they here scorned and despised, admitted with honor and triumph to sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, with the patriarchs, prophets and apostles, in the kingdom of heaven, they shall see themselves thrust out, to their eternal shame and confusion. Luke, 13: 28, 29. Their eyes shall never behold the beauties of the heavenly world, their ears not hear the triumphant songs of the celestial choir; not one drop from those ever-flowing rivers of divine pleasure and joy shall be afforded to cool their inflamed tongue."

§ 5. The next part of their misery is the punishment of sense. This is expressed in the sentence pronounced under the notion of fire. "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire." As it is usual for the Scriptures to represent to us the felicity and joy of heaven by what is most pleasing and glorious to our senses, as by a feast, a kingdom, a crown, a marriage, &c. so it is no wonder that the miseries of hell should also be set forth by what is most dismal and terrible; or what occasions the most exquisite pain and torture; as by the unquenchable fire, the neverdying worm, outer darkness, chains of darkness, an infernal prison.

66

The metaphor fire is frequently used to represent the torments and miseries of the wicked. Who among us shall dwell with devouring fire? who shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" Isa. 33: 14. Fire, brimstone, and an horrible tempest are said to be the portion of the wicked's cup. Psa. 96. Jude calls it "the vengeance of eternal fire," ver. 7; and in Revelation it is called "the lake of fire and brimstone, whose torment is for ever and ever." Rev. 20: 10. The metaphor fitly represents to us the anguish of an accusing, despairing conscience, the tormenting sense of the inexorable wrath of God, and the rage of their own unsatisfied lusts.

§ 6. The bitter anguish and torment of an accusing and

despairing conscience is that which our Lord chiefly intended by the "worm that never dieth, and the fire that never goes out." Mark, 9: 44, 46. Conscience, in its enraged reflections, will be to the sinner as a worm that is perpetually gnawing his vitals, like a flame that is incessantly scorching his inward parts. And doubtless Christ refers to this part of the misery of the damned, when he so often speaks of hell as the place where there is "weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth," Matt. 13: 42, 50; expressions that denote the most piercing grief arising from the utmost degree of desperation and rage. And no wonder that this should be the wretched condition of the wicked, “when we consider," says Dr. Boyce, "that wherever a condemned sinner turns his thoughts, he finds nothing but what administers to his inward vexation and despair. If he look backward to this world he has left, and the life he has here led, what abundant matter occurs of bitter and grievous reflections; if he reviews his actions, what a scene of perpetual and shameful folly appears to his eye; how numberless, detestable and hateful sins stare him in the face, the remembrance whereof fills him with horror and confusion! If he look back on his earthly enjoyments and sensual delight, and especially on the past momentary pleasures of sin; alas! they are fled and gone, and have left nothing but a tormenting sting behind. If he reflect on the compassionate offers of divine grace, and his merciful methods to recover and save him; alas! these slighted offers are now recalled, and shall never be tendered more; those opposed methods are finally frustrated; and the day of abused patience and grace is at an end, and the day of final retribution and vengeance has now succeeded it. If he look upwards, what can he there fix his thoughts upon but that righteous God, whose long-suffering he has now turned into inexorable fury; that blessed society from whose converse he is perpetually banished;

that heavenly Father and glory, which once indeed was proposed to his choice, but the proposal being ungratefully despised and rejected, he is now by a peremptory sentence eternally excluded from it!

If he look round about him, whom has he to commune with, but those accursed fiends that will now prove his tormentors, as they were once his tempters; and those other companions of sin here on earth, the very sight of whom calls his past guilt to his unwelcome remembrance? If he look forward, he sees nothing before him that can administer any hope of relief; on the contrary, the certain prospect of a miserable eternity does, above all things, amaze and confound him. So that his own uneasy, perplexed thoughts are a continual spring of new anguish and terror to him. He carries a perpetual hell in his own conscience, whose unanswerable challenges, and wounding reproaches, and direful lashes are intolerable. Of this we have some lively representations in the horrid agonies and unsupportable fury of some despairing sinners on earth, when they had nothing left them but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation." I mean such as Francis Spira and others, that have been driven to the utmost desperation; (not to mention the scriptural examples of Cain and of a Judas;) and we may reasonably suppose that these bitter reflections of an enraged, accusing conscience, will be more restless and grievous in that future state, where wretched sinners will have nothing else to entertain their busy thoughts.

§ 7. Another ingredient of the misery of the condemned, expressed by the metaphor fire, is the affrighted sense of the inexorable displeasure and wrath of an incensed God. The Apostle Jude calls it the "vengeance of eternal fire." And God is said to be a consuming fire. Deut. 4 : 34. Again, the apostle speaks of a "certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the

adversaries." Heb. 10 27. God's wrath against his adversaries is frequently compared to fire, on account of its irresistible, tormenting, and devouring nature. How terrifying, my dear Benjamin, must the apprehension of an Almighty God be to a condemned sinner that has now fallen into his avenging hand, when he considers he can no way resist his power, nor escape the utmost effects of his tremendous indignation. How, indeed, a just and sinavenging God will execute his wrath, is what we are now wholly ignorant of; but sure we are, those must be extremely miserable that are remedilessly exposed to it. Well might the Psalmist say, "Who knoweth the power of thine anger? According to thy fear so is thy wrath." Psa. 90; 11. Our fears, under the strong alarm of a guilty conscience, are next to boundless and infinite; but the wrath that is armed with infinite power must needs exceed our most unbounded fears themselves. With what deep wounds will the sword of justice pierce the sinner's heart, when wielded by an irresistible, omnipotent hand! How inconceivably dismal must be the case of those "vessels of wrath fitted for destruction," on whom so terrible a majesty resolves "to show his wrath, and to make his power known." Rom. 9: 22.

§ 8. Permit me, dear Benjamin, to mention one more ingredient of the future punishment of the wicked, viz. the continued rage of their own unsatisfied lusts. Those impure and brutish desires, which in the condemned sinner will bo as vehement as ever, and must needs create a continual torment to one that can find no objects to gratify them with; and their impure flames are fitly compared to a fire, a fire that will furiously prey upon the soul itself, when it has no external fuel to feed upon. What a torment must it be, to burn always in the flames of his own unquenchable desires, and to covet perpetually that vile fuel of his former luxury, pride, intemperance, lust, covetousness, and other inordinate

affections, that are now withdrawn for ever! in a word, to find all those things vanished on which his hopes and happiness were placed, and to which his heart yet inseparably cleaves, yet he despairs ever to enjoy them. This will be a most just but truly dreadful part of the sinner's punishment. Thus, my dear Benjamin, I have endeavored to give you a general scriptural account of the punishment and misery of the wicked; but I must adopt the words of the apostle, and say, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive" the terrible things that a righteous God has prepared for them who finally hate, and impenitently provoke and disobey him.

46

9. From the consideration of the nature of the punishment of the wicked, I proceed to invite your most serious attention to its duration. This our Lord himself has told us is to be eternal: These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal." Matt. 25 46. The words everlasting and eternal in this passage are synonymous, and signify an endless duration. It is much to be regretted that the translators used two different words, when the original word is the same in both places. Dr. Doddridge says, "As the original word Aionion is the same in both places, I thought it proper to use the same word in the translation of both." As none disputes the happiness of the saints to be eternal, without interruption and without end, so none ought to doubt that the duration of the punishment and misery of the wicked will be without intermission and without end. Besides, we are told that "the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever," Rev. 14:11; and our blessed Lord also declareth that "their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched." Mark, 9: 44, 48. In the greatest miseries of this life, God is graciously pleased to allow some intervals of rest; but of those in hell it is said, "they