nally separated from God and Christ. Christ is the way to the Father, but the way, as to them, shall be everlastingly blocked up; the bridge shall be drawn, and the great gulf fixed: so shall they be shut up in a state of eternal separation from God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. They will be locally separated from the man Christ, and shall never come into the seat of the blessed, where he appears in his glory, but be cast out into utter darkness. Matth. xxii. 13. They cannot indeed be locally separated from God, they cannot be in a place where he is not, since he is and will be present every-where: "If I make my bed in hell," says the Psalmist, "behold thou art there," Psal. cxxxix. 8. But they shall be miserable beyond expression, in a relative separation from God. Though he will be present in the very centre of their souls, (if I may so express it) while they are wrapt up in fiery flames, in utter darkness, it shall not only be to feed them with the vinegar of his wrath, to entertain them with the emanations of his revenging justice; but they shall never taste more of his goodness and bounty, nor have the least glimpse of hope from him, They will see his heart to be absolutely alienated from them, and that it cannot be towards them; but that they are the party against whom the Lord will have an indignation for ever. They shall be deprived of the glorious presence and enjoyment of God: they shall have no part in the beatific vision, nor see any thing in God towards them, but one wave of wrath rolling at the back of another. This will bring upon them overwhelmning floods of sorrows for evermore. shall never taste of the rivers of pleasures the saints in heaven enjoy, but shall have an everlasting winter, and a perpetual night, because the Sun of righteousness has departed from them, and so they are left in utter darkness. So great as heaven's happiness is, so great will their loss be: for they can have none of it for ever.

They

This separation of the wicked from God, will be, (1.) An involuntary separation. Now they depart from him, they will not come to him though they are called, intreated, and obtested to come: but then they shall be driven away from him, when they would gladly abide with him. Although the question, "What is thy beloved more than another beloved;" is frequent now amongst the despisers of the gospel, there will be no such question among all the damned crew; for then they will see that man's happiness is only to be found in the enjoyment of God; and that the loss of him is a loss that can never be balanced. (2.) It will also be a total and utter separation. Albeit the wicked are in this life separated from God,

yet there is a kind of intercourse betwixt them; he gives them many good gifts, and they give him, at the least, some good words, so that the peace is altogether hopeless. But then there shall be a total separation, the damned being cast into utter darkness, where there will not be the least gleam of light or favour from the Lord, the which will put an end unto all their fair words to him. Lastly, it shall be a final separation; they will part with him never more to meet, being shut up under everlasting horror and despair. The match betwixt Jesus Christ and unbelievers which has so often been carried forward, and put back again, shall then be broken up for ever and never shall one message of favour or good-will go betwixt the parties any more.

This punishment of Loss in a total and final separation from God, is a misery beyond what mortals can conceive, and which the dreadful experience of the damned can only sufficiently unfold. But that we may have some conception of the horror of it, let the following things be considered.

First, God is the chief good, and therefore to be separated from him, must be the chief evil. Our native country, our relations, and our life, are good; and therefore to be deprived of them, we reckon a great evil and the better any thing is, so much the greater evil is the loss of it. Wherefore God being the chief good, and no good comparable to him, there can be no loss so great as the loss of God. The full enjoyment of him is the highest pinnacle of happiness the creature is capable of arriving at: to be fully and finally separated from him, must then be the lowest step of misery which the rational creature can be reduced to. To be cast off by men, by good men, by the best of men, is heavy: what must it then be, to be rejected of God, of goodness itself!

Secondly, God is the fountain of all goodness, from which all goodness flows unto the creatures, and by which it is continued in them, and to them. Whatever goodness or perfection, natural, as well as moral, is in any creature, it is from God, and depends upon him, as the light is from, and depends on the sun: for every created being, as such is a dependent one. Wherefore a total separation from God, wherein all comfortable communication betwixt God and a rational creature is absolutely blocked up, must of necessity bring along with it a total eclipse of all light, of comfort and ease whatsoever. If there be but one window or open place in a house, and that be quite shut up, it is evident there can be nothing but darkness in that house. Our Lord tells us, (Matth. xix. 17,) "There is none good but one, that is God." Nothing good or comfort

K k

able is originally from the creature: whatever good or comfortable thing one finds in one's self, as health of body, peace of mind; whatever sweetness, rest, pleasure, or delight one finds in other creatures, as in meat, drink, arts and sciences; all these are but some faint rays of the divine perfections communicate from God unto the creatures; and depending on a constant influence from him, for their conversation, which failing, they would immediately be gone: for it is impossible that any created thing can be to us more or better than what God makes it to be. All the rivulets of comfort we drink of, within or without ourselves, come from God, as their spring-head; the course of which towards us being stopt of necessity they must all dry up. So that when God goes, all that is good and comfortable goes with him; all ease and quiet of body or mind, Hos. ix. 12. "Wo also to them, when I depart from them." When the wicked are totally and finally separated from him, all that is comfortable in them, or about them, returns to its fountain, as the light goes away with the sun, and darkness succeeds in the room thereof. Thus in their separation from God, all peace is removed far away from them, and pain in body and anguish of soul succeed to it: all joy goes, and unmixed sorrow settles in them: all quiet and rest separates from them, and they are filled with horror and rage; hope flees away, and despair seizeth them; common operations of the Spirit, which now restrain them, are withdrawn for ever, and sin comes to its utmost height And thus we have a dismal view of the horrible spectacle of sin and misery, which a creature proves, when totally separated from God, and left to itself; and one may see this separation to be the very hell of hell.

Being separated from God, they are deprived of all good. The good things which they set their heart upon in this world, are beyond their reach there. The covetous man cannot enjoy his wealth there; nor the ambitious man his honours; nor the sensual man his pleasures, no not a drop of water to cool his tongue, Luke xvi. 34, 35. No meat nor drink there to strengthen the saint; no sleep to refresh the weary; and no music, nor pleasant company to comfort and cheer up the sorrowful. And as for these good things they despised in the world, they shall never more hear of them, nor see them. No offers of Christ there, no pardons, no peace; no wells of salvation in the pit of destruction. In one word, they shall be deprived of whatsoever might comfort them, being totally and finally separated from God, the fountain of all goodness.

Thirdly, Man naturally desires to be happy, being withal conscious to himself that he is not self-sufficient; and therefore has

ever a desire of something without himself to make him happy: and the soul being by its natural make and constitution capable of enjoying God, and nothing else being commensurable to its desires, it can never have true solid rest, till it rest in the enjoyment of God. This desire of happiness the rational creature can never lay aside, no not in hell. Now while the wicked are on earth, they seek their satisfaction in the creature: and when one fails, they go to another; thus they put off their time in the world, deceiving their own souls, and luring them on with vain hopes. But in the other world, all comfort in the creature having failed together at once; and the shadows they are now pursuing, having all of them vanished in a moment, they shall be totally and finally separated from God, and see they have thus lost him. So the doors of earth and heaven both are shut against them at once. This will create them unspeakable anguish, while they shall live under an eternal gnawing hunger after happiness, which they certainly know shall never be in the least measure satisfied, all doors being closed on them. Who then can imagine how this separation from God shall cut the damned to the heart! How will they roar and rage under it! And how it will sting them and gnaw them through the ages of eternity!

Fourthly, The damned shall know that some are perfectly happy in the enjoyment of that God from whom they themselves are separate: And this will aggravate the sense of their loss, that they can never have any share with these happy ones. Being separated from God, they are separated from the society of the glorified saints and angels. They may see "Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom," (Luke xvi. 23,) but can never come into their company, being as unclean lepers thrust out without the camp, and excommunicated from the presence of the Lord, and of all his holy ones. It is the opinion of some, that every person in heaven or hell, shall hear and see all that passeth in either state. Whatever is to be said of this, we have ground from the word to conclude, that the damned shall have a very exquisite knowledge of the happiness of the saints in heaven; for what else can be meant by the rich man in hell seeing Lazarus in Abraham's bosom? One thing is plain in this case, that their own torments will give them such notions of the happiness of the saints, as a sick man has of health, or a prisoner has of liberty. And as they cannot fail of reflecting on the happiness of those in heaven, more then they can attain to contentment with their own lot; so every thought of that happiness will aggravate their loss. It would be a mighty torment to a hungry man, to see others liberally feasting, while

he is so chained up as he cannot have one crumb to stay his gnawing appetite. To bring music and dancing before a man labouring under extreme pains, would but increase his anguish: How then will the songs of the blessed, in their enjoyment of God, make the damned roar under their separation from him!

Fifthly, They will remember that time was, when they might have been made partakers of the blessed state of the saints, in their enjoyment of God: and this will aggravate their sense of the loss. All may remember, there was once a possibility of it; that sometime they were in the world, in some corners of which the way of salvation was laid open to men's view; and may wish they had gone round the world till they had found it out. Despisers of the gospel will remember with bitterness, that Jesus Christ with all his benefits was offered to them, that they were exhorted, entreated, and pressed to accept, but would not; and that they were warned of the misery they feel, and obtested to flee from the wrath to come, but they would not hearken. The gospel-offer slighted, will make a hot hell; and the loss of an offered heaven, will be a sinking weight on the spirits of unbelievers in the pit. Some will remember that there was a probability of their being eternally happy; that sometime they seemed to stand fair for it, and were not far from the kingdom of God; that they had once almost consented to the blessed bargain, the pen was in their hand (as it were) to sign the marriage-contract betwixt Christ and their souls; but unhappily they dropped it, and turned back from the Lord to their lusts again. And others will remember, that they thought themselves sure of heaven, but being blinded with pride and self-conceit, they were above ordinances, and beyond instruction, and would not examine their state, which was their ruin: But then they shall in vain wish they had reputed themselves the worst of the congregation in which they lived, and curse the fond conceit they had of themselves, and that others had of them too. Thus it will sting the damned, that they might have escaped their loss.

Lastly, They will see the loss to be irrecoverable; that they must eternally lie under it never, never, to be repaired. Might the damned after millions of ages in hell, regain what they have lost, it would be some ground of hope: but the prize is gone, and can never be recovered. And there are two things here, which will pierce them to the heart. (1.) That they never knew the worth of it, till it was irrecoverably lost. Should a man give away an earthen pot full of gold for a trifle, never knowing what was in it, till it was quite gone from him,