The XIVth ENTERTAINMENT.

A particular Account of the Pain of Senfe.

Caft him into outer Darkness: There shall be Weeping, and Gnashing of Teeth. Matt. xxii. 13.

N my last Difcourfe I entertain'd you with fome general Confiderations relating to the Pain of Senfe, I shall now proceed to give you a more particular Account of it; and this fhall be the Subject of this Entertainment.

That Part of the Punishment of the Damn'd, which is call'd the Pain of Senfe, is principally caufed by the Nature of the Place, where the damn'd Souls are imprifon'd, and the unquenchable Flames, to which they are condemn'd.

As to the Place affign'd them for their eternal Abode, which we call Hell, it is unqueftionably under Ground, and very probably in the very Center or Bowels of the Earth. St. John in his Revelations calls it the Lake of God's Wrath: The Prophet Ifaiah calls it Tophet, and gives this frightful Description of it. From Eternity,

fays

fays he, is Tophet prepared by the King (meaning Almighty God) he has made is deep and large: The Pile thereof is Fire and much Wood. The Breath of the Lord like a Stream of Brimftone doth kindle it. And holy Fob calls it a Land of Darkness cover'd with the gloomy Shade of Death, where no Order, but eternal Horror and Confufion dwelleth.

Now these Descriptions are mostly fuitable to the Nature of a fubterraneous Place, or Prison under Ground. Deepness denotes its Situation; and Darkness, Confufion and Horror are the natural Confequences of it. There are besides, many other Expreffions in holy Writ, which favour this Belief; as that of the Pfalmift, let them defcend alive into Hell. And 'tis related of the rich Glutton, that he died and was buried in Hell: Which Expreffions, viz. Defcending into, and being buried in Hell, naturally form in us an Idea of a Place beneath the Surface of the Earth, and far diftant from the Seat of Blifs.

Of which we have ftill a farther Infinuation in the Words of our Creed; tho' the Hell there fpoken of be very different from that of the Damn'd: The Words I mean. are these: He defcended into Hell: The third Day be rofe again, afcended K 5

into

into Heaven, &c. For a Perfon cannot properly be faid to defcend but from a higher Place to a lower; nor to ascend but from a lower Place to one respectively higher So that the Surface of the Earth is here reprefented as in a middle Situation between the Region of Darknefs below, and the Manfions of eternal Light above: And fince we cannot doubt but thefe are full as oppofite in their Situation as Nature, we may confidently fay, that the Heaven of the bleffed Souls is the very highest, and the Hell of the Damn'd the very lowest Part of the whole Creation: And that as the Elevation of the one will give an Increase of accidental Glory to the Elect, fo will the Lowness of the other caufe an Addition of Torment and Confufion in the Reprobate.

But the Reafon, whence it chiefly appears, that the Hell of the Damn'd is not only a Place under Ground, but in the very lowest Caverns of the Earth, is, becaufe the Hell, into which Chrift defcended, was a fubterraneous Place, as I have already remark'd; and according to these Words of the Apostle, For who is he who afcended, but he who defcended first into the lower Parts of the Earth? And yet the Hell of the Damn'd is still much lower than this, as appears from the History or

Parable

.

Parable of the rich Glutton, who demanding of Abraham a Drop of Water to cool his Tongue, was anfwer'd by him, that there was a great Gulph or Space betwixt them, which debar'd the Damn'd from receiving, and him from fending any Comfort from the Place where he and Lazarus made their Abode; which doubtless was the Hell, or Prifon of the Saints of the old Law, into which our Saviour Chrift defcended in order to release those holy Captives, whom he had ranfom'd with his facred Blood, of which the unhappy Glutton could receive no Benefit; because in Hell (namely, the Hell of the Damn'd) there is no Redemption.

If you ask how Man's Soul, which is a fpiritual Subftance, can be confined to, or imprifon'd in a material Place; I answer, that there is no more Difficulty to conceive the Soul imprifon'd in a material Place, than to conceive her imprifon'd in a material Body. We all know that the Body is the Prifon of the Soul in this Life: And the Body is orginally but Earth turn'd into Flesh, which after Death returns into Earth. So that a Soul condemn'd to Hell is but removed from one earthly Prifon to another; that is, from a Prifon above Ground, where Goods and Evils, Joys and Sorrows, Pleasures and Pains, are continually interwoven, to one under Ground, where a

dread

dreadful Aggregation of all imaginable Evils is to be her everlafting Portion.

For in the Prifon of this World she fees the beautiful Light of the Sun, is refresh'd by the Air, and enjoys the Comfort of the other Elements: Her Senfes are entertain'd with many agreeable Objects, her Sorrows are alleviated by the Company of Friends, her Cares diverted by a great Variety of Amusements, and the Repofe of Night not only fufpends her Labours, but fupplies her with new Strength to fupport them. But in the Prifon of the other World every thing contributes to torment her: The very Depth and Darkness of the Place affects her with Horror. She has all the Pain of a Perfon buried alive, and ftifled under the Weight of the Earth, without the Power of Dying; the Extremities both of Heat and Cold, the Apparitions of frightful Spectres, the Gnawings of Serpents and other venomous Creatures according to St. Auftin; finally, the confufed Noife of Curfes and Blafphemies, Howlings and Lamentations are the everlasting Entertainment of her Senfes; without the least Interval of Repofe, without a Friend to comfort her, or any Change of Objects to divert her from her Torments.

So that we must conceive the Hell of the Damn'd to be adreadful Dungeon separated from