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pismire as thou art, can take and possess the heavens, and mantle thyself up in the eternal glories? If thou makest first a trial of the successfulness of thy endeavors upon things far lower, more base, but much more easy to obtain, as crowns, kingdoms, earldoms, dukedoms, gold, silver, or the like, how vain are these attempts of thine; and yet thou thinkest to possess thy soul of heaven! Away, away ! by the height thereof thou mayest well conclude it is far above out of thy reach; and by the breadth thereof it is too large for thee to grasp; and by the nature of the excellent glory thereof, too good for thee to possess. These are the thoughts that sometimes discourage me, and that weaken strength in the way.

Answ. The greatness of thy undertaking does but show the nobleness of thy soul, in that it cannot, will not, be content with such low things as the baseborn spirits that are of the world can and do content themselves with. And as to the greatness of the things thou aimest at, though they be, as they are indeed, things that have not their like, yet they are not too big for God to give, and he has promised to give them to the soul that seeketh him. Luke xii. 32. Yea, he hath prepared the kingdom, given the kingdom, and laid up in the kingdom of heaven the things that thy soul longeth for, presseth after, and cannot be content without. Matt. xxv. 34; Col. i. 4. As for thy making a trial of the successfulness of thy endeavors upon things inferior and more base, that is but a trick of the old deceiver. God has refused to give his children (a few only excepted), the great, the brave, and glorious things of this world, because he has prepared some better thing for them. 1 Cor. i. 26, 27; Heb. x. 39; xi. 36-40; 2 Cor. vi. 9, 10; 1 Pet. i. 8, 9. Wherefore faint not, but let thy hand be strong; for thy work shall be rewarded; and since thy soul is at work for soul-things, for divine and eternal things, God will give them to thee. Thou art not of the number of them that draw back unto perdi

tion, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul; thou shalt receive the end of thy faith, even the salvation of thy soul. Heb. x. 39; 1 Peter i. 9.

Object. 2. But all my discouragements do not lie in this. I see so much of the sinful vileness of my nature, and feel how ready it is to thrust itself forth at all occasions, to the defiling of my whole man, and more. Now this added to the former, adds to my discouragement greatly.

Answ. This should be cause of humiliation and of selfabasement, but not of discouragement; for the best of saints have their weaknesses, these their weaknesses. The ladies, as well as she that grinds at the mill, know what doth attend that sex; and the giants in grace, as well as the weak, both cedars and shrubs, are sensible of the same things, which thou layest in against thy exercising of hope, or as matter of thy discouragement. In Psalm lxxvii. 2, poor David says, his soul refused to be comforted upon this And Paul cries out under the sense of this, very account. "O wretched man that I am!" and comes as it were to the borders of a doubt, saying, "Who shall deliver me?" Only he was quick at remembering that Christ was his righteousness and redemption, and there he relieved himself. Rom. vii. 24, 25.

Again; this should drive us to faith in Christ; for therefore are corruptions by divine permission still left in us, not to drive us to unbelief, but to faith—that is, to look to the perfect righteousness of Christ for life. Rom. x. 4.

And for further help, consider, that therefore Christ liveth in heaven, making intercession, that thou mightest be saved by his life, not by thine, and by his intercessions, not by thy perfections. Rom. v. 6-9; Col. i. 19, 20. Let not, therefore, thy weaknesses be thy discouragements; only let them put thee upon the duties required of thee by the gospel—namely, faith, hope, repentance, humility, watchful

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ness, diligence, and the like. 1 Pet. i. 13; v. 5; 2 Cor. vii. 11; Mark xiii. 37; 2 Pet. i. 10.

Object. 3. But I find, together with these things, weakness and faintness as to my graces; my faith, my hope, my love, and desires to these and all other Christian duties are weak; I am like the man in the dream, that would have run, but could not; that would have fought, but could not; and that would have fled, but could not.

Answ. 1. Weak graces are graces; weak graces may grow stronger; but if the iron be blunt, put to the more strength. Eccles. x. 10. 2. Christ seems to be most tender of the weak, "He shall gather his lambs with his arm, shall carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead them that are with young." Isa. xl. 11. And again, "I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and I will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick.” Ezek. xxxiv. 16. Only here will thy wisdom be manifested-namely, that thou grow in grace, and that thou use lawfully and diligently the means to do it. 2 Pet. iii. 18; Phil. iii. 10, 11; 1 Thess. iii. 11-13.

Use 6. I come, in the next place, to a use of terror, and so I shall conclude. Is it so? is the Soul such an excellent thing, and is the loss thereof so unspeakably great? Then this showeth the sad state of those that lose their souls. We use to count those in a deplorable condition that by one only stroke are stript of their whole estate. "The fire swept away all that he had;" or "all that he had was in such a ship, and that ship sunk into the bottom of the sea;" this is sad news, this is heavy tidings, this is bewailed of all, especially if such were great in the world, and were brought by their loss from a high to a low, to a very low condition. But alas! what is this to the loss about which we have been speaking all this while ? The loss of an estate may be repaired; or if not, a man may find friends in his present deplorable, condition, to his support, though not

recovery; but far will this be from him that shall lose hig Soul. Ah! he has lost his soul, and can never be relieved again, unless hell-fire can comfort him; unless he can solace himself in the fiery indignation of God. Terrors will be upon him, anguish and sorrow will swallow him up, because of present misery. Slighted and set at nought by God and his angels, he will also be, in this his miserable state; and this will add sorrow to sorrow, and to his vexation of spirit, howling.

To present you with emblems of tormented spirits, or to draw before your eyes the picture of hell, are things too light for so ponderous a subject as this; nor can any man. frame or invent words, be they never so deep and profound, sufficient to the life to set out the torments of hell. All those expressions of fire, brimstone, the lake of fire, a fiery furnace the bottomless pit, and a hundred more to boot, are all too short to set forth the miseries of those that shall be damned souls. "Who knows the power of God's anger?"

Psalm xc. 11. None at all; and unless the power of that can be known, it must abide as unspeakable as the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.

We hear it thunder; we see it lighten; eclipses, comets, and blazing stars are all subject to smite us with terror; the thought of a ghost, of the appearing of a dead wife, a dead husband, or the like, how terrible are these things! But alas, what are these? Mere fleabitings, nay, not so bad, when compared with the torments of hell. Guilt and despair, what are they? who understands them unto perfection? The ireful look of an infinite Majesty, what mortal in the land of the living can tell us to the full, how dismal and breaking to the soul of a man it is, when it comes as from the power of anger, and arises from the utmost indignation? Besides, who knows of all the ways by which the Almighty will inflict his just revenges upon the souls of damned sinners? When Paul was caught up to the third

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heaven, he heard words that were unspeakable; and he that goes down to hell shall hear groans that are unutterable. Hear, did I say? They shall feel them; they shall feel them burst from their wounded spirits, as thunderclaps do from the clouds. Once I dreamed that I saw two (whom I knew) in hell, and methought I saw a continual dropping from heaven, as of great drops of fire lighting upon them to their sore distress. Oh! words are wanting, thoughts are wanting; imagination and fancy are poor things here; hell is another kind of place and state than any alive can think.

And since I am upon this subject, I will here treat a little of Hell as the scriptures will give me leave, and the rather because I am upon a use of terror, and because hell is the place of torment. Luke xvi.

1. Hell is said to be beneath, as heaven is said to be above; because as above, signifieth the utmost joy, triumph, and felicity (Prov. xv. 24); so beneath, is a term most fit to describe the place of hell, because of the utmost opposition that is between these two; hell being the place of the ut

most sorrow, despair, and misery. There are the underlings ever trampled under the feet of God; they are beneath, below, under.

2. Hell is said to be darkness, and heaven is said to be light (Matt. xxii. 12);—light, to show the pleasurableness and the desirableness of heaven; and darkness, to show the dolesomeness and wearisomeness of hell. And how weary, oh! how weary and wearisomely, as I may say, will damned souls turn themselves from side to side, from place to place, in hell; while swallowed up in the thickest darkness, and griped with the burning thoughts of the endlessness of that most unutterable misery!

3. Men are said to go up to heaven, but they are said to go down to hell (Ezek. xxxii. 17-19);-up, because of exaltation, and because they must abound in beauty and glory that go to heaven; down, because of those sad dejec