DISCOURSE XII. , '253 times have a softening thought come across him, which may per_. haps bring a tear into his eyes, and may form a good wish or two in his soul, and wring a groan from his heart which looks like repentance ;' but when we are dismissed from this body, and this state of trial and of hope, eternal hardness seizes upon the mind : The neck is like an iron sinew hardened more, if I may so express it, in the fire of hell. The will is fixed in everlasting obstinacy against God, and against the glories of his holiness. If Moses and the prophets, if Christ and his apostles in the ministry of the word, could not soften the heart of bold trans- gressors, what can be expected when all the means of grace and the methods of divine compassion are vanished and gone for ever ? It is granted indeed there will be bitter repentance among the damned in hell, and inward vexation of soul and self-cursing in abundance, for having plunged themselves into this misery, and having abandoned all the offers of divine mercy: But it will be only such a repentance as Judas the traitor felt, when he re- pented and hanged himself; Mat. xxvii. 5. This is a sort of madness of rage within them for having made themselves mise- rable. But there will be found no hatred of the evil of sin, as it is an offence against God, no painful and relenting sense of their iniquity, as it has dishonoured God and broken his law, no such sorrow for sin as is attended with a hearty aversion to it, and a desire to love God and obey him ; but rather they will feel and nourish a growing aversion to God and his holiness. u Ask yourselves my young friends, Did you never feel your hearts indulging an angry and unrelenting mood, and stub- born in your wrath against a superior who had sharply reproved you ? Or have you never felt an obstinate andunreconcileablehour in your younger years, even against a parent who had severely corrected you ? Or have you not found, at some seasons, your soul rising and kindling into violent resentment and a revenge- ful temper against your neighbour upon some supposed affront, damage, or mischief he had done you ? Call these unhappy minutes to mind, and learn what hell is : Think into what a wretched case you would be plunged, if this wrath and sub - bornness, this enmity and hardness should become immortal and unchangeable, though it were but against a neighbour : But if this obstinacy and stubborn hardiness of soul were bent against God himself, so that you would never relent, never sincerely repent of your crimes, nor bow, nor yield either to his majesty or his mercy, what would you think of yourselves and of your state? Would you not be wretched and horrible creatures indeed, without the least reason to hope for favour and compassion at his hands ? Such is the case probe- My of every damned sinner. Amazing scene of complicated
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