greatest motive to Repentance that can possibly be given for nothing is so strong and powerful upon most Men as their fears which is the quickest and strongest Passion in Humane Nature and is apt to make a very great impression where nothing else will and nothing can be so much an object of our fear as Hell and Eternal Misery which is the utmost and most dreadful Evil that can be either felt or imagined I shall particularly and largely offer and represent it to the Sinners thoughts both as to its Nature consisting in the greatest pains and torments of Body and Mind and in the most wretched and miserable state and condition and as all this is Eternal and shall never have end Both which if heartily believ'd and seriously consider'd would have a mighty power and almost irresistible force to bring Men off from their greatest Sins I. Then let us consider its Nature as consisting of the greatest pains and torments both of Body and Mind and in the most wretched and miserable state and condition I shall not attempt fully to describe or draw a picture of this place of Torments our imagination is to be help'd out with all the known instances of Misery and so to form an Idea of that future and unknown and invisible one It is certain it must be adapted to those two parts of which we consist our Bodies and our Minds and what are the proper Evils to either of those we very well know sensible Pain and great Anguish and Sorrow and other tormenting Passions and these we must suppose in the highest degree to belong to Hellish Misery for as Heaven is the utmost good our Natures can possibly receive and are capable of so Hell is the greatest evil and as such is represented to us by that Revelation which assures us of it attended with the most sad and woful circumstances that can be imagined I shall offer the thoughts of it to the Sinner under such Ideas and Representations as are given of it by the Holy Ghost in Scripture And 1. We must conceive a horrid dark and dismal dungeon in some deep cavern of the Earth designed for horrour and fill'd with the blackness of darkness and inhabited only by cursed Fiends and frightful Ghosts and Devils into which the wretched Caitiff is to be thrown bound hand and foot and so cast into outer darkness Matth. 22.13 and delivered into chains of darkness 2 Pet. 2.4 Darkness is the Natural image and symbol of horrour and disconsolateness as Light is of comfort and pleasantness so that the Scripture expresses Happiness by the dwelling in light as it does Misery by being cast into outer darkness where there is not any beam of light nor any the least glimpse of joy and comfort And thus to be shut up for ever in a place of darkness and horrour and confined to this dismal and infernal Prison to all Eternity would be a dreadful Misery were there nothing else but they are to be tormented there as well as imprisoned and that with the most exquisite pains and tortures as they are described to us in the second place 2. By Fire and Burning which is the most terrible the most keen and painful of Bodily punishments which enters the tender parts with pointed and piercing fury and dissolves and distorts them with its rapid motion and has nothing to abate its extreme cruelty but that it quickly consumes and dispatches and spends it self with its own rage and violence as well as destroyes its subject But this is the dreadful Nature of that infernal Fire that it never goes out but is as the Scripture calls it unquenchable and that the miserable wretches that are condemned to it shall endure the pain and the rage of it for ever and shall never be consumed or destroyed by it but shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever and they have no rest day nor night Rev. 14.10 11. Let us then set before us a burning Lake of liquid Fire and melted Brimstone like Nebuchadnezzars fiery Furnace heat seven times hotter than any thing we here know and the damned wretches cast into it and like Dives sadly tormented in those flames over all their parts so that the Tongue is swelled with heat as in a raging Feaver and nothing would be so comfortable to it as a drop of Water to cool it and to slake and abate the scorching Calenture Some are inclined to think all this but Allegory and Metaphor and painted Fire but the Scripture speaks so often of it that I cannot but think it may be literally true and that Fire is made the instrument of those Bodily pains that are there to be suffered and inflicted after the general Judgment and Resurrection Or however that as great pains of Body are thereby signified and exprest and shall really be endured some way or other as by burning in Fire For if the Holy Spirit to help our weak thoughts and assist our imaginations has made use of those known things only as emblems and pictures of some real pains yet they are certainly as great or greater than any of those by which they are shadowed out and represented as the pleasure of Heaven is much greater no doubt and does far exceed that of a Feast a Wedding a Crown or any such Earthly resemblance As to the proper pain and torment of the Mind which is the other and the greatest part of Hellish Misery for the Mind has a more quick and keen and immediate sense than the Body that is represented in Scripture by the worm which never dyes Matth. 9.46 i. e. by a Passion that bites and gnaws and corrodes and pains us within as the Fire or something else torments the Body from without and this includes in it all those dismal and reflecting thoughts and apprehensions which the Mind has upon its dreadful state and condition As 1. A direful perception of the Divine Anger Wrath and Displeasure which when it lyes heavy upon the Mind in the highest degree will press it into the deepest gulph of Misery and fill it with the most terrible Ideas and most dreadful apprehensions Even in this World when a Sinner tasts but a little of the Cup of Gods Fury 't is a cup of trembling and a cup of astonishment as the Scripture calls it Isa 51.17 Ezek. 23.32 and what will it then be when all the dregs of it must be drunk up When God hides his Face but a little there is all trouble and horrour and what must it then be when he hides it for ever The sense and apprehension of lying under the displeasure of Almighty Power and provoked Justice and abused Goodness and all these highly incensed against a Man and never to be appeased must be very dreadful and make sad impressions upon the Mind The Presence and the Favour of God giveth
future Misery and his Punishment shall be much lessened by it This is a very great thing if we duely consider it and worth all his most earnest Prayers and deepest Sorrow and Compunction and all he can do to save him from those highest and extremest degrees of Misery Hell indeed is a general word for future Misery in Scripture as Heaven is for Happyness but they consist not in one and the same indivisible thing but are Two States of very various and different and unequal degrees according to the Deserts and Capacities of those who are in them As there are several degrees of Good and Bad Men here upon Earth so there will be of happy and miserable Souls in Heaven and Hell some are very imperfectly but yet sincerely good and are far from such Obedience and perfection as Human Nature might come up to and those being without any wilful and deliberate and great Sin shall be in the lowest place in Heaven and lower than this the Scripture allows none to go thither they who live in any such one known and habitual sin and wickedness are such Sinners as are expresly excluded from thence They have another place and state allotted to them in the other World for there being no third or middle state revealed by Scripture but only those two of Heaven and Hell they must necessarily go to the latter and there according to the Nature or Quality or Degrees of their Sin be punisht with many or fewer stripes and be in a state of greater or lesser Misery according as their Lives and their Deserts have been The Valley of Hinnom from whence comes Gehenna which we translate Hell was a deep Valley near Hierusalem where the Canaanites burnt their Children alive to Moloch and used all direful noises to hinder their cries and lamentations from being heard and afterwards the Jews say that Josias turned it into the place of publick Executions and that all Carkasses and Dung and filthy things were thrown there to prevent the noysomness of which there was a perpetual fire always burning in that place that was never put out at any time The Scripture has made this the chiefest image and representation of Hell and from thence describes the Misery of it by fire and burnings which give one of the most general and sensible ideas of Pain and torment Both the Spiritual Happyness of Heaven and Misery of Hell must be thus represented to the gross Thoughts of Mankind by the most delightful and most painful things known to their Senses that they are best acquainted with in this World and which will make the strongest impression upon them though they may be in themselves of another Nature fitted chiefly to the Souls and Spirits and Rational faculties of Men in their separate state and the happyness or misery of those is chiefly designed by them God we know is a Consuming fire to the wicked but he will very differently punish them though fire seems to carry one equal idea of pain and torment yet as our Saviour says that it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of Judgment and they are set forth for an example in Scripture suffering the vengeance of eternal fire Jude 7. then for that City who rejected the Gospel Matth. 10.15 so it shall be more tolerable for such wicked Men who have been so in a lesser degree in their Lives and at their Deaths have been as penitent as they could be then for Sinners of an higher order and a more daring and impenitent sort Heaven and Hell being taken for Places rather than States seem to our Imaginations to imply and signifie one equal and indivisible perfect and complete and same idea of Happyness or Misery that shall belong to all alike who are sentenced to either of those but there are very great Differences and Degrees in them a thousand times more than there is in the different States of Happiness or Misery among Men in this World where in the same place and upon the same Globe we see some in very happy circumstances and mighty enjoyments others in great Pain and Misery and a most pitiable Condition this here is only a Tryal of them and not according to their deserts but it shall be so exactly in another Wold the great day of Recompence and Retribution Then they who have done most Evil and committed most sins and not repented of them in time but gon on to provoke and disobey God and despise and neglect Religion all their lives these shall suffer the sad and utmost Vengeance of God's Anger and of Eternal fire All other wicked Men of what sort soever whether they were Sinners above others or only lived in some sins without Repentance and Amendment these shall be for ever in a very bad state a state of Misery and loss of true happiness and their Misery shall be exactly proportioned to their sins and be in the same degrees and measures that those were which are all known to the infinitely wise and Just God who without respect of persons will then render to all according to their works and with an equal and impartial Justice distribute-those Rewards and Punishments to them They then who have served God best in their lives shall be best rewarded by him they who have suffered with Christ shall then reign with him they who endured any afflictions for his sake and the Gospels shall have the greater Glory which those are not to be compared to they shall receive a hundred fold for all they have done or suffered for Christ not only for suffering Persecution though Martyrdom has always had a brighter and a weightier Crown assigned to it but for denying any present Interest or worldly gain or unlawful pleasure and sensual Inclination for the sake of Vertue and Religion then those who have best improved their Talents to Gods Glory and the good of others and the Service of Religion shall have more gifts and rewards from their great Lord they who have turned many unto Righteousness shall shine as the stars in Glory in several Orbs and different degrees of Light and Lustre for as the Apostle says one star differeth from another in glory 1 Cor. 15.41 and So likewise shall it be at the Resurrection and in another World there shall be different degrees of happyness and glory for Good Men both in their Bodies and Souls according to their different degrees of Goodness Service and Obedience to God in this life There being but two places or rather two States in another World appointed for all rational beings that ever were created as seems plain by the Scripture Revelation where so far as it describes or gives us a Map of that Invisible and unknown World it divides it only into two Mighty Kingdoms or vast Regions an upper and a lower parted from one another by unknown bounds and inhabited by Good and Bad Spirits where the one are very happy and the other very miserable there being but
a Death-Bed Regentance being sufficient for Salvation so far as this is allowed in the case of one who hath been a great Sinner all his life so far there must be an exception to all those and they must all stand by and be set aside to make room for his going to Heaven All the Laws of Religion and the whole Constitution of Christianity and all the ordinary Rules and the standing Method of Salvation by the Gospel must be past by and over-ruled to make way for such an Extraordinary President and whether God will do this is to me no more a question than whether he will release the Devils and the Damned out of Hell I think there is scarce any more ground or more reason to hope for one than the other and that 't is as much a limiting the Divine Grace and Mercy and Confining Gods Extraordinary Power of showing Mercy where he pleases and denying his Infinite Pity and Compassion to his Creatures and entring into his unsearchable Councils and diving into his unfathomable Judgment to deny the latter as the former If God in one case may act contrary to all Rules and to his own Threatnings Judgment and Sentence pronounced against Sinners he may do so so far as I know by the same Extraordinary Mercy and unbounded Prerogative in the other But what shall we say then to such a wretched Sinner when he is a dying and never repented till he was so is his case hopeless and desperate Is there no comfort to be given him is this hard and cruel Sentence to be pronounced upon him And is he to be thus tormented before his time Can nothing be done or said to him to give him any manner of hopes and comfort and is he to be cast into the deepest gulph of despair What a Miserable Comforter must a Minister whom he then sends for be to him who is of this Opinion and talks at this rate What will all his Prayers and Tears and strong Cryes then signifie if they can do him no good to the saving of his Soul I Answer the case is I confess very sad and I know not what to say to it I dare not pervert the Gospel to give him false comfort I must not be unfaithful to the great God and my blessed Redeemer whose Minister I am in saying Peace Peace when there is no Peace in loosing what is bound in Heaven and by a false Key or Picklock rather pretend to open the Kingdom of Heaven when God has shut it I must not by any sweet and poysonous Opiates give a short and stupifying ease to his mind and put him into a secure sleep till he awakes in his sad mistake and lifts up his eyes being in torments I must not corrupt Religion and sow Pillows under his Arm-holes to put him into a state of false ease and quiet and by some drops of Spiritual Laudanum some comfortable false Doctrines and Narcotick Principles of Divinity take away his pains for a moment and give him hopes contrary to the Gospel I must not lye for God much less against him and bring a pretended Message from him to such a poor Wretch which he never sent me with and forge a Counterfeit Pardon for him which Christ or the Gospel has not signed only to chear and delude him for a few hours I must not I dare not then say any thing contrary to the Truth or to this Doctrine which I believe to be such to deceive him or others It may not be then so seasonable nor am I bound at that time to preach this to him as I do now to the living that they may never come to this sad Condition but may take care to prevent it by a timely Repentance and a good Life I would not for Ten Thousand Worlds be in that lamentable Case and I here warn every one that Reads this in the Name of God to avoid it But what then shall such an one do shall he not pray shall he not cry mightily to God shall he not lament and mourn and be deeply sorrowful and penitent Yes by all means as much as is possible and should be directed advised and assisted to do this by the Minister and his Friends and all about him but what will it signifie according to the former Doctrine 'T will not save his Soul or get him Heaven I answer I cannot say it will nor can any Minister assure him of this but it will abate his misery and lessen his torments and be a great mitigation to his future punishment it will though not obtain a pardon for all the sins of his wicked life yet lighten his Sentence in some measure and make his sufferings to be something less than they would otherwise be There are many degrees of Torment and Punishment even in Hell it self as there are of Glory and Happyness in Heaven as there are many Mansions above in our Fathers House so there are many Cells in the Infernal Prison and some are beaten there with more stripes and more intense torments than others The fire of Hell is kindled seven times hotter for some more profligate and daring and presumptuous Sinners and especially for those who defie Heaven and with their last breath deny or affront God and openly scorn and disown Religion such bold Hectors against Heaven who stand out to the last against it and show no signs of Sorrow or Religion but brave Hell and Death these provoke God to the utmost and challenge him as it were to do his worst and they shall terribly feel the weight of his Power and the force of his Almighty Arme and the Effects of his most incensed and provoked Anger but now a Penitent and fearful and sorrowful Sinner who trembles at Gods Judgments and is afraid of his indignation and laments over his Sins and humbles himself under his hand and Repents as well as he can and bitterly grieves for his Sins and owns God is just and righteous in punishing him and that 't is the due desert of his ways and confesses them before Men and warns others from them and does all he can to undoe them and make reparation for them and thus owns Religion though he has before denyed and opposed it and gives Glory to God though he before dishonoured and disobeyed him in his life such an one though for the reasons before given he has not a sufficient Title nor sufficient Qualifications for Heaven because he has not performed the Condition on which 't is promised nor can acquire the Vertuous Habits that can alone fit him for it nor can come up to the full terms on which God has promised Pardon and Salvation and all this dying Repentance is not enough to make him a truely good Man nor beget in him that holiness without which he shall never see God nor root out those old sinful Acts and Habits that will condemn and make him miserable yet he shall have a very great Abatement and Mitigation to his