9

yields then a moft horrid Stink. Before it ravifhed the Eyes of the Beholders with its admirable Beauty; but now it becomes fo odious aud offenfive, that the Living care not to fee it; it is at laft reduced to Ashes, according to the Sentence that was pronounced in the earthly Paradise, Dust thou art, and unto Duft thou shalt return.

The Spiritual Death is the Separation of the Soul from GOD our Creator. For he being the Soul of our Souls, and the Light of our Life, we fall into an Abyss of Darkness and Death: For all those that depart from God fhall perish, Pfal. lxxiii. As the Members, when they are cut off from the Body,commonly rot, as the Twig withers when it is separated from the Vine; fo in a Separation from God, we can neither live, move, nor have a Being. And as it is with the Body separated from the Soul, it nourishes a Neft of Worms that devour it, and fends forth a moft infufferable Stench; so it is with our Souls at a Distance from God: It yields thofe evil Affections that torment and confume it; and the ill Scent of its Crimes are offenfive to Heaven and Earth. Of this kind of Death our Saviour speaks to the Jews in this manner: If you do not believe that I am be, you shall die in your Sins, Joh. viii. And to the Angel of the Church at Sardis, Thou haft a Name that thou liveft, and art dead, Rev. iii. The fame Death St. Paul mentions in the second Chapter of the Coloffians, and the second of the Ephefians; When we were dead in our Trefpaffes and Sins, God hath quickened us together with Chrift. And elsewhere he exhorts a finful Man, Awake thou that fleepest, and arife from the Dead, and Chrift fhall give thee Light, Eph. v. And it is of the fame kind of Death that St. Paul fpeaks concerning the wanton Widow, that he is dead while fhe liveth, 1 Tim. v.

It was this kind of Death that Adam fuffered as foon as he had tafted of the forbidden Fruit, according to God's Threatning; In the Day that thou eateft thereof

thou

thou shalt die the Death. For not only his Body became fubject to Death, but his Soul alfo was caft into the Death of Sin, and enflaved to Corruption. It happened to him as to a Lamp newly put out, the Snuff yields a moft ill-favoured Scent.

As the Life of Grace is a Preparative to the Life of Glory, and furnishes us with the Fore-tafte of the heavenly Joys: So on the contrary, the Carnal Life is, as it were, the Suburbs of Hell, it is the firft Beginning of an eternal Death, and the Entrance into the infernal Pit. The eternal Death is nothing else but an entire and irrecoverable Separation of the Soul and Body from GOD, accompanied with infinite Torments; Torments indeed, unto which all the Sufferings of this Mortal Life are light and inconfiderable: Nevertheless, as the Spirit of GOD represents the heavenly Joys and Felicities by Things that are most pleasant and delightful; thus to exprefs to us Hell Torments, it borrows Things that are the most dreadful and painful in this Life. We are told of an Abyss or Furnace full of Flames, a bottomlefs Pit burning with Fire and Brimstone. The Scripture mentions Chains of Darkness, an eternal Night, and an Hell Fire, where there are weeping and gnashing of Teeth. It tells us, That Tophet is ordained of old, yea, for the King it is prepared, he hath made it deep and large, the Pile thereof is Fire and much Wood, the Breath of the LORD like a Stream of Brimftone doth kindle it, Ifaiah xxx. 33.

Fancy to yourselves a Man devoured with Worms, burning in hot Flames, in continual Torments, in whose Wounds kindled Brimftone is poured without Intermiffion, with boiling Lead and burning Pitch; if there be any other Pains more fharp and grievous, fancy them alfo. All this will give us but a light and imperfect Image of the State of Hell, for all the Pangs of the Body are nothing in Comparison to the Horrors, Troubles, and incredible Griefs, that fhall for ever rack and torture the damned Souls.

As

As Shame aggravates our Sufferings, and renders them more terrible, the Damned fhall be loaden with Shame and Infamy to all Eternity; their Names fhall be hateful to God and his holy Angels, and they shall be curfed with an endless Curfe. And as it is an Increase to our Torment to fuffer in the Company of abominable Varlets, and to become a Companion of the moft infamous Rafcals; they fhall fuffer with Hell's Executioner, and shall be sent to the Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels, All their Senfes fhall fhare in thefe horrid Torments, they shall be crushed in the Wine-prefs of God's eternal Wrath, and they fhall feel for ever and ever the Strokes of Go D's Vengeance, and of his Almighty Hand. They fhall then learn by Experience, what a terrible thing it is to fall into the Hands of the living GOD, and how infufferable that Fire is that shall confume his Enemies. Their Eyes fhall perceive nothing but the bottomless Pit, the Devil's Image, and the Furies of Hell; their Ears fhall hear nothing but the horrible Outcries, and fearful Roarings of tormented Devils, and damned Souls. They fhall be choaked with the noisome Smell and Fumes of the bottomless Pit; they fhall then drink the very Dregs and Bottom of GoD's Anger and Indignation, and they shall fuck the Venom of his Arrows, Fire and Brimstone fhall be the Portion of their Cup, Pfal. xi.

The Sufferings of this Life are but short, and for a Moment but the Torments of the Damned fhall never end; Their Worm dieth not, and their Fire shall never be quenched, Mark ix. Rev. xx. They fhall be tormented Day and Night to all Eternity. When they shall have fuffered as many thoufand Ages as there be Drops of Water in the Sea, or Grains of Sand on the Shore, it fhall be but the Beginning of their Grief. They fhall live for ever to die continually, and they fhall die and never be confumed. In the midst of these hot Flames, they shall beg a Drop of Water to cool their Tongue, Luke xvi. but we may

fay

fay of the Fire that fhall torture the Damned, what the Spouse in the Canticles faith of the Divine Love that had inflamed her Soul; Many Waters cannot quench it, neither can the Floods drown it, Cant. viii. And St. Paul tells us, That the Things that God hath prepared for them that love him, Eye hath not feen, Ear hath not heard, nor did it ever enter into the Heart of Man, 1 Cor. ii. So on the contrary, we may say, that those Things that God hath prepared for them that hate him, Eye bath not feen, Ear hath not heard, nor did it ever enter into the Heart of Man. From hence fhall proceed their Rage, Madness and Despair; they fhall cry in Cain's Language, My Punishment is greater than I can bear, Gen. iv. When they fhall fee nothing but an extreme Mifery, and woful Darkness, they fhall curfe God the King of all Creatures, Ifa. viii. In their Fury and Rage they will eat their Tongues, and blafpheme the Great God of Heaven and Earth. It had been far better for fuch Perfons that they had never been born; therefore they fhall feek Death, and fhall not find it, Matth. xxvi. They shall defire to die, that is, to be reduced to nothing, Rev. ix. But this Death fhall fly from them; Who of you can dwell in everlasting Burning? Ifa. xxxiii. Who of us can dwell in eternal Flames? Rev. vi. If the Vials and little Cups full of God's Wrath force the Wicked to cry out, how much more fhall the Rivers and the Ocean of God's Vengeance draw from them, O Mountains, fall on us, O Rocks, cover us, and hide us from the Face of him that fits upon the Throne, and from the Wrath of the Lamb; for the Day of his Wrath is come, and who may abide it? But as they have stopped their Ears to God's gracious Calls, and hardened their Hearts to his Invitation to Repentance, God fhall also stop his Ear to their Out-cries, and his Eyes to their grievous Sufferings; and when they fhall be overcome with Fear and Defpair, God will scorn and mock at their insufferable Mifery,

CHAP,

CHA P. IV.

That Jefus Christ our Lord hath redeemed us from eternal Death, and by Degrees rescues us from a Spiritual Death.

E read in the fifth Chapter of the Revelations

WE

of St. John, that he wept bitterly, because no Being in Heaven and Earth, nor under the Earth, was able to open the Book fealed with seven Seals, that was in God's Right Hand. At that Inftant, one of the twenty four Elders fpake to him, Weep not, behold the Lion of the Tribe of Judah bath prevailed to open the Book, and to loose the feven Seals. Thus we have until now wept bitterly, because we could find no Body in the Armies of Ifrael, to encounter with that powerful Monster Death, But let us alfo wipe our Tears, and take good Courage, my Beloved, for this fame Lion of the Tribe of Judah is appointed to fight with this dreadful Enemy: Our victorious and triumphing David, who hath torn in pieces the infernal Lion, bruised the ancient Serpent's Head, and spoiled Principalities and Powers, triumphing over them in his Cross, Col. ii. 15. It is he that has undertaken this glorious Combat; it was for that Purpose that he left for a while the Throne of God the Father, and the Company of his holy Angels, 1 Sam. xvii. It was for that Întent that he came into the Camp and Confufion of Ifrael. He hath not borrowed the Weapons and Affiftance of the World, Heb. ii. All that he hath taken from us, is our frail Nature. But he bath armed himself with Righteoufnefs, as with a Breaft-plate, and hath put on the Helmet of Salvation. He hath cloathed himself with Vengeance as with a Cloak, he hath trodden the Wine-prefs, and no Body bath affifted him, Ifa. lix, lxiii. But his Arm hath faved him, and his Hand hath upheld him, as David cut off Goliah's Head with his own Sword, Jefus Chrift

hath