5 THE NATURE OP THE PUNISHMENTS IN HELL. [DISC. XII. It is certain, that God has been pleased in his word frequently- ttj. make use of fire, brimstone, burning, smoke, darkness and chains,: and every thing that is painful and noisome to nature on earth, in order to. represent the miseries that hehas prepared for sinners in hell : And we must suppose-:that all these metaphors, if they are but mere metaphors, carry with them a sense of most intense pain and anguish with which God will afflict the bodies, as well asthe spirits of those guilty creatures, who have rebelled against his majesty, rejected his mercy, and exposed themselves to his indignation. But what particular instruments and methods, of punish- ment, what other elements or means of torture the great God will make use of to execute his sentence in this tre- mendous work, is more than we can now declare, because God has not fullydeclared it :, And I pray God none óf us may be ever doomed to learn it by terrible experience. But Heim be nothing but fire, the anguish will be into- lerable, asone of our poets expresses it, zc In liquid burnings, or on dry, to dwell, is all the sad variety of hell." Or what if the Almighty, who has all nature, with all its powers, at his command, should employ other mate. rial instruments for the execution of his deserved wrath ? What if he should chuse the alternate extremes of fire and frost, as some have imagined, to torment those impe- nitent criminals ? Or what if the creatures which they have abused to their impious and brutish purposes; should be 'made instruments and mediums of their pu- nishment ? Wine may be rendered a frequent means of sickness, agony and pain to the drunkard, and meat and other dainties to the glutton, and gold to the covetous wretches who made gold their god, that they may all re- member their crimes in their sufferings. The wisdom of God will execute the sentence of his justice in the most honourable manner. And after all, if we call away' our thoughts from fire, and every material instrument of pain, which the great -God may employ in punishing obstinate rebels, and sur- vey only those acute and dreadful impressions of horror .and anguish, which a. just and holy God may make on sinful spirits inan immediate manner in hell, this would
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