Two discourses I. of the punishment of sin in hell, demonstrating the wrath of…

1. God is a Spirit, and thereupon in a special manner (as Wisd. 11. 26.) The Lord is a lover of Souls above all his other Creation. So it is there, Thou art merciful to all because they are thine, O Lord thou lover of Souls [God is a Spirit] when therefore this naked, and withal sublimated Spirit (by its being born again by his own Spirit) and so assimilated to God himself, a pure Spark now freed and severed from its Dust and Ashes, flying up (or is carried rather by Spirits, the Angles, out of their like spiritual Love to ¹it as a Spirit) unto that great Spirit, that element of Spirits, it will surely find union and coalition with him, and be taken up unto him: for if, as Christ speaks, John 4. 23. God being a Spirit, therefore seeks for such as worship in Spirit and Truth, that is, he loves, delights in such, as a Man doth in a Companion or Friend, who suits him. And doth God seek for such whilst they are on Earth? Then surely when such Spirits shall come to him, and have such a grand occasion, and (indeed) the first occasion in such an immediate way to appear before him, in such ⟨p. 313⟩a manner and upon such a change as this, as they never did before; these Spirits also having been the Seat, the inner Temple of all this spiritual Worship and sanctifying of him in this World: surely God who sought such afore, will now take them into his Bosom and Glory. We also read Isa. 57. 16, 17. of the regard he bears to Persons of a contrite and humble Spirit to revive them upon this superadded consideration, that they are Souls and Spirit, and so thereby allied to him, the lofty One. Hear how in this case he utters himself, The Spirit would fail afore me, says he, and the Souls which I have made. He speaks of their very Souls properly and respectively considered, And [them] it is which he considering, and it moves him unto pity; for he speaks of that in Man, whereof God is in a peculiar manner the Maker or Creator [The Spirit which I have made] (says he) and it is one of the eminent Titles he takes into his Coat, The framer of the Spirit of Man within him, Zech. 1. 12. as in many other places: This is argued also in that he speaketh of that in Man which is the subject sensible of his immediate Wrath. I will not contend for ever; nor