are in darkness here, eternal light is there. If they grapple with death, there they shall have everlasting life. And, to sum up all in one word, "He that overcometh shall inherit all things."

Lastly, Let those who have no right to the kingdom of heaven be stirred up to seek it with all diligence. Now is the time wherein the children of wrath may become heirs of glory: and when the way to everlasting happiness is opened, it is no time to sit still and loiter. Raise up your hearts towards the glory that is to be revealed: and do not always lie along on this perishing earth. What can all your worldly enjoyments avail you, while you have no solid ground to expect heaven after this life is gone? Those riches and honours, profits and pleasures, that must be buried with us, and cannot accompany us into another world, are but a wretched portion, and will leave men comfortless at long run. Ah L. why are men so fond, in their lifetime, to receive their good things? why are they not rather in care to seeure an interest in the kingdom of heaven, which would never be taken from them, but afford them a portion to make them happy through the ages of eternity? If you desire honour, there you may have the highest honour, and which will last when the world's honours are laid in the dust: if riches, heaven will yield you a treasure; and there are pleasures for evermore. Q! be not despisers of the pleasant land, neither judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life: close with Christ, as he is offered to you in the gospel, and ye shall inherit all things. Walk in the way of holiness, and it will lead you to

the kingdom. Fight against sin and Satan, and ye shall receive the crown: forsake the world, and the doors of heaven will be open to receive you.

HEAD VI.

HELL.

MATTHEW XXV. 41.

"Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels."

WERE there no other place of eternal lodging but heaven, I should here have closed my discourse of man's eternal state; but seeing in the other world there is a prison for the wicked, as well as a palace for the saints, we must also inquire into that state of everlasting misery; the which the worst of men may well bear with, without crying, "Art thou come to torment us before the time?" since there is yet access to flee from the wrath to come: and all that can be said of it comes short of what the damned will feel; for who knoweth the power of God's anger?

The last thing our Lord did before he left the earth, was," he lifted up his hands, and blessed his disciples." But the last thing he will do before he leave the throne, is to curse and condemn his enemies; as we learn from the text, which contains the dreadful sentence wherein the everlasting misery of the wicked is wrapt up. In which three things may

66

be taken notice of: 1. The quality of the condemned, "Ye cursed." The Judge finds the curse of the law upon them as transgressors, and sends them away with it, from his presence, into hell, there to be fully executed upon them. 2. The punishment which they are adjudged to, and to which they were always bound over by virtue of the curse. And it is twofold: the punishment of loss, in separation from God and Christ, "Depart from me;" and the punishment of sense, in most exquisite and extreme torments, Depart from me into fire." 3. The aggravations of their torments. (1.) They are ready for them, they are not to expect a moment's respite. The fire is prepared, and ready to catch hold of those who are thrown into it. (2.) They will have the society of devils in their torments, being shut up with them in hell. They must depart into the same fire prepared for Beelzebub, the prince of devils, and his angels; namely, other reprobate angels who fell with him, and became devils. This speaks further terror to the damned, that they must go into the same torments and place of torment with the devil and his angels. They hearkened to his temptations, and they must partake in his torments: his works they would do, and they must receive the wages, which is death. In this life they joined with devils, in enmity against God, and Christ, and the way of holiness; and in the other they must lodge with them. (3.) The last aggravation of their torment is the eternal duration thereof; they must depart into everlasting fire. This is what puts the topstone upon their misery, namely, that it shall never have an end.

DOCTRINE-The wicked shall be shut up under the curse of God, in everlasting misery, with the devils in hell.

After having evinced that there shall be a resurrection of the body, and a general judgment, I think it not needful to insist to prove the truth of future punishments. The same conscience there is in men of a future judgment, bears witness also of the truth of future punishments. And that the punishment of the damned shall not be annihilation, or a reducing them to nothing, will be clear in the progress of our discourse. In treating of this awful subject, I shall inquire into these four things: I. The curse under which the damned shall be shut up. II. Their misery under that curse. II. Their society with devils in this miserable state. IV. The eternity of the whole.

I. As to the curse under which the damned shall be shut up in hell: it is the terrible sentence of the law, by which they are bound over to the wrath of God as transgressors.c

This curse hath its first-fruits on earth, which are a pledge of the whole lump that is to follow. And hence it is, that as temporal and eternal benefits are bound up together, under the same expressions, in the promise to the Lord's people" And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion,” &c. relating both to the return from Babylon, and to the saints going to their eternal rest in heaveneven so, temporal and eternal miseries on the enemies of God are sometimes wrapt under one and the same ex

:

pression in the threatening: "For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared: he hath made it deep and large; the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it." Many a lash in the dark doth conscience give the wicked. The never-dying worm is already begun to gnaw them? And there is not one of these but they may call it Joseph, for "the Lord shall add another" or rather Gad, for "a troop cometh." These drops of wrath are terrible forebodings of the full shower which is to follow. Sometimes they are given up to their vile affections, that they have no more command over them so their lusts grow up more and more towards perfection, if I may so speak. As in heaven grace comes to its perfection, so in hell sin arrives at its highest pitch; and as sin is thus advancing upon the man, he is the nearer and the liker to hell. There are three things that have a fearful aspect here: First, When every thing that might do good to men's souls is blasted to them, so that their blessings are cursed: sermons, prayers, admonitions, and reproofs, which are powerful towards others, are quite inefficacious to them. Secondly, When men go on sinning still, in the face of plain rebukes from the Lord, in ordinances and providences: God meets them with rods in the way of their sin, as it were striking them back; yet they rush forward. What can be more like hell, where the Lord is always smiting, and the damned always sinning against him? Lastly, When every thing in one's lot is turned into fuel to one's lusts. Thus adversity and prosperity, poverty and wealth, the want of ordinances, and the enjoyment of them, do all but nourish the corruptions of many.