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thee to make thy distress too terrible for thee to bear. Besides, let it be remembered, that whatsoever tendencies toward piety, or appearances of goodness, might be found with thee in this world, all these will vanish and be lost, when once thy day of grace is finished, and all the means of grace and salvation are! ended for ever. If thou hast refused the proposals of mercy, I and continued in thy sins without repentance, and last nevero accepted the salvation of Christ while it was offered, all thes good that thou seemed to have shall be taken from theeg Mat. xxv. 29. or rather thy heart itself will grow more hard,s thy will more obstinate against God, and every evili passion will rise and prevail, and make thee perhaps as very a devild as thy companions in guilt and misery. It is for those whos would not part with their beloved sins, which were as dear as right-hands, or as right-eyes, that the never-dying worm and the unquenchable fire are prepared, as the context itself in forms us in this place.

annia 1982al amos oldizson et al. -And as the worm of conscience even for lesser sins, will gnaw thy heart with intense anguish, so the vengeance of divine fired will torment thee with exquisite pain, though thy pain and thy o anguish shall not be equal to what greater criminals endure. But it is wise and kind in the blessed God to denounce the terrors and sanctions of his law in their utmost severity, tod guard his law the better against every transgression, and to frighten and secure his creatures from sin and punishment. bloods Trifle not therefore, O sinner with the means of mercy, and Venture not upon little sins, in hope of little misery, nor dare to continue in an impenitent state without God, without Christ and his salvation, upon a foolish presumption that thy sins are but small, and thy punishment shall be less than others: For the least of those sorrows will be found greater than anyǝd mortal creature can bear, and therefore thou shalt be made imo mortal to suffer them.) smogga oldatoval som bas baid

Pult is granted, there are many mansions in hell, as well as in heaven, but as the lowest mansion in heaven is happiness, so the easiest place in hell is misery.oldThere is another Objection arises here, which it is. is necessary to give some answer to ; viz. If the punishments of hell are so intense and terrible between the worm of conscience, the fire of God's anger, and the ma09 lice of evil spirits, surely it will work up human nature into ecstasy and madness it will take away all the regular exercises of our natural powers; it will render us perhaps mere passivedy miserable beings, of keen sensatious without reasoning This A is certain, that such and so various tortures would have that influence upon our natures at present, and why should it not id hereafter? And will the blessed God continue to punish creatures when their reason is lost! What can such punishments avail ?

ebit answer, surely God will not continue to punish madmenz therefore none of these torments shall extinguish our reason, or destroy our intellectual powers; for it is as creatures of reason and free-will that sinners are thus punished, and therefore these powers must remain in their proper exercise; besides the very operations of these powers in self-condemnation, and self-upbraiding, are part of their punishment. But whether God will so fortify the natures of the damned, which probably shall not be made of flesh and blood, and enable them to bear such intense pain without distraction, or whether the highest extremes of their torment shall only be inflicted at some certain periods or intervals, so that they shall soon return to their reasoning powers again, with bitter remembrance of what passed, this matter is hard to determine; and because it is unwritten and unrevealed, I am silent. But it still remains that punishment shall be so intense and severe, as becomes a God of holiness and justice to inflict on rebellious and obstinate creatures.

SECT. III.-Reflections on the nature of these punishments. It is time now that we should proceed to form some special reflections on the nature of the punishments of hell, such as they have been described in the foregoing discourse. The first is this, "What dreadful and unknown evil is contained in the nature of sin which grows up into such misery, which breeds this stinging worm in the conscience, which prepares the creas ture for such fiery torments, and which provokes a God to inflict them? The vessels of wrath have prepared themselves for it, as the apostle intimates, by their own sins; Rom. ix. 22. they are fitted for destruction: Nor does all the intense and infinite anguish of this punishment exceed the desert of our sins. The great God in a way of bounty, may often bestow upon us vastly beyond what our little services can ever pretend to have deserved, but he never punishes beyond our deserts.

"What a dangerous and pernicious mistake is it in the children of men to sport with sin, as with a harmless thing? It is much safer sporting with a poisonous serpent, or with burning fire-brands. The serpent has many gay and pleasing colours on its skin, and appears a very charming creature, which tempts children and fools to play with it: And the same ignorance in clines them sometimes to sport with fire, because of its shining brightness And till they are burned with the fire, or bit by the serpent, they will not forsake their foolish choice, nor belcon vinced of their danger: Such is the case and temper of sinful mortals: Their senses indulge the pleasing flatteries of sin, and are fond of its tempting amusements, till they feel the smart of the fire raging in their bosoms, and the adder stings them to death. Thus the wise man describes the flatteries of wine in the view of the drunkard Prov. xxiii. 31, 32 But the same wise man

pronounces every one a fool that makes a mock at sin, or trifles with so formidable a mischief; Prov. xiv. 9. '

"How vain are the gay fancies of sinful men in the hour of temptation, and how shocking and dreadful will be their dist appointment? They think the descriptions of sin which are blown up and kindled into such terror by the lips of the preacher are but as mock-fire which never burns; but the great day of vengeance which makes haste toward them, will terribly and eternally convince them of the fatal mischief of it by the various plagues that shall seize upon them. The living worm shall gnaw their consciences, and the fire of God will torment their spirits, and spread a raging anguish through their whole natures; and every twinging accent of their pain shall teach them, but with á terrible and hopeless conviction, what unspeakable evil is contained in sin. They will then find what a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God, who has a right, and power, and will to punish; Heb. x. 31.

"O that each of us might arrive at this holy wisdom, to Jearn the dreadful evil of sin from this bible, this book of the divine law and grace, and not provoke the blessed God to teach us so necessary a lesson by the rod of his vengeance! O'that we could look upon every unlawful action, and particularly every sin against conscience, as the seed of that worm which will gnaw our souls in hell with intense pain, as part of that fuel which is kindling into a flame to torment our consciences for ever, and that under the powerful influences of these representations of sin we might fly to the utmost distance from it with horror, and make our safe escape."

II. If the punishments of hell, appointed by the blessed God, carry so much terror in them, "how much mistaken are the sinful children of men in the ideas which they form of the great and blessed God?" This representation of the vengeance of the Lord in hell may be of use to refute such mistaken opinions. Some have framed a God for themselves; not such as dwells in the heavens, not such as he has described himself in his word, but their vain imagination has raised up an idol made of mere goodness and mercy, without holiness and justice It is their own self-love which forms this idle and foolish image of the God that made them, because they do not like to think of falling under the terror of his power. They venture to affront him to his face, they dare him to vengeance; and as the writer of the book of Job expresses it, they stretch out their hands against God, they strengthen themselves against the Almighty, they run upon him with insolence, and venture upon the thick bosses of his buckler; Job xv. 25, 26. There are multitudes in our day that ares arrived at such a dreadful height of impiety, as toudall apon him for the damnation of themselves, as well as of their

friends, in sport and merriment. They will not believe that the blessed God will ever be found so severe and formidable as preachers describe him: And because judgment is not speedily executed against the men of iniquity, therefore the sons of men have their hearts set in them to do mischief; Ec. viii. 11. Madness is in their hearts, chapter ix. 3. Because God delays his indignation they will not believe he has any belonging to him, notwithstanding all the terrible words by which he is represented by the prophets, the apostles, and the Son of God himself: And while they rush boldly on those crimes which God has severely forbidden, they are ready to think God is just such an one as themselves, regardless of virtue and government; Ps. 1. 21. And because they make nothing of sin, they imagine God will make nothing of it.

O that the sons of men would once learn to know God better, for there are many who have not the true knowledge of God, I speak it to their shame, when they faucy he is all made up of gentleness and forbearance, without holiness and justice! I Cor. xv. 34. Alas, Sirs, these attributes are as necessary in a God as grace and compassion: He is and he must be a wise, a righteous Governor of the world; and his wisdom requires that impenitent sinners should be punished, to secure the honour of his law, and to guard his gospel from contempt. These awful perfections of the blessed God are as necessary to vindicate his authority and his government from insult and rebellion, as his goodness is needful to encourage sinful creatures to repent and return to their duty. The word of God expressly tells us, he is a God of holiness and consuming fire; Heb. xii. 29. but there is many a sinner that will never learn this lesson till the torments of hell teach it him by dismal experience. They have trifled with his majesty, and mocked at his threatenings all their life, till at the moment of death he awakes like a lion, and tears their spirits with everlasting anguish.

I might take notice also in this place, that there is another mistaken notion of God, into which some persons have unhappily fallen, as though God were the cause and author of sin," and have spoken unadvisedly with their lips, in such language as borders too near upon blasphemy. But it is evident, that a God, who will punish the sins of men with such intense pain and torment, can never be so inconsistent with himself as to be thel

A Governor made up of mere goodness and mercy could be no Governor aballd for it is absurd to call that a government, where every subject) may do what iniquity and mischief, he pleases, with impunity. The laws of soup A 89% vernment would cease to be laws, and become mere rules and directions for living, which every ry one might observe of hot, just according to his inclination. that it became the wisdom of God to threaten offenders, but that his goodneski will interpose in the end and binder the punishment, is to say, that God is not mist, for if he were he would certainly have taken care not to let those men into the secret. Bishop Berts's Sermons, page 515,

author or cause of those sins. It is granted, that his universal providence has a concern in every thing that is transacted among men; but since he has informed us in what a dreadful manner he will execute his vengeance against sinners in the world to come, it is insolence and indignity against the blessed God to represent him as introducing sin into our world. Let God be true, though every man be a liar; Rom. iii. 4. let God be pure, and righte ous, and holy, though every man be found guilty and criminal g otherwise how shall God judge the world? verse 6. How can he inflict such torments on rebellious creatures, if he constrain or influence them to practise this rebellion? All opinions therefore, that allow of such an inference, as though "God were the author of sin," must be pronounced false and pernicious to men, as well as injurious to the justice of God; for these notions throw a vile imputation on the blessed God, and charge him with heinous insincerity, to forbid the commission of sin by all these terrors, and yet suppose him to influence men to the practice of them.

III. "How reasonable is it for us to believe, that such a hell as I have described is prepared for impenitent sinners, since there are so many appearances of the beginnings of it here on earth," so many indications and signs, and forerunners of such misery and torment inflicted on sinful men: Survey the remarkable executions of God's judgments on the world in several ages and nations; look back to our first parents, who were thrust out of paradise, the garden of pleasure, and banished from the gates of it for ever, upon the account of the first sin, and the entrance of it was guarded by a flaming sword to forbid their return. Behold the flood of watry vengeance in the days of Noah breaking up from the vast caverns of the earth, and pouring down from the windows of heaven to punish sin: Deep calls unto deep; Ps. xlii. 7. in the tremendous noise of these water→ spouts, which spread death and desolation over the face of the whole earth, because all flesh had sinned against God their Creator. Turn your eyes to Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities of the plain, suffering the vengeance of heaven with lightning and devouring fire bursting from the clouds to punish the unuatural crimes of that country; Gen. xix. 24, 25. See the fiery flying serpents, as the messengers of divine anger, to punish the rebellion of the Israelites in the wilderness: Mark what multitudes in the camp of Israel received their mortal sting," and were given up to destruction and death. Numb. xxi. 6. Cast your eyes abroad over the nations, and what records have we of all former ages, which do not manifest the vengeance of God pursuing the iniquities of men, by wars, and famines, and pestilences, and every thing that is bitter and dreadful to human nature? See Jerusalem, the city of God all in flames, and the