Religion & morality > Human nature in its four-fold state ... in several practical discourses

Head VI. The Curfe, &c. 565
courfe.) In treating of this awful Subjeft, I /hall
enquire into thefe four Things, (i.) The Curfe un¬
der which the Damn’d /hall be Ihut up. (2.) Their
Mifery under that Curfe. (3.) Their Society with
Devils in this miferable State. (4.) The Eterni¬
ty of the whole.
I. As to the Curfe, under which the Damned
/hall be /hut up in Hell; Scis the terrible Sen¬
tence ®f the Law, by which they are bound over,
to the Wrath of God, as Tranfgre/fors. This
Curfe does not firft feize them, when handing be¬
fore the Tribunal, they receive their Sentence : But
they were born under it, they led their Life un¬
der it in this World, they died under it, rofe with
it out of their Graves ; and the Judge finding it
upon them, fends them away with it, into the
Pit $ where it /hall ly on them, through all the
Ages of Eternity. By Nature all Men are under
the Curfe; but ’tis removed from the Eleft, by vir¬
tue ot their Union with Chrift. It abides on the
reft of finful Mankind, and by it they are devot¬
ed to Deftrudtion, feparated to Evil, as one may
defcribe the Curfe from Dent. xxix. 21. sind the
Lord Jloatt feparate him unto Evil. Thus /hall the
Damned, for ever, be Perfons devoted to Deftruffi-
on-, feparate and fet apart, from among the reft
ol Mankind, unto Evil, as Ve/fels of Wrath, fet up
for Marks to the Arrows of Divine Wrath ; and
made the common Receptacle and Shore of Venge¬
ance.
This Curfe hath its firft Fruits on Earth, which
are a Pledge of the whole Lmnp that is to fol¬
low. And hence it is, that as temporal and eter¬
nal Benefits are bound up together, under the fame
Exprcflions in the Promife to the Lord’s Peo-
N n 3 pie,