62 CHARACTER OF THOSE FOR [Chap. 4. nod. They all shall be damned, who believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness. TheLord Jesus shall come in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ ; who shall be punished with everlast- ing destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." Had the ungodly returned before their life was expired, and been heartily willing to accept of Christ for their Savior and their King, and to be sav- ed by him in his way, and upon his most reasonable terms, theymight have been saved. God freely offered them life, and they would not accept it. The pleasures of the flesh seemed more desirable to them than the glory of the saints. Satan offered them the one, and God offered them the other; and they had free liberty to choose which they would, and they chose " the pleasures of sin for a season," before the everlasting rest with Christ. And is it not a righteous thing that they should be denied that which they would not accept ? When God pressed them so ear- nestly, and persuaded them so importunately, to come in, and yet they would not, where should they be but among the dogs without ? Though man be so wicked, that he will not yield till the mighty power of grace prevail with him, yet still we may truly say, that he may be saved, if he will, on God's terms. His inability being moral, and lying in wilful wickedness, is no more excuse to him, than it is to an adulterer that he cannot love his own wife, or to a malicious person that he cannot but hate his ownbrother : is he not so much the worse, and deserving of so much the sorer punishment? Sinners shall lay all the blame on their own wills inhell for ever. Hell is a rational torment bycon- science, according to the nature of the rational subject. If sinners could but then say, It was God's fault, and, not ours, it would quiet their consciences and ease their tor- ments, and make hell, to them, to be no hell. But to re- member their wilfulness, will feed the fire, and cause the worm of conscience " never to die." It is the will of God that this rest should yet remain for his people, and not be enjoyed till they come to another world. Who should dispose of the creatures, but he that made them ? You may as well ask, why have we not spring and harvest, without winter ? or, why is the earth below,
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