xxv. 46. They shall go away into everlasting punishment. Thus the execution of the fentence, is a certain difcovery of the meaning of it. The worm, that dieth not, must have a subject to live in: they, who fhall have no reft, day nor night, (Rev. xiv. 11.) but fhall be tormented day and night for ever and ever, (chap. xx. 10.) will certainly have a being for ever and ever, and not be brought into a ftate of eternal reft in annihilation Deftroyed indeed they fhall be: but their destruction will be an everlefring deftruction, (2 Theff. i. 9.) a destruction of their well-being, but not of their being. What is, deftroyed, is not therefore annihilated; Art thou come to deftroy us? faid the devil unto Jefus Christ, Luke iv. 34° Howbeit the devils are afraid of torment, not of annihilation, Matth. viii. 29. Art thou come hither to torment us before the time? The ftate of the damned is indeed a state of death: but fuch a death it is, as is oppofite only to a happy life; as is clear from other notions of their ftate, which neceffarily include an eternal existence, of which before. As they, who are dead in fin, are dead to God and holiness, yet live to fin: fo dying in hell, they live, but feparated from God, and his favour, in which life lies, Pfal. xxx. 5. They fhall ever be under the pangs of death; ever dying, but never dead, or absolutely void of life. How defirable would fuch a death be to them! but it will fly from them for ever. Could each one kill another there, or could they, with their own hands, rent tlnfelves into lifeless pieces, their mifery would quickly be at an end: but there they muft live, who chufed death, and refufed life; for there death lives, and the end ever begins.

2dly, The curfe fhall fly upon them eternally, as the everlasting chain, to hold them in the everlafting fire; a chain that thall never be loofed, being fixed for ever about them, by the dreadful fentence of the eternal judgment. This chain, which fpurns the united force of devils held faft by it, is too ftrong to be broken by men, who being folemnly anathematized, and devoted to deftruction, can never be recovered to any other ufe.

3dly, Their punishment shall be eternal; Matth. xxv. 46. They fhail go away into everlasting punifoment. They will be, for ever, feparate from God and Chrift, and from the fociety of the holy angels and faints; between whom and them an impaffible gulf will be fixed, Luke xvi. 26. Between us and you, (fays Abraham, in the parable, to the rich man in hell) there is a great gulf fixed, fo that they which would