SER M. out the remarks and reflections of others, they XXIII. would chufe to be without them, and throw them away as troublesome and uneafy trifles.

them

All the pleasure this world affords, beyond the neceffary supplies and conveniencies of nature, is fo inconfiderable that it is hardly mist; and nothing makes them agreeable to us but the being used to them; nothing but custom and opinion renders many of them tolerable : And if we confider the matter juftly, there is no fuch thing as real and pofitive happiness in this world; fince most of the enjoyments in it are only the supplying the defects of nature, and ridding it from uneafiness at the present. We eat only to cure the gnawings of an empty stomach; we drink to quench the irksome violence of thirst; we clothe ourselves to prevent the pain of cold and nakedness; and thus it is in moft other inftances: All that we do is not to make us happy, but to prevent a little prefent mifery and uneafinefs; when we are at the height of all worldly enjoyments: even a pain in our finger fhall make them all vanish like a dream, and rob us of all guft and relish of them; and though there were no interruption from any pain in the body, yet, even in the most hardened finners, there is fome remorfe of confcience always attending the committal of fin, which palls the enjoyment: Nor are all the pleasures of this life, in their greatest purity, comparable to the fecret complacence and the real positive satisfaction of mind, which

follows

follows the cutting off a fin, and the conqueft S ER M. of a strong temptation; fo little are they worth XXIII. buying at the rate of our fouls, and the being caft into hell fire,

Alas! how low and mean, and wretched are all those things that are called enjoyments in this world! The gratifying mens brutish appetites, a little fine cloaths and equipage, a few meats and drinks extraordinary; the privilege to fit, or go before other people; a few glittering titles, and to be called by fome other name befides their own; to have their house a little larger than others, and many useless things about them to look at every day; and above all to have a confiderable fum of money to leave behind them when they die. Thefe are the things which go by the name of pleafure and enjoyment, which people are as fond of as they are of their eyes; daily purchase at the price of their fouls, and will rather be caft into hell fire than part with them. This is fuch a degree of folly and madness as men will never be thoroughly fenfible of, till they come to another world; it is as if one should drink a glass of deadly poifon, only that they might taste the sweet of it while it is going down: But then they will feel how little it profits a man to gain the whole world and lofe his own foul, and how much better it is to pluck out the eye that offended them, than having two eyes to be caft into hell fire.

II. If we should suppose the finful pleasures of this life, to be as great as the moft corrupt

and

SER M. and defiled imagination can represent them, XXIII. yet they will last but for a fhort time; the longeft is but for the life of the man, and then this world paffeth away, and the luft thereof, and all that is in it; the luft of the flesh, the luft of the eye, and the pride of life disappears; then the scene changes, and they are fucceeded by an eternity of woe and mifery; a fure and certain change! and then the greater their pleafure was before, the more they enjoyed of their good things in this life, the more unfupportable will be that state of misery, which fhall never have an end.

Now, the eternity of thofe torments is the great aggravation, here mentioned, of that woe, which shall be the punishment of fin; and of the folly of making fuch an exchange, by enjoying the pleasures of fin for a feafon, to be caft into hell, where their worm dies not, and their fire is not quenched.

This was a received form of speaking among the Jews; who as the fon of Syrach says, vii, 17. were generally of an opinion, that the vengeance prepared for the ungodly confifted in fire and worms. The moft probable account how it came to be fo was this: Among the Jews, the utmost feverity they executed. upon malefactors for any grievous offence was,

not to fuffer them to be buried after execution; and the place they caft their dead bodies into, was the valley of Hinnom, a little dif tance from Jerufalem, where they lay till their flesh was eaten up of worms, and then their

bones

bones were burnt to ashes in a fire kept always SER M. there for that purpose; from which fire, toge-XXIII. ther with that fuppofed to be in the fame valley, where the idolatrous Jews burnt human facrifices to their idols, the extreme punishment of wicked men in another world was ufually fignified amongst them, by that of fire and worms; and the being caft into a place of torment hereafter, was fignified by the being caft into Gehenna, (i. e.) the valley of Hinnom.

Now from hence the words are transferred by our Saviour, to fignify the torments of the damned. And

ift, He fays their worm fhall never die; which expreffion hath been used to fignify the torments of the mind, as that of fire expreffes the punishment of the body; and it aptly represents to us that everlasting remorfe of confcience, which fhall be the confequence of guilt in another world; fhame and remorfe and anguish of mind, are the infeparable companions of guilt, and people never fail to find it while they are young finners, till by habits of finning it becomes fo familiar to them, that in time they wear off all sense of it, and by this means the worm of confcience dies in this world; yet it fhall be revived again in the other, where we are told it fhall never die.

How exquifite a punishment this will be, is impoffible to conceive, till men come to know what that kingdom of heaven is which they

SER M. have loft, and at how great a diftance their XXIII. fins have placed them from God, whofe

pre

fence alone can make us infinitely happy, and preferve us from being miferable; yet there are two things which may help us to fome

notion of it.

I. One is, that compunction of mind, and anguish of heart, which every fincere penitent feels for his past fins; that forrow which (as the Apoftle fpeaks) works a repentance never to be repented of. What this is, thofe alone can be fenfible of who have felt it; in fome it is fo great that it leaves a lafting impreffion on their minds, it dwells upon their fpirits; fo that they can searce be faid to enjoy any thing in this world: In the whole courfe of their lives they cannot lift up their eyes to heaven with chearfulnefs; and their greateft hopes have a mixture of defpondency. But above all the most pungent fenfe of guilt is that which follows the committal of a fin, after the ftrength of the temptation was broke, and after a long confirmed habit of the contrary virtue: This renews the wounds of confcience, it makes them bleed afrefh, and all before feemed but a fmarting, in comparison of that raging pain in fuch a perfon's mind; he hath now many additional degrees of folly to upbraid himself with; he is now under the displeasure of God, who was once in his favour: The bitterness of his foul is fuch, that his flesh trembles for fear of God, and he is afraid of Lis judgments.

Now