Now if a Blafphemer, or an Adulterer, &c. fhould have but this Punishment, to hold cne of his Fingers in the flame of a Candle one quarter of an hour, how could he endure it? But if a man should be roafted alive upon a Grid-Iron, or boyled in a Caldron of molten Lead, what miery were this? Whofe heart would not quake and melt to think of it? yet these are nothing in comparison of those most extream and endless torments in this Lake of Fire when both Body and Soul fhall burn and broil, and as it were fry, yet never be confumed in thofe fcorching flames which cannot be quenched. Moft men are afraid to commit Treafon because Traytors are fo grievously punished; they are drawn, hanged and quartered, but alafs, Men are not afraid to commit Treafon against the King of Heaven, though they must be caft into a Lake of Fire for evermore. Men are affraid to offend a Prince for fear of death, and yet our Saviour bids us, Mar. 10. 28. Not fear them that can kill the body, and can do no more; but to fear him that can caft both body and foul into hell-fire.

And yet we fee that men and women are more affraid to offend Man than God, That can caft both body and foul into hell fire for ever.

If we should fee a Child fall into the fire, and hear it cry pitifully, and the very bowels fhould be burnt out, how would it grieve us, and make our hearts bleed within us? How much more then fhould it grieve us to fee, not a Child, but even our own Bodies and Souls cast away for

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ever by fin, into the lake of fire that cannot be quenched? If a man fhould come amongst us, and cry Fire, Fire, thy Houfe is all of a flaming Fire, thy Corn and thy Cattle, thy Wife and thy Children, and all thou haft, are confumed by fire; how would this aftonish us! and make the very hair to stand upright upon our heads, and tears to gufh out of our eyes. Behold then, and fee the Spirit of God cries out, Fire, Fire, even the dreadful fire of Hell gapeth ready to devour, not thy Houfe, Corn, or Cat tle, but thy poor Soul, and that for evermore. Then, how should this break our hard and flinty, hearts afunder, and make them to bleed, if we have any spark of Grace, any Care of our Souls, that they may not be tormented in this Lake of Fire for ever.

I will leave the further handling of this point, antil I come unto the next verfe, where the Holy Ghoft again, the better to make it fink into our hard hearts, That whosoever is not found written in the Book of Life, shall be cast into the Lake of Fire.

Now by Fire, in this place, we must not conceive a material Fire like unto ours, but the Holy Ghost meaneth here the fecond Death, that is, not of the Body only, but of Eternal Death and Damnation both of Body and Soul for evermore, This is the fecond Death, and by this we may plainly fee there is a double Death, There is the firft Death, and then the fecond Death.

The firft death is the feparation of the Soul from the Body, and that is common to all;

the

the Children of God die this Death as well as the wicked; yet there is fome difference; for Death is no curfe to the Children of God, becaufe Chrifts Death hath taken away the fting of Death; it can neither dismay nor hurt them, no, it is but as a door for our Souls to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: But the fecond they never taste of; no Child of God needs to fear the fecond Death, Rom. 8. 1. For there is no condemnation to them that are in Chrift Jefus. Now as the first Death is only a feparation of the Soul from the Body, fo the fecond Death is a total and final feparation both of Soul and Body from God for ever; and this fecond Death ftands principally in these three points.

First, that all wicked and ungodly finners that live and die in their fins, fhall be punished with everlasting deftruction, being severed from the bleffed Prefence of the Lord for ever, and from the glory of his power, 2 Theff 1. 9. Oh what a woful death is this, to be deprived of the blef fed and comfortable Prefence of God! wherein the happiness and joy of Gods children shall stand in the beholding of God, and enjoying bis prefence for evermore. Then what mifery and woe will this be to the wicked, to be caft out of the glo rious prefence of the Lord for ever, who alone is the Fountain of Life and Happiness.

Secondly, the fecond death ftands in this, that wicked men and women fhall not only be fevered in Body and Soul from the bleffed and glorious prefence of the Almighty for ever; but fhall be caft into the Lake of Fire, and have

their abode with the Devils, and all the damned Spirits in Hell, where there is no joy, nor comfort, nor ease, but weeping and wailing, and gnashing of Teeth. If a man should be caft into a deep and dark Dungeon, full of Toads and Serpents, what comfort I pray, could he have but to wifh for death: That is the death that all impenitent finners must die, they must be caft out of the sweet and comfortable prefence of the Lord Jefus Chrift, and thrown headlong into the terrible Lake of Fire and Brimftone, there to be tormented for evermore.

Thirdly, the third thing wherein this fecond Death doth confift, is, that all Reprobates fhall be punished with everlafting perdition, they fhall be tormented both Body and Soul with unfpeakable torments: The wrath and vengeance of God fhall feize upon them, and feed on them. as fire doth on pitch and brimstone, where they fhall be ever burning and broiling, and yet never be confumed; ever in pain and torment. Our Saviour compareth the wonderful torment of this fecond death, to a Furnace of Fire: what a woful torment is it to be caft into a furnace of Eire, and there to lie many thousand years? This is a torment that cannot be expreffed. Again he faith, Ifa 66. 24. That their worm fhall not die, and their fire fhall not be quenched. Now what can a man do, if he fhould have a worm always gnawing at his heart? this is the State of all wicked men and women, they shall always have a worm, even grief and anguish, ever gnawing at their heart, and biting at their

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Confciences; and this worm shall never die, nor kill them, but be ever gnawing and wounding them. And this condition of the damned in Hell is miferable in three refpects.

First, In regard of the degrees of it.

Secondly, In regard of the place.

And Thirdly, In regard of the perpetuity thereof.

The first appears in the lofs of our bleffed Communion with God the Father, Son and Holy Ghoft, In whofe prefence is life, and at whofe right band there is pleasure for evermore.

And thus fhall the wicked be punished at that day with everlasting Destruction from the prefence of the Lord. 2 Theff. 1.9.

A fecond degree of their mifery confifts in the Society they fhall have for ever with the Devil and his Angels, according to that of our Saviour, Depart from me ye curfed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels. A pu nifhment which we may guefs to be intolerable; to burn and not to confume, to live, and have no end; includes all woe and mifery whatfoever: Curfed of Chrift himself, curfed of the Angels; whofe curfe will always remain in their Confciences: Curfed fhall they be likewife of the Devils themfelves, whofe curfe fhall be always in tormenting them; never I have reft nor eafe; perpetually howling and crying which is their Mufick, their joy nothing but curfing and blafphemy.

But efpecially in refpect of that Horror, Torment and Pain, that fhall feize upon the Bodies

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