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we cannot conceive that our Saviour would SER M. have given the leaft Countenance to it. His mentioning it therefore in this Parable, and in a Manner that acknowledges and confirms its Truth: Gives us Reason to understand it as literally meant; and that Angels do receive and conduct good Souls when they depart from hence into the Regions of the Bleffed: Those miniftring Spirits, which, the Apostle tells us, are fent forth to minifter for them that Shall be Heirs of eternal Salvation, Heb. i. 14. we may affure ourselves are careful of the Charge committed to them, at a Juncture where their Care is fo very important. They, who watch over us and guard us here, and guide us fo faithfully in all our Progrefs through the present World, will not leave us to ourselves, to find our Way into the other World, where the Paths are so new, and the Dangers are fo great, that it is next to impoffible but that without Help we should be loft. No certainly; If they fave us here from flight Mifchances, and watch left at any Time we dash our Foot against a Stone; we may depend upon it, they will accompany us in our final Stage, where the Paffage is fo difficult and the Dangers fo thick, and not forefake or leave their Charge, till they have con

ducted

SER M. ducted us to a Place of Safety and Repose.

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They (though we fee nothing of them) obferve the Crowds of ghaftly Spirits (which fill these lower Regions) fnatching at every Soul that paffes. And therefore, they are at hand to fupport the Souls of good Men against the Fears and Dangers that might otherwise befall them.

From whence we may infer that the Souls of the Wicked, who have none of these bleffed Angels affigned them, to protect and defend them, fall into the Hands of the Devil and his Angels, who, we know, is the Prince of the Power of the Air, and confequently is ready to feize all fuch unhappy Souls as are left to pass unguarded through it. To him they are given up as a Tormenter and Jailer till both he and they fhall be fummoned to Judgment. But this leads me to the laft Particular I propose to speak to, viz.

A

IV. FOURTHLY, To fhew in what Degree of Happiness or Mifery the Souls of the Deceased shall be in from Death to the Refurrection. And the Souls of the Wicked are as miferable as it is poffible for them to be, before they are thrown into the nethermost Hell. For fure, next to the being torment

ed

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ed with the Devil and his Angels, is to have SERM. the Devil for their Tormentor and Gaoler. They shall not, it is likely, have any outward Tortures inflicted on them till the Day comes which fhall reftore to them their Bodies which are most capable of them: But even now the Dread and Fear of thofe Tortures which shall be inflicted then, and the continual Despair of their being ever at an End, must be Torment and Anguish infupportable to the Mind, even before they are actually endured. So that confidering this State as feparate from that worse State which is to fucceed it at laft; what a fad and difmal one must even this be? Where there is no Converfation but of Apoftate Angels, and fuch reprobate Souls as most resemble them: Pri foners in a Pit, wherein is no Water, Zech. ix. 11. no Light or Glimmering of Comfort or Hope; but where they are confined in ut→ ter Darkness, and horrid Despair; shut out at prefent from all poffible Returns of God's Favour and Love; and trembling with the Dread of what they fhall endure, when he comes to execute his Fury and Wrath.

This, O Sinner, is the miferable State whereinto thou fhalt immediately enter when thou dieft; as foon as ftripped of thy Body VOL. II. H h

and

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SER M. and the Eyes of thy Flesh, (those dark Casements, or Shutters rather, that at prefent intercept thy Sight of the fpiritual World;) thou shalt fee thyself surrounded by a Hoft of Devils, and in the Hands of fpiritual Beasts of Prey; whilst all the good and holy Angels which watched fo friendly over thee here, thou there fhalt fee to ftand aloof, and not one of them offering to help or relieve thee, And by these curfed Spirits fhalt thou be infulted and dragged to the Dungeon prepared for wicked Souls, where all thy Guilt shall lie open at once, in all its difmal Aggravations; and thy Confcience (though formerly hardened and blinded by the Habit of Sin) shall now recover its perfect Sight, shall be endued with as many Eyes as Argus, and all of them glaring with the utmost Rage and Fury on thyself. This, one would think, fhould be enough to deter the hardieft Sinner from perfifting in a Course, which must lead him to it. And a Man that would not be restrained by the Fears of fuch a State, we cannot expect to influence, though we could be able to convince him, that the fame Moment that delivers him to this, fhould also deliver him to those inexpreffible Torments, that we know are in ftore for him at the laft Day.

But

To us

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But, my dear Brethren, I hope you do not S ER M. stand in need of being awakened and roused by a Defcription of Mifery. That is too mean and servile a Principle for Christians to act upon; who ought to be moved by the nobler Influences of Duty and Love. therefore I hope it will be a fufficient Encouragement to enquire a little into that happy State, which the Gate of Death shall open to our View. To this therefore I fhall turn my Discourse, and fee what the Scriptures have revealed to us concerning it.

Bleffed are the Dead which die in the Lord, even fo faith the Spirit, for they reft from their Labours, and their Works do follow them, Rev. xiv. 13. This is an immediate Revelation of the Spirit made to St. John: And the Intent of it, doubtlefs, was to teach and instruct us, that the Dead, which die in the Lord, are blessed, and that their Bleffedness consists in refting from their Labours, and having their Works to follow them. They rest from their Labours; from all their Toils which they found fo unavoidable here: They have no Temptations to perplex them any more, no more Sins to bewail and lament: No racking Pains to tear and torture them, no pining Sickness to wafte and confume them: No