Let us enlarge on these two particulars, and then, as was proposed, 3dly, Earnestly address both saints and sinners on this important subject. And, 1st. Their once holy and happy nature shall then be utterly ruined, and all their comforts and hopes finally destroyed.

1. Indeed their holiness and happiness was in reality lost in this world, although not irrecoverably. Even here, where "the true light enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world," they were depraved by sin, and immersed in misery, but they knew it not. Being laid fast asleep by the opiates of Satan, and amused by many pleasing dreams of worldly vanity, invented in great variety to employ and entertain them, they wist not what had befallen them. But intoxicated with the enchanting cup of pleasure, ' and in the midst of their midnight slumbers, though plunged in the filth of iniquity, and fast bound by gigantic lusts, they talked much of the purity of their nature, the freedom of their will, and the light and liberty in which they walked. Though the devil's captives, confined by him in the prison of sin, bolted and barred by unbelief, and in the territories of hell; yet were they as easy unconcerned, as if they had been possessed of all possible honour and felicity.

and

2. At times, indeed, the stormy blast of adversity, the painful smart of affliction, or the terror of God's threatenings, disturbed their repose, and almost awakened their sleepy souls: but another draught of Satan's cup stupifying their senses, and the agreeable song of" Peace, peace," sounding in their ears, lulled them to sleep again, while sin silently doubled their fetters and chains, and unbelief, stopping up every avenue of divine light, added fresh locks and bolts to their prison-doors.And now they sleep more securely, and dream more madly than ever.-No sooner do they end one dream than they begin another. Scenes of business and amusement continually open one behind the back of another, that they may not awake out of their fatal slumber, till the officers of divine justice break open their hellish prison, and bring them forth by death for execution, when the time of their probation being ended, the things which make for their peace are for ever hid from their eyes.

3. Then their sleeping and dreaming end together. They suddenly awake to a most keen and dreadful sense of the ruin of their nature, and the final death of all their comforts and their hopes. They feel, in a manner words cannot describe, from what a height of holiness and happiness, into what a depth of guilt and misery they are fallen.Destitute of their Maker's image, and con

founded at the discovery of their nakedness and deformity, they fly from the presence of the light, and the sight of saints and angels, now intolerable; and overwhelmed with shame and everlasting contempt, seek for refuge from the anguish they suffer under the shades of infernal darkness. But alas! the flames of hell, though black and dismal, afford light enough to demonstrate their folly and depravity, while the arrows of almighty indignation, prepared by inexorable justice, and directed by unerring wisdom, pursue and overtake them, and piercing them through with unknown sorrows, lay them low at the bottom of that fiery lake, which, fed with streams of brimstone, and kindled by the breath of Jehovah, swells, overflows, and torments their ruined souls!

4. Their once holy and happy nature is now ruined, utterly and finally ruined, without any remedy, or the most distant hope of recovery. Their frail vessels, though built of the best materials, yet corrupted by the worm of sin, being conveyed by the ebb of time down the smooth river of life, are now hurried beyond the bar of death, into the fiery and unfathomable sea of divine wrath. In this most tempestuous ocean, tossed by the furious winds of almighty indignation, upon the raging billows of insupportable torment, they suffer a speedy and an eternal shipwreck. Dashed upon the rocks of ruin, or swallowed up in the gulf of despair, they are entirely lost, and not one broken piece of holiness or happiness remains, nor so much as a single plank of hope upon which they may expect, though after millions of ages, to escape to some land of rest. But,

"The hopeless soul,

Bound to the bottom of the flaming pool,
Tho' loath, and ever loud blaspheming, own's
'Tis justly doom'd to pour eternal groans;
To talk to fiery tempests, and implore
The raging flame to give its fury o'er;
To writhe, to toss, to pant beneath its load,
And bear the weight of an offended God."

And now they have no sleepy opiates to make them forget for one moment their misery: no amusement to divert their attention from their intolerable pain, and no consolation left to lighten, in any degree, the dreadful weight of their sufferings !

5. In their most distressing situation here, some alleviating circumstances rendered their affliction tolerable.-Some remaining good in part relieved them under their greatest losses; some cordial,

timely administered, supported them under their severest troubles, and some sympathizing friend, kindly interposing, took a share of their cares upon himself, and helped them to bear the burden of their wo. Or if these things all failed, and they were reduced to the very extremity of distress, yet even then hope, flattering hope, which in this world

"Springs eternal in the human breast,"

darting a ray of comfort through the gloom, prevented their case from becoming desperate. But now there is the reverse of all this. All, all is lost, entirely lost, and nothing of good remains! Every possible evil hath befallen them, and with every possible circumstance of aggravation! No condoling friend lightens their load of sorrow! No beam of hope promises any advantageous change! But on the contrary, tormenting fiends and malicious spirits add to their weight of sufferings by cruel upbraidings; and black despair, hovering over their desponding souls, flaps his raven wings, and foretells an eternity of wo! In those

"Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where joy,
Where peace can never come, hope never comes,
That comes to all: but torment without end
Still urges, and a fiery deluge fed

With ever-burning sulphur unconsum'd."

But further, (if we have courage to venture further into these dreary territories of the prince of darkness,) the destruction spoken of in our text implies,

2dly, The entire perversion of all their faculties, so that they serve only to increase their torment, and render them most com. pletely wretched. Let us consider them briefly and in order.

1. The imagination, freed from every clog wherewith its motions were once impeded, when it was encumbered by flesh and blood, being now rendered quick and active as a disembodied spirit, is perpetually traversing, with incredible speed and unwearied diligence, the gloomy regions of hell in quest of wo. And having collected together every consideration of horror. it clothes them all in the most hideous forms, and thereby keeps the poor, affrighted soul, in continual terror and dismay.-The understanding, cleared of all the mists of ignorance and fumes of prejudice, wherewith it was obscured in this world, and now discerning every thing in its true light, is ever unhappily busied in comparing the

joys of heaven with the torments of hell, and contrasting the hap piness they have lost, with the misery they have incurred. It remonstrates, in terms which wound and pierce their inmost souls, upon their ingratitude, folly, and perverseness, in rejecting a felicity so valuable in itself, so dearly bought, and so freely and repeatedly offered; while in contradiction to reason, to duty, and to interest; against the clearest light and the greatest love; notwithstanding the most solemn warnings and earnest entreaties, the exhortations, prayers, tears, and blood of the Son of God himself, they knowingly and wilfully plunged into a depth of wo, from whence there is no redemption.

2. In this work of torment, the understanding receives no small assistance from the memory, now strengthened to an amazing degree. This faculty brings in review their whole life, and presents to the active mind an endless variety of circumstances, which only tend, like oil poured into the fire, to feed the flames of their misery, and make them burn with more unabating fury.-It reminds them, on the one hand, of the many and undeserved mercies of a kind Creator, a patient Preserver, and a gracious Redeemer, which might have warmed the coldest breast with fervent gratitude and love; and on the other, of the various and alarming judgments executed by the righteous Governor of the world, for the terror of evil-doers, which might have broken in pieces the most rocky and adamantine heart. But their breasts remained, after all, still cold as ice, and their hearts hard as a nether millstone. It brings to their remembrance the superintending care of a kind and watchful Providence, which perpetually and wisely ordered all for their good, removed their hindrances, afforded them helps, and put them in the most favourable circumstances for their restoration. But they preversely, by a diabolical skill in spiritual chymistry, extracted a bitter out of every sweet, turned their helps into hindrances, and their good into evil!

3. By the help of the memory, they recollect the many, free, and gracious offers of reconciliation which were made them by the ambassadors of Christ, accompanied with repeated and pressing invitations, to accept those offers; and faithful warnings of approaching misery, if they neglected them. They remember how all these were, time after time, attended by the influences of the Spirit, disposing their minds to consider and improve them. At times they were inclined to comply, and almost persuaded to be Christians; especially when an alarming Providence cut off, by a sudden and unexpected stroke, some near relation or dear friend,

or laid a heavy hand of affliction upon themselves. But alas! some hurry of idle business occupied their minds, some phantom of empty applause engaged their pursuit, some intoxicating draught of the cup of pleasure, unhappily taken, drowned their convictions, or some frothy company or vain amusement, diverted their attention from the one thing needful! And thus they have for ever lost that exceeding great and eternal weight of glory, which they had once so fair an opportunity of attaining, and sunk into an unfathomable depth of wo, out of which there is no deliverance! 4. In the meantime, conscience is not idle. Once, indeed,

"She seem'd to sleep

On rose and myrtle, lull'd with siren song:
'Once she seem'd nodding o'er her charge, to drop

On headlong appetite the slacken'd rein,

And give them up to license unrecall'd."

But it was all deceit. Even then she registered all their thoughts, and words, and works, and kept a faithful and circumstantial account of their whole conduct. No temper of mind, no action of life, escaped her observation; but

"The sly informer noted every fault,
And her dread diary with horror fill'd:
Unnotic'd, mark'd each moment misapplied
On leaves more durable than those of brass:

Wrote their whole history, which now she reads
In every pale delinquent's private ear."

For being no longer bribed by sin, nor stupified by excess, conscience now tells them the truth, the whole truth, and that in accents most dreadfully severe, from which they can no longer turn away their ears.

5. They are now obliged to hearken, however reluctant, to the tormenting history which conscience minutely gives them, of the sabbaths they have broken, the ordinances they have profaned, the oaths they have sworn, the lies they have told, the acts of uncleanness, intemperance, fraud, and oppression, they have committed, the mercies they have abused, the judgments they have slighted. She gives them a particular detail of all the instances of their ingratitude and disobedience to him, who was at once their most indulgent parent and bountiful benefactor: and enlarges much upon their hypocrisy before an heart-searching God, their formality in the worship of him who is a Spirit, and their