filling the saints with joy unspeakable, and which we cannot com prehend, and causing the arch of heaven to ring with their songs of praise; on their side is nothing but utter darkness, without the least gleam of light; and there shall be weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. For why, God himself is the only true happiness of the creature, and Christ the only way to the Father; but then there is a total and final separation betwixt God and Christ, and them. The day of the Lamb's wrath is come, all possibility of reconciliation is removed, and patience towards them is quite ended, and the curse hath its full stroke; so God, the fountain of all good, departs quite from them, abandons them, casts them off utterly, and that moment all the streams of goodness towards them dry up, and their candle is quite extinguished. Then shall be known what is in that word, Hos. ix. 12, "Wo to them when I depart from them." And then there is no getting over the wall, no passing of the great gulf for ever, Luke xvi. 26.

3. It shall hence be a final stop to all sanctifying influences towards them. While they are in this world, there is a possibility of removing the curse, and that the worst of men may be made holy; but when there is a total and final separation from God in hell, surely there are no sanctifying influences there. The corrupt nature they carried with them thither, must then abide with them there; and they must needs act there, since their being is continued; and a corrupt nature will ever act corruptly, while it acts at all, Matth. vii. 17. And therefore there will be sin in hell after the last judgment, unless one will suppose that they will be under no law there; which is absurd, seeing a creature, as a creature, owes obedience to God in what state soever it be. Yea, they will sin there at a horrible rate, in blasphemies against God, and other sins akin thereto, as men absolutely void of all goodness, in a desperate state of misery, Rev. xiv. ult.; Matth xxii. 13. The curse will be a dry wind, not to fan nor to cleanse, but to wither, blast, and kill their souls.

4. It shall be the breath that shall blow the fire continually, and keep it burning, for their exquisite torment in soul and body; Isa. xXX. 33," For Tophet is ordained of old: yea, for the king it is prepared: he hath made it deep and large; the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it." There the worm which shall gnaw them, shall never die, for the curse will keep it in life; the fire that shall burn them shall never be quenched, for the curse shall nourish it, and be as bellows blowing it, to cause it flame without intermission. The curse shall enter into their souls, and melt them like wax before the fire; it

shall sink into their flesh and bones, like boiling lead, and torment them in every part. It will stake them down there as marks for the arrows of God, which, dipt in the poison of the curse, shall be continually piercing them and burning them up. No pity, no compassion to be shewn any more, but the fire-balls of the curse will be flying against them incessantly; Rev. xiv. 11, "The smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night."

5. Lastly, The curse shall lengthen out their misery to all eternity; Matth. xxv. 41, "Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire." It binds the sinner to make complete and full satisfaction, for all the wrongs he has done to the honour of an infinite God; it binds him to pay till there be a sufficient compensation made for them all. Now, there being no proportion betwixt finite and infinite, the finite creature can never, by its sufferings, expiate its crimes against an infinite God. Hence, when the sinner has suffered millions of ages in hell, the curse still binds him down to suffer more, because he has not yet fully satisfied; and since he can never fully satisfy, it will bind him down for ever and ever, Rev. xiv. 11, and will bring new floods of wrath over his head; and renew its demands of satisfaction through the ages of eternity, but never, never say, It is enough.

Thus have I endeavoured to open up unto you the nature of the curse of the broken covenant of works, and the dreadful condition of those under it, in this life, and after this life. But after all, who knows the power of God's wrath? No tongue can tell what the frightful experience of those who live and die under it, shall teach them. But thus much may suffice to have shewn you the misery of being under the covenant of works.

Application of the doctrine, That natural men being under the broken Covenant of Works are under the curse.

This doctrine shall be improved in two practical uses; for conviction and for exhortation.

USE I. Of conviction. What has been said on this awful subject may serve to fix convictions in the consciences both of saints and sinners.

First, Saints, who are brought from under this covenant, delivered from it and the curse thereof by Jesus Christ, view this curse in the nature and weight, the length and breadth of it; and say in your hearts before the Lord,

1. Do ye suitably prize and esteem your God, Redeemer and Saviour? Are your hearts suitably affected with the love of God in Christ, that set on foot your deliverance, and brought it about?

Ah! this consideration may afford us a breast full of convictions. What manner of love was this, that the Father did choose you from among the cursed children of Adam to inherit the blessing? that the Son died for you, to redeem you from the curse? that the Holy Ghost applied to you the purchase of Christ's death, to the actual removing of this curse from off you? O where is that love, that warm, glowing love to the Lord, that this requires! The Father's love to you while under the curse, moved him to make his Son to be sin for you, who knew no sin, that you might be made the righteousness of God in him. Christ's love to you made him become a curse for you, and drink the dregs of that cup, which ye should have drank through eternity in hell. The Spirit's love to you made him watch the moment appointed for your deliverance, and bring you out with a strong hand from the dominion of the law, and transport you into the dominion of grace, where there is no more curse. O look back to the dreadful curse which ye were under; look up to the love in delivering of you; keep one eye upon the one, and another eye upon the other, till these cold hearts of yours warm with love.

2. Do ye suitably prize the new covenant, the second covenant? Do ye pry into the mystery of the glorious contrivance, stand and wonder at the device for bringing cursed sinners to inherit the blessing? Would it not become you well to be often looking into it, and saying, "This is all my salvation, and all my desire ?" 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. Ah! why have we not higher and more honourable thoughts of the covenant of grace, of the Second Adam, the Head, Surety, and Messenger of the covenant, of the gospel, the proclamation of the covenant, the Bible the book of the covenant, the promises of the covenant, the matchless privileges of the covenant, and even of the public criers of the covenant too? Isa. lii. 7. To help you to this, lay the volume of the two covenants before you; open and read the covenant of works in the first place, where you will find nothing but demands of perfect obedience under the pain of the curse; a promise of life upon conditions impossible to be performed by you, but the curse, wrath, death, hell, and damnation to the sinner. Then turn over to the covenant of grace, and read life and salvation through Jesus Christ by faith; no curse, death, hell, damnation, nor revenging wrath; all these discharged by the Surety. And so raise your esteem of the new covenant in Christ's blood.

3. Do ye walk answerably to the deliverance from this curse? Ah! may not that be applied justly to us; Deut. xxxii. 6, "Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? is not he thy Father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and estab

lished thee?" Obedience to all the ten commands is bound on all under the covenant of works, under the pain of the curse, Gal. iii. 10, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." Obedience to them all is bound on believers too, but by another tie, viz. the tie of their deliverance from the curse, by their God-Redeemer; Exod. xx. 2, “I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt," &c. And this, and not the former, is the way in which the law of the ten commands gets any acceptable obedience, 1 Tim. i. 5, from sinful man. O look to the curse of the covenant of works, from which ye are delivered, and be convinced and humbled to the very dust,

(1.) That ye should walk so untenderly, unwatchfully, and uncircumspectly, before the Lord that bought you, and that in the midst of cursed children, a crooked and perverse generation. What can more strike a nail to the heart of a gracious person, than when the Spirit of the Lord whispers into his soul, "Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? wherefore say my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee ?" Jer. ii. 31. And, "Is this your kindness to your friend?" Is that your compassion to the world lying in wickedness, to cast a stumbling-block before the blind? You speak, you act untenderly; is that the use of the tongue redeemed from the curse? Is that the use of the eyes, hands, and feet, body and soul, delivered from the curse of the broken covenant? I think, that a believer looking to the cross should say, and abide by it, "To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain," Phil. i. 21.

(2.) That ye should so dote upon this earth, this cursed earth, that the curse of the broken covenant of works has lain upon these five thousand years, and has sucked the sap out of, and so dried up by this time, that it is near to taking fire, and to be burnt to ashes, by virtue of the curse upon it. Let the men of the Lord's curse, who have their portion in it, set their hearts upon it, go upon their belly, and lick the dust, (it is no wonder they cannot get up their back, on whom the heavy curse of the broken covenant lies); but lift ye up your souls unto the Lord, and hearken to his voice; Cant. iv. 8, "Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon; look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Herman, from the lions' dens, from the mountains of the leopards."

(3.) That ye should perform duties so heartlessly, coldly, and indifferently; with so little faith, love, fervency, humility, zeal, and confidence. O look to the curse of the broken covenant, with the effects of it in earth and hell, that ye may be stirred up to the per

formance of duty after another manner. I mean not that ye should look upon it as what ye are actually liable to in case of transgression; for this to a believer, who is never free from sin one moment, may well make his heart die in him like a stone; it will never kindly quicken him; it may well drag or drive him to his duty, like a slave; it will never cause him perform it like a son; but look upon it as what ye are delivered from, and that will draw, melt, and kindly quicken the heart in love, Eph. ii. 11-13; Luke i. 74, 75. Deliverance from wrath is the most powerful motive to obedience.

(4.) That ye should bear your troubles and trials so impatiently, as if your crosses were so many curses. Look to the condition of those under the curse in this world, and you will see your heaviest cross is lighter than their smallest ones, which have the weight of the curse in them, that yours have not, however you cry out under their weight; yea your adversity is better than their prosperity; the frowns of providence you meet with, are preferable to the smiles of providence in their lot; there is no curse in the former, but in the latter there is. Look to the condition of those under the curse in hell; and that duly considered, ye will kiss the rod, and say, "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not," Lam. iii. 22. Look how Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, and you will see the poison taken out of the cup, and the pure water of affliction presented to you in your cup to pledge him in; and why not drink it, and drink it thankfully? Bear the cross for him, and take blows and buffetings for his sake, and from him for our own good, who has borne away the curse.

4. Have ye due thoughts of the evil of sin? Is your horror of it suitably raised? Rom. xii. 9, "Abhor that which is evil," abhor it as hell, so the word may bear. If you duly consider the curse, it may fill you with shame and blushing on this head. There is much blindness in the minds of believers, much hardness in their hearts, and coldness in their affections with respect to spiritual things. The lively sense of the evil of sin is often very small. We dare not own believers to be yet liable to the curse, Christ having, with his precious blood applied to them by faith, freed them from it; but it is of great and necessary use to them as a looking-glass, wherein they may see the evil of sin, the due demerit of it, what their sins do in themselves deserve, what Christ suffered for these sins of theirs, and what they should have suffered for them, if Christ had not suffered it in their stead. Trace the curse in its effects in this life, and after this life, as they have been represented to you; so will you see God's