this very temper of sensuality with them into the world of spirits ; and it is possible that raging appetites to this sensual happiness, may be increased while there are no objects to gratify them; if this be the case, it must be intense and constant misery to feel eternal hunger with no bread to relieve it; keen desires of dainties with no luxurious dishes to please their humorous taste; eternal thirst without one drop of wine or water to allay or cool it; eternal fatigue or weariness, without power to sleep, and eternal lust of pleasure without any hope of "gra→

tification.

But if we should suppose these sensualities shall die together with the body, yet this is certain, the soul will have everlasting appetites of its own, that is, the general desire of ease and happiness, and of some satisfying good: But God, who is the only true source of happiness to spirits, the only satisfying portion of souls, is for ever departed and gone; and thus the natural appetite of felicity will be ever wakeful and violent in damned spirits, while every attempt or hope to satisfy it will meet with perpetual disappointment.

Milton, our great English poet, has represented this part of the misery of devils in a beautiful manner. He supposes that ever since they tempted man to sin by the forbidden tree of knowledge, they are once a year changed into the form of serpents, and brought by millions into a grove of such trees, with the same golden appearance of fruit upon them: And while with eager appetite they seize those fair appearances to allay their thirst and hunger, instead of fruit they chew nothing but bitter ashes, and reject the hateful taste with spattering noise; and still they repeat their attempts with shameful disappointment, till they are vexed, and tormented, and torn with ineagre famine, and then are permitted to resume the shape of devils again. And why may we not suppose that the crimes of which the wicked children of men have been guilty in the present life, may be punished with some such kind of pain and confusion, both of body and soul, as is here represented in this poetic emblem or parable!

VII. Another misery of damned creatures is, that "vexing envy which arises against the saints in glory, and which shall never be appeased or gratified. The blessed in heaven shall be for ever blessed, and the envy of devils and of damned souls sball never hurt their felicity, nor see their joys diminished. This vile passion of those cursed spirits therefore against the blessed inhabitants of heaven, though it rage never so high, is only preying upon their own hearts, and increasing their own inward anguish.

Let us imagine how many thousand holy souls are arrived safe at paradise, who were surrounded with mean and low circumstances here upon earth, while their haughty lords, and their

rich insolent neighbours, have sinned themselves into hells And do you think those children of pride can ever bear this sight without envy? How many martyrs have ascended to glory from racks, and tortures, and fires here upon earth, while their bloody and cruel persecutors have been working out their own damnation by these inhuman acts of murder and cruelty? And will not these wretches, under their righteous sufferings and punishments in hell, envy the creatures whom they have scorned, and oppres sed, and murdered here on earth, when they shall see them pla ced on high seats in the kingdom of heaven, and themselves cast into utter darkness?slamm

ésAnd what does all this envy do but increase their own wretchedness? They are distracted with pride and rage to think! of these high favours of the blessed God bestowed on creatures," whom they treated once with the utmost disdain. But their envys like a viper, preys upon their own entrails, and shall never be allayed or made easy: They send a thousand curses up to the heavenly world; but the saints are for ever secured in happiness under the eye of God, their heavenly Father, and the care of Jesus, their almighty friend. &plungs

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20 what a painful plague must this envy be, when with all her envenomed whips and stings she does but scourge and torment the heart where she dwells? What an unspeakable torture must sit be to feel this envy so violent and so constant, that it gives itself no ease through everlasting ages? Who is there that dwells in flesh and blood can conceive or express the horror and the twinging agonies that arise from such a hateful, passion, fermenting and raging through all the powers of the soul?uomaa

»ç/VIII?” The last thing I shall mention, as part of those pun ishments of hell which affect the spirit, is a perpetual expectation and dread of new and increasing punishments without end, and it is highly probable, that this shall be the portion of multitades. When the souls of the saints are released by death, and artito at the blessed regions, they are not vested with all their brightest glories in a moment, nor fixed in the highest point of knowledge and happiness at their first entrance; but as their knowledge and their love increases, so their capacities are en larged to take in new scenes and new degrees of pleasures, and it is probable that their felicity shall be ever increasingul And in the same manner, it is not unlikely, that the increasing sins, the growing wickedness, and mad rebellion of dauned spirits mayb bring upon them new judgments and more weighty vengeanen. 2, So it was with Pharoah the Egyptiau tyrant, when he remainedy obstinate and rebellious against the messages of God by Mosesjio, even while he and his nation lay under smarting scourges of the Almighty: - How did his plagues increase with his iniquities ?,

And he may be set before us as an emblem of sinners, and their sufferings, under the wrath of God in hell, as in Rom. ix. 17, 18.

Or perhaps as the wicked of this world when they die, have left evil and pernicious examples behind them, or have corrupted the morals of their neighbours by their enticements, or their commands, or by their wicked influence of any kind, so their punishment may be increased in proportion to the lasting effects of their vile example, or their vicious influences. And perhaps too, there are none among all the ranks of the damned, whose souls will be filled so high with the dread and horror of increasing woes, as lewd and profane writers, profane and immoral princes, or cruel persecutors of religion. Jeroboam, the king, not only sinned himself grievously, but who made Israel to sin, as the scripture frequently expresses it with an emphasis, by setting up the idolatry of calves in the land; 1 Kings xiv. and xv. and xvi. His ghost stood fair for such an increase of torment from age to age, as his idolatry prevailed further in the land. And all the wanton poets and the vile persecutors, whether of heathen or of christian name, whose writings, whose example, or whose laws have conveyed and propagated their wickedness from age to age after their decease, will be some of these wretched expectants of new and increasing punishment.

"Have a care, O ye witty and ye mighty sinners! Have a care of setting vile temptations and bad examples before the men of your age! Have a care of spreading the contagion of your vices around you by the softness and the force of your al furements! Have a care of establishing iniquity by a law, and propagating loose and wicked opinions, or of encouraging persecution for conscience-sake! Take heed lest the cursed influence of your crimes should descend from generation to generation, among the living long after you are dead, and should call for new and sharper strokes from the punishing hand of the Almighty!"

But suppose there were nothing else but the long dreadful view of the eternity of their present miseries, with an everlasting despair of ease or deliverance, this would add unspeakably to their torment. The constant sensation of what they feel now, and the dread of what they must feel, is sufficient to make their wretchedness intolerable.

If all these springs of misery which I have already mention!** ed are, and will be found in the souls of damned sinners, there' is no need of more to make them exquisitely miserable. And®** yet since their bodies shall be raised from the dust, in order to be joined with their soals in punishment, as they were united in'sin, d why may we not suppose that the great God will create bodies for them of such an unhappy anould and contexture, as shall be

another perpetual source of pain and anguish? What if their bodies shall be raised with all the seeds of disease in them, like the gout or the stone, or any other smarting malady? And what if the sinart of these bodily distempers should mingle with the raging passions of the mind, as far as it is consistent with immortality and everlasting duration? Who can say, that when God" exerts his power, and makes his wrath known," in puo obstinate, rebellious and impenitent sinners, as Rom. ix. 22. he will not frame such bodies for them to dwell in, as shall be a hateful burden, and an incessant plague to them through all ages of their duration? And perhaps these bodily pains may be also included in the metaphor of a gnawing worm bred within them, which will never die, which shall never cease to fill them with grievous anguish.

Here perhaps it may be enquired," are there not multitudes of men in this world, who are not sinners of grosser kind, but have lived in the main, in the practice of common social duties, and have maintained the usual forms of religion, according to the outward rules of the gospel, and the custom of their nation, but they have been negligent indeed of any sincere repentance towards God, and have been strangers to inward vital religion throughout their whole course? Shall these creatures, who seem to stand in a sort of indifferent character, who are outwardly blameless, with regard to common morality, and have exercised the common virtues of justice and benevolence towards their fellow-creatures, perhaps under the influences of education or custom, or perhaps by the effect that reason or philosophy, or their inward fears have had toward the restraint of their passions and appetites; I say, shall such sort of creatures as these be filled with those furies of rage and resentment against God, envy and malice toward their fellow-sinners, and all the vile and unsociable passions in these regions of misery which they have never found working in them here on earth, or but in a low degree? Shall all the torments and inward anguish of soul that you have been describing, fall upon this rank of sinners, whom the eye of the world could hardly distinguish from good men, and who were very far from the character of wicked? I answer,

239 -I. That however there may seem to be three sorts of persons in our esteem, viz. the good, the bad, and the indifferent, yet the word of God seems to acknowledge but two sorts, viz.

Those who fear God and serve him, and those who fear him not;" Mal. iii. 18. Those who have acted from principles of ipward religion, or the love of God, and those who had no such principle within them: And therefore the scripture reveals and declares duut two sorts of states in the future world, viz. that of rewards and punishments, or that of happiness and misery · Aml as God, the righteous Judge is intimately acquainted with all