SERM. and piercing. The perverfe Obftinacy of VIII. thofe Sinners against their own Souls in fly

ing from Life, and courting Death, will then fhew itself in the most confounding Light, and ftrike them through with Sorrows unfelt on this Side the Grave. Whatever Amusements the guilty Mind may meet with here in the Body, it will find none when out of it, to keep it from turning its own Tormentor. No carnal Delight fhall follow it, but in Remembrance only, bitter to the Thought and smarting to the Reflection; fo that its Enjoyment in this State will prove its Punishment in the

next.

NOR fhall the fin-defiled Soul obtain any more Satisfaction from its Company than from itself. For if it madly persists in provoking God's Vengeance by its impious Courses during the Time of its prefent Probation, it fhall also be tied down to the infulting Converfation of Devils and the Fury of execrable Spirits. It is even natural for Beings of the fame Kind and Difpofition to. affociate together; and it is moreover one of the fixed Laws of the future World, that the Wicked fhall have no Inheritance

with the Righteous. Between us and you,

fays

fays Abraham to the rich Man, there is a SERM. great Gulph fixed; fo that they, which would VIII. pafs from hence to you, cannot, neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence (1). When the Souls of the Ungodly then are feparated from their earthly Manfions, they shall be confined to the curfed Society of the Apoftate Angels, whom they have chofen to imitate and refemble, and who will take as much malicious Pleafure in upbraiding and tyrannizing over them, as they do now in tempting and careffing them.

In this difmal and comfortless Situation, this hateful and moft fhocking Company muft the impenitent Soul drag on its Time till the general Refurrection, and the final Judgment. When being reunited to its old Companion the Body, different indeed in Quality, yet the fame in Subftance, it fhall be rendered capable of fuftaining corporeal as well as mental Tortures, and be punished (as the Holy Spirit exprefsly declares) with unquenchable Fire. For the Lord himself fall in that Day defcend with a Shout in flaming Fire, taking Vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jefus Chrift (m), who shall be turned

() St. Luke xvi, 26..

(m) 2 Theff. i. 8.

VIII.

SERM. turned into Hell, where their Worm dieth not, and their Fire is not quenched (n). Such, as ftand out hardened in their ungodly Courses, offend with an high Hand, and will not now be reclaimed from their Wickednefs, fhall then be involved in those raging Flames; their Bodies fhall for ever burn, but never confume ;----and their Souls be lafhed with all the Terrors which an unlimitted and almighty Power can justly inflict, added to their own internal Anguish, Rage, and Defpair.

AND that these Torments, as complicated as the Crimes which caufe them, will be no lefs eternal in Duration, than intenfe in Degree, is very clear and evident from plain. repeated Testimonies of Holy Scripture; which must establish the Faith of every Christian as to this Article on a Foundation too firm to be undermined by the Objections of depraved Reason, or the Prejudices of a vitiated Self-love. The righteous Judge has himself affured us in his Gofpel, that in the End of the World, he, the Son of Man fhall come in his Glory, and all the boly Angels with him, then shall be fit on the Throne of his Glory, and before him shall

(n) St. Mark ix. 44.

be

be gathered all Nations :---Then fhall be fay SERM, alfo to them on the left Hand, Depart from VIII. me, ye curfed, into everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels. Nor fhall the Execution be delayed, but these shall go away into everlafting Punishment (o). And in the Book of his prophetic Revelation he foretells, that in thofe Days Men fhall feek Death, and fhall not find it, and fhall defire to die, and Death fhall flee from them (p)--that they shall drink of the Wine of the Wrath of God, which is poured out without Mixture into the Cup of his Indignation,---that the Smoke of their Torment afcendeth up for ever and ever, and they have no Reft Day nor Night (q).

Now what can thefe exprefs Paffages mean, if they are not to be understood of endlefs Sufferings? Human Sophiftry may difguife, or good Nature foften the Force of them: Evafions have been often found out, and as often overthrown; and to interpret fuch like Texts only of temporary Pu nifhments, has been frequently fhewn to be an unjustifiable perverting of the Senfe of plain Words.

(o) St. Matth. xxv. 31, 32, 41, 46. (g) xiv. 10, 11.

BUT

(p) Rev. ix 6.

SERM.
VIII.

BUT let not us be in the Number of thofe, who deny or douht of the Truth of God's Threatenings any more than of his Promises,---who fancy there is in the Deity a latent Will contrary to the Revealed, and flatter with Hopes of Mercy in Store, even fuch as have wearied out the Divine Patience, and been all their Life-time treafuring up Wrath against the Day of Wrath. Rather let us believe God to be true, and and every Man, who difputes his Veracity, a Lyar: Let us be convinced by Reason, by Revelation, that nothing can be given in Exchange for the Soul, fo that he must let that alone for ever; and knowing those Terrors of the Lord to be certain, let us diligently labour to escape them, it being an infinitely wifer Part to rely on his Declarations for the Truth of these Things, than to wait for Conviction from our own Experience.

UPON the whole, if any thing here before offered has been thought weighty enough to make a right Impreffion on us,---if we are roufed to a due Senfe of the ineftimable Value and irreparable Lofs of our Souls, a flight Exhortation will be fufficient to pre