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not Tormented in it, but Deftroyed by it, though it remains ftill as a Monument of God's Justice and Vengeance upon Sinners, for the Smoke of their Torment afcending for ever, fup. pofes them to be for ever Tormented, and their having no reft Night nor Day, neceffarily implyes this. Befides, as it is faid, The fire is not quenched, nor never goes out; fo it is faid alfo, that their worm never Dyes. Now though the Fire might poffibly continue without its proper fubject, yet the Worm there meant never can, for that is only that Anguifh, and Remorfe, and vexatious reflection of Mind, which if it never Dye, the fubject of it must laft,and continue,and fuffer it for ever. So that. though our Socinian Adverfaries avoid the other places of Everlafting Punishment,and Everlast ing and unquenchable Fire, with fome Art and Sophiftry, yet they can never evade those of the Worms never dying, and of the smoke of their Torments going up for ever, and their ha ving no reft Day nor Night, Rev. 14. II.

But not to difpute further of thefe matters, let the Sinner feriously confider and meditate. of thefe infinitely great, and infinitely lasting and never ending Torments. If there be fuch a thing as Hell, it concerns him highly to Re pent, and fo take care to avoid it. If he do not think this to be true, but fecretly disbe lieve it, he must disbelieve all Religion, and all Revelation, and run into the urmoft Mad nefs of Scepticifm and Atheism; and then let him confider, that 'tis not his Belief makes things to be true or falfe, but whatever he thinks

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thinks of them, they are and will be what they are in themfelves; and 'tis certain he can never know them to be falfe, however he is inclined to believe them fo; and therefofe were they never fo uncertain, and were it but merely probable, or indeed poffible, that there fhould be any fuch thing, yet no Man in his Wits fhould run the venture, and lye open to fo Prodigious and Dreadful. an Hazard as an Eternity of Mifery. But to fuch Chrifiians that firmly believe them, and have all Reafon fo to do both from Revelation and Reason too, for all Mankind had ever fome Belief and Expectations of fad Punishments in another World for Wickedness, to them 'tis unaccountable Folly and Madness to live in fuch Sins, and in fuch courfes, as will throw them into this unquenchable Fire, and confign them to this dreadful and everlafling ftate of Milery. Is there any Sin whole harms are fo great, whofe Gains are fo tempting, that for the enjoyment of all thefe for a little Seaton, 'tis worth enduring the Torments of Hell for ever?

If thefe Terrors of the Lord will not perwade Men to Repent and Leave their Sins, nothing will, Yet there is one or two other Motives or Arguments to Repentance from Christianity, which I muft propofe after this of Hell, and all the reft, namely,

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SECT. V.

Other Gospel Motives to Repentance.

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6. Nother Motive which may be faid to be peculiar to the Gofpel, and which fhould encourage to Repentance above all others, is the Promife of the Divine Grace and Holy Spirit to enable us to perform it, to affift us to overcome all our evil Habits, and to Mafter all the Corruptions and Imperfections of Human Nature, to conquer all thofe Sins that are thought never fo difficult, or even infuperable to Flesh and Blood, and to practice all thofe Vertues that are moft contrary to our Natural Temper or Senfual Inclinations. Be there never fo many Arguments to the doing of a thing, and never fo much danger in not doing it, be it never fo great and important,or never fo neceffary, yet if after all, a Man be without power and without ability to do it, they will be all in vain, and to no more purpofe, than to perfwade a Blind Man to fee by the conveniency of that Senfe, or a Lame Mau to run by the danger he may otherwife be in, or a Man tumbling from a precipice to top before he falls to the bottom, tis only to mock and deride us with Motives and Arguments to a thing, if it be wholly out of our power to effect it, and therefore there is no fuch Motive to the doing a thing that we are otherwife perfwaded is of great

Moment and Importance, as to be affured of fufficient power to enable us to go through with it, without which all our Vigour will be dampt, and all the Sinews of Industry cut, and all our Endeavours blasted, by which we fhould fet about it, and we fhall run the Cenfure of thofe foolish Undertakers our Saviour fpeaks of, Luke 14. who would make War, or build a Tower, without power to go on with it.God has therefore given us the greatest Encouragement by the Gofpel, that can be to fet upon the practice, as of all other Duties, fo efpecially of this hard one of Repentance, when he thereby affures us, that his Grace fhall be fufficient for us, that he worketh in us both to will and to do, that his Spirit fhall be given us, and abide with us for ever, and that we shall be mightily strengthened by it in the inner Man; lo that a new, and ftrong, and vital Principle, fhall be added to Human Nature to ftrengthen its Weakness, repair its Decays, recruit its Forces, fupport its feeble Powers, raise its funk flate, and refore it to the Vertue and Perfection it had loft by its Sins. How weak and decayed, how corrupted and degenerated Human Nature was of its felt, both Scripture and our own Experience do fufficiently teach us; how ftrong and violent our Paffions are, and how weak our Reafon to Master and Govern them; how prone the Will is to consent to what is evil be it but a little grateful to Flesh and Blood, and what strong Proclivities and Inclinations are in us to many Sins. The Heathens were very fenfible of

this Corruption and Decay of Human Nature, and into what a low and degenerate fate it was funk, and therefore they complained very often of the van and seppunas, of the Souls being funk into Matter and a Terrestrial state, its wings being molted, and its Powers being drooping and fickly, and what should raile and refiore it, and be a Cure to this Disease, they could not find out; they felt how strong were the propenfions to Vice, and how the Mind ὥσπερ τις μολυβδίαν ὑποφέρεται προς κακίας, as Hierocles fpeaks, was carried by its Paffions, like fo many weights hanging upon it, and inclining it to Sin, and what fhould ballance thefe, what fhould turn and counterpoize those Propenfities and Inclinations, what should bear up against all the Corruptions from within, and the Temptations from without, and relieve and fuccour the weak forces of decayed Nature that was fo ftrongly Befieged, and fo little able to hold out of it felf, this they could not know; for 'tis only by the Gospel and Christianity that we have the Promife of God's Grace and Holy Spirit to be given to us when we ask it, and to belong as a right to all Chriftians by vertue of the New Covenant, and be a ftanding Principle to prevent and restrain us from Sin, and work Holiness and Vertue in our Minds. And now by vertue of this we have the greatest incouragement to Repent and Leave our Sins, which is a Power to do fo. We have a new Principle of Life conveyed into our Souls, and a Fresh, and Heavenly, and almost a Miraculous Power

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