ther thou art an heir of heaven, or not. And that is the main thing that I desire, that if thou be yet miserable, thou mayest discern it, and escape it. But canst thou escape, if thou neglect Christ and salvation? "If thou love father, mother, wife, children, houses, lands, or thine own life, better than Christ; if so, thou canst not be his disciple." And consequently canst never be saved by him. Is it not as impossible for thee to be saved, " except thou be born again," as it is for the devils themselves to be saved? Nay, God hath more. plainly and frequently spoken it in the Scripture, that such sinners as thou shalt never be saved, than he hath done, that the devils shall never be saved. And do not these tidings go cold to thy heart? Methinks, but that there is yet life and hope before thee, and thou hast yet time and means to have thy soul recovered, the sight of thy case should even strike thee dead with amazement. But because I would fain have thee, if it be possible, to lay it to heart, I will here stay a little longer, and show thee, first, the greatness of thy loss; secondly, the aggravations of thy unhappiness in this loss; thirdly, the positive miseries that thou must endure, with their aggravations.

First, The ungodly, in their loss of heaven, lose all that glorious personal perfection, which the people of God there enjoy. They lose that shining lustre of the body, surpassing the brightness of the sun. Though even the bodies of the wicked will be raised incorruptible, yet that will be so far from being happiness to them, that it only makes them capable of the more exquisite torments. They would be glad then, if every member were a dead member, that it might not feel the punishment inflicted on it; and the whole body were a rotten carcass, or might again lie down in dust and darkness. Much more do they want that moral perfection which the blessed partake of; those holy dispositions; that blessed conformity to the holiness of God; that cheerful readiness to do his will; that perfect rectitude of all their actions: instead of these, they have their old ulcerous, deformed souls, that perverseness of will, that disorder in their faculties, that loathing of good, that love to evil, that violence of passion, which they had on

earth. It is true, their understandings will be much cleared, both by the ceasing of temptation and deluding objects, and by the sad experience which they will have in hell, of the falsehood of their former conceits and delusions. But the evil disposition is never the more `changed; they have the same disposition still, and fain would commit the same sins, if they could; they want but opportunity. Certainly they shall have none of the glorious perfections of the saints, either in soul or body. There will be a greater difference between these wretches and the glorified Christians, than there is betwixt a toad and the sun in the firmament.

Secondly, But the great loss of the damned, will be their loss of God; they shall have no comfortable relation to him, nor communion with him. As "they did not like to retain God in their knowledge;" but bid him "depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways: ::" so God will abhor to retain them in his household, or to give them entertainment in his fellowship and glory. He will never admit them to the inheritance of his saints, nor endure them to stand among them in his presence; but bid them, “ Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity, I know you not." Now these

men dare belie the Lord, if not blaspheme, in calling him by the title of their Father; how boldly and confidently do they daily approach him with their lips, and indeed reproach him in their formal prayers, with that appellation? as if God would father the devil's children; or, as if the slighters of Christ, the friends of the world, the haters of godliness, or any that delight in iniquity, were the offspring of heaven! They are ready now to lay confident claims to Christ, as if they were sincere believers. But when that time is come, and Christ will separate his followers from his foes, and his faithful friends from his deceived flatterers, where then will be their presumptuous claim? Then they shall find that God is not their father, but their foe, because they would not be his people. And as they would not consent that God should, by his Spirit, dwell in them, so shall not these evil doers dwell with him: the tabernacles of wickedness shall have no fellowship with him; nor the wicked inhabit the city of God: "for without are dogs,

sorcerers, whoremongers, murderers, idolaters, and whatsoever loveth and maketh a lie." God is first en

joyed in part on earth, before he be fully enjoyed in heaven. It is only they that walked with him here, who shall live and be happy with him there. O, little doth the world know what a loss that soul hath, who loseth God! What were the world but a dungeon, if it had lost the sun? What were the body but a loathsome carrion, if it had lost the soul? Yet all these are nothing to the loss of God. So that as the enjoyment of God is the heaven of the saints; so the loss of God is the hell of the ungodly. And as the enjoying of God is the enjoying of all; so the loss of God is the loss of all.

Thirdly, As they lose God, so they lose all those delightful affections and actions by which the blessed feed on God: that transporting knowledge; those ravishing views of his glorious face; the inconceivable pleasure of loving God; the apprehensions of his infinite love to us; the constant joys which his saints are taken up with; and the rivers of consolation wherewith he doth satisfy them. Is it nothing to lose all this? The employment of a king in ruling a kingdom doth not so far exceed the employment of the vilest slave, as this heavenly employment exceedeth his.

Fourthly, They shall be deprived of the blessed society of angels and glorified saints. Instead of being companions of those happy spirits, and numbered with those joyful and triumphing kings, they must now be members of the corporation of hell, where they shall have companions of a far different nature. While they lived on earth, they loathed the saints; they imprisoned, banished them, and cast them out of their societies, or at least they would not be their companions in labour and in sufferings; and therefore they shall not now be their companions in their glory. Now you are shut out of that company, from which you first shut out yourselves; and are separated from them whom you would not be joined with. You could not endure them in your houses, nor in your town, nor scarce in the kingdom; you took them as Ahab did Elias, for the "troublers of the land;" and as the apostles were taken for "men that turned the world upside down:" if any thing fell

out amiss, you thought all was through them. When they were dead, or banished, you were glad they were gone; and thought the country was well rid of them. They molested you with their faithful reproving your sin; their holy conversation troubled you. You scarce ever heard them pray or sing praises in their families, but it was a vexation to you; and you envied their liberty of worshipping God. And is it then any wonder if you be separated from them hereafter! The day is near when they will trouble you no more: betwixt them and you will be a great gulf set, that those that would pass from thence to you (if any had a desire to ease you with a drop of water) cannot, neither can they pass to them, who would go from you.

CHAPTER II.

THE AGGRAVATION OF THE LOSS OF HEAVEN TO THE UNGODLY.

I KNOW many will be ready to think, if this be all, they do not much care. What care they for losing the perfections above? What care they for losing God, his favour, or his presence? They lived merrily without him on earth, and why should it be so grievous to be without him hereafter? And what care they for being deprived of that love, and joy, and praising of God? They never tasted sweetness in the things of that nature; or what care they for being deprived of the fellowship of angels and saints? They could spare their company in this world well enough, and why may they not be without it in the world to come? To make these men therefore understand the truth of their future condition, I will here annex these two things:

1. I will show you why this loss will be intolerable, and most tormenting then, though it seem as nothing

now.

2. I will show you what other losses will accompany these; which, though they are less in themselves, yet will now be more sensibly apprehended.

1. Then that this loss of heaven will be most tormenting, may appear by these considerations :—

1. The understandings of the ungodly will be then cleared, to know the worth of that which they have lost. Now they lament not their loss of God, because they never knew his excellence, nor the loss of that holy employment and society, for they were never sensible what they were worth. A man that hath lost a jewel, and took it but for a common stone, is never troubled at his loss; but when he comes to know what he has lost, then he lamenteth it.

Though the understandings of the damned will not then be sanctified; yet will they be cleared from a multitude of errors. They think now that their honour, their estates, their pleasures, their health and life, are better worth their labour, than the things of another world; but when these things which had their hearts have left them in misery, when they know by experience, the things which before they did but read and hear of, they will be quite in another mind. They would not believe that water would drown, till they were in the sea; nor that the fire would burn, till they were cast into it; but when they feel it, they will easily believe. All that error of their mind which made them set light by God, and abhor his worship, and vilify his people, will then be removed by experience; their knowledge shall be increased, that their sorrows may be increased. Doubtless those poor souls would be comparatively happy, if their understandings were wholly taken from them, if they had no more knowledge than idiots, or brute beasts; or if they knew no more in hell than they did upon earth, their loss and misery would then less trouble them.

How happy would they now think themselves, if they did not know there is such a place as heaven? Now, when their knowledge would help to prevent their misery, they will not know; but then, when their knowledge will but feed their consuming fire, they shall know whether they will or not.

2. The loss of heaven will more torment them then, because, as the understanding will be clearer, so it will be more enlarged, and made more capacious, to conceive of the worth of that glory which they have lost. The strength of their apprehensions, as well as the truth of