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will these 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 thefe wicked fpirits; and bound with them in everlafting chains under darkness! Rev. xx. 10. "And the devil that de"ceived them, was caft into the lake of fire and brimftone, where "the beaft, 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 fhould men chufe that company in this world, and delight in that fociety, they would not defire to affociate with in the other world? Those 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 pafs 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 first who entered into the eternity of woe, is as far from the end of it, as the la, 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 begin ning without a middle, a beginning without an end. After inillions 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 paft 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 shall never

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State IV. Obferve the continual fucceffion of hours, days, months, and years, hoy 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 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 ftill 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 thould 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 mountain would at length be removed that way, and brought to an end; but eternity will never end. Suppofe this with respect 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 exprefs 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, determining their eternal ftate, is everlafting: therefore all the dolefull ingredients of their miserable state will be everlasting; they will never end. The text expressly 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 reprefenting hell-fire by the fire of that valley, fpeaks it not only to be most exquifite, but alfo everlasting. Seeing

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then the damned muft depart, as cursed ones, into everlasting fire, it is evidence that,

ift, The damned themfelves fhall be eternal: they will have a being for ever, and will never be fubftantially 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 everlafting continuance of the fire, is an aggravation of the mifery of the damned: but furely, if they be annihilated, or fubftantially deftroyed, it is all a cafe to them, whether the fire be everlasting, or not. Nay, but they depart into everlasting fire, to be everlaftingly punished in it; Matth. xxv. 46. They fhall 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 everlafing, 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 separated 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 abfolutely 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 the nfelves 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 sentence 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 use.

3dly, Their punishment shall be eternal; Matth. xxv. 46. They fhall go away into everlasting punishment. 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 per

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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 wathing But, however that is, it is certain, the damned shall be tørmented for ever and ever in hell fire, and not fubftantially 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 same God who kept the bodies of the three children, from burning in Nebuchadnezzar'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 shall affuredly know that it will be eternal. How defirable would it be in them, to have their fenfes for ever locked up, and to lofe the confcioufnefs of their own mifery; as one may rationally fup pofe 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 mifery, 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 withal 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 fhew 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 punishment 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 cominitted. The party offended is the great God, the chief

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good: the offender, a vile worm; in refpect of perfection infinitely diftant from God, to whom he is indebted for all that ever he had, implying any good, or perfection whatsoever. 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, eternal. 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 puniment cannot but be eternal. (2.) The finner would have continued the courfe 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) is juft 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 juft: 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 crines 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 excufe 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 much as one unbecoming thought of God, and far lefs any one unbecoming word.

USE I. 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 short. A profped of much time to come, proves the ruin of many

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