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lofs be, when ye not only lofe your own fouls, but lofe with it all that is in this world, all that is good and comfortable in that which is to come?

2. As ye fuftain a great lofs, fo ye muft fuffer a vaft torment. The former particular, viz. the punishment of lofs, I did only touch at, because I had occafion in the doctrinal part to discourse a little of it: but here, when I come to speak of the punishment of fenfe, I fhall be a little more large, yet fo as not to exceed the bounds of this day's difcourfe. O finners, miferable are ye; if huge, vaft and intolerable torment can make you fo. A view of your mifery upon this account, I fhall give you in a very few particulars.

1. If ye would understand what your cafe is eternally to be, ye muft confider what of you it is that is to be eternally tormented: our Lord tells us of both foul and body's being deftroyed in hell. Matth. x. 28. Fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the foul; but rather fear him who is able to deftroy both foul and body in hell. And this gives us to understand what is to be the fubject of thefe torments finners are to fustain. It is not a finger or a toe; it is not a tooth or a joint; no, but it is the whole man, foul and body, that are to be tormented. And how will ye be able to endure this? If a drop of scalding water fall upon your hand, ye are ready to cry out of intolerable pain: but how will ye then bear it, when a full fhower of brimstone, a deluge of burning wrath, will fall upon the whole man? Ye are not now able to hold your finger to the fire; how will ye then endure, when foul and body fhall be caft alive into devouring fire and everlasting burnings? If now the trouble of one part of the body occafion fo terrible diforder, what will

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your cafe be, when every faculty, of your fouls, every member, every joint, finew and artery of your body, fhall be brim-full of wrath?

torments.

(2.) Confider, Who is the contriver of thefe There have been fome very exquisite torments contrived by the wit of men, the naming of which, if ye understood their nature, were enough to fill your hearts with horror; but all thefe fall as far fhort of the torments ye are to endure, as the wifdom of man falls fhort of that of God, who is wife, and will bring evil, Ifa. xxxi. 2. Infinite wifdom has contrived that evil, thefe torments which are to be the eternal portion of all impenitent finners. If man can find out a rack, a gridiron, a furnace heated feven times, for tormenting fuch as he has a mind to punish; what fhall we conceive to be the inventions of infinite wisdom, when it is fet on work to contrive a pu nishment for finners? Wisdom, infinite wifdom, well knows the frame, both of foul and body; it knows what faculty of the one or the other, are of most exquisite fenfe, and what torments can work upon them. God fhews himself wife, not only in bringing evil upon finners, but in contriving it, fo that it fhall furpass what creatures can inflict.

3. Confider, Who is the inflictor of these torments, and this will give us a strange profpect of the mifery of those who fall under them. It is God, by his own immediate hand. And from this the apostle reprefents the mifery of fuch who fhall fall under this punishment, For we know him that hath faid, Vengeance belongeth unto me, and I will recompenfe, faith the Lord: and again, the Lord Shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, Heb. x. 30,

31. Should God but give a commiffion to fome creature to torment us, if it were but to a flea to. leap into the eye, and there to abide, how great would this torment be? But much more terrible would your cafe be, if God fhould fet his wifdom a work, to find out and invent what mixture of torments from creatures would be most exquifite, and then inflict these upon you; this could not but make your cafe miferable: fince the nature of man is capable to receive comfort or difquietment from every creature; and God knows not only our frame and make; but that of all the other creatures, and therefore understands what might contribute most to our difquiet and torment; fhould God deal thus, it would make very exquifite torments indeed, but all this were nothing to his own immediate hand and power. His little finger is more terrible than the joint power of all the creatures. As there is no fearching out of his understanding, fo there is no fearching out of his power, who is the inflicter, the author of the eternal torment of finners, who shall be punished with everlasting deftruction from the prefence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, 2 Theff. i. 9. But of this more anon.

4. Confider what it is that engages infinite power, and fets on infinite wifdom, and this will give you yet a more terrible representation of your mifery. If it were only justice, ye might expect that there might poffibly be fome abatement made; but it is anger, fury, the height of fury, that fets wisdom a work to contrive, and power on work to work your mifery; and therefore miferable ye muft of neceffity be, beyond thought or expreffion. A remarkable fcripture to this purpose we ve in Nahum i. 2---6. God is jealous, and the

Lord

Lord revengeth, the Lord revengeth, and is furious, the Lord will take vengeance on his adverfaries, and he referveth wrath for his enemies. The Lord is flow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the Lord hath his way in the whirlwind, and in the ftorm, and the clouds are the duft of his feet. He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bafhan languifheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languifheth. The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burnt at his prefence; yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him. This is a fcripture fo very remarkable, that we cannot pafs it, without of fering you a few obfervations for clearing it a little. And, (1.) Here ye may fee the certainty of finners being punished. If ever ye escape who con tinue in your fins, it must either be because God will not, or because he is not able to punish you : but here ye fee that he is both able and willing, verfe 2. The Lord is great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked. By no means will he let them go who continue in their impenitency. (2.) Ye fee what the punishment of the wicked is: He will take vengeance on his adverfaries, and he referveth wrath for his enemies. It is expreffed by vengeance and by wrath. It is a punishment that is the effect of wrath and revenge, and is to be continued by wrath that is kept in referve for that purpose. (3.) Ye have that which is the inAlicter of this punishment; it is the great power of God. (4.) Here ye have that which fets this power on work to punish the wicked; it is jealou

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fy: Now jealoufy is the rage of a man, Prov. vi. and last, and jealoufy in God is the rage of God. (5.) Here you see the ruful effects of this rage of God; the Lord revengeth, the Lord revengeth. The expreffions being doubled intends the fignification, and thews the certainty of it. (6.) To reprefent, if poffible, the terribleness of this revenge, in a yet more lively manner, it is added, the Lord revengeth and is furious. (7.) The terribleness of this appearance of God against finners, is further declared by a defcription of God's power, defcribed in its effects upon the inanimate creature:: as if he had faid, Look how terrible the cafe of finners is like to be, when God begins to take vengeance on them, and to revenge himself by that power, which by a rebuke drieth up the fea, and the rivers, that makes Bafhan and Carmel to languish, that melts the hills, and makes the earth to quake. The power of God was put forth in a very, remarkable manner, in creating the world; but it is exerted in a more remarkable manner, in punishing the wicked: herein is his power, even the glory of his power manifested, for ye are to be punished with everlasting deftruction from the glory of his power. The power of man produces greater effects, when anger and fury make him ftrain, as it were, every finew and nerve, than when he is cool, and in a fedate compofed frame: A Samfon in fuch a cafe pulled down the pillars of the house. What fhall we then conceive shall be the effects of God's power, when the heat of anger and fierce indignation and fury excites and acts it? May I not conclude this confideration with that of the prophet in the 6 ver. Who can ftand before his indignation, and who can abide in

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