§ 17. I have but one thing more to add, for the close of this chapter, that the souls of believers do enjoy inconceivable blessedness and glory, even while they remain separated from their bodies.—What can be more plain than those words of Paul? We are always confident, knowing that whilst we are at home, or rather sojourning in the body, we are absent from the Lord. (For we walk by faith, not by sight.) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.[231] Or those? I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better.[232]—If Paul had not expected to enjoy Christ till the resurrection, why should he be in a strait; or desire to depart? Nay, should he not have been loth to depart upon the very same grounds? For while he was in the flesh, he enjoyed something of Christ. Plain enough is that of Christ to the thief, To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.[233] In the parable of Dives and Lazarus, it seems unlikely Christ would so evidently intimate and suppose the soul's happiness or misery presently after death, if there were no such matter.[234]—Our Lord's argument for the resurrection supposes, that, God being not the God of the dead, but of the living,[235] therefore Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were then living in soul.—If the blessedness of the dead that die in the Lord,[236] were only in resting in the grave, then a beast or a stone were as blessed; nay, it were evidently a curse, and not a blessing. For was not life a great mercy? Was it not a greater mercy to serve God and do good; to enjoy all the comforts of life, the fellowship of saints, the comfort of ordinances, and much of Christ in all; than to lie rotting in the grave? Therefore some farther blessedness is there promised.—How else is it said, We are come to the spirits of just men made perfect?[237] Sure, at the resurrection, the body will be made perfect as well as the spirit.—Does not Scripture tell us, that Enoch and Elias are taken up already? And shall we think they possess that glory alone?—Did not Peter, James, and John, see Moses also with Christ on the mount? Yet the Scripture saith, Moses died. And is it likely that Christ deluded their senses in shewing them Moses, if he should not partake of that glory till the resurrection?—And is not that of Stephen as plain as we can desire? Lord Jesus receive my spirit.[238] Surely, if the Lord receive it, it is neither asleep, nor dead, nor annihilated; but it is where he is, and beholds his glory.—That of the wise man is of the same import: The spirit shall return unto God who gave it.[239] Why are we said to have eternal life, and that to know God is life eternal; and that a believer on the Son hath everlasting life? Or how is the kingdom of God within us? If there be as great an interruption of our life, as till the resurrection, this is no eternal life, nor everlasting kingdom. The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are spoken of as suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.[240] And if the wicked already suffer eternal fire, then no doubt, but the godly enjoy eternal blessedness.—When John saw his glorious revelations, he is said to be in the Spirit, and to be carried away in the Spirit. And when Paul was caught up to the third heaven, he knew not, whether in the body, or out of the body.[241] This implies, that spirits are capable of these glorious things, without the help of their bodies.—Is not so much implied when John says, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God![242]—When Christ says, Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul,[243] does it not plainly imply, that when wicked men have killed our bodies, that is, have separated the souls from them, yet the souls are still alive?—The soul of Christ was alive when his body was dead, and therefore so shall ours too. This appears by his words to the thief, To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise; and also by his voice on the cross, Father into thy hands I commend my spirit.[244] If the spirits of those that were disobedient in the days of Noah, were in prison,[245] that is, in a living and suffering state; then certainly the separate spirits of the just are in an opposite condition of happiness.—Therefore, faithful souls shall no sooner leave their prisons of flesh, but angels will be their convoy; Christ, with all the perfected spirits of the just, will be their companions; heaven will be their residence, and God their happiness. When such die, they may boldly and believingly say, as Stephen, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit; and commend it, as Christ did, into a Father's hands.

CHAP. V.
The Misery of those who lose the Saint's Rest.

§ 1. The Reader, if unregenerate, urged to consider what the loss of heaven will be. § 2. (I.) The loss of heaven particularly includes, § 3. (1.) The personal perfection of the saints; § 4. (2.) God himself; § 5. (3.) all delightful affections towards God; § 6. (4.) the blessed society of angels and glorified spirits. § 7. (II.) The aggravations of the loss of heaven. § 8. (1.) The understanding of the ungodly will then be cleared; § 9. (2.) also enlarged: § 10. (3.) Their consciences will make a true and close application: § 11 (4.) Their affections will be more lively; § 12-18. (5.) Their memories will be large and strong. § 19. Conclusion of the chapter.

§ 1. If thou, reader, art a stranger to Christ, and to the holy nature and life of his people, who are before described, and shalt live and die in this condition, let me tell thee, thou shalt never partake of the joys of heaven, nor have the least taste of the saint's eternal rest. I may say, as Ehud to Eglon, I have a message to thee from God;[246] that as the word of God is true, thou shalt never see the face of God with comfort. This sentence I am commanded to pass upon thee; take it as thou wilt, and escape it if thou canst. I know thy humble and hearty subjection to Christ would procure thy escape; he would then acknowledge thee for one of his people, and give thee a portion in the inheritance of his chosen. If this might be the happy success of my message, I should be so far from repining, like Jonas, that the threatenings of God are not executed upon thee, that I should bless the day that ever God made me so happy a messenger. But if thou end thy days in thy unregenerate state, as sure as the heavens are over thy head, and the earth under thy feet, thou shalt be shut out of the rest of the saints, and receive thy portion in everlasting fire. I expect thou wilt turn upon me, and say when did God shew you the Book of Life, or tell you who they are that shall be saved, and who shut out? I answer, I do not name thee, nor any other; I only conclude it of the unregenerate in general, and of thee, if thou be such a one. Nor do I go about to determine who shall repent, and who shall not; much less, that thou shalt never repent. I had rather shew thee what hopes thou hast before thee, if thou wilt not sit still, and lose them. I would far rather persuade thee to hearken in time, before the door is shut against thee, than tell thee there is no hope of thy repenting and returning. But if the foregoing description of the people of God does not agree with the state of thy soul, is it then a hard question, whether thou shalt ever be saved? Need I ascend up into heaven to know, that without holiness no man shall see the Lord; or, that only the pure in heart shall see God, or, that except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God? Need I go up to heaven, to inquire that of Christ, which he came down to earth to tell us; and sent his Spirit in his apostles to tell us; and which he and they have left upon record to all the world? And though I know not the secrets of thy heart, and therefore cannot tell thee by name, whether it be thy state, or no; yet if thou art but willing and diligent, thou mayest know thyself, whether thou art an heir of heaven or not. 'Tis the main thing I desire, that if thou art yet miserable, thou mayest discern and escape it. But how canst thou escape, if thou neglect Christ and salvation? 'Tis as impossible as for the devils themselves to be saved. Nay, God has more plainly and frequently spoken it in Scripture of such sinners as thou art, than he has of the devils. Methinks a sight of thy case should strike thee with amazement and horror. When Belshazzar saw the fingers of a man's hand that wrote upon the wall, his countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against the other:[247] What trembling then should seize on thee, who hast the hand of God himself against thee, not in a sentence or two, but in the very scope of the Scriptures, threatening the loss of an everlasting kingdom? Because I would fain have thee lay it to heart, I will shew thee—— the nature of thy loss of heaven,—together with its aggravations.

§ 2. (1.) In their loss of heaven the ungodly lose—the saint's personal perfection,—God himself,—all delightful affections towards God, and the blessed society of angels and saints.

§ 3. (1.) The glorious personal perfection which the saints enjoy in heaven, is the great loss of the ungodly. They lose that shining lustre of the body, surpassing the brightness of the sun at noon-day. Though the bodies of the wicked will be raised more spiritual than they were upon earth, yet that will only make them capable of the more exquisite torments. They would be glad then, if every member were a dead member, that it might not feel the punishment inflicted on it; and if the whole body were a rotten carcass, or might lie down again in the dust. Much more do they want that moral perfection which the blessed partake of; those holy dispositions of mind; that cheerful readiness to do the will of God; that perfect rectitude of all their actions. Instead of these, they have that perverseness of will, that loathing of good, that love to evil, that violence of passion, which they had on earth. 'Tis true, their understandings will be much cleared by the ceasing of former temptations, and experiencing the falsehood of former delusions. But they have the same dispositions still; and fain would they commit the same sins, if they could; they want but opportunity. There will be a greater difference between these wretches, and the glorified Christian, than there is betwixt a toad, and the sun in the firmament. The rich man's purple, and fine linen, and sumptuous fare, did not so exalt him above Lazarus, while at his gate full of sores.

§ 4. (2.) They shall have no comfortable relation to God, nor communion with him. As they did not like to retain God in their knowledge; but said unto him, Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways; so God will abhor to retain them in his household. He will never admit them to the inheritance of his saints, nor endure them to stand in his presence, but will profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity. They are ready now to lay as confident claim to Christ and heaven, as if they were sincere believing saints. The swearer, the drunkard, the whore-master, the worldling, can say, Is not God our Father, as well as yours? But when Christ separates his followers from his foes, and his faithful friends from his deceived flatterers, where then will be their presumptuous claims? Then they shall find, that God is not their Father, because they would not be his people. As they would not consent that God by his Spirit should dwell in them, so the tabernacle of wickedness shall have no fellowship with him, nor the wicked inhabit the city of God. Only they that walked with God here, shall live and be happy with him in heaven. Little does the world know what a loss that soul hath, who loses God! What a dungeon would earth be, if it had lost the sun? What a loathsome carrion the body, if it had lost the soul? Yet all these are nothing to the loss of God. As the enjoyment of God is the heaven of the saints, so the loss of God is the hell of the ungodly. And as the enjoying of God is the enjoying of all, so the loss of God is the loss of all.

§ 5. (3.) They also lose all delightful affections towards God. That transporting knowledge; those delightful views of his glorious face; the inconceivable pleasure of loving him; the apprehensions of his infinite love to us; the constant joys of his saints, and the rivers of consolation with which he satisfies them. Is it nothing to lose all this? The employment of a king in ruling a kingdom, does not so far exceed that of the vilest slave, as this heavenly employment exceeds that of an earthly king. God suits men's employments to their natures. Your hearts, sinners, were never set upon God in your lives, never warmed with his love, never longed after the enjoyment of him; you had no delight in speaking or hearing of him; you had rather have continued on earth, if you had known how, than be interested in the glorious praises of God. Is it meet then that you should be members of the celestial choir.

§ 6. (4.) They shall be deprived of the blessed society of angels and glorified saints. Instead of being companions of those happy spirits, and numbered with those triumphant kings, they must be members of the corporation of hell, where they shall have companions of a far different nature and quality. Scorning and abusing the saints, hating them, and rejoicing in their calamities, was not the way to obtain their blessedness. Now you are shut out of that company, from which you first shut out yourselves; and are separated from them, with whom you would not be joined. You could not endure them in your houses, nor towns, nor scarce in the kingdom. You took them as Ahab did Elijah, for the troublers of the land; and, as the apostles were taken, for men that turned the world upside down. If any thing fell out amiss, you thought all was owing to them. When they were dead or banished, you were glad they were gone, and thought the country well rid of them. They molested you by faithfully reproving your sins. Their holy conversation troubled your consciences, to see them so far excel you. It was a vexation to you, to hear them pray or sing praises in their families. And is it any wonder if you be separated from them hereafter? The day is near when they will trouble you no more. Betwixt them and you will a great gulf be fixed. Even in this life, while the saints were mocked, destitute, afflicted, tormented, and while they had their personal imperfections; yet, in the judgment of the Holy Ghost, they were such of whom the world was not worthy.[248] Much more unworthy will the world be of their fellowship in glory.

§ 7. (11.) I know many will be ready to think, they could spare these things in this world well enough, and why may they not be without them in the world to come? Therefore to shew them that this loss of heaven will then be most tormenting, let them now consider—their understandings will be cleared to know their loss, and have more enlarged apprehensions concerning it—their consciences will make a closer application of it to themselves,—their affections will no longer be stupefied,—nor their memories be treacherous.

§ 8. (1.) The understandings of the ungodly will then be cleared, to know the worth of that which they have lost. Now they lament not their loss of God, because they never knew his excellence; nor the loss of that holy employment and society, for they were never sensible what they were worth. A man that has lost a jewel, and took it but for a common stone, is never troubled at his loss; but when he comes to know what he lost, then he laments it. Though the understandings of the damned will not be sanctified, yet they will be cleared from a multitude of errors. They now think that their honors, estates, pleasures, health, and life, are better worth their labor, than the things of another world; but when these things have left them in misery, when they experience the things which before they did but read and hear of, they will be of another mind. They would not believe that water would drown, till they were in the sea, nor the fire burn, till they were cast into it; but when they feel, they will easily believe. All that error of mind which made them set light by God, and abhor his worship, and vilify his people, will then be confuted and removed by experience. Their knowledge shall be increased, that their sorrows may be increased. Poor souls! they would comparatively be happy, if their understandings were wholly taken from them, if they had no more knowledge than ideots, or brute beasts; or if they knew no more in hell, than they did upon earth, their loss would be less trouble to them. How happy would they then think themselves, if they did not know there is such a place as heaven! Now, when their knowledge would help to prevent their misery, they will but know, or will not read and study that they may know; therefore, when their knowledge will but feed their consuming fire, they shall know whether they will or not. They are now in a dead sleep, and dream they are the happiest men in the world; but when death awakes them, how will their judgments be changed in a moment? and they that would not see, shall then see, and be ashamed.

§ 9. (2.) As their understanding will be cleared, so it will be more enlarged, and made more capacious to conceive the worth of that glory which they have lost. The strength of their apprehensions, as well as the truth of them, will then be increased. What deep apprehensions of the wrath of God, the madness of sinning, the misery of sinners, have those souls that now endure this misery, in comparison with those on earth, that do but hear of it? What sensibility of the worth of life has the condemned man that is going to be executed, compared with what he was wont to have in the time of his prosperity? Much more will the actual loss of eternal blessedness make the damned exceedingly apprehensive of the greatness of their loss; and as a large vessel will hold more water than a shell, so will their more enlarged understandings contain more matter to feed their torment, than their shallow capacity can now do.

§ 10. (3.) Their consciences also will make a truer and closer application of this doctrine to themselves, which will exceedingly tend to increase their torment. It will then be no hard matter to them to say, "This is my loss! and this is my everlasting remediless misery!" The want of this self-application is the main cause, why they are so little troubled now. They are hardly brought to believe that there is such a state of misery; but more hardly to believe that it is like to be their own. This makes so many sermons lost to them, and all threatenings and warnings in vain. Let a minister of Christ shew them their misery ever so plainly and faithfully, they will not be persuaded they are so miserable. Let him tell them of the glory they must lose, and the sufferings they must feel, and they think he means not them, but some notorious sinners. It is one of the hardest things in the world, to bring a wicked man to know that he is wicked, or to make him see himself in a state of wrath and condemnation. Though they may easily find by their strangeness to the new birth, and their enmity to holiness, that they never were partakers of them; yet they as verily expect to see God, and be saved, as if they were the most sanctified persons in the world. How seldom do men cry out, after the plainest discovery of their state, I am the man? or acknowledge, that if they die in their present condition, they are undone for ever? But when they suddenly find themselves in the land of darkness, feel themselves in scorching flames, and see they are shut out of the presence of God for ever; then the application of God's anger to themselves, will be the easiest matter in the world; they will then roar out these forced confessions, "O my misery! O my folly! O my inconceivable, irrecoverable loss!"

§11. (4.) Then will their affections likewise be more lively, and no longer stupified. A hard heart now makes heaven and hell seem but trifles. We have shewed them everlasting glory and misery, and they are as men asleep; our words are as stones cast against a wall, which fly back in our faces: we talk of terrible things, but it is to dead men; we search their wounds, but they never feel us; we speak to rocks, rather than to men; the earth will as soon tremble as they. But when these dead souls are revived, what passionate sensibility! what working affections! what pangs of horror! what depth of sorrow will there then be! How violently will they fly in their own faces! How will they rage against their former madness! The lamentations of the most affectionate wife for the loss of her husband, or of the tenderest mother for the loss of her children, will be nothing to theirs for the loss of heaven. O the self-accusing and self-tormenting fury of those forlorn creatures! How will they even tear their own hearts, and be God's executioners upon themselves! As themselves were the only meritorious cause of their sufferings, so themselves will be the chief executioners. Even Satan, as he was not so great a cause of their sinning as themselves, he will not be so great an instrument of their torment. How happy would they think themselves then, if they were turned into rocks, or any thing that had neither passion nor sense! How happy, if they could then feel, as lightly as they were wont to hear! if they could sleep out the time of execution, as they did the time of the sermons, that warned them of it! But their stupidity is gone; it will not be.

§ 12. (5.) Their memories will moreover be as large and strong as their understandings and affections. Could they but lose the use of their memory, their loss of heaven being forgot, would little trouble them. Though they would account annihilation a singular mercy, they cannot lay aside any part of their being. Understanding, conscience, affections, memory, must all live to torment them, which should have helped to their happiness. As by these they should have fed upon the love of God, and drawn forth perpetually the joys of his presence, so by these must they feed upon his wrath, and draw forth continually the pains of his absence. Now they have no leisure to consider, nor any room in their memories for the things of another life; but then they shall have nothing else to do; their memories shall have no other employment. God would have had the doctrine of their eternal state written on the posts of their doors, on their hands and hearts; he would have had them mind it, and mention it when they lay down and rose up, when they sat in their house, and when they walked by the way; and seeing they rejected this counsel of the Lord, therefore it shall be written always before them in the place of their thraldom, that which way soever they look, they may still behold it.—It will torment them to think of the greatness of the glory they have lost. If it had been what they could have spared, or a loss to be repaired with any thing else, it had been a small matter. If it had been health, or wealth, or friends, or life, it had been nothing. But, oh! to lose that exceeding eternal weight of glory!—It will also torment them to think of the possibility they once had of obtaining it. Then they will remember, "Time was, when I was as fair for the kingdom as others. I was set upon the stage of the world, if I had played my part wisely and faithfully, I might now have had possession of the inheritance. I might have been among yonder blessed saints, who am now tormented with these damned fiends. The Lord did set before me life and death; and having chose death, I deserve to suffer it. The prize was held out before me; if I had run well, I might have obtained it; if I had striven, I might have had the victory; if I had fought valiantly, I had been crowned."—It will yet more torment them to remember, that their obtaining the crown was, not only possible, but very probable. It will wound them to think, "I had once the gales of the Spirit ready to have assisted me. I was purposing to be another man, to have cleaved to Christ, and forsook the world. I was almost resolved to have been wholly for God. I was once even turning from my base seducing lusts. I had cast off my old companions, and was associating myself with the godly. Yet I turned back, lost my hold, and broke my promises. I was almost persuaded to be a real Christian, yet I conquered those persuasions. What workings were in my heart, when a faithful minister pressed home the truth! O how fair was I once for heaven! I almost had it, and yet I have lost it! Had I followed on to seek the Lord, I had now been blessed among the saints."

§ 13. It will exceedingly torment them to remember their lost opportunities. "How many weeks, and months, and years, did I lose, which if I had improved I might now have been happy? Wretch that I was! could I find no time to study the work, for which I had all my time? no time among all my labors, to labor for eternity? Had I time to eat, and drink, and sleep, and none to save my soul? Had I time for mirth and vain discourse, and none for prayer? Could I take time to secure the world, and none to try my title to heaven? O precious time! I had once enough, and now I must have no more. I had once so much, I knew not what to do with it; and now it is gone, and cannot be recalled. O that I had but one of those years to live over again! How speedily would I repent! How earnestly would I pray! How diligently would I hear! How closely would I examine my state! How strictly would I live! But 'tis now too late, alas! too late."

§ 14. It will add to their calamity to remember how often they were persuaded to return. "Fain would the minister have had me escape these torments. With what love and compassion did he beseech me! And yet I did but make a jest of it. How oft did he convince me! And yet I stifled all these convictions. How did he open to me my very heart! And yet I was loth to know the worst of myself. O how glad would he have been, if he could have seen me cordially turn to Christ! My godly friends admonished me. They told me what would come of my wilfulness and negligence at last; but I neither believed, nor regarded them. How long did God himself condescend to entreat me! How did the Spirit strive with my heart, as if he was loth to take a denial! How did Christ stand knocking one Sabbath after another, and crying to me, Open, sinner, open thy heart to thy Savior, and I will come in, and sup with thee, and thou with me! Why dost thou delay? How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee! Wilt thou not be pardoned, and sanctified, and made happy? When shall it once be?" O how the recollection of such Divine pleadings will passionately transport the damned with self-indignation! "Must I tire out the patience of Christ? Must I make the God of heaven follow me in vain, till I had wearied him with crying to me, Repent, return? O how justly is that patience now turned into fury, which falls upon me with irresistible violence? When the Lord cried to me, Wilt thou not be made clean? when shall it once be? my heart, or at least my practice, answered, Never. And now when I cry, How long shall it be till I am freed from this torment? How justly do I receive the same answer, Never, never."

§ 15. It will also be most cutting to remember on what easy terms they might have escaped their misery. Their work was not to remove mountains, nor conquer kingdoms, nor fulfil the law to the smallest tittle, nor satisfy justice for all their transgressions. The yoke was easy, and the burden light, which Christ would have laid upon them. It was but to repent, and cordially accept him for their Savior; to renounce all other happiness, and take the Lord for their supreme good; to renounce the world and the flesh, and submit to his meek and gracious government; and to forsake the ways of their own devising, and walk in his holy delightful way. "Ah," thinks the poor tormented wretch, "how justly do I suffer all this, who would not be at so small pains to avoid it? Where was my understanding, when I neglected that gracious offer; when I called the Lord an hard master, and thought his pleasant service a bondage, and the service of the devil and the flesh the only freedom? Was I not a thousand times worse than mad, when I censured the holy way of God as needless preciseness? when I thought the laws of Christ too strict, and all too much that I did for the life to come? What would all sufferings for Christ and well doing have been, compared with these sufferings that I must undergo for ever! Would not the heaven, which I have lost, have recompensed all my losses? And should not all my sufferings have been there forgotten? What if Christ had bid me do some great matter; whether to live in continual fears and sorrows, or to suffer death an hundred times over; should I not have done it? How much more, when he only said, Believe and be saved. Seek my face, and thy soul shall live. Take up thy cross, and follow me, and I will give thee everlasting life. O gracious offer! O easy terms! O cursed wretch, that would not be persuaded to accept them!"

§ 16. This also will be a most tormenting consideration, to remember what they sold their eternal welfare for. When they compare the value of the pleasures of sin, with the value of the recompense of reward, how will the vast disproportion astonish them? To think of the low delights of the flesh, or the applauding breath of mortals, or the possessing heaps of gold; and then to think of everlasting glory. "This is all I had for my soul, my God, my hopes of blessedness!" It cannot possibly be expressed, how these thoughts will tear his very heart. Then will he exclaim against his folly. "O miserable wretch! Did I set my soul to sale for so base a price? Did I part with my God for a little dirt and dross; and sell my Savior, as Judas, for a little silver? I had but a dream of delight, for my hopes of heaven; and now I am awaked, it is all vanished. My morsels are now turned to gall, and my cups to wormwood. When they were past my taste, the pleasure perished. And is this all that I have had for the inestimable treasure? What a mad exchange did I make? What if I had gained all the world, and lost my soul? But, alas! how small a part of the world was it, for which I gave up my part in glory?" O that sinners would think of this, when they are swimming in the delights of the flesh, and studying how to be rich and honorable in the world! When they are desperately venturing upon known transgression, and sinning against the checks of conscience!

§ 17. It will add yet more to their torment, when they consider that they most wilfully procured their own destruction. Had they been forced to sin, it would much abate the rage of their consciences; or if they were punished for another man's transgressions; or any other had been the chief author of their ruin. But to think, it was the choice of their own will, and that none in the world could have forced them to sin against their wills; this will be a cutting thought: "Had I not enemies enough in the world (thinks this miserable creature) but I must be an enemy to myself? God would never give the Devil, nor the world, so much power over me, as to force me to commit the least transgression. They could but entice, it was myself that yielded, and did the evil. And must I lay hands upon my own soul; and embrue my hands in my own blood? Never had I so great an enemy as myself. Never did God offer any good to my soul, but I resisted him. He hath heaped mercy upon me, and renewed one deliverance after another, to draw my heart to him: yea, he hath gently chastised me, and made me groan under the fruit of my disobedience; and though I promised largely in my affliction, yet never was I heartily willing to serve him." Thus will it gnaw the hearts of these sinners, to remember that they were the cause of their own undoing; and that they wilfully and obstinately persisted in their rebellion, and were mere volunteers in the service of the Devil.

§ 18. The wound in their consciences will be yet deeper, when they shall not only remember it was their own doing, but that they were at so much cost and pains for their own damnation. What great undertakings did they engage in to effect their ruin; to resist the Spirit of God; to overcome the power of mercies, judgments, and even the word of God; to subdue the power of reason, and silence conscience? All this they undertook, and performed. Though they walked in continual danger of the wrath of God, and knew he could lay them in the dust, and cast them into hell, in a moment; yet would they run upon all this. Oh the labor it costs sinners to be damned! Sobriety, with health and ease, they might have had at a cheaper rate; yet they will rather have gluttony and drunkenness, with poverty, shame, and sickness. Contentment they might have, with ease and delight; yet they will rather have covetousness and ambition, though it costs them cares and fears, labor of body, and distraction of mind. Though their anger be self-torment, and revenge and envy consume their spirits; though uncleanness destroy their bodies, estates, and good names; yet will they do and suffer all this, rather than suffer their souls to be saved. With what rage will they lament their folly, and say, "Was damnation worth all my cost and pains? Might I not have been damned on free cost, but I must purchase it so dearly? I thought I could have been saved without so much ado; and could I not have been destroyed without so much ado? Must I so laboriously work out my own damnation, when God commanded me to work out my salvation? If I had done as much for heaven, as I did for hell, I had surely had it. I cried out of the tedious way of godliness, and the painful course of self-denial; and yet I could be at a great deal more pains for Satan, and for death. Had I loved Christ as strongly as I did my pleasures, and profits, and honors, and thought on him as often, and sought him as painfully, O how happy had I now been! But justly do I suffer the flames of hell, for buying them so dear, rather than have heaven when it was purchased to my hands!"

§ 19. O that God would persuade thee, reader, to take up these thoughts now, for preventing the inconceivable calamity of taking them up in hell as thy own tormentor! Say not, that they are only imaginary. Read what Dives thought, being in torment.[249] As the joys of heaven are chiefly enjoyed by the rational soul in its rational actings, so must the pains of hell be suffered. As they will be men still, so will they feel and act as men.

CHAP. VI.
The misery of those, who, besides losing the Saint's Rest, lose the enjoyments of time, and suffer the torments of hell.

§ 1. The connexion of this with the preceding chapter. § 2. (I.) The enjoyments of time which the damned lose: § 3. (1.) Their presumptuous belief of their interest in God and Christ: § 4. (2.) All their hopes: § 5. (3.) All their peace of conscience: § 6. (4.) All their carnal mirth: § 7. (5.) All their sensual delights: § 8. (II.) The torments of the damned are exceeding great: § 9. (1.) The principal author of them is God himself: § 10. (2.) The place or state of torment: § 11. (3.) These torments are the effects of Divine vengeance: § 12. (4.) God will take pleasure in executing them: § 13. (5.) Satan and sinners themselves will be God's executioners: § 14. (6.) These torments will be universal: § 15. (7.) without any mitigation: § 16. (8.) and eternal: § 17. The obstinate sinner convinced of his folly in venturing on these torments: § 18. and entreated to fly for safety to Christ.

§ 1. As godliness hath a promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come; and if we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, then all meaner things shall be added unto us: So also are the ungodly threatened with the loss both of spiritual and temporal blessings, and because they sought not first God's kingdom and righteousness, therefore shall they lose both it and that which they did seek, and there shall be taken from them that little which they have. If they could but have kept their present enjoyments, they would not have much cared for the loss of heaven. If they had lost and forsaken all for Christ, they would have found all again in him; for he would have been all in all to them. But now they have forsook Christ for other things, they shall lose Christ, and that also for which they forsook him; even—the enjoyments of time—besides suffering the torments of hell.

§ 2. (I.) Among the enjoyments of time, they shall particularly lose—their presumptuous belief of their interest in the favor of God, and the merits of Christ;—all their hopes;—all their false peace of conscience;—all their carnal mirth;—and all their sensual delights.

§ 3. (1.) They shall lose their presumptuous belief of their interest in the favor of God and the merits of Christ. This false belief now supports their spirits, and defends them from the terrors that would otherwise seize upon them. But what will ease their trouble, when they can believe no longer, nor rejoice any longer? If a man be near to the greatest mischief, and yet strongly conceit that he is in safety, he may be as cheerful as if all were well. If there were no more to make a man happy, but to believe that he is so, or shall be so, happiness would be far more common than it is like to be. As true faith is the leading grace in the regenerate, so is false faith the leading vice in the unregenerate. Why do such multitudes sit still, when they might have pardon; but that they verily think they are pardoned already? If you could ask thousands in hell, what madness brought them thither? they would most of them answer, "We made sure of being saved, till we found ourselves damned. We would have been more earnest seekers of regeneration, and the power of godliness, but we verily thought we were Christians before. We have flattered ourselves into these torments, and now there is no remedy." Reader, I must in faithfulness tell thee, that the confident belief of their good state, which the careless, unholy, unhumbled multitude so commonly boast of, will prove in the end but a soul-damning delusion. There is none of this believing in hell. It was Satan's stratagem, that being blindfold they might follow him the more boldly; but then he will uncover their eyes, and they shall see where they are.

§ 4. (2.) They shall lose also all their hopes. In this life, though they were threatened with the wrath of God, yet their hope of escaping it bore up their hearts. We can now scarce speak with the vilest drunkard, or swearer, or scoffer, but he hopes to be saved for all this. O happy world, if salvation were as common as this hope! Nay, so strong are men's hopes, that they will dispute the cause with Christ himself at judgment, and plead their having eat and drank in his presence, and prophesied in his name, and in his name cast out devils; they will stiffly deny that ever they neglected Christ in hunger, nakedness, or prison, till he confutes them with the sentence of their condemnation. O the sad state of these men, when they must bid farewell to all their hopes! When a wicked man dieth, his expectations shall perish: and the hope of unjust men perisheth.[250] The eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape, and their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost.[251] The giving up the ghost, is a fit, but terrible resemblance of a wicked man's giving up his hopes. As the soul departeth not from the body without the greatest pain; so doth the hope of the wicked depart. The soul departs from the body suddenly, in a moment, which hath there delightfully continued so many years; just so doth the hope of the wicked depart. The soul will never more return to live with the body in this world; and the hope of the wicked takes an everlasting farewell of the soul. A miracle of resurrection shall again unite soul and body, but there shall be no such miraculous resurrection of the damned's hope. Methinks, it is the most pitiable sight this world affords, to see such an ungodly person dying, and to think of his soul and his hopes departing together. With what a sad change he appears in another world! Then if a man could but ask that hopeless soul, "Are you as confident of salvation as you were wont to be?" What a sad answer would be returned! O that careless sinners would be awakened to think of this in time! Reader, rest not till thou canst give a reason of all thy hopes, grounded upon Scripture promises; that they purify thy heart; that they quicken thy endeavors in godliness; that the more thou hopest the less thou sinnest, and the more exact is thy obedience. If thy hopes be such as these, go on in the strength of the Lord, hold fast thy hope, and never shall it make thee ashamed. But if thou hast not one sound evidence of a work of grace on thy soul, cast away thy hopes. Despair of ever being saved, except thou be born again; or of seeing God, without holiness; or of having part in Christ, except thou love him above father, mother, or thy own life. This kind of despair is one of the first steps to heaven. If a man be quite out of his way, what must be the first means to bring him in again? He must despair of ever coming to his journey's end in the way that he is in: if his home be eastward, and he is going westward, as long as he hopes he is right, he will go on; and as long as he goes on hoping, he goes farther amiss: When he despairs of coming home, except he turn back, then he will return, and then he may hope. Just so it is, sinner, with thy soul: Thou art born out of the way to heaven, and hast proceeded many a year; thou goest on, and hopest to be saved, because thou art not so bad as many others. Except thou throwest away those hopes, and see that thou hast all this while been quite out of the way to heaven, thou wilt never return and be saved. There is nothing in the world more likely to keep thy soul out of heaven, than thy false hopes of being saved, while thou art out of the way to salvation. See then how it will aggravate the misery of the damned, that with the loss of heaven, they shall lose all that hope of it, which now supports them.