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Everlaft:ng GOD! how pour and incon fiderable are all things temporal, compared "with thofe that are eternal! yet, thou knoweft, " and I must acknowledge, the folly, whereof I have been guilty; in fhewing more concern for "this prefent time, than for the never-ending eter"nity. After all that I have heard and thought of "it, yet, O how fhort am 1 of worthily apprehend"ing it! how lightly can I pafs it by? how little "have I been affected with it? how little influenced "by it? this is a ftupid, and a wicked overfight: "O gracious Lord! forgive it, and amend it. And "awaken my mind, to look towards the everlast

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ing ftate; and engage my heart to dwell upon "it: that I may not concenter all my cares upon a "moment of mortal life, nor think it enough, to

have an eafy pleafant time, for a little while upor "earth; but may, above all, refpect the infinite "eternity of the world to come: that where I "must take up my everlafting abode, it may go well with me for ever. Amen."

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MEDITATION XLVI.

Of hell.

Y Soul, do not refufe, often to be poring, upon that extremity of mifery, which thou canft never think of enduring. For be it never fo grievous to confider, yet may that consideration be

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of highest advantage, which fhall quicken thee fo to fly from it, that thou mayeft never bear it. But who knows the power of his anger? when 'tis blackness of darkness all over, how canft thou look into it! O mayeft thou never come, by experience, to know it! but fo fadly think upon it, that thou mayeft keep far enough away out of it. I hear it described by a bottomlefs pit, a furnace of fire, and a lake burning with fire and brimftone, ftripes and torments; attended with weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth; departing from the bleffed God, with his curfe, never any more to fee his face; to lie bye in a dark, disconsolate hole, bound hand and foot; not only neglected, and unpitied, but all over pierced and pained, among fuch hideous company as the devil and his angels; where uneafinefs, and anguifh, and horror, and defpair is even the element of the place, and the worm of confcience cannot be killed, nor the fire of God's wrath quenched; but that punishment, which is the fad wages and defert of fin, will be everlasting. Where the damned have no reft day or night, but the fmoke of their torments afcends up for ever and ever. Such an account as this may we gather from exprefs Scripture. And what figures of fpeech may be couched in any of these descriptions of hell's mifery, I will not undertake to determine. Be they tropical, or literal, moft fure I am, there fhall be nothing in it inconfiftent with the moft exact juftice, to appoint; nothing unworthy the wifest and best of beings to inflict. I and others may labour under mistakes as to divers particulars, which may not be properties, but metaphors, as will give fmall relief to the fufferers. For fpiritual pangs and agonies have an acutenefs, that can vie with all the bodily pains and preffures and that which is expreft by fire, if it be not the very thing, yet may pierce and torment, even all one, as that, whofe name it bears.

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And will not thy own reason, my foul, tell thee, that fin, which wrongs and affronts the Majefty of heaven, worse than any treafon or rebellion does an earthly prince, certainly deferves to be punished? but how it fhall be punished, the fupreme Lord, and most unexceptionable Judge of all the world, is fitteft to determine. Whether by annihilation, to cashier the offenders out of being. Now that annihilation is not fufficient, we commonly fee in hardened malefactors, who perfuading themfelves, that they fhall be no more after death, care not to hazard, and throw away their lives, to enjoy fome prefent eafe and pleasures, and to make a grateful provifion for their flefh, while time ferves. And were there but enough of that number, how foon would they be mafters of the lives and enjoyments of all their neighbours; when they could but escape death for it here? and even that death, (for their lufts and carnal interefts,) how eafily will they venture, when they fear nothing to come after? so that even from hence, reafon speaks it needful, that offenders fhould live in punishment after death. And then, if God do but keep them alive; and keep from them the meat, and drink, and clothes, and harbour, and health, and ease, and mercies, and conveniencies of life, (which fure he does not owe to fuch,) even in that cafe, to be eaten up with famine, and filled with difeafes, and far removed from all friends, and helps, and comforts: O how forlorn; how wretched, would they be? and yet how then can they bring themfelves to love him, when he has taken all away from them, who could find no hearts to bestow upon him, even when here he was fo exceeding kind to them?

Indeed, they carry down to hell, a hell within themselves: even all the habitual wickedness, which is that combuftible matter, the infernal flames will prey upon. Their own impenitent fins, will be fome

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of their worst tormentors: like fo many vultures and hounds, tearing and gnawing their hearts. Their lufts and paffions will madly rage in their breasts; ever hungry, to be filled; yet for ever disappointed. And dying impenitent, they do not then ceafe to be fo, because they die: no, but the impenitence ftill cleaves to them, and is fast configned upon them. Nor does the change of death make any change in their wicked nature: but even as they go off the prefent ftage, they will abide in the fame temper; not a jot altered for the better, but rather all confirmed in all the ill habits, which they take along with them thither, as a part of their punishment. Their own wickedness will be a fevere lash, to correct them. And ftill they will go on to fuffer, but never be able to make the leaft part of payment, nor have any to fatisfy for them neither, because the great falvation of the Son of God they neglected, and in the day of grace would not accept nor use his mercy; nor by faith, and its fruits of a holy life, make good their intereft in the only Saviour of the world. And fo muft lie by it eternally, past all hope of recovery.

And if an eternal, painful being be not too much to be threatened, then shall it not be too much to be inflicted; because God muft be true, whatever fome witty difputers may offer, or whatever any wicked creatures may fuffer. Nor is it too much to threaten the foreft evils, to deter others from thofe fins which would ruin us; but, if it be not enough to deter us from our fins, how can we complain that it is too much to suffer for them? feeing the punishment is but our own choice, who will have the fins to which it is annexed. But when this fubfequent forrow does infinitely outweigh all the present pleasure of fin, O how do we crofs all the laws even of felf-prefervation then, to run upon it! and yet what but the extremity and eternity of

mifery,

mifery, has force enough in it, to prevail with us ta reject and conquer the ftrong temptations, that, with all inviting addrefs, and the biggest advantages of this world, do now prefs upon us? that mifery then, I am not to look upon, as God's end: but means to corroborate his government of the world, and to enforce the obfervation of his laws. Nor need we fear it, if we do not pull it upon our own heads, by refufing the grace, and abufing the mercy that would keep us from it. But fuch as will dare damnation, because they take the Lord's threats but for empty founds, fhall find to their cost, what a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God; and that his wrath is commenfurate to the biggest of all their fears.

O my foul, let me not attempt to beat down the infernal fufferings, as if I had a mind to go and try them; nor contrive to abide, but to avoid them, by getting out of all the ways, which lead to that fearful end. Never let me think, that the enjoy ment even of the longest life of finful pleasure, will compenfate for feeling the bitter pains of eternal death, but one quarter of an hour. O let me beg of God, to be afflicted here, as he pleases; fo that I be fpared for ever, and not lie by it in eternal sufferings. O thou heart-killing eternity, when made the measure of all this mifery! that there is no redemption, for ever excludes every glimpse of confolation. And knowing the terrors of the Lord, O that I could perfuade men! not to play with this damnation, and throw it, as a ball, at one another; not to dare it, or run the hazards of it; but a way, for the life of their fouls, to escape from it?

O curfed fin, what haft thou done, so to ruin the world? and how deadly are thy mischiefs, that will never be over; but lie upon the undone finners world without end? fots are they, that harbour thee; mad are they, that can make a game of thee.

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