260 THE WORLD TO COME. I answer, surely God will not continue to punish madmen ;' therefore none of these torments shall extinguish our reason, or destroy our intellectual powers ; for it is as creatures of reason and free-will that sinners are thus punished, and therefore these powers must remain in their proper exercise ; besides the very operations of these powers in self- condemnation, and self-up_ braiding, are part of their punishment. But whether God will so fortify the natures of the damned, which probably shall not be made of flesh and blood, and enable them to bear such intense pain without distraction, or whether the highest extremes of their torment shall only be inflicted at some certain periods or intervals, so that they shall soon return to their reasoning powers again, with bitter remembrance of what passed, this matter is hard to determine ; and because it is unwritten and unrevealed, I am silent. But it still remains that punishment shall be so intense and severe, as becomes a God of holiness and justice to inflict on rebellious and obstinate creatures. SECT. III. Reections on the nature of these punish- ments. It is time now that we should proceed to form some special reflections on the nature of the punishments of hell, such as they have been described in the foregoing discourse. The first is this, " What dreadful and unknown evil is contained in the nature of sin which grows up into such misery, which breeds this stinging worm in the conscience, which prepares the crea- ture for such fiery torments, and which provokes a God to inflict them ? The vessels of wrath have prepared themselves for it, as the apostle intimates, by their own sins ; Rein. ix. 22. they are fitted for destruction: Nor does all the intense and infinite anguish of this punishment exceed the desert of our sins. The great God in a way of bounty, may often bestow upon us vastly beyond what our little services can ever pretend to have deserved, but he never punishes beyond our deserts. '° What a dangerous and pernicious mistake is it in the children of men to,sport with sin, as with a harmless thing ? It is much safer sporting with a poisonous serpent, or with burning fire - brands. The serpent has many gay and pleasing colours on its skin, and appears a very charming creature, which tempts children and fools to play with it : And the same ignorance in- clines them sometimes to sport with fire, because of its shining brightness : And till they are burned with the fire, or bit by the serpent, they will not forsake their foolish choice, nor be con- vinced of their danger : Such is the case and temper of sinful mortals : Their senses indulge the pleasing flatteries of sin, ánd are fond of its tempting amusements, till they feel the smart of the fire raging in their bosoms, and the adder stings them to death. Thus the wise man describes the flatteries of wine in the view of the drunkard; Prov. xxiii. 31, 32. But the same wise man
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