fin and of the cute take their place in it, after the laft judg ment. Rev. xx. 14. "And death and hell were caft into the "lake of fire." There they will find a prifon they can never efcape out of; a lake of fire, wherein they will be ever fwimming and burning; a pit, where they will never find a bottom. The worm that dieth not fhall feed on them, as on bodies, which are interred -the fire that is not quenched, fhall devour them, as dead bodies, which are burned. Their eyes fhall be kept in blackness of darkness, without the least comfortable gleam of light their ears filled with the frightful yellings of the infernal crew. They fhall tafte nothing but the vinegar of God's wrath, the dregs of the cup of his fury. The stench of the burning lake of brimstone will be the finell there; and they fhall feel extreme pains for evermores 3. They will be most exquifite and vehement torments, caufing "weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth," Matth. xiii. 42. and xxii. 13. They are reprefented to us under the notion of pangs in travail, which are very fharp and exquifite. So fays the rich man in hell, Luke xvi. 24 I am tormented, "(to wit, as one in the pangs of child-bearing) in this flame." Ab! dreadful pangs! horrible travail! in which both foul and body are in pangs together! helplefs travail, hopeless and endlefs! The word ufed for hell, Matth. v. 22. and in divers other places of the New Teftament, properly denotes the valley of "Hinnom;" the name being taken from the valley of the children of Hinnom, in which was Topher, (2 Kings xxiii. 10.) where idolaters offered their children to Moloch. This is faid to have been a great brafen idol, with arms like a man's; the which being heated by fire within it, the child was fet in the burning arms of the idol and that the parents might not hear the shrieks of the child burning to death, they beat drums in the time of the horrible facrifice: whence the place had the name Tophet. Thus the exquifitenefs of the torments in hell are appointed to us. Some have endured grievous tortures on earth, with a furprifing obftinacy and undaunted courage; but mens courage will fail them there, when they find themfelves fallen into the hands of the living God, and no out gate to be expected for ever. It is true, there will be degrees of torment in hell: "It fhall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon, than "for Chorazin and Bethfaida," Matth. xi. 21, 22. But the leaft load of wrath there will be unfupportable; for how can the heart of the creature endure, or his hands be strong, when Cod himself is a confuming fire to him? When the tares are bound : bound in bundles for the fire, there will be bundles of covetous perfons, of drunkards, profane fwearers, unclean perfons, formal hypocrites, unbelievers, and despisers of the gospel, and the like the feveral bundles being caft into hell fire, fome will burn more keenly than others, according as their fins have been more heinous than thefe of others: a fiercer flame will feize the bundle of the profane, than the bundle of unfanctified moralifts ; the furnace will be the hotter to thofe who finned against light than to thefe who lived in darkness. Luke vii. 37, 38. "That" fervant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not him"felf, neither did according to his will, fhall be beaten with many fripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things "worthy of ftripes fhall be beaten with few ftripes." But the fentence common to them all, (Matth. xiii. 30.) "Bind "them in bundles to burn them," fpeaks the greatest vehemency and exquifiteness of the lowest degree of torment in hell. : 4. They will be uninterrupted: there is no intermiffion there, no eafe, no not for a moment. "They fhall be tor"mented day and night for ever and ever," Rev. xx. 10. Few are fo toffed in this world, but fometimes they get reft; but the dammed fhall get none they took their reft in the time appoint-, ed of God for labour. Now forms are readily feen, but there is fome space between fhowers: but no intermission in the storm that falls on the wicked in hell. There deep will be calling unto deep, and the waves of wrath continually rolling over them. There the heaven will be always black to them, and they fhall have a perpetual night, but no reft, Rev. xiv 10. "They have no rest day nor night." 66 5. They will be unpitied. The punishments inflicted on the, greateft malefactors on earth, do draw forth fome compaffion from them who behold them in their torments: but the damned shall have none to pity them: God will not pity them but laugh at their calamity,' Prov. i. 26. The bleffed company in heaven fhall rejoice in the execution of God's righteous judgment, and fing while the faroke rifeth up for ever, Rev. xix. 3. "and again they faid, Allelujah; and her fmoke rose up for ever and ever." No compaflion can be expected from the devil and his angels, who delight in the ruin of the children of men, and are, and will be for ever void of pity. Neither will one pity another there, where every one is weeping and gnashing his teeth, under his own infupportable anguifh and pain. There natural affections will be extinguished; the parents will not love their children, nor children their parents: the mother will not pity the daughter in thefe flames; nor will the daughter pity the mother: the fon will fhew no regard to his father there; nor the fervant to his mafter, where every one will be roaring under his own torment. LASTLY, To compleat their mifery, their torments fhall be eternal. Rev. xv. 14. And the fmoke of their torments afcend ed up for ever and ever." Ah! what a frightful cafe is this, to be tormented in the whole body and foul, and that not with one kind of torment, but many; all of thefe moft exquifite, and all this without intermiffion, and without pity from any! What heart can conceive thofe things without horror! Nevertheless, if this most miferable cafe were at length to have an end, that would afford fome comfort; but the torments of the damned will have no end: of the which more afterwards. USE. Learn from this, (1.) The evil of fin. It is a stream that will carry down the finner, till he be swallowed up in an ocean of wrath. The pleasures of fin are bought too dear, at the rate of everlasting burnings. What availed the rich man's purple clothing and fumptuous fare, when in bell he was wrapt up in purple flames, and could not have a drop of water to cool his tongue? Alas! that men fhould indulge themselves in fin, which will be fuch bitterness in the end; that they should drink fo greedily of the poifonous cup, and hug that ferpent in their bofom, that will fting them to the heart, and gnaw out their bowels at length! 2. What a God he is, with when we have to do what a hatred he bears to fin, and how feverely he punifheth it. Know the Lord to be most just, as well as most merciful; and think not that he is fuch an one as you are away with that fatal mistake ere it be too late. Pfal. 1. 21. 22. "Thou thoughtclt that I was altogether fuch an one as thyself; "but I will reprove thee, and fet them in order before thine 66 eyes. Now confider this, ye tha forget God, left I tear you , in pieces, and there be none to deliver." The fire prepared for the devil and his angels, as dark as it is, will ferve to difcover God to be a fevere revenger of fin. Laftly. The abfolute neceflity of fleeing to the Lord Jefus Chrift by faith; the fame. neceflity of repentance, and holiness of heart and life. The avenger of blood is purfuing thee, O finner! bafle and escape to the city of refuge. Wah now in the fountain of the Mediator's blood, that thou mayft not perish in the lake of fire. Open thy heart to him, left the pit clofe its mouth on thee. Leave thy fins, elfe they will ruin thee: kill them, elfe they will be thy death for ever. Let Let not the terror of hell-fire put thee upon hardening thy heart more, as it may do, if thou entertain that wicked thought, viz.There is no hope," Jer. ii. 25. which perhaps is more rife among the hearers of the gospel, than many are aware of. But there is hope for the worst of finners, who will come unto Jefus Chrift. If there are no good qualifications in thee, (as certainly there can be none in a natural man, none in any man, but what are received from Chrift in him) know that he has not fufpended thy welcome on any good qualifications: do thou take himself and his falvation, freely offered unto all, to whom the gospel comes. "Whofoever 'will, let him take of "the water of life freely," Rev. xxii. 17." Him that cometh "to me, I will in no ways caft out," John vi. 37. It is true,' thou art a finful creature, and caoft not repent; thou art un holy, and canft not make thyfelf holy nay, thou haft effayed to repent, to forfake fin, and to be holy, but ftill missed of repentance, réformation, and holiness and therefore, "Thou "faidft, There is no hope. No, for I have loved ftrangers, and after them will I go." Truly no marvel that the fuccefs has not answered thy expectation, fince thou haft always begun thy work amife. But do thou first of all honour God by believing the teftimony he has given of his Son, namely, that eternal life is in him and honour the Son of God by believing on him, that is, embracing and falling in with the free offer of Chrift, and of his falvation from fin and from wrath made.to thee in the gospel, trufting in him confidently for righteoufnels to thy juftification, and alfo for fanctification, feeing" of God he is made unto us both righteoufness and fanctification," 1 Cor. i. 30. Then if thou had it as much credit to give to the word of God, as thou wouldst allow to the word of an honeft man offering thee a gift, and faying, take it, and it is thine; thou mayeft believe that God is thy God, Chrift is thine, his falvation is thine, thy fins are pardoned, thu haft ftrength in him for repentance and for holiness: for all thefe are made over to thee in the free offer of the gofpel. Believing Son of God, thou art juftified; the curfe is removed. And while it lies upon thee, how is it poffible thou shouldft bring forth the fruits of holiness? But the curfe is removed; that death which feized on thee with the first Adam, (according to the threatning, Gen. ii. 17.) is taken away. In confequence of which, thou fbalt find the bands of wickedness (now holding thee faft in impenitency) broken afur der, as the bands of that death; fo as thou wilt be able to repent indeed from the heart: LI on the thou thoc fhalt find the spirit of life, on whofe departure that death enfued, returned to thy foul, fe as thenceforth thou shalt be enabled to live unto righteousness. No man's cafe is fo bad, but may be mended this way, in time, to be perfectly right in eternity: and no man's cafe is fo good but another way being taken, it will be marred for time and eternity too. it III. The damned fhall have the fociety of devils in their miferable ftate in hell; for they muft depart into fire prepared for the devil and his angels. O horrible company! O frightful affociation! who would chufe to dwell in a palace haunted by devils? To be confined to the most pleasant fpot of earth with the devil and his infernal furies, would be a most terrible confinement. How would mens hearts fail them, and their hair ftand up, finding themfelves environed with the hellish crew in that cafe! But ah! how much more terrible must it be, to be caft with the devils into one fire! locked up with them in one dungeon! shut up with them in one pit! To be clofed up in a den of roaring lions, girded about with ferpents, furrounded with venomous afps, and to have thy bowels eaten out by vipers, all together and at once, is a comparison too low to fhew the mifery of the damned, fhut up in hell with the devil and his angels. They go about now as roaring lions, feeking whom they may devour: but then fhall they be confined in their dens with their prey. They fhall be filled to the brim with the wrath of God, and receive the full torment (Matth. viii, 29.) which they tremble in expectation of, (James. ii. 19.) being caft into the fire prepared for them. How will thefe lions roar and tear! How will these ferpents hifs! thefe dragons vomit out fire! What horrible anguish will feize the damned, finding themselves in the lake of fire with the devil who deceived them; drawn hither with the filken cords of temptation by thefe wicked fpirits, and bound with them in everlasting chains under darkness! Rev. xx. 10. “ And "the devil that deceived them, was caft into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beat and the falfe prophet are, "and fhall be tormented day and night for ever." O! that men would confider this in time, renounce the devil and his lufts, and join themselves to the Lord in faith and holinefs. Why fhould men chufe that Company in this world, and delight in that fociety they would not defire to affociate with in the other world? Thofe who like not the company of the faints on earth, will get none of it in eternity; but as godless company is their delight now, they will afterwards get enough |