locked up with them in one dungeon, shut up with them in one pit! To be closed up in a den of roaring lions, girded about with serpents, surrounded with venomous asps, and to have the bowels eaten out by vipers, all together, and at once, is a comparison too low, to shew the misery of the damned, shut up in hell, with "the devil and his angels." They go about now, as roar. ing lions seeking whom they may devour; but then shall they be confined in their den with their prey. They shall be filled to the brim with the wrath of God, and receive the full torment (Matt. viii. 29.) which they tremble in expectation of, (James ii. 19.) being cast into the "fire prepared for them." How will these lions roar and tear! how will these serpents hiss! these dragons vomit out fire! What horrible anguish will seize the damned, finding themselves in the lake of fire with the devil, who deceived them; drawn thither with the silken cords of temptation, by these wicked spirits; and bound with them in everlasting chains under darkness! Rev. xx. 10. "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimsone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

O that men would consider this in time, renounce the devil and his lusts, and join themselves to the Lord in faith and holiness. Why should men choose that company in this world, and delight in that society, they would not desire to associate with in the other world? Those who like not the company of the saints on earth, will get none of it in eternity; but as godless company is their delight now, they will afterwards get enough of it; when they have an eternity to pass, in the roaring and blaspheming society of devils and reprobates in hell. Let these, who use to invocate the devil to take them, soberly consider, that the company so often invited will be terrible at last, when come.

IV. And lastly, Let us consider the eternity of the whole, the everlasting continuance of the miserable state of the damned in hell.

First, If I could, I snould shew what eternity is, I mean the creature's eternity. But who can measure

the waters of the ocean, or who can tell you the days, years, and ages, of eternity, which was infinitely more than the drops of the ocean? None can comprehend eternity, but the eternal God. Eternity is an ocean, whereof they will never see the shore; it is a deep, where we can find no bottom; a labyrinth, from whence we cannot extricate ourselves, and where we shall ever lose the door. There are two things one may say 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 some thousands of years were once in time as we now are. But (2.) It shall never have an end. The first who entered into eternity of woe is as far from the end of it, as the last, who shall go thither, will be at his entry. They who have launched out furthest into that ocean, 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 before 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 past in it, still 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 past bears no proportion to what is to come; no not so much as one drop of water, falling from the tip of one's finger,

bears to all the waters of the ocean. There is no end of it: while God is, it shall be. It is an entry without an out-gate, a continual succession of ages, a glass always running, which shall never run out.

Observe the continual succession of hours, days, months, and years, how one still follows upon another; and think of eternity, wherein there is a continual succession without end. When you go out in the night, and behold the stars of heaven, how they cannot be numbered for multitude, think of the ages of eternity; considering withal, there is a certain definite number of the stars, but no number of the ages of eternity. When you see a water running, think how vain a thing it

would be, to sit down by it, and wait till it should run out, that you may pass over; look how new water still succeeds to that which passeth by you: and therein you 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 soever of the ring or wheel one looks, one will still see another part beyond it; and on whatsoever moment of eternity you condescend, there is still another beyond it. When you are abroad in the fields, and behold the piles of the grass on the earth, which no man can reckon; think for yourselves, that, were there as many thousands of years to come as there are piles of grass on the ground, even those would have an end at length; but eternity will have none. When you look to a mountain, imagine in your hearts how long it would be ere that mountain should be removed, by a little bird coming but once, every thousand years, and carrying away but one grain of the dust thereof at once: the mountain would at length be removed, that way, and brought to an end; but eternity will never end. Suppose this with respect to all the mountains of the earth! nay, with respect to the whole globe of the earth; the grains of dust, whereof the whole carth is made up, are not infinite, and therefore the last grain would, at long run, come to be carried away in the way supposed. But when that slowest work would be brought to an end, eternity would be, in effect, but beginning.

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

Secondly, Let us take a view of what is eternal, in the state of the damned in hell. Whatsoever is included in the fearful determining their eternal state, is everlasting therefore all the doleful ingredients of their miserable state will be everlasting; they will never ́end. The text expressly declares the fire, into which

they must depart, to be everlasting fire. And our Lord elsewhere tells us, that in "hell, the fire shall never be quenched," (Mark ix. 43.) with an eye to the valley of Hinnom, in which, besides the already-mentioned fire, for burning of the children to Molech, there was also another fire burning continually, to consume the dead carcases, and filth of Jerusalem: so the scripture, representing hell-fire by the fire of that valley, speaks it not only to be most exquisite, but also everlasting. Seeing then the damned must depart, as cursed ones into everlasting fire, it is evident that,

First, The damned themselves shall 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 cast into it, be not eternally in it? It is plain, the everlasting continuance of the fire, is an aggravation of the misery of the damned. But surely, if they be annihilated, or substantially destroyed, it is all a case to them, whether the fire be everlasting, or not. Nay, but they depart into everlasting fire, to be everlastingly punished in it; Matt. xxv. 46. "These shall go away into everlasting punishment." Thus the execution of the sentence is a certain discovery of the meaning of it. "The worm, that dieth not," must have a subject to live in. They, who shall have no rest day nor night. (Rev. xvi. 11.) but shall be " tormented day and night for ever and ever," (chap. xx. 10.) will cer tainly have a being for ever and ever, and not be brought into a state of eternal rest in annihilation. Destroyed indeed they shall be: but their destruction will be an "everlasting destruction," (2 Thess. i. 9.) A destruction of their well-being, but not of their being, What is destroyed is not therefore annihilated: "Art thou come to torment us?" said the devil unto Jesus Christ, Luke iv. 34. Howbeit the devils are afraid of torment, not of annihilation, Matt. viii. 29. "Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?" The state of the damned is indeed a state of death: but such a death it is, as is opposite only to a happy life; as is clear from other notions of their state, which necessarily include an eternal existence; of which before. As they

who are dead in sin, are dead to God, and holiness, yet live to sin so dying in hell, they live, but separated from God, and his favour, in which life lies, Psal. xxx. 5. They shall ever be under the pangs of death; ever dying, but never dead, or absolutely void of life. How desirable would such 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 rend themselves into lifeless pieces, their misery would quickly be at an end: but there they must live, who choose death, and refused life; for there death lives, and the end ever begins.

Secondly, The curse shall lie upon them eternally, as the everlasting chain, to hold them in the everlasting fire; a chain that shall never be loosed, being fixed for ever about them, by the dreadful sentence of the eternal judgment. This chain, which spurns the united force of devils held fast by it, is too strong to be broken by men, who being solemnly anathematized and devoted to destruction, can never be recovered to any other

use.

Thirdly, Their punishment shall be eternal, Matt. xxv. 46. These shall go away into everlasting punishment." They will be, for ever, separated from God and Christ, and from the society of the holy angels and saints; between whom and them an impassable gulf will be fixed, Luke xvi. 26. "Between us and you (says Abraham, in the parable, to the rich man in hell) there is a great gulf fixed, so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot ; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence." They shall, for ever, have the horrible society 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 everlasting: they must live for ever in it. Several authors, both antient and modern, tell us of earth-flax, or salamander's hairs; that cloth made of it, being east into the fire, is so far from being burnt or consumed, that it is only made clean thereby, as other things are by washing. But, however that is, it is certain, the damned shall be tormented for ever and ever, in hell fire,