of his guilt evermore affures him is prepar'd for him, and continually displays before the fight of his affrighted Soul, the horrible Scene of Everlafting Torment in a Future State. This Fear it is, that has ever been felt and own'd and acknowledg'd even among the Heathens themfelves, and those that never heard of Divine Revelation. From the Sense of which are all those Accounts they give us of their Infernal Judges, and the Descriptions of the Wracks and the Wheels, the Rowling Stone and the Evergnawing Vulture, and all the feveral Punishments of the Wicked after Death. All which, tho' for want of clearer Revelation, thus confufedly and darkly fet out in Poetical Fictions, according to their Fabulous Thealogy, fufficiently teftify, that there were fuch general and common Apprehensions naturally implanted in the Minds of Men.

2dly, There is a Fear that pursues the Wicked, more than Natural, grounded upon express Revelation and the fure Word of God, who will render to every Man according to his Deeds, Indignation and Wrath, Tribulation and Anguish, upon every Soul of Man that daes Evil. And it, by the meer Light of Reason and Dictates of Conscience, Men could discover fo much of the abominable Nature of Sin, as to make 'em by their own Self-condemnation to acknowledge that

it justly deferv'd; and confequently to Fear continually that it muft undergo due Punishment, either in this World or that to come; How much more affrighting must thefe Apprehenfions be, when they find 'em all confirm'd by fo much clearer Evidence from the Mouth of God himself? By which all that Natural dread, of which they could give no account how it came to poffefs their Spirits, is plainly perceiv'd to have been put into their Hearts by the very Maker of them; and all those first dismal, but uncertain Sufpicions, all thofe tormenting, but dark Gueffes, are turn'd into certain Expectations of Indignation and Wrath from Infinite Juftice, and Almighty Power to the utmost degree offended and provok'd. How is it poffible that any Sinner can think himself one Moment fafe or fecure, not only from the proper Punishment of his Sins which is Eternal, or even thofe Temporary ones that are threaten'd by the Laws, either of God or Man; but even from every one of those thousands of Dangers and Accidents, that each Hour, each Minute, furround him and may bring him to the deepest Misery or final Destruction; when by the Divine Word he is told, that he is out of the Di vine Protection, which only can make a Man dwell in Safety; when he is conscious to himself, that he has no Right to that

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Providential Care of God, who careth for the Righteous, and bideth him under the shadow of bisWings; but fets his Face against theWicked, and the way of the Ungodly turns upfide down? How can he without Horror reflect upon all the Emphatical Declarations, that God by his Prophets has expreft, of the fierceness of his Anger against Sinners? Upon the Wicked he ball rain Snares, Fire and Brimstone, Storm and Tempeft, this fhall be their Portion to drink. Death, Bloodshed, Strife, and the Sword, Calamities, Famine, Tribulation, and the Scourge; these things are Created for the Wicked. When He is put in mind of all thefe tremendous Curfes of the Law, Denounc'd against the Difobedient, in that remarkable Chapter the 28th of Deuteronomy, can he choose but be amaz'd and confounded, and feel at prefent that laft and concluding Curse of them all verify'd, and even then Executed upon his own guilty Soul, The Lordfball give thee a trembling Heart, and failing of Eyes, and forrow of Mind, and thy Life ball hang in doubt before thee, and thou shalt fear Day and Night. In the Morning thou shalt fay, would God it were Evening; and at Even thou shalt fay,`` would God it were Morning; for the Fear of thy Heart wherewith thou shalt Fear? Shall not every Sinner fome time or other feel by fad experience, that the very fear of God's Judgments fhall be itfelf one of the feverelt Z 2

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Judgments of God; who can, and often does, as a prefent Punishment, as well as a Prefage of future, deprive fuch of inward Peace, fcare 'em with Dreams and terrify 'em with Vifions, and make 'em like a troubled Sea, which cannot reft, whofe Waters caft up Mire and Dirt, There is no Peace, faith my God, to the Wicked? But ftill these are but the least of thofe Judgments, that God has in store for Sinners, these are only what the Law threatened, and refpect chiefly worldly Plagues and Afflictions: but the Gospel, as it brought Life,and Immortality to Light to those that imbrace it: fo it has in the moft clear and plain Terms denounc'd Eternal Death to those that disobey it. For tho' Temporal Evils ftill pursue the Wicked, and often, when God's wife Providence thinks fit, overtake them here, yet often they do not, and when they do, they are not the proper and adequate Punishments of Sin, nor what is Threatened by the Gospel. No, it is Everlafting Death and the Torments of Hell-fire, that our Saviour denounces to be referv'd for the final Doom of Impenitent Sinners. And he who came into theWorld to faveSinners, fhall himself at the laft Day condemn 'em with this dreadful Sentence; Depart from me, Te curfed, into Everlasting Fire, prepar'd for the Devil and his Angels. Cerinly the Fear of a Wretch ftung with the Terrors

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of Conscience under the Gospel must be Infinitely more infupportable, than either by Natural Light or Revelation itself of the Law he could have conceiv'd ; both for the clearer Certainty he has, that all these Threats shall unavoidably be fulfill'd, and for the infinitely more Afflictive Nature of the Punishments themselves, both for Intenseness of Pain and Eternity of Duration; aggravated further and ftill enhanc'd with the bitter Senfe of that great Salvation and Eternal Blifs, which was proffer'd and refus'd; and the Sinner having, as the Apostle speaks, trodden under foot the Son of God, and counted the Blood of the Covenant, wherewith be was Sanctify'd, an Unholy thing, and done defpite to the Spirit of Grace; there remains nothing for him, but a certain fearfull Looking for of Fudgment, and fiery Indignation, which ball devour him. Heb. 10. 27.

Having thus fhewn that the ftate of the Wicked is a state of Fear, I proceed to the

II. Propofition, That this Fear of the Wicked is far from a groundless Fear, It fball come upon him; that is, what he fears 1hall certainly come to pafs. But here I defire to be understood, not of all the Fears that I have enumerated, or that the Wicked have, for They are Infinite : Guilt is ever forming to itself frightful Ideas; and Wicked

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ness