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and naked to be wounded by his hand. At death, the foul of e very wicked man immediately falls into the hands of the living God; and "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the liv ing God," as the apoftle fpeaks, Heb. x. 31. Their punishment is" from the prefence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power," 2 Thef. i. 9. They are not put over to their fellowCreatures to be punished, but God will do it himself, and glorify his power, as well as his justice, in their punishment. The wrath of God lies immediately upon their fpirits, and this is the "fiery "indignation which devoureth the adverfaries," Heb. x. 27. A fire that licks up the very fpirit of man. Who knoweth the power of his anger! Pfal. xc. 11. How infupportable it is, you may a little guess by that expreffion of the prophet Nahum, chap. i. 5, 6. "The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and "the earth is burnt at his prefence; yea, the world, and all "that dwell therein. Who can ftand before his indignation? "And who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? His fury "is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by "him."

And as if anger and wrath were not words of a fufficient edge and fharpnefs, it is called fiery indignation and vengeance, words denoting the most intenfe degree of divine wrath. For indeed his power is to be glorified in the deftruction of his enemies, and therefore now he will do it to purpose. He takes them now into his own hands. No creature can come at the foul immediately, that is God's prerogative, and now he hath to do with it himfelf in fury, and revenge is poured out. "Can thy hands be ftrong, or thy heart endure when I fhall deal with thee?" Ezek. xxii. 14. Alas! the spirit quails and dies under it. This is the hell of hells.

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What doleful cries and lamentings have we heard from God's dearest children, when but fome few drops of his anger have been fprinkled upon their fouls, here in this world! But, alas! there is no compare betwixt the anger, or fatherly difcipline of God over the fpirits of his children, and the indignation poured out from the beginning of revenges upon his enemies.

Prop. 5. The feparate fpirit of a damned man becomes a tormentor to itself by the various and efficacious actings of it's own confcience, which are a special part of its torment in the other world.

Confcience, which should have been the finners curb on earth, becomes the whip that must lafh his foul in hell. Neither is there any faculty, or power belonging to the foul of man, so fit and able to do it as his own confcience. That which was the feat

and center of all guilt, now becomes the feat and center of all torments. The fufpenfion of its tormenting power in this world is a mystery, and wonder to all that duly confider it. For certainly should the Lord let a finner's confcience fly upon him with rage, in the midst of his fins and pleasures, it would put him into a hell upon earth, as we fee in the doleful inftances of Judas, Spira, &c. But he keeps a hand of reftraint upon them, generally, in this life, and fuffers them to fleep quietly by a grumbling or feared confcience, which couches by them as a fleepy lion, and lets them alone.

But no fooner is the Chriftless foul turned out of the body, and caft for eternity at the bar of God, but confcience is rouz. ed, and put into a rage never to be appeased any more. It now racks and tortures the miferable foul with its utmost effi cacy and activity. The mere prefages and forebodings of wrath, by the confciences of finners in this world, have made them lie with a ghaftly palenefs in their faces, univerfal trembling in all their members, a cold fweating horror upon their panting bofoms, like men already in hell: But this, all this, is but as the fweating of the ftones before the great rain falls. The activities of conscience (especially in hell) are various, vigorous, and dreadful to confider, fuch are its recognitions, accufations, condemnations, upbraidings, shamings, and fearful expectati

ons.

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1. The confciences of the damned will recognize, and bring back the fins commited in this world fresh to their mind: For what is conscience, but a register, or book of records, wherein every fin is ranked in its proper place and order! This act of confcience is fundamental to all its other acts; for it cannot accufe, condemn, upbraid, or fhame us for that it hath loft out of its memory, and hath no fenfe of. Son remember, faid Abraham to Dives, in the midst of his torments. This remembrance of fins paft, mercies past, opportunities paft, but especially of hope past and gone with them, never to be recovered any more, is like that fire not blown (of which Zophar fpeaks) which confumes him, or the glittering fword coming out of his gall, Job XX. 24. &c.

2. It chargeth and accufeth the damned foul; and its charges are home, pofitive, and felf-evident charges: A thousand legal and unexceptionable witneffes cannot confirm any point more than one witness in a man's bofom can do, Rom. ii. 15. It convicts, and stops their mouths, leaving them without any excufe or apology. Juft and righteous are the judgments of God upon thee, faith confcience: In all this ocean of mifery, there is no

one drop of injury or wrong: The judgment of God is accordé ing to truth.

3. It condemns as well as chargeth and witneffeth, and that with a dreadful fentence; backing and approving the sentence and judgment of God, 1 John iii. 21. every felf.destroyer will be a felf-condemner: This is a prime part of their mifery.

·Primà eft haet ultio, quod fe

Judice, nemo nocens abfolvitur, improba quamvis
Gratia fallacis praetoris vicerit urnam.

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Juv. Sat.-13.

4. The upbraidings of confcience, in hell, are terrible and infufferable things: To be continually hit in the teeth and twitted with our madness, wilfulness, and obftinacy, as the cause of all that eternal mifery which we have pulled down upon our own heads, what is it, but the rubbing of the wound with falt and vinegar? Of this torment holy Job was afraid, and therefore refolved what in him lay to prevent it, when he faith, Job xxvii. 6. "My heart (i. e. confcience) fhall not reproach "me fo long as I live." O the twits and taunts of conscience are cruel cuts and lafhes to the foul!

5. The fhamings of conscience are unfufferable torments. Shame arifeth from the turpitude of discovered actions. If fome mens fecret filthineffes were but published in this world, it would confound them; what then will it be, when all fhall lie open, as it will, after this life, and their own confciences shall caft the fhame of all upon them? They fhall not only be derided by God, Prov. i. 26. but by their own confciences alfo.

Lastly, the fearful expectations of confcience, ftill looking forward into more and more wrath to come, this is the very fum and complement of their mifery. What makes a prifon fo dreadful to a malefactor, but the trembling expectation he there lives under of the approaching affizes? Much after the fame rate, or rather after the rate of condemned perfons pre paring for execution, do thefe fpirits in prison live in the other world. But alas no inftance or fimilitude can reach home to their cafe.

Prop. 6. That which makes the torments and terrors of the damned fpirits fo extreme and terrible, is, that they are unre lievable miferies, and torments for ever.

They are not capable either of,

1. A partial relief, by any mitigation, or
2. A complete relief, by a final ceffation.

1. Not of a partial relief, by any mitigation; could they but divert their thoughts from their mifery, as they were wont to do in this world, drink and forget their forrows; or had they but any hope of the abatement of their mifery, it would be a relief to them: But both thefe are impoffible. Their thoughts are fixed and determined to remove them (though but for a moment) from their mifery, is as impoffible as to remove a mountain: Their fin and mifery is ever before them. As the bleffed in heaven are bono confirmati, so fixed and fettled in bleffedness, that they are not diverted one moment from be holding the bleffed face of God, for they are ever with the Lord So the damned in hell are malo obfirmati, so settled and fixed in the midst of all evil, that their thoughts and miferies are infeparable for ever.

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2. Much lefs can their undone flate admit the least hope of relief by a final ceffation of their mifery. All hope perifheth from them, and the perishing of their hope is the plaineft proof that can be given of the eternity of their mifery. For were there but the remoteft poffibility of deliverance at laft, hope would hang upon that poffibility: And whilft hope lives, the foul is not quite dead; the death of hope is the death of a man's fpirit: The cutting off of the foul from God, and the laft act of hope to fee or enjoy him for ever, is that death which an immortal foul is capable of fuffering. "Depart from me, ye curfed, into everlafting fire," is that fentence which Itrikes hope and foul dead for ever. In these fix propofitions you have the true and terrible representation of the fpirits in prifon, or the ftate of damned fouls. I have not mentioned their affociation with devils, or the difmal place of their confinement, which, though they complete their mifery, yet are not the principal parts of it, but rather acceffories to it, or rivers running into the ocean of their mifery. The fum of their mifery lies in what was opened before, and the improvement of it is in that which followeth.

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Infer. I. Is this the ftate of ungodly fouls after death? Then it follows, that neither death nor annihilation are the worst of evils incident to man. Ariftotle calls death the most terrible of all terribles, and the fchoolmen affirm annihilation to be a greater evil than the most miferable being: But it is neither fo, nor fo; the wrath of God, the worm of confcience, are much more bitter than death. The pains of death are natural and bodily pains: The wrath of God and anguifh of conscience are fpiritual and inward: Thofe are but the pains of a few hours or days, thefe are the unrelieved torments of eternity. Dad

VOL. III.

And as for annihilation, what a favour would the damned account it! Indeed if we refpect the glory of God's justice, which is exemplified and illuftrated in the ruin of thete miferable fouls; it is better they fhould abide as the eternal monuments thereof, than not to be at all; but with refpect to themfelves we may fay, as Chrift doth of the fon of perdition, Mat. xxvi. 24.. “Good had it been for them if they had never been "born.' For a man's foul to be of no other ufe than a veffel of wrath, to receive the indignation, and be filled with the fury. of God; furely an untimely birth, that never was animated with a reafonable foul, is better than they: For alas ! they feck for death, but it flies from them. The immortality of their fouls, which was their dignity and privilege above other creatures, is now their mifery, and that which continually feeds and perpetuates their flame. Here is a being without the comfort of it, a being only to howl and tremble under divine wrath, a being therefore which they would gladly exchange with the contemptibleft fly, or moft lothfome toad, but it cannot be exchanged, or annihilated.

Infer. 2. Hence it follows, that the pleasures of fin are dear bought, and cofly pleafures. There is a greater difproportion betwixt that pleature and this wrath, than betwixt a drop of Honey and a fea of gall. Could a man diftil all the imaginary pleasure of fin, and drink nothing else but the highest and most refined delights of it all his life, though his life fhould be protracted to the term of Methufelah's; yet one day, or night, under the wrath of God would make it a dear bargain. But,

1. 'Tis certain fin hath no fuch pleafnres to give you: They are embittered either by adverfe ftrokes of providence from without, or painful and dreadful gripes and twinges of confci ence, within; Job xx. 14. " His meat in his bowels is turned, "it is the gall of afps within him."

2. Tis as certain, the time of a fioner is near its period when he is at the height of his pleasure in fin: For look, as high delights in God fpeak the maturity of a foul for heaven,. and it will not be long before fuch be in heaven; fo the heights of delight in fin, answerably speak the maturity of fuch a foul for hell, and it will not be long e'er it be there. Sin is now a big embryo, and fper dily the foul travails with death.

3. According to the measure of delights men have had in fin, will be the degrees and measures of their torments in hell, Rev. xviii. 7. fo much torment and forrow, as there was de-. light, and pleasure in fin.

4. To conclude, the pleafures of fin are but for a feafon,***

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