590 THE NATURE OF THE PUNIsfM-ENTS' fN 'RELL. [DISC. XII. the saine madness and fury against God and their fellow. creatures, nor the same ahguish of conscience as those Who have been more grossly and obstinately wicked and vicious, and have wilfully refused and renounced the well-known offers of grace and salvation : There are innumerable degrees of inward punishment and pain, according to the degrees of sin. Answer II.. It should be added too, that that world of punishment is also a world of increasingwickedness, and those that have had some natural virtues and some appear- ances of goodness here, may and will renounce it all in the world to come, where they find themselves punished for their impenitence and irreligion, and their criminal n ;lect of God and godliness : And the least and lightest of the punishments of damned souls will be terrible enough, and yet not surpass the desert of their offences. They have been all in greater or less degrees treasuring up food for this fire, which is unquenchable. Besides, it may be added here, that in threatenings the holy scripture generally expresses them in their highest degrees and most formidable appearances ó , on purpose t secure men from coming near the peril and border of them. This shall suffice to explain the first part of the metap- hor in my text, that is, " The worm that dicta not." SECTION II. " The fire which shall not be quenched." I proceed now to consider, The second part of the de- .description ofhell in thenature ofit, as it is representedby ourSaviour, and that is, that " the fire is never quenched." `Fire signifies the medium or instrument of torture from without, which God has threatened to employ in the pu- nishment ofguilty creatures, even as the." gnawing worm" signifies their inward torment. Fire applied to the sen- sible and tender parts of the flesh, gives the sharpest pain of any thing that comes within our common notice, and it is used in scripture to signify the punishments of damned sinners, and the wrath of God in the world to corne : And perhaps that text is the föandation of it, Iscr. xxx. SS. " Tophet is ordained of old, he has Made it deep and .large, the pile thereof is fire and much wood ; and the breath of the Lord, ,like a stream of brimstone, Both kindle it." This Tophet was a place in the valley of Hinman, where children were wont to be burned in
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