that is, their torment is continual, and it is eternal. Their second death shall be but a dying to all felicity, for so death is taken in scripture; Adam died when he ate the forbidden fruit; that is, he was liable to sickness and sorrows, and pain and dissolution of soul and body: and to be miserable, is the worse death of the two: they shall see the eternal felicity of the saints, but they shall never taste of the holy chalice. Those joys shall indeed be for ever and ever; for immortality is part of their reward, and on them the second death shall have no power; but the wicked shall be tormented horribly and insufferably till death and hell be thrown into the lake of fire, and shall be no more, which is the second death.* But that they may not imagine that this second death shall be the end of their pains, St. John speaks expressly what that is, Rev. The fearful and unbelieving, the abominable and the murderers, the whoremongers and sorcerers, the idolaters and all liars, shall have their part in the lake, which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death; no dying there, but a being tormented, burning in a lake of fire, that is the second death. For if life be reckoned a blessing, then to be destitute of all blessing is to have no life, and, therefore, to be intolerably miserable is this second death, that is, death eternal. xxi. 8. 3. And yet if God should deal with man hereafter more mercifully and proportionably to his weak nature, than he does to angels, and as he admits him to repentance here, so in hell also to a period of his smart, even when he keeps the angels in pain for ever; yet he will never admit him to favour, he shall be tormented beyond all the measure of human ages, and be destroyed for ever and ever. *Rev. xx. 14. It concerns us all, who hear and believe these things, to do as our blessed Lord will do before the day of his coming; he will call and convert the Jews and strangers: conversion to God is the best preparatory to dooms-day and it concerns all them, who are in the neighbourhood and fringes of the flames of hell, that is, in the state of sin, quickly to arise from the danger, and shake the burning coals off our flesh, lest it consume the marrow and the bones: exuenda est velociter de incendio sarcina, priusquam flammis supervenientibus concremetur. Nemo diu tutus est periculo proximus, saith St. Cyprian, no man is safe long, that is so near to danger; for suddenly the change will come, in which the Judge shall be called to judgment, and no man to plead for him, unless a good conscience be his advocate; and the rich shall be naked, as a condemned criminal to execution; and there shall be no regard of princes or of nobles, and the differences of men's account shall be forgotten, and no distinction remaining but of good or bad, sheep and goats, blessed and accursed souls. Among the wonders of the day of judgment, our blessed Saviour reckons it, that men shall be marrying and giving in marriage, queso marrying and cross-marrying, that is, raising families and lasting greatness and huge estates; when the world is to end so quickly, and the gains of a rich purchase so very a trifle, but no trifling danger; a thing that can give no security to our souls, but much hazard and a great charge. More reasonable it is, that we despise the world and lay up for heaven, that we heap up treasures by giving alms, and make friends of unrighteous Mammon ; but at no hand to enter into a state of life, that is all the way a hazard to the main interest, and, at the best, an increase of the particular charge. Every degree of riches, every degree of greatness, every ambitious employment, every great fortune, every eminency above our brother, is a charge to the accounts of the last day. day. He that lives temperately and charitably, whose employment is religion, whose affections are fear and love, whose desires are after heaven, and do not dwell below; that man can long and pray for the hastening of the coming of the day of the Lord. He that does not really desire and long for that day, either is in a very ill condition, or does not understand that he is in a good. I will not be so severe in this meditation as to forbid any man to laugh, that believes himself shall be called to so severe a judgment; yet St. Hierom said it, coram coelo et terra rationem reddemus totius nostrae vitae ; et tu rides? Heaven and earth shall see all the follies and baseness of thy life, and dost thou laugh? That we may, but we have not reason to laugh loudly and frequently, if we consider things wisely, and as we are concerned : but if we do, yet praesentis temporis ita est agenda laetitia, ut sequentis judicii amaritudo nunquam recedat a memoria so laugh here that you may not forget your danger, lest you weep for ever. He that thinks most seriously and most frequently of this fearful appearance, will find that it is better staying for his joys till this sentence be past; for then he shall perceive, whether he hath reason or no. In the mean time wonder not, that God who loves mankind so well, should punish him so severely: for therefore the evil fall into an accursed portion, because they despised that, which God most loves, his Son and his mercies, his graces and his Holy Spirit; and they that do all this, have cause to complain of nothing but their own follies; and they shall feel the accursed consequents then, when they shall see the Judge sit above them, angry and severe, inexorable and terrible; under them an intolerable hell, within them, their consciences clamorous and diseased; without them, 10 VOL. I. all the world on fire; on the right hand, those men glorified whom they persecuted or despised; on the left hand, the devils accusing; for this is the day of the Lord's terrour, and who is able to abide it? Seu vigilo intentus studiis, seu dormio, semper * In all events, let ever in mine ear The dreadful summons of THE JUDGE resound. SERMON IV. THE RETURN OF PRAYERS; OR, THE CONDITIONS OF A PREVAILING PRAYER. JOHN ix. 31. Now we know, that God heareth not Sinners, but if any Man be a Worshipper of God, and doth his Will, him he heareth. I KNOW not which is the greater wonder, either that prayer which is a duty so easy and facile, so ready and apted to the powers, and skill, and opportunities of every man, should have so great effects, and be productive of such mighty blessings; or, that we should be so unwilling to use so easy an instrument of procuring so much good. The first declares God's goodness, but this publishes man's folly and weakness, who finds in himself so much difficulty to perform a condition so easy and full of advantage. But the order of this felicity is knotted like the foldings of a serpent; all those parts of easiness which invite us to do the duty, are become like the joints of a bulrush, not bendings, but consolidations and stiffenings; the very facility becomes its objection, and in every of its stages, we make or find a huge uneasiness. At first we do not know what to ask; and when we |