What though they do not live in the midst of sensual temptations, yet who knows how far their spirits, having been immersed in flesh and blood, may carry with them inward raging appetites to those sinful sensualities and defiling pleasures, of which they are for ever deprived ?

Let me ask again, have the devils ever repented in almost six thousand years? Are they not the same enemies to God, and his glory, and his image through all ages? And though the damned spirits of men are absent from this world, and their evil companions on earth, yet are they not in the fittest company to teach them pride, and rage, resentment and malice, and the most unfit to teach them humility, repentance, and obedience to God? And when they have perversely sinned away all the means of grace in this life, is it reasonable to imagine, that God will powerfully soften their hearts by his sovereign grace, since he has never given the least hint or instance of it in all the discoveries made in the bible? And has it not been often one way of God's punishing sinners here in this world, by letting them go on in their iniquity and madness to the end? And why may not the wisdom and justice of God see it fit to treat sinners who have been incorrigible in this life, by the same method in the world to come?

IV. The natural effects and consequences of sin living in the soul, are misery and torment so long as the soul lives, that is, for ever. Sin, though it be a moral evil, as it is committed against God, yet it is such an enemy to the nature of man, that where it has established its habit and temper in the soul, it naturally prepares constant anguish of conscience and certain misery. A wicked spirit all over averse to God and goodness, gone from this world and all the soothing or busy amusements of it, intense in its desires of happiness, and yet a stranger to all that can make it truly happy, and at the same time shut out by God's righteous judgment, from all the means and hopes of grace, must needs be miserable, and has prepared a state of endless misery for itself, because its nature and duration are immortal. Au unholy creature who loves not God, and cannot delight in things holy and heavenly, but derives its chief joy from sinful pleasures, can never taste of felicity, can never relish the satis factions that come from the knowledge and love, and the enjoyment of God ; and when it is torn away, and banished from all the sensible amusements of this life, it must and will be a wretched creature in the world of spirits, and that by the very course of nature: And God cannot be obliged to change the established course of nature to relieve this misery which the sinner had wilfully brought on himself; nor can God make him happy without giving him a new temper of holiness, which he is not obliged to do by any perfection of his nature or any promise of grace.

If the souls of men are immortal, such will their passions be, their desires, their fears and their sorrows. Now their natural desires of happiness, as 1 have said, will be imense and strong, when God, the spring of all happiness, who hath been renounced and abandoned by them, hath now for ever forsaken them, and separated himself from them. What can there remain for them but everlasting darkness and despair, without a dawn of hope through all the ages of eternity? Their guilty con sciences, with the views of God's unchangeable holiness, will for ever fill them with new fears and terrors, what shall be the next punishment they are to suffer. Such is the state of devils at this time, who expect a more dreadful punishment at the great day, as several places of scripture make evident. Their being immersed in the guilt of sin, and under the constant and tyrannical dominion of it, will overwhelm them with present grief with cutting sorrows and horror unspeakable, which will sink into the centre of their souls, and make them an eternal terror and plague to themselves.

Again, let us consider their immortality of soul will be spent in thinking: And what comfortable or hopeful object is there in heaven, earth, or hell, on which they can fix or employ their thoughts for one moment, to give a short release from their extreme misery? So that they are left in endless successions of most painful thoughts and passions from the very nature of things.

Again, suppose this body of mine were by nature immortal, and was designed by my Creator in its constitution to live for ever; and suppose by my own folly and madness, my own wilful indulgence of appetite and passion, I had brought some dreadful distemper into my flesh which was found to be incurable, whether it be the gout or the stone, or some more terrible malady of the nervous kind, must not this gout, by necessity of nature, become an immortal gout? Must not these distempers be immortal distempers, and create eternal pain? And is the God of na ture bound to work a miracle to cure and heal these diseases which I have wilfully brought upon myself by my own iniquities, and that after many warnings? Is it unrighteous in God to let me languish on amidst my agonies and groans as long as my nature continues in being, that is, to immortality? And especi ally when there are valuable ends in divine providence, and God's government of the world to be subserved, by suffering such wilful, rebellious, and impenitent creatures to become saerifices to their own iniquity and his justice, and perpetual mont ments to other worlds of their own madness and his holiness. Such is the case of a sinful spirit, and therefore a God of justive may pronounce upon it, and execute the eternal misery. pmi

SECT. II. The strongest and most plausible Objections against the Perpetuity of Hell answered.

I think these reasons which have been given, are sufficient to justify the ministers of the gospel in representing the punishments of hell as everlasting; But man, sinful man does not love to hear of this dreadful perpetuity of hell: They would fain find some period to these sorrows, they search on every side if there be no way for escape from this prison, no door of mercy, no cranny of hope left among the reasons of things, or among the attributes, or the transactions of the blessed God: And they are ever proposing some methods to cut short this eternity, which scripture ascribes to the punishment of impenitent sinners. I shall endeavour therefore here to give a fair and plain answer to the strongest objections against this doctrine which I have ever yet met with.

Objection I. The first objection is raised from a criticism on the words of scripture. The Greek and Hebrew words, say they, which we translate eternal and everlasting, where the torments of hell are mentioned, are not always used for proper and complete eternity, they sometimes signify only a long duration; So God gave Abraham and his seed the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession; Gen. xvii. 8. but now the Turks possess it. Several of the statutes of the levitical law were said to be everlasting Lev, xvi. 34. But they are all abolished in the gospel. The sons of Aaron had an everlasting priesthood con ferred on them, Exod. xl. 15. But this office is cancelled by the kingdom of the Messiah, and finished for ever,

Besides, let it be remembered, say the objectors, that the Hebrew word by Olam, and the Greek A and Aves signify only the various ages or periods of time which belong to the du ration of creatures, or to some constitutions of God concerning his creatures And they should be translated an age, or ages, more properly than any thing else: And the adjective An when applied to creatures, can relate only to these ages; but these expressions were never designed to enter into God's own eternity, either before the existence of this world or after the consummation of it: Upon which reason it is highly improper and absurd to assert, that the duration or punishment of creatures in hell shall be properly eternal and equal to the duration of the blessed God himself. Now since every thing in God's transactions towards his creatures is sometimes limited by these Avs or ages, which are periods of time that shall be finished, Αιώνες. why may not the damnation and the sorrows of hell be also f ished and cancelled at a certain length of years, though the common words, which we translate eterual and everlasting, be ascribed to them in scripture ?

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Answer I. These are the same words both in Greek and

Hebrew, by which God expresses his own eternity, which is absolute and complete without end. He is the everlasting God Gen. xxi. 33. The eternal God, and his everlasting arms; Deut. xxxiii. 27.-Rom. i. 20. and xvi. 26. and several other places. These are the words also by which the scripture expresses the duration of the felicities of heaven, and the eternal life and happiness of the saints; Dan. xii. 2.—Rom. vi. 23.-Johu iii. 15-18. Now why should we not suppose the same words to signify the same duration, when the Old or New Testament speaks of everlasting burnings as the vengeance of God against the wicked; Isaiah xxxiii. 14. or everlasting shame and contempl Dan. xii. 2. And especially where the joys of the saints, and the misery of sinners, are set in opposition to one another in the same text, as in Dan. xii. 2. and Mat. xxv. 46. The wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment, and the righteous into life eternal? And yet further, when we find this doctrine sufficiently confirmed by many other places of scripture which set forth the eternity of these torments? I grant that the eternity of God himself, before this world began, or after its consummation, has something in it so immense and so incomprehensible, that in my most mature thoughts I do not chuse to enter into those infinite abysses; nor do I think we ought usually, when we speak concerning creatures, to affirm positively, that their existence shall be equal to that of the blessed God, especially with regard to the duration of their punishment; perhaps this sort of language may carry in it something beyond what we are called to discourse about, at least in this mortal state, and therefore such comparisons are more safely omitted.

But I would remark here still, that these Awn or ages both of reward and punishment, which are pronounced concerning saints or sinners, do but begin in their perfection at the end of this world; and thence it follows, that they must enter far intothe eternity of God's existence yet to come: And the saints will be made happy, and the sinners will be punished for long ages after the end of this world, and all the Alves or ages of it. And though God, by his Spirit, has not been pleased to make this comparison expressly, nor assert our duration commensurate with his own, yét he is pleased to express the duration of the punishment of sinners in the same common language and phrases, whereby he expresses his own duration, and the happiness of the saints; and hereby he encourages us to express these punishments by the same common words in our language too, rather than venture to cut them short by a Greek or Hebrew criticism, without any divine warrant or necessity. On yan

- The word aiding, perpetual, is applied to the chains of devils; Jude, verse 6. as well as to God; Rom. i. 20. and however the word now and Stevi may be used for ages or periods in this world, yet alwvic pwy alwywy, or ages of ages, is never applied in all the New Testament to any thing but God or Christ,

Now are there any sinners so void of understanding, of so daring and desperate a mind, as to venture their eternal all upon such a poor criticism of words? Even upon supposition these terms in the Greek and Hebrew might signify any long duration short of eternity; yet there is a terrible hazard in confining them to this sense, since they do denote a proper eternity, when they describe the duration of the blessed God; and I think we may add also, the duration of the happiness of the saints.

Besides, let it be remembered, that the other expressions of scripture, which denote and pronounce the perpetuity or eternity of these punishments, are not liable to the same criticism or ambiguity of a word. Their fire shall be unquenchable, or is not quenched, their worm dieth not. They have no rest day nor night, they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever; Rev. xiv. 10, 11. and xx. 10. These expressions seem to carry with them a more certain signification of the perpetual continuance of the punishment. Now can the temper and the deceiver of souls have so unhappy an influence over you, as to persuade you to venture onward in the paths of sin, to put off religion and delay your repentance, and neglect the means of salvation, in hopes that hereafter this weak criticism, upon some of the threatenings, may take place before the Judge of the whole earth, and thus excuse or save you? Is not such a sorry refuge and presumption a dangerous and a dismal sign upon impenitent sinners, that sin and Satan have darkened your understanding, and confounded your judgment, as well as hardened your hearts, in order to your everlasting destruction?

Answer II. Suppose the punishments of hell continue only for a long time, and not for an endless immortality, yet this time would certainly be found exceeding long for sinners to bear the torment even according to their own criticisms. Let us consider this matter under some particulars. The Jewish dispensation, which is sometimes called everlasting, stood near about fifteen hundred years, from Moses to Christ; and are ye content to lan guish and groan under torments and miseries, for fifteen hundredTM years, merely to satisfy your vicious appetites of pleasure for a few days or a few years of this mortal life? Again, fi multogos

The rebellious sinners who were destroyed at the flood and their spirits, which were sent into the prison of hades or hell, were certainly confined there four and twenty hundred years: And if they were released then, as some imagine, by the preaching of Christ to them, it is a long and dreadful time to continue under the vengeance of God; and is it worth while for any man to continue in sin on earth, and to venture this length of punish

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or the blessedness of saints, or the punishment of sinners; and therefore The dut well conclude, that all these four run into an eternity beyond all the supposed periods of this world, and far beyond all our or conceptions. II coitswe}