All that can be done for their relief, is by seasonable, judicious, and tender applications of spiritual remedies : And what can be done, ought to be done for them. What heart can hear a voice hke that of Job, '' Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye *' my friends ; for the hand of God hath touched me f and not melt into compassion over them .? Is there a word of v^dsdom in thy heart, let thy tongue apply it to the rehef of thy distressed brother. Whilst his heart meditates terror^ let thine meditate his succour. It is not impossible but thou, who lendest a friendly hand to ano- ther, mayest, ere long, need one thyself; and he that hath ever felt the ten-ors of the Almighty upon his soul, hath motive enough to draw forth the bowels of his pity to another in the like case.
Alas for poor distressed souls, who have either none about them that understand, and are able and wilhng to speak a word in sea- son to their weary souls, or too many about them to exaspemte their sorrows, iind persecute them whom God hath smitten. You that have both ability and opportunity for it, are under the strong- est engagements in the world to endeavour their relief with all faithfulness, seriousness, compassion, and constancy. Did Christ shed his blood for the saving of souls, and wilt not thou spend thy breath for them ? Shall any man that has found mercy from God, shew none to his brother ? God forbid. A soul in hell is out of
A T&EATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAK. 147
your reach ; but these that are in the suburbs of hell are not : The candle of intense sorrow is put to the thread of their miserable life; and should they be suffered to drop into hell, whilst you stand by as unconcerned spectators of such a tragedy, you will have little peace. Your unmercifulness to their souls will be a wound to your own.
Inf. 7. Be hence informed of the evil thut is in sin; be convinced of the evil that is in it, hy the eternal misery that followeth it.
If hell be out of measure dreadful, then sin must be out of mea- sure sinful : the torments of hell do not exceed the demerit of sin, though they exceed the understandings of men to conceive them. God will lay upon no man more than is right. Sin is the founder of hell ; all the miseries and torments there, are but the treasures of wrath which sinners, in all ages, have been treasuriug up; and how dreadful soever it be, it is but the 'o-^mia, the recompense which is meet, Rom. vi. 23.^" The wages of sin is " death."
We have slight thoughts of sin ; Fools make a mock of sin : But if the Lord by the convictions of men's consciences did but lead them through the chambers of death, and give them a sight of the wi'atli to come ; could we but see the piles that are made in hell (as the prophet calls them, Isa. xxx. 53.)i to maintain the flames of vengeance to eternity ; could we but understand in what dialect the damned speak of sin, who see the treasures of wrath broken up to avenge it, surely it would alter our apprehensions of sin, and strike cold to the very hearts of sinners.
Cannot the extremity and eternity of hell-torments exceed the evil that is in sin ? What words then can express the evil of it ? Hell- flames have the nature of a punishment, but not of an atonement.
O think on this, you that look upon sin as the veriest trifle, that will sin for the value of a penny, that look upon all the humi- liations, broken-hearted confessions, and bitter moans of the saints under sin, as frenzy, or melancholy, slighting them as a company of half-witted hypochondriac persons ! Thou that never hadst one sick night, or sad day in all thy life upon the account of sin, let me tell thee that breast of thine must be the seat of sorrow ; that frothy, airy spirit of thine must be acquainted with emphatical sobs and groans. God grant it may be on this side hell, by effectual repentance ; else it must be there, in the extremity and eternity of sorrows.
I/f. 8. JVfiat enemies are thejj to the souls of men, who arc Satan''^ inst7'uments, to draw them into si7i, or who suffer sin to lie upon them !
When there were but two persons in the world, one drew the other into sin ; and among the millions of men and women now ijj
148 A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAT?.
the world, where are there two to be found that have in no case been snares to draw some into sin ? Some tempt designedly, taking the devil's work out of his hands ; others virtuaHy and consequen- tially, by examples, which have a compelling power to draw others w ith them into sin. The first sort are among the worst of sinners, Prov. i. 10. the latter are among the best of saints ; see Gal. ii. 14. whose conversation is so much in heaven, that nothing falls out in the course thereof, which may not further some or other in their way to hell.
Among wicked men, there are five sorts eminently accessory to the guilt and ruin of other men's souls. (1.) Loose professors, whose lives give their lips the lie ; whose conversations make their professions blush. (2.) Scandalous apostates, whose fall is more prejudicial than their profession was ever beneficial to others. (B.) Cruel persecutors, who make the lives, liberties, and estates of men the occasion of the ruin of their consciences. (4.) Ignorant and unfaithful ministers, who strengthen the hands of the wicked, that they should not return from their wickednsss. (5.) Wicked relations, who quench and damp every hopeful beginning of con- viction and affection in their friends. Of all which I shall dis- tinctly speak in the next discourse, to which, therefore, I remit it at present.
And many there are who suffer sin to lie upon others, without a wise and seasonable reproof to recover them.
O what cruelty to souls is here ! The day is coming when they will curse the time that ever they knew you : It is possible you may repent, but then, it may be, those, whose souls you have helped to ruin, are gone, and quite out of your reach. The Lord make you sensible what you have done in season, lest your repentance come too late for yourselves and them also.
hif. 2. How poor a comfort is it to him that carries all his sins out of this "world •with him, to leave much earthly treasure (especi- ally if gotten hy sin) behind him?
It is a poor consolation to be praised where thou art not, and tor- mented where thou art * ; to purchase a life of pleasure to others on earth, at the price of thy own everlasting misery in hell. All the consolation, sensual, voluptuous, and oppressing worldlings have, is but this, that they were coached to hell in pomp and state, and have left the same chariot to bring their graceless children after them, in the same equipage, to the place of torments. There be five considerations provoking pity to them that are thus cast into a miserable eternity, and caution to all that are following after, in the same path
* Q.xdd prodest essCj quod esse non prodest. TertuL
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