able 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 his 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. 17-19. 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 arc terrible, De. xxxiii. 41, 42; 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,

2 Th. i. 7-9.

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. Da. 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, Re. xx. 11, 12; that his angels are clad in flaming fire, and that the elements melt with fervent heat; and all this is, that

* These awful denunciations are so many proofs of the immutability of the justice and of the Word of God.-ED.

Saith Christ;' Peter, in Ac. i. 20, applies this Psalm to Christ, when the Jews cried, 'His blood be upon us and upon our children; then did they put on the envenomed garment which has tormented them ever since. It is girded about their loins; the curse has penetrated like water, and entered the very bones like oil. How awful will be the state of those who crucify him afresh, and again put him to Horsley.

open shame!

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. 2 Pe. iii. 7. 2 Th. 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 a one as goeth on still in his trespasses.' Ps. lxviii. 21. But,

[The loss of the soul a loss everlasting.]

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 use 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? 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 mayest 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 apiece, 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.

Now

There are three things couched under this last head that will fill up the punishment of a sinner. 1. The first is, that it is everlasting. 2. 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. 3. The third is, and yet every moment they shall endure eternal punishment.

1. 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 If thou hast a soul, it concerns thee; if there be a hell, it concerns thee; and if there be

line more.

a God that can and will punish the soul for sin everlastingly in hell, it concerns thee; because,

2. In the second place, it will be impossible for the damned soul ever to say, I am now got half way through my sorrows. That 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 mayest as soon do that as wade half way through the lake of fire that is prepared for impenitent souls. Sinner, 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 mayest 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 never yet shalt 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.

La. xvi. 26.

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; the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up.' 2 Pe. 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.

(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 darkness. Now 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, was 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 in heaven and hell, as we understand how things are done in this world, we should be strangely amazed to see how the change of places and of conditions has made a change in the understandings of men, and in the manner of their enjoyment of things. But this we must let alone till the next world, and until our launching into it; and then, whether we be of the right or left hand

* How awfully inconceivable is that eternal death that never dieth; that final end that never endeth—an immortal death— soul-murdering life-ever dying, but never dead; were the mountains and rocks to fall upon and crush them, still eternity

would intervene between them and death.

Oh that grace

may be given to ransom our souls from the doom we have deserved 1-ED.

of receiving is often mentioned in scripture. Thus the pans received the ashes, Ex. xxvii. 3; thus the molten sea received three thousand baths, 2 Ch. iv. 5; thus the ground receiveth the seed, Mat. xiii. 20-23; and this receiving is like that of the wool which receiveth the dye, either black, white, or red; and as the fire that receiveth the water till it be all quenched therewith; or as the water receiveth such stinking and poisonous matter into it, as for the sake of it, it is poured out and spilt upon the ground. But whence should the soul thus receive sin? I answer, from the body, while it is in the mother's belly; the body comes from polluted man, and therefore is polluted. Ps. li. 5.—Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?' Job xiv. 4. The soul comes from God's hand, and therefore as so is pure and clean; but being put into this body, it is tainted, polluted, and defiled with the taint, stench, and filth of sin; nor can this stench and filth be by man purged out, when once from the body got into the soul; sooner may the blackamoor change his skin, or the leopard his spots, than the soul, were it willing, might purge itself of this pollution. Though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God.' Je. ii. 22.

2. But as I said, the soul has not only received sin, but retains it, holds it, and shows no kind of resistance. It is enough that the soul is polluted and defiled, for that is sufficient to provoke God to cast it away; for which of you would take a cloth annoyed with stinking, ulcerous sores, to wipe your mouth withal, or to thrust it into your bosoms? and the soul is polluted with far worse pollution than any such can be. But this is not all; it retains sin as the wool retains the dye, or as the infected water receives the stench or poisonous scent; I say, it retains it willingly; for all the power of the soul is not only captivated by a seizure of sin upon the soul, but it willingly, heartily, unanimously, universally falleth in with the natural filth and pollution that is in sin, to the estranging of itself from God, and an obtaining of an intimacy and compliance with the devil.

Now this being the state and condition of the soul from the belly,* yea, from before it sees the light of this world, what can be concluded but that God is offended with it? For how can it otherwise be, since there is holiness and justice in God? Hence those that are born of a woman, whose original is by carnal conception with man, are said to be as serpents so soon as born. The wicked (and all at first are so) go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder, that stoppeth her ear.' Ps. lviii. 3, 4. They go astray from

From the belly,' from its birth.

·

the belly; but that they would not do, if aught of the powers of their soul were unpolluted. But their poison is like the poison of a serpent.' Their poison-what is that? Their pollution, their original pollution, that is as the poison of a serpent -to wit, not only deadly, for so poison is, but also hereditary. It comes from the old one, from the sire and dam; yea, it is also now become connatural to and with them, and is of the same date with the child as born into the world. The serpent has not her poison, in the original of it, either from imitation or from other infective things abroad, though it may by such things be helped forward and increased; but she brings it with her in her bowels, in her nature, and it is to her as suitable to her present condition as is that which is most sweet and wholesome to other of the creatures. So, then, every soul comes into the world as poisoned with sin; nay, as such which have poison connatural to them; for it has not only received sin as the wool has received the dye, but it retaineth it. The infection is got so deep, it has taken the black so effectually, that the. fire, the very fire of hell, can never purge the soul therefrom.

And that the soul has received this infection thus early, and that it retains it so surely, is not only signified by children coming into the world besmeared in their mother's blood, and by the firstborn's being redeemed at a month old, but also by the first inclinations and actions of children when they are so come into the world. Ez. xvi. Who sees not that lying, pride, disobedience to parents, and hypocrisy, do put forth themselves in children before they know that they do either well or ill in so doing, or before they are capable to learn either of these arts by imitation, or seeing understandingly the same things done first by others? He that sees not that they do it naturally from a principle, from an inherent principle, is either blinded, and has retained his darkness by the same sin as they, or has suffered himself to be swayed by a delusion from him who at first infused this spawn of sin into man's nature.

Nor doth the averseness of children to morality a little demonstrate what has been said; for as it would make a serpent sick, should one give it a strong antidote against his poison, so then are children, and never more than then, disturbed in their minds, when a strict hand and a stiff rein by moral discipline is maintained over and upon them. True, sometimes restraining grace corrects them, but that is not of themselves; but more oft hypocrisy is the great and first moving wheel to all their seeming compliances with admonitions, which indulgent parents are apt to overlook, yea, and sometimes, through unadvisedness, to count for the principles of grace. I speak now of that which comes before conversion. But as I said before, I

would not now dispute, only I have thought good thus to urge these things to make my assertion manifest, and to show what is the cause of the damnation of the soul.

3. Again; as the soul receives sin, and retains it, so it also doth entertain it—that is, countenance, smile upon, and like its complexion and nature well. A man may detain—that is, hold fast-a thing which yet he doth not regard; but when he entertains, then he countenances, likes, and delights in the company. Sin, then, is first received by the soul, as has been afore explained, and by that reception is polluted and defiled. This makes it hateful in the eyes of justice; it is now polluted. Then, secondly, this sin is not only received, but retained—that is, it sticks so fast, abides so fixedly in the soul, that it cannot be gotten out; this is the cause of the continuation of abhorrence; for if God abhors because there is a being of sin there, it must needs be that he should continue to abhor, since sin continues to have a being there. But then, in the third place, sin is not only received, detained, but entertained by the now defiled and polluted soul; wherefore this must needs be a cause of the continuance of anger, and that with aggravation. When I say, entertained, I do not mean as men entertain their enemies, with small and great shot, but as they entertain those whom they like, and those that are got into their affections.† And therefore the wrath of God must certainly be let out upon the soul, to the everlasting damnation of it.

(2.) These shifts the souls of sinners do presently make for the saving of sin from those things that by the Word men are commanded to do unto it— (a) They will, if possible, hide it, and not suffer it to be discovered. He that hideth his sins shall not prosper.' Pr. xxviii. 13. And again, they hide it, and refuse to let it go. Job xx. 12, 13. This is an evident sign that the soul has a favour for sin, and that with liking it, entertains it.

(b) As it will hide it, so it will excuse it, and plead that this and that piece of wickedness is no such evil thing; men need not be so nice, and make such a pother? about it, calling those that cry out so hotly against it, men more nice than wise. Hence the prophets of old used to be called madmen, and the world would reply against their doctrine, Wherein have we been so wearisome to God, and what have we spoken so much against him? Mal. i. 6, 7; iii. 8, 1o.

(c) As the soul will do this, so to save sin, it will cover it with names of virtue, either moral or civil; and of this God greatly complains, yea, breaks out into anger for this, saying, 'Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; and put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!' Is. v. 20.

(d) If convictions and discovery of sin be so strong and so plain, that the soul cannot deny but that it is sin, and that God is offended therewith; then it will give flattering promises to God that it will indeed put it away; but yet it will prefix a time that shall be long first, if it also then at all

(1.) It hath admitted it with complacence and delight into every chamber of the soul; I mean, it has been delightfully admitted to an entertainment by all the powers or faculties of the soul. The soul hath chosen it rather than God; it also, at God's command, refuseth to let it go; yea, it chooseth that doctrine, and loveth it best, since it must have a doctrine, that has most of sin and baseness in it. Is. lxv. 12; lxvi. 3. They say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits.' Is. xxx. 10. These are signs that the soul with liking hath entertained sin; and if there be at any time, as indeed there is, a warrant issued out from the mouth of God to apprehend, to condemn, and mortify sin, why then,

*

Bunyan having been engaged in the civil war, accounts

for his using this military idea.-Ed.

+ God hates not the sinuer, but the sin; the glorious provision made for salvation, proves his good will to sinful souls. This will be the worm that dieth not,' to sinners to reflect, that, in rejecting the inviting promises of God, they have sealed their own condemnation.-Mason.

slumber, yet a little folding of sin in mine arms, till I am older, till I am richer, till I have had more of the sweetness and the delights of sin. Thus, 'their soul delighteth in their abominations.' Is. Lxvi. 3.

(e) If God yet pursues, and will see whether this promise of putting sin out of doors shall be fulfilled by the soul, why then, it will be partial in God's law; it will put away some, and keep some; put away the grossest, and keep the finest; put away those that can best be spared, and keep the most profitable for a help at a pinch. Mal. ii. 9.

(f) Yea, if all sin must be abandoned, or the soul shall have no rest, why then, the soul and sin will part (with such a parting as it is), even as Phaltiel parted with David's wife, with an ill will and a sorrowful mind; or as Orpha left her mother, with a kiss. 2 Sa. iii. 16. Ru. i. 14.

(g) And if at any time they can, or shall, meet with each other again, and nobody never the wiser, O, what courting will be betwixt sin and the soul?

'Hideth his sins,' is quoted from the Genevan, or Puritan version.-ED.

Pother;' to be, or cause to be, as oue involved in dust, in a cloud; to perplex, to puzzle, to confound.-ED.