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It is thrown into eternal oblivion, or everlasting disgrace. And what is that general allurement, called Pleasure? With many, it is turned into endless pain. In fhort, all the objects of time and fenfe are loft, and will never be found again. O may we now be bleffed with an approving confcience, and a smiling God; fo that we may join the Church Triumphant in finging,-To Him that loved us, and wathed us from our fins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priefts to God and his Father; to whom, with the ever-bleffed Spirit, be all honour, might, majesty, and dominion, world without end. AMEN.

SERMON

SERMON XIV.

The eternal Torments of Hell.

MATT. xxv. 46.

And thefe fhall go away into everlasting punishment,

T

HIS Chapter contains feveral very important fubjects. The candidates for the Kingdom of Glory are characterized under two very ftriking images; one is, that of ten virgins taking their lamps and going to meet the bridegroom: The other emblem is, that of a great man, going a long journey, and giving orders to his fervants; their conduct thereupon, and the approbation each meets with upon the return of their mater. The application of each fimile is easy. From thence our Lord makes a tranfition to the General Judgment, in a fublimity of language peculiar to hinfelf; it is his own ftile. He gives us a ftriking defcription of the folemn procefs of that great day in fo pointed a manner, that we can fcarcely help thinking we "fee the Judge enthron'd, the flaming guard, the volume opened!" and the countless myriads ftanding in awful fufpence: and here, in the text, is the grand iffue of the trial,-These shall go away into everlasting punishment-Dreadful, indeed!-I

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know no fubject upon which I am fo reluctant to speak, as the never-ending Torments of Hell; my very foul recoils at the dreadful idea; it seems to pervade my very effence. O, the thought of eternal mifery! eternal torments! eternal wailing and gnashing of teeth! O Lord, fave us from thy wrath, and from everlasting damnation !

2. My laft Sermon was upon the General Judgment; and, as all criminal proceffes terminate either in acquitting or condemning, fo will this and here we have the fum of the final condemnation of the wicked. Their characters are marked out, and dreadful doom described. I must now address myself to my awful task, which is,

FIRST, To confider the Nature and Extent of that everlasting Punishment.

SECONDLY, The unhappy Victims doomed thereunto. THIRDLY, The Improvement.

FIRST, I am to confider the Nature and Extent of that everlasting Punishment.

1. IT is a deprivation of every thing which is comfortable, or cheering. As for the comforts of this life, they are finally ended. To every poor loft foul it may be faid, Remember, that thou, in thy life-time, receivedft thy good things-but now thou art tormented. Whatever ease or wealth that good might be, pleasure or honour, it is for ever gone. Whatever fatisfaction we may have received from our friends, or relatives, or any comfort in life, it is gone, 'tis loft for ever. Whatever delights the eye, or charms the ear, or regales the tafte, fmell, or any fenfe or faculty, it is eternally gone. The fhining fun,

Lnke xvi. 25.

the

the vernal feason, clear sky, purling ftreams, bleating flocks, lowing herds, the pleafing notes of warbling birds, are all ended.

2. THERE is a fatisfaction, to a rational mind, in various branches of learning; as hiftory, poetry, mufic, painting, geography, and various branches of philofophy; all of which are useful in their place, and afford an innocent and rational entertainment to a mind that is a little enlarged, and elevated above the common level of mankind. But no cheering ray of thefe delights can enter thofe manfions of eternal woe, where there is weeping and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, and dreadful howling, for

ever.

3.

If we confider again the happy ftate of fuch as fleep in Jefus, and are raised to the life immortal; they enjoy a fweet fatisfaction in the company and fociety of each other, fuch as we have but fmall conception of here below. It may be gratefully acknowledging the kindness which they have mutually received from each other, or recounting the unerring fteps of Divine Providence ; delights which, I conceive, to be worthy of the place of Heaven itself, and muft yield an unfpeakable fatisfaction. But, in those realms of eternal darkness, not a glimpse of. that glory can fhine-not a drop of that comfort can be tasted; no, nothing but one continued blank; even death itfelf is denied an entrance-for fuch may defire to die, and death fhall flee from them.

4. THE fweet fociety of Angels must be a welcome joy; those bright morning-stars, who have never finned, but have kept their state and station pure; to whom it

may

may be a pleafing tak to unfold to the heirs of falvation a variety of heavenly wonders which may have happened before this world was made :-What this world was before it became a chaos; or what Satan was before his fall; his quality; the extent of his dominion; the powers which were under him, and what was his actual fin: or what other planetary worlds there may be, the quality of their inhabitants; or whether the influence of fallen angels has ever reached them or no. Such may be the outlines of angelical converfe. But, alas! alas! nothing of this delightful amufement can enter the horrid regions of unutterable defpair. Ah! no-no glean of comfort, no lucid moment; the fun is fet, eternally fet, never more to arife-A land of darkness itself; and the shadow of death without any order, and where the light is as darkness *.

6. BUT the fun of the heavenly region is the beatific vifion, the prefence of the ever blessed God, where all the rays of the Deity shine through the man Christ, the Lord, in whom the fullness of the GODHEAD dwells bodily; for the Lord Jehovah, and the Lamb, are the light of the heavenly Jerufalem. Here, the wonders of Grace, the plan of Redemption, fo fully exhibited in the ftripes, groans, agonies, and death of an incarnate God,-that every heart will rejoice, every tongue exult, and the heavenly arches echo,-Thou waft flain, and haft redeemed us to God by thy blood. But not one of these sweet notes can yield any comfort in the bottomlefs pit. That the miferable inhabitants of Tophet have some knowledge of what paffes in the realms of blifs, is plain, from the story of the rich man and Lazarus; but, then, it only increafes

* Jcb x. 22.

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