-the mansions of peace, and the regions of despair. But only judge yourselves: shall the murderer ever dwell with the merciful and tender-hearted? Can the selfish, and oppressor, associate with the disinterested, the generous, and benevolent? Shall the slave of lust and filthy courses rank with the chaste, the innocent, and pure of heart? Shall liars and slanderers mix for ever with the sincere and charitable? Shall the base, suspicious, and deceitful, be upon a level with the noble, ingenuous, and upright? Can the sons of God hold fellowship with the slaves of Belial? This would be turning heaven into hell: the impenitent wicked, therefore, cannot be forgiven, because, if so, they could not be fit objects of punishment; and if they are to be admitted into . the realms of bliss, well then might the obedient say, All the day long have I been punished, and in vain have I cleansed my heart, and washed my hands in innocency.

What shall the just appointments of an infinitely perfect Being fall short of a weak creature's wisdom? Shall the laws of men distinguish, and the laws of God confound the order of things?-But it may be argued, the body hath principally offended, why should the soul also suffer? This was clearly explained in a former Lecture. They both offend, and both will suffer. The body is the place wherein the

soul is tried; and it may become so córrupted by its consent to all the sinful practices of the body, as at last to become, in truth, an evil spirit, and consequently incapable of enjoying the holy exercises of heaven, even could it be admitted there. Doubtless, therefore, one part of its misery in hell will be to want those pleasures of sense and appetite, which it abused when in this world, and the constant pursuit of which prevented it from experiencing the torment it will feel, when no further objects of this nature are at hand; when it is continually persecuted by conscious guilt, eternal remorse, and no hope of mercy. No; be well assured (my brethren), the condition of the unconverted will be the very reverse of what I have been representing respecting the REDEEMED. — And here again the senses become useful instruments to bring some just idea home to us of their desperate misery. Part of the curse is already visited in this life, on all alike, by which we may form some judgment of what will surely follow in the next, to those who persevere in Disobedience brought pain, disease, and death into the world. We are all sensible of pain. Have you ever heard the heart-piercing groans of those afflicted with gout or stone? the burning, distracting, gnawing torture of the former, the distorting, and scarcely supportable agonies of the latter? Have you felt them?

sin.

-Have you never experienced in yourselves, or against yourselves, the effects of cruel anger, unbridled passion, bitter malice, implacable revenge? And lastly, have you never seen, or unhappily do you know, what reproach and remorse attend the guilty conscience? All these are leading notices of the certainty of endless punishment; they are proofs indisputable, that pain exists, but trifles light as air (comparatively), to the suffering of an immortal spirit, shut out of heaven! They admonish us in time, that tophet is prepared for the wicked-that God is able to punish both body and soul in hell. To conclude the matter: where God is, there are pleasures for evermore. To be where He does not delight to dwell, is misery in the extreme: that is the place of devils and condemned spirits; who having been enslaved by Satan here, are tortured by him for ever: for it is the peculiar character of the devil, to triumph in the torment of those very children most devoted to him. If we think properly on these things, who can suffer hatred or unforgiveness to dwell in his heart? who but must wish his bitterest enemy to avoid this place of torment? If we desire to live for ever with those we love; if we would for ever avoid the society of those we cannot but so far hate, as they are declared enemies to God and goodness; let us in time, my

VOL. II.

brethren, think often on these four last most serious subjects death, judgment, heaven, and hell; for these, of all things, do most concern us. And let me dismiss you with the alarming impression of this eternal truth, that one part of the misery of the condemned, is the horror of DESPAIR; and that hell could not be perfect punishment, if any hope could lodge in it. The favour of God is not to be obtained, where there are no means left to obtain it. And this should urge us all, my friends, the very BEST, to profit by the present means of grace, knowing how unworthy we are all, of any favour; lest, after having preached to others, we ourselves may yet be cast away. And much more does it concern the slothful servant to cherish what he hears, while there is a place for faith and virtue in repentance; for, in hell, no change is wrought; the day of trial is over; Christ, who now mediates for us (and without whose mediation no man shall ever enter heaven), will then have delivered up the kingdom to God the Father, and his office of Mediator will cease. Go then to Christ, my brethren, without delay: cast off your sins; beg (as for life) for life ETERNAL, that he will help you; and all may yet be well. But do it instantly. No longer trifle with the sovereign Judge. Be ready to meet the Bridegroom when he calleth; or, alas! the door may be for ever

shut upon you, and soul and body be condemned to outer darkness.

Thus I have finished my Lectures on the Creed. And having fully shown you the propriety, proved the truth, and declared the necessity of our faith in the promise in the text, no Christian can surely be at a loss how to express his belief on this last important article of his faith, but will most freely and fully pronounce thus much as a certain and needful truth: that the unjust (that is, the wicked of all descriptions), after their resurrection and condemnation, shall be tormented for ever, and this consistently with the justice of God, and the nature of the bodies which, by his power, shall be continued to them, in that endless state of wretchedness: whereas the just (or, in other words, the righteous, holy, or the TRULY PENITENT and reformed), after their resurrection and absolution from their former sin and imperfections, through the atonement and satisfaction of their Redeemer, shall (as the blessed of God the Father) obtain the promised inheritance, and, as the servants of God, enter into their Master's joy, freed from all possibility of death, sin, or sorrow; filled with all conceivable and inconceivable fulness of happiness, strengthened in a positive security of an eternal enjoyment; and so they shall continue with the Fa