tions, that great deformity and vile contempt that sin hath brought them to that go to hell.

4. Heaven is called a hill or mount; hell is called a pit, or hole (Heb. xii.; Rev. ix. 2; xiv.);—heaven, a mount, the mount Zion, to show how God has exalted and will exalt them that loved him in the world; hell, a pit or hole, to show how all the ungodly shall be buried in the yawning paunch and belly of hell, as in a hollow cave.

5. Heaven! it is said of heaven, the height of heavenand of hell, the bottomless pit (Job xxii. 12; Rev. ix. 2; xx. 3)—the height of heaven, to show that the exaltation of them that do ascend up thither is both perfect and unsearchable; and hell, the bottomless pit, to show that the downfall of them that descend thither will never be at an end-down, down, down they go, and nothing but down, down still!

6. Heaven! it is called the paradise of God; but hell, the burning lake (Rev. ii. 7; xxii. 15)—a paradise, to show how quiet, harmless, sweet, and beautiful heaven shall be to them that possess it, as the garden was at the beginning of the creation; hell, the burning lake, in allusion to Sodom, which since its destruction has turned into a stinking lake; to show that as their distress was unutterable, and to the highest amazement, full of confusion and horror, when that tempestuous storm of fire and brimstone was rained from the Lord out of heaven upon them, so to the utmost degree shall it be with the souls that are lost and cast into hell.

7. It is said that there are dwelling-houses or places in the kingdom of heaven, and also that there are the cells or the chambers of death in hell. John xiv. 1-3; Zech. iii. 7;

There are

Isa. lvii. 1, 2; Prov. vii. 27; Ps. lxviii. 13. mansions or dwelling-places in heaven, to show that every one of them that go thither might have his reward, according to his work; and there is hell, and the lowest hell, and the chambers of death in hell, to show that there are places and states in hell too, for sinners to be imprisoned in according

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to their faults; hence it is said of some, These shall receive greater damnation; and of others, That it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the judgment than for them. Luke xx. 47; x. 12, 14.

We read of the lowest hell. Deut. xxxii. 22. How many hells there are above that, or more tolerable tormenting places than the most exquisite torments there, God and they that are there, know best; but degrees, without doubt there are; and the term "lowest" shows the utmost and most exquisite distress. So the chambers of death, the second death in hell (for so I think the words should be understood-" Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death," Prov. vii. 27), these are the chambers that are opposed to the chambers in the temple, or to the dwelling-places in the house in heaven; and this opposition shows, that as there will be degrees of glory in heaven, so there will be of torments in hell. And there is all reason for it, since the punishment must be inflicted by God, the infinitely just. Why should a poor, silly, ignorant man, though damned, be punished with the same degree of torment as he that has lived a thousand times worse? It cannot be ;

justice will not admit it; guilt, and the quality of the transgression will not admit it; yea, the tormenting fire of hell itself will not admit it; for if hell-fire can kindle upon nothing but sin, and the sinner for the sake of it, and if sin be as oil to that fire, as the Holy Ghost seems to intimate, saying, "Let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones" (Psalm cix. 17, 18), then as the quantity of the oil is, so will the fire burn, and so will the flaming flame ascend, and the smoke of their torment, for ever and ever. Suppose a piece of timber a little bedaubed with oil, and another that hath been soaking in it many a year, which of these two, think you, would burn fiercest? and whence would the flaming flame ascend highest and make the most roaring noise? Suppose two vessels filled with oil, one

containing the quantity of a pint, the other containing the quantity of a hogshead, and suppose that in one place they were both set on fire, yet so that they might not intermix flames; nay, though they did, yet all would conclude that the most amazing roaring flame would be upon the biggest vessel, and would be the effect of the greatest quantity of oil. So it will be with the wicked in hell. The lowest hell is for the biggest sinners, and theirs will be the greater damnation, and the more intolerable torment, though he that has least of this oil of sin in his bones, and of the kindlings of hell-fire upon him, will find he has hell enough, and will be weary enough thereof, for still he must struggle with flames that are everlasting. For sin is such a thing, that it can never be burned out of the soul and body of a damned sinner.

But again; having treated thus of Hell, we will now speak a word or two of Sin, for that is it upon which hell-fire seizes, and so on the soul by that. Sin! it is the sting of hell. "The sting of death is sin." By "death" in this place we must not understand merely that which is natural, but that which is in hell, the second death, even everlasting damnation; for natural death the saints die, yea, and also many sinners, without the least touch of a sting from that; but here is a death that has a sting to hurt, to twinge, and wound the sinner with, even then when it has the utmost mastery of him. And this is the death that the saved are delivered from; not that which is natural, for that is the end of them as of others; (Eccles. ii. 15, 16; 1 Cor. xv. 55); but the second death, the death in hell, for that is the portion of the damned, and it is from that that the saints have a promise of deliverance—” He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death." Rev. ii. 11. And again, "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no power." Rev. xx. 6. It is this death, then, that hath the chambers to hold each

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damned soul in; and sin is the twining, winding, biting, poisoning sting of this death, in these chambers of hell, for sinners to be stricken, stung, and pierced with. "The sting of death is sin."

Sin in the general is the sting of hell, for there would be no such thing as torment even there, were it not that sin is there with sinners. For as I have hinted already, the fire of hell, the indignation and wrath of God, can fasten and kindle upon nothing but because of sin. Sin then, as sin, is the sting and the hell of hells, of the lowest and utmost hells; sin, I say, in the nature of it, simply as it is concluded both by God and the damned to be a breach of his holy law, so it is the sting of the second death, which is the worm of hell. But then, as sin is such a sting in itself, so it is heightened, sharpened, and made more keen and quick, by those circumstances that as concomitants attend it in every act. For there is not a sin at any time committed by man, but there is some circumstance or other attends it that makes it, when charged home by God's law, bigger and sharper, more full of venom, and poisonous to the soul, than if it could be committed without it; and this is the sting of the hornet, the great sting. "I sinned without a cause, to please a base lust, to gratify the devil;" here is the sting. Again; "I preferred sin before holiness, death before life, hell before heaven, the devil before God, and damnation before a Saviour;" here is the sting. Again; "I preferred moments before everlastings, temporals before eternals, to be racked and always slaying, before the life that is blessed and endless;" here is the sting. Also, "this I did against light, against convictions, against conscience, against persuasion of friends, and ministers, and the godly lives which I beheld in others;" here is the sting. Also, "this I did against warnings, forewarnings, yea, though I saw others fall before my face by the mighty hand of God for committing the same;" here is the sting.

Sinners, would I could persuade you to hear me out. A man cannot commit a sin but by the commission of it he doth by some circumstance or other sharpen the sting of hell, and that to pierce himself through, and through, and through, with many sorrows. 1 Tim. vi. 10. Also, the sting of hell to some will be, that the damnation of others stands upon their score; for that by imitating them, by being deluded by them, persuaded by them, drawn in by them, they perish in hell for ever. And hence it is that these principal sinners must die all these deaths in themselves, that those damned ones that they have drawn into hell, are also to bear in their own souls for ever. And this God threatened to the prince of Tyrus, that capital sinner, because by his pride, power, practice, and policy, he cast down others into the pit; therefore saith God to him, "They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas." And again; "Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers; for I have spoken it, saith the Lord." Ah! this will be the sting of them, of those that are principal, chief, and, as I may call them, the captain and ringleading sinners. Vipers will come out of other men's fire and flames, and settle upon, seize upon, and for ever abide upon their consciences; and this will be the sting of hell, the great sting of hell to them.

I will yet add to this; how will the fairness of some for heaven, even the thoughts of that, sting them when they come to hell! It will not be so much their fall into the pit, as from whence they fell into it, that will be to them the buzzing noise and sharpened sting of the great and terrible hornet. "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer!" there is the sting. Isa. xiv. 12. "Thou that art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell." Matt. xi. 23. "Though thou hast made thy nest among the stars, from thence will I fetch thee down;" there is the sting. Obad. 4.