Serm. 4.

Fourthly, In the pains occafion'd M by the Fire of Hell, or whatever is meant under that name. And

Lastly, In the uninterrupted continuance, and eternal duration, of every one of these.

First, In the Wicked's being banife'd from the enjoyment of God, and all that fulness of Joy, and thofe Rivers of Pleasure, which are in his prefence, and at his right hand, for evermore: and in all the miferies naturally confequent upon fuch their banishment. For fo runs the former part of that dreadful Sentence, which thall be pronounc'd againft the wicked, at the day of Judgment, Depart from me, ye curfed. Not that the wicked fhall fo depart from God, as never to fee or remember him any more, and to loofe all knowledge of Him and Hedven for ever: No, this, as fad a punifhment as it is, would be but a very light one, in comparison of that, which they fhall then be doom'd to, They fhall fee God, or, which is the fame thing, have a moft quick and ively notion of him, but without

H 4

hopes

hopes of ever being reconcil'd to him; Serm. 4. They fhall fee Heaven, or at least have always a fresh remembrance of that glorious fight which they had of it, at the general Judgment: but still, as the Rich Man in the Gospel did Paradife, with an impaffable gulph betwixt it and them.

But oh my Soul! How canft thou ever fufficiently conceive the dreadfulness of fuch a departure from God, as this is? How canft thou, even in any tolerable measure, know what thou fhalt loose, in loofing that Infinite Abyss of Happiness? How canst thou bear the Thoughts of existing, fo much as one moment, when thou fhalt be frown'd upon by him, in whofe favour alone, is life, that is, every thing which makes Life defireable? Oh! How wilt thou be able to endure thy felf: when thy Father, thy most tender and compassionate Father: thy Saviour, thy most loving and relenting Saviour: the Holy Angels and juft Men made perfect, those best natur'd of Created beings: when the God of all comfort, and giver of every good gift when he, who once lov'd

thee

thee fo well, as to lay down his life for thee: when they, who have made Serm. it their conftant business to minifter to thee, and have rejoyc'd without measure, when they have feen the leaft hopes of thy becoming happy; in one word, when all those beings who are good, and continually delight in doing good, and from whom alone all good must come, fhall not endure thee, fhall deteft and abhor thee, shall spurn thee from their prefence, fhall laugh at thy calamity, and mock when thy fear cometh? Good God! how will it vex and fret our Souls, to reflect upon those bright and glorious Manfions of happiness, from which we fhall be then banish'd? How will the Contemplation even of Heaven it felf torment us, when it fhall ferve only to create in us ftrong and eager defires and longings after it, which must never be fatisfy'd, and to remind us of a lofs, which is as Infinite as God himself? But, above all, how will it gall and wound our Souls, how will it make us all rage and fury against our felves, to confider, that we have loft all this thro' our own fault: and that, when we had it all within

our

M our reach and in our power, we were Serm. 4. contented (foolish Creatures that we were!) for meer gugaws and trifles, meer shadows and appearances of happiness, to part with it? Certainly, were there no other Punishment for the wicked in Hell, than this, they would have great reason to say of it, as Cain did of his, it is greater than we can bear. But

Secondly, There will be likewife the lashes of their own guilty Minds, and of all thofe vexatious Lufts and Paffions, which they fhall carry with them into another World, and which will be mightily heighten'd and inflam'd there. By the worm of the wicked, which fhall never dye, fo often mention'd in Scripture as what is to be part of their Punishment in Hell, we are doubtless to understand the remorfe of their own guilty Minds or Confciences, which fhall, as it were, gnaw and prey upon them, and give them much greater pain and torment, than a worm preying upon their living fleft would do. Their Conferences, I fay, which will there be continually and moft fenfibly reproaching

them,

them, not only with the lofs of Heaven (tho' this will be reproach enough) Serm. 4. but with all that bafenefs, ingratitude, unreasonableness, folly and finfulness towards God, which they fhall have been guilty of, in their past Lives: and with all that shame, anguish, horror, inconceivable and endless Mijery, which they fhall thereby have brought upon their own Heads. And, as we are fure, from the nature of the thing it felf, that, when the wicked fhall no longer be cloth'd with fuch bodies of flesh, as they now are, which mightily obftruct and prefs down the Sout in her operations, but fhall put on fpiritual bodies, bodies in which their Souls may freely and uncontroulably exert their utmost powers, their apprehenfions and resentments of things muft neceffarily become vaftly more quick and vigorous, and confequently their fenfe of their own folly, guilt and mifery, and their remorse, anguish and trouble for them, exceeding more keen and poignant, than they had ever been inthis World. So have we all the reafon that can be to believe, that the Divine Vengeance will both add new ftings to these their own inbred Tor

mentors