The four last things viz. death, judgment, heaven, hell, practically considered and applied in…

3. It will appear how unqualified the Damned are for the least favour, if we consider their continual hatred and Blasphemies of God. The Seeds of this are in wicked obstinate Sinners here, who are styled haters of God; but in the Damned this enmity is direct and ⟨p. 526⟩explicit, the Fever is heightened into a Frenzy, the blessed God is the Object of their Curses and eternal Aversation. Our Saviour tells us, that in Hell there is weeping and gnashing of Teeth; extreme Sorrow, and extreme Fury; Despair and Rage are the proper Passions of lost Souls. For when the guilty Sufferers are so weak, that they cannot by Patience endure their Torments, nor by Strength resist the Power that inflicts them, and are wicked and stubborn, they are irritated by their Misery, and foam out Blasphemies against the righteous Judg. If their Rage could extend to him, and their Power were equal to their Desires, they would dethrone the most High. Hatred takes pleasure in Revenge, either real or imaginary: and although God is infinitely above the transports of their Fury, and all their rancorous Imprecations are reflexively pernicious to themselves, like Arrows shot against the Sun, that fall down upon their Heads that shot them, yet they are always venting their Malice against the just Power that torments them. 'Tis said of the Worshippers of the ⟨p. 527⟩Beast, that they gnawed their Tongues for Pain, ¹and blasphemed the God of Heaven because of their Pains. The Torment and Blasphemies of those impenitent Idolaters, are a true representation of the state of the Damned. From hence it appears they are the proper Objects of revenging Justice. How can we reasonably conceive, that God, in favour to the Reprobates, should cross the established order of Creation? For two Ranks of Beings were made, the Material, of perishing Principles, the Spiritual, of an immortal Duration: And will God withdraw his Conservative Power of the guilty Soul in its Immortality, and to put an end to its deserved Misery, and self-tormenting Reflections, annihilate it? If a Criminal were justly condemned to a severe Punishment, and should contumeliously and fiercely reproach the Prince, by whose Authority he was condemned, could it be expected there should be a mitigation of the Sentence?