DISCOURSE XII. The eternal Duration of the Punishments in Hell. Mark ix. 46. Where their mores dials not, and the fire is not quenched. Secr. t. drguments to prove the Perpetuity of Hell. WHEN' the great- and blessed God had a mind to make known his wisdom, his power, and his goodness amongst crea< tures, he built this world as a theatre, in which those perfec- tions of his nature might be displayed amidst the various works of his hands : He spread it round with the blessings of life ands pleasure, he over -hung it with a canopy of skies and stars, and placed the glorious bodies of the sun and moon there to appear in their alternate seasons; 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 dif hse the wonders of his grace among the best of his creatures, he built a heaven for them, and furnished it with unknown varieties of beauty and blessing : And we would hope in our appointed season to he 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 his creation of men and angels, he saw it necessary also to display the ter- rors 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 dqminions. 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 lie 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 experience, that not one half bath been told us. Therefore bath God set before us these terrors in his word, that we might fly from this wrath to come, and avoid these suf. firings : And therefore do his ministers by his commission, pro teed to publish this vengeance and indignation of the Lord, that Aiuners might be pwakcued to lay hold on the hope that is set s4
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