Ver. 3 o. xxvth; Chapter of St. MATTHEW. 13 5 are immediately from God ; Rewards and Punifhments : Better lore al! things than God : Exod. 3.3. r 5. If thy Preface go not with ms, carry as not up hence. Objeif. But is it any grief to the Wicked to want God, from whom they have fuch an extream. Averfnefs and Hatred ? Anfw. They are fenfible of the Lofs of Happinefs; their Judgment is changed; though not renewed : Fogs of Errour, Atheifm and Unbelief, then vanifh ; they are confuted by Experience. There are no Atheifts in Hell ; they know there is a God, and that all Happinefs confifts in the full Enjoyment of him; which Happinefs they have loft by their own Folly, as by their bitter Experience they can find, be- ing in a Place molt remote from him : Therefore, as rational Creatures, they cannot but be fenfible of their Lofs ; and that Senfe mutt needs breed Sadnefs and Deje&ion of Spirit ; being they look not upon God as lovely in himfelf, but as one that might be profitable to them : Oculos quos occlufit culpa, apertat pana. It would le[fen their Torments, if their Underftandings might be taken away : They know what it is to want God, though their Hatred of him Rill remaineth. (z.) The Sight of Chrifi : They had a Glimpfe before they went into Hell, by the Glory of his Prefence. 2 Theff. r. 9. They /hall be panifhed with everlafling Deflrue ion from the Preface of the Lord. That fhort Experience of Chrift's Appearing, will re- main in their Minds to all Eternity ; 'twill Rick by them. How are they thruft out ! Chrift himfelf, who hath the Keyes ofDeath and Hell, fhall bid them go ; as if he had laid, I cannot endure your Prefence ! (3.) From the Company of the Bleffed. Luk. t 3. z8. There Aid/ weeping, and gnafh- ing of Teeth,whenye /hall fee Abrabam,and Ifaac,and 7acob, and all the Prophets in the king- dom of God, andyou your. felves thrufl out. . Envy is a great part or their Punifhment, as well as Horror : Luk. 16.27. And being in Torments, he lift uphu Eyes, and faw Abra- ham afar off, and Lazarus in his Bofom. 'Tis a torment to think, that others of the fame Nature, Interefts, Inftru&ion, do enjoy whatthey have forfeited. (4.) From an Abode in the Palace of Heaven. Revel. z z. 15. Without /hall be Dogs and Sorcerers, and Whoremongers, and Murtherers, and Idolaters, and whofoever loveth and maketb a Lie. If the Pavement of Heaven' is glorious, what will the Place it Pelf be ? And from this glorious Place they are banifhed. Secondly, This utter Darknefs implyeth pofitively a State of Woe and Mfery, molt remote from this Bleffednefs : For as they are (hut out of the Palace of Heaven, fo they are cart into the Prifon of Hell, where all, is dark, without hope of ever corn - in out more. 2 Pet. 2. 57. To whom the MO of Darknefs is referved for ever. Hell is a Region upon which the Sun /hall never thine : They know they (hall never be reconciled to God, nor their Punifhment ended, or lefened : Their Worm /hall never die, their Firefhall never be quenched, Mark 9.44. They can never hope to be admit. ted into God's Prefence more. There are many Ups and Downs in a Chriftians Ex- perience : God hideth his Face fometimes, that he may [hew it afterwards the more glorioufly. The Church prayeth, Pfal. 80. 19. Turn again, and caufe the Light of thy Countenance to thine upon us, and we fball be Paved. But this is an everlaftingDarknefs. God doth, as it were, by Chains hold them under everlafting Torments. 'Tis a Curfe c that (hall never be reverfed ; a comfortlefs Life that !hall never have an end. Men might lofe the Face of God, if they were annihilated ; but the Souls of Men and Women do not go to nothing, or die as their Bodies ; fti but fubfift in a dolefom miferable State of Darknefs, and in the Place of everlang Imprifonment ; where .the Devils, and damned Spirits torment one another. All here are kept fafe, without any potfibility (> of efcaping ; here God holdeth them in everlaftingChains. Now, this is juft, they that rejeaed the Light, are thruft into utter Darknefs ; they reje& the Light of the Gofpel : oh. 3. t 9. Men love Darknefs more than Light. They defpife the Light of Glory, in comparifon of worldly Things, and prefent Satisfafti- j ons : Pfal. 106. 24. They defpifedthe good Land. They forlake God and their own li( Happinefs That which is now their Sin, is then their Mifery : They fi r f t Excom- ..0 ,- municated God, fob 22. '7. and that for a trifle : They think his Prefence a Torment ; Matth. 8.20. What have we to do with thee ? Art thou come to torment as before the """"-`" time ? Rom. t. 28. They did not like to retain God in their knowledge. They could not endure to think of God, and abhorred their own Thoughts of God, that they were their Burden. IL 'Tis 2.34-ry1-' 11l'22_P
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