only dreams pass: thereby giving us to know, that all the preceding account is no more than a dream. This he only insinuates; but his brother poet, Juvenal, speaks out flat and plain.

Esse aliquos manes, et subterranea regna,

Nec pueri credunt, nisi qui nondum ære lavantur.

Even our children do not believe a word of the tales concerning another world.

4. Here, on the contrary, all is worthy of God, the Creator, the Governor of mankind. All is awful and solemn ; suitable to his Wisdom and Justice, by whom Tophet was ordained of old: although originally prepared, not for the children of men, but "for the devil and his angels."

The punishment of those who, in spite of all the warnings of God, resolve to have their portion with the devil and his angels, will, according to the ancient, and not improper division, be either, Pana damni, what they lose, or, Pœna sensus, what they feel. After considering these separately, I shall touch on a few additional circumstances, and conclude with two or three inferences.

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I. 1. And, first, let us consider the Pana damni, the punishment of loss. This commences in that very moment, wherein the soul is separated from the body; in that instant, the soul loses all those pleasures, the enjoyment of which depends on the outward senses. The smell, the taste, the touch, delight no more: the organs that ministered to them are spoiled, and the objects that used to gratify them, are removed far away. In the dreary regions of the dead, all these things are forgotten: or if remembered, are only remembered with pain, seeing they are gone for ever. All the pleasures of the imagination are at an end. There is no grandeur in the infernal regions: there is nothing beautiful in those dark abodes; no light but that of livid flames. And nothing new, but one unvaried scene of horror upon horror! There is no music but that of groans and shrieks, of weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth; of curses and blasphemies against God, or cutting reproaches of one

another. Nor is there any thing to gratify the sense of honour: No; they are the heirs of shame and everlasting contempt.

2. Thus are they totally separated from all the things they were fond of in the present world. At the same instant will commence another loss; that of all the persons whom they loved. They are torn away from their nearest and dearest relations, their wives, husbands, parents, children, and (what to some will be worse than all this) the friend which was as their own soul. All the pleasures they ever enjoyed in these is lost, gone, vanished away. For there is no friendship in hell. Even the poet who affirms, (tho' I know not on what authority,)

"Devil with devil damn'd

Firm concord holds :"

Does not affirm that there is any concord among the human fiends, that inhabit the great abyss.

3. But they will then be sensible of a greater loss, than all they have enjoyed on earth. They have lost their place in Abraham's Bosom, in the Paradise of God. Hitherto, indeed, it hath not entered into their hearts to conceive, what holy souls enjoy in the Garden of God, in the society of angels, and of the wisest and best men that have lived from the beginning of the world: (not to mention the immense increase of knowledge which they will then, undoubtedly, receive.) But they will then fully understand the value of what they have vilely cast away.

4. But as happy as the souls in Paradise are, they are preparing for far greater happiness. For Paradise is only the porch of heaven; and it is there the spirits of just men are made perfect. It is in heaven only that there is the fulness of joy, the pleasures that are at God's right-hand for evermore. The loss of this, by those unhappy spirits, will be the completion of their misery. They will then know and feel, that God alone is the centre of all created spirits and consequently that a spirit made for God, can have no rest out of him. It seems that the Apostle had this

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in his view, when he spoke of those "who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord." Banishment from the presence of the Lord, is the very essence of destruction to a spirit that was made for God. And if that banishment last for ever, it is everlasting destruction:

Such is the loss sustained by those miserable creatures, on whom that awful sentence will be pronounced, " Depart from me, ye cursed!" What an unspeakable curse, if there were no other! But, alas!--this is far from being the whole for to the punishment of loss, will be added the punishment of sense. What they lose, implies unspeakable misery, which yet is inferior to what they feel. This it is, which our Lord expresses in those emphatical words, "Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched."

II. 1. From the time that sentence was pronounced upon man, "Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return,” it was the custom of all nations, so far as we can learn, to commit dust to dust: it seemed natural to restore the bodies of the dead to the general mother earth. But, in process of time, another method obtained, chiefly among the rich and great, of burning the bodies of their relations, and frequently in a grand magnificent manner. For which purpose they erected huge funeral piles, with immense labour and expense. By either of these methods the body of man was soon restored to its parent dust. Either the worm or the fire soon consumed the well-wrought frame; after which the worm itself quickly died, and the fire was entirely quenched. But there is, likewise, a worm that belongs to the future state, a worm that never dieth. And there is a fire, hotter than that of the funeral pile: and it is a fire that will never be quenched.

2. The first thing intended by the worm that never dieth, seems to be a guilty conscience, including self-condemnation, sorrow, shame, remorse, and a sense of the wrath of God. May not we have some conception of this, by what is sometimes felt even in the present world? Is it not of this chiefly that Solomon speaks, when he says, "The

spirit of a man may bear his infirmities," his infirmities or griefs of any other kind: "but a wounded spirit who can bear?" Who can bear the anguish of an awakened conscience, penetrated with a sense of guilt, and the arrows of the Almighty sticking in the soul, and drinking up the spirit! How many of the stout-hearted have sunk under it, and chose strangling rather than life? And yet what are these wounds, what is all this anguish of a soul while in this present world, in comparison of those they must suffer when their souls are wholly awakened, to feel the wrath of an offended God! Add to these, all unholy passions, fear, horror, rage; evil desires, desires that can never be satisfied. Add all unholy tempers, envy, jealousy, malice, and revenge: all of which will incessantly gnaw the soul, as the vulture was supposed to do the liver of Tityus. To these if we add hatred of God and all his creatures, all these united together may serve to give us some little, imperfect idea of the worm that never dieth.

3. We may observe a remarkable difference in the manner wherein our Lord speaks concerning the two parts of the future punishment. He says, "Where their worm dieth not," of the one; "where the fire is not quenched," of the other. This cannot be by chance. What then is the reason for this variation of the expression?

Does it seem to be this? The fire will be the same, essentially the same, to all that are tormented therein: only, perhaps, more intense to some than others, according to their degree of guilt. But their worm will not, cannot be the same. It will be infinitely varied, according to their various kinds, as well as degrees of wickedness. This variety will arise partly from the just judgment of God, "rewarding every man according to his works." For we cannot doubt but this rule will take place, no less in hell than in heaven. As in heaven, every man shall receive his own reward, incommunicably his, that is, the whole tenor of his tempers, thoughts, words, and actions: so, undoubtedly, every man, in fact, will receive his own bad reward, according to his own bad labour. And this, likewise, will be

incommunicably his own, even as his labour was. Variety of punishment will, likewise, arise from the very nature of the thing. As they that bring most holiness to heaven, will find most happiness there; so, on the other hand, it is not only true, that the more wickedness a man brings to hell, the more misery he will find there; but that this misery will be infinitely varied according to the various kinds of his wickedness. It was, therefore, proper to say the fire, in general; but their worm in particular.

4. But it has been questioned by some, "Whether there be any fire in hell?" That is, " any material fire." Nay, if there be any fire, it is, unquestionably, material. For what is immaterial fire? The same as immaterial water or earth! Both the one and the other is absolute nonsense, a contradiction in terms. Either, therefore, we must affirm it to be material, or we deny its existence. But if we granted them there is no fire at all there, what would they gain thereby? Seeing this is allowed, on all hands, that it is either fire or something worse. And consider this: does not our Lord speak, as if it were real fire? No one can deny or doubt of this. Is it possible then to suppose, that the God of truth would speak in this manner, if it were not so? Does he design to fright his poor creatures ? What, with scare-crows? With vain shadows of things that have no being? O let not any one think so! Impute no such folly to the Most High!

5. But others aver, "It is not possible that fire should burn always. For by the immutable laws of nature, it consumes whatever is thrown into it. And, by the same law, as soon as it has consumed its fuel, it is itself consumed, it goes out."

It is most true, that in the present constitution of things, during the present laws of nature, the element of fire does dissolve and consume whatever is thrown into it. But here is the mistake: the present laws of nature are not immutable. When the heavens and the earth shall flee away, the present scene will be totally changed: and with the present constitution of things, the present laws of na

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