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XIiI.]

THE PUNISHMENTS

IN

HELL.

009

sons

;

and

even

amidst the ruins

which

sin

has

brought

into

this world, yet still every

eye

may

behold the traces

of

an almighty, an all

-wise,

and

a

bountiful God.

When the

same divine

and sovereign

Being designed

to

exalt

and

diffuse

the wonders

of

his

grace

among the best

of

his

creatures, he

built

a heaven for them,

and furnish-

ed it

with

unknown varieties

of

beauty and blessing

:

And

we would

hope

in

our

appointed

season

to be

raised to

this

upper

world,

and

there

to behold the riches

of

divine

magnificence

and

mercy,

and

to

be

sharers

thereof

among

the

rest

of

the happy inhabitants.

But

since sin

and

wickedness has

entered

into bis

creation of

men and

angels, he

saw

it

necessary

also

to

display

the

terrors

of

his

justice,

and to make

his

wrath

and

indignation

known

amongst rebellious creatures,

that

he

might maintain

a just

awe

and reverence for

his

own

authority, and

a

constant hatred of

sin

through all

his dominions.

For

this

purpose

he

has

built a

bell,

a

dreadful building indeed,

in

some dismal

region

of

his

vast

empire, where he has amassed

together

all

that

is

grievous and formidable to

sensible

beings,

and

wicked

spirits carry their

own

inward

hell

thither

with them,

a

hell

of

sin

and misery; and though

he has

sent

his

own

Son to

acquaint

us

with the distresses

and agonies

of that

doleful

world,

and

to warn

us

of

the danger

of

falling

into

it;

yet

if

any

of

us

should

be

so

unhappy

as to

continue

in an

obstinate state

of

impenitence

and

disobedience

to

God,

we

shall

be

made to

confess,

by

dreadful experi-

ence,

that not

one

half hath

been

told

us.

Therefore hath God

set

before

us

these

terrors

in his

word,

that

we

might

fly

from

the wrath to

come,

and

avoid

these

sufferings

:

And therefore

do his ministers,

by his

commission,

proceed

to

publish

this

vengeance

and indignation

of

the Lord,

that

sinners might

be

awakened

to lay

hold

on

the hope

that

is

set before them,

and

might be affrighted from plunging themselves

into

this

pit of anguish, whence there

is

no

redemption.

We

have

taken a

short

survey

of

these miseries, in

the

kind

and nature of

them, in

some

former discourses

;

and

we

are

now come

to the last thing contained

in

our

Saviour's

description

of

hell,

and that

is the

perpetuity

of

it

:

The

misery

is

everlasting

in

both the

parts of

it,

for

"

the worm

dieth not, and the

fire

is

not quenched:'

VOL,

II.

9

R