of damned men that are now shut up in the prison of hell, and bear it. But certainly it is the chief and highest of all kinds of curses. To be cursed in the basket and in the store, in the womb and in the barn, in my cattle and in my body, are but fleabitings to this, though they are also insupportable in themselves; only in general it may be described thus. But to touch upon this curse, it lieth in a deprivation of all good, and in a being swallowed up of all the most fearful miseries that a holy, and just, and eternal God can righteously inflict, or lay upon the soul of a sinful man. Now let reason here come in and exercise itself in the most exquisite manner; yea, let him now count up all, and all manner of curses and torments that a reasonable and an immortal soul is or can be made capable of, and able to suffer under, and when he has done, he shall come infinitely short of this great anathema, this master-curse which God has reserved amongst his treasuries, and intends to bring out in that day of battle and war, which he purposeth to make upon damned souls in that day. And this God will do, partly as a retaliation, as the former, and partly by way of revenge. 1. By way of retaliation: "As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him; as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him." Again, "As he clothed himself with cursing like as with a garment, so let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones; let it be unto him as a garment which covereth him, and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually," Ps. cix. 17-20. "Let this," saith Christ, "be the reward of mine adversaries from the Lord," &c. 2. As this curse comes by way of retaliation, so it cometh by way of revenge. God will right the wrongs that sinners have done him, will repay vengeance for the despite and reproach wherewith they have affronted him, and will revenge the quarrel of his covenant. And the beginning of revenges are terrible; what, then, will the whole execution be, when he shall come in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ? And therefore this curse is executed in wrath, in jealousy, in anger

in fury; yea, the heavens and the earth shall be burned up with the fire of that jealousy in which the great God will come, when he cometh to curse the souls of sinners, and when he cometh to defy the ungodly, Deut. xxxiii. 41, 42.

It is little thought of, but the manner of the coming of God to judge the world declares what the souls of impenitent sinners must look for then. It is common among men, when we see the form of a man's countenance changed, when we see fire sparkle out of his eyes, when we read rage and fury in every cast of his face, even before he says aught, or doth aught either, to conclude that some fearful thing is now to be done, Dan. iii. 19, 23. Why, it is said of Christ when he cometh to judgment, that the heavens and the earth fly away (as not being able to endure his looks), that his angels are clad in flaming fire, and that the elements melt with fervent heat, and all this is, that the perdition of ungodly men might be completed, from the presence of the Lord, in the heat of his anger, from the glory of his power, Rev. xx. 11, 12; 2 Pet. iii. 7; 2 Thess. i. 8, 9. Therefore God will now be revenged, and so ease himself of his enemies, when he shall cause curses like millstones to fall as thick as hail on the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his trespasses, Psalm lxviii. 21. But,

Fourthly, As the loss of the soul is a loss peculiar to itself, a loss double, and a loss most fearful, so it is a loss everlasting. The soul that is lost is never to be found again, never to be recovered again, never to be redeemed again. Its banishment from God is everlasting: the fire in which it burns, and by which it must be tormented, is a fire that is ever, everlasting fire, everlasting burnings; the adder, the snake, the stinging-worm, dieth not, nor is the fire quenched; and this is a fearful thing. A man may endure to touch the fire with a short touch, and away; but to dwell with everlasting burnings, that is fearful. Oh, then, what is dwelling with them, and in them, for ever and ever! We used to say, light burdens far carried are heavy ; what then will it be to bear that burden, that guilt, that the law and the justice and wrath of God, will lay upon the lost

soul for ever? Now tell the stars, now tell the drops of the sea, and now tell the blades of grass that are spread upon the face of all the earth, if thou canst; and yet sooner mayst thou do this than count the thousands of millions of thousands of years that a damned soul shall lie in hell. Suppose every star that is now in the firmament was to burn (by himself one by one) a thousand years a-piece, would it not be a long while before the last of them was burned out? and yet sooner might that be done than the damned soul be at the end of punishment.

There are three things couched under this last head that will fill up the punishment of a sinner.

The first is, that it is everlasting.

The second is, that therefore it will be impossible for the souls in hell ever to say, Now we are got half way through

our sorrows.

The third is, and yet every moment they shall endure = eternal punishment.

The first I have touched upon already, and therefore shall not enlarge, only I would ask the wanton or unthinking sinner whether twenty, or thirty, or forty years of the deceitful pleasures of sin is so rich a prize as that a man may well venture the ruins that everlasting burnings will make upon his soul for the obtaining of them, and living a few moments in them. Sinner, consider this before I go any further, or before thou readest one line more. If thou hast a soul, it concerns thee; if there be a hell, it concerns thee; and if there be a God that can and will punish the soul for sin everlastingly in hell, it concerns thee; because,

rows.

In the second place, it will be impossible for the damned soul ever to say, I am now got half way through my sorThat which has no end has no middle. Sinner, make a round circle, or ring, upon the ground, of what bigness thou wilt; this done, go thy way upon that circle, or ring, until thou comest to the end thereof; but that, sayest thou, I can never do, because it has no end; I answer, but thou mayst as soon do that as wade half-way through the lake of fire that is prepared for impenitent souls. Sinner,

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what wilt thou take to make a mountain of sand that will reach as high as the sun is at noon? I know thou wilt not be engaged in such a work, because it is impossible thou shouldst ever perform it. But I dare say the task is greater when the sinner has let out himself to sin for a servant, because the wages is everlasting burnings. I know thou mayst perform thy service, but the wages, the judgment, the punishment is so endless, that thou, when thou hast been in it more millions of years than can be numbered, art not, nor ever yet shall be, able to say, I am half-way through it. And yet,

3. That soul shall partake every moment of that punishment that is eternal. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire, Jude, 7.

1. They shall endure eternal punishment in the nature of punishment. There is no punishment here wherewith one man can chastise another that can deserve a greater title than that of transient or temporary punishment; but the punishment there is eternal, even in every stripe that is given, and in every moment that it grappleth with the soul, even every twinge, every gripe, and every stroke that justice inflicteth, leaveth anguish that in the nature of punishment is eternal behind it. It is eternal, because it comes from God, and lasts for ever and ever. The justice that inflicts it has not a beginning, and it is this justice in the operations of it that is always dealing with the soul.

2. All the workings of the soul under this punishment are such as cause in its sufferings to endure that which is eternal. It can have no thought of the end of punishment, but it is presently recalled by the decreed gulf that bindeth it under perpetual punishment. The great fixed gulf, it knows, will keep it in its present place, and not suffer it to go to heaven (Luke xvi. 26); and now there is no other place but heaven or hell to be in, for then the earth, and the works that are therein, will be burned up. Read the

text, But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burnt up,” 2 Pet. iii. 10. If, then, there will be no third place, it standeth in their minds, as well as in God's decree, that their punishments will be eternal; so then, sorrows, anguish, tribulation, grief, woe, and pain, will in every moment of its abiding upon the soul, not only flow from thoughts of what has been, and what is, but also from what will be, and that for ever and ever. Thus every thought that is truly grounded in the cause and nature of their state will roll, toss, and tumble them up and down in the cogitations and fearful apprehensions of the lastingness of their damnation. For I say, their minds, their memories, their understandings, and consciences will all, and always be swallowed up with for ever;" yea, they themselves will by the means of these things be their own tormentors for

ever.

ness.

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3. There will not be spaces, as days, months, years, and the like, as now, though we make bold so to speak (the better to present our thoughts to each other's capacities), for then there shall be time no longer; also day and night shall then be come to an end." He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end" (Job, xxvi. 10), until the end of light with darkNow when time, and day and night are come to an end, then there comes in eternity, as there was before the day and night, or time, were created; and when this is come, punishment nor glory must none of them be measured by days, or months, or years, but by eternity itself. Nor shall those concerned either in misery or glory reckon of their now new state as they used to reckon of things in this world; but they shall be suited in their capacities, in their understandings and apprehensions, to judge and count of their condition according as will best stand with their state in eternity.

Could we but come to an understanding of things done