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

57° The ‘Pumfbment of Lofs State IV.
ing fliut up under everlafting Horror and Defpair.
The Match betwixt Jefus Chrift and Unbelievers,
which has fo often been carried forward, and put
back again, lhall then be broken up for ever: And
never lhall one MefTage of Favour or Good-will go
betwixt the Parties any more,
This Punifhment of Lofs, in a total and final Se¬
paration from God, is a Mifery beyond what Mor¬
tals can conceive, and which the dreadful Experience
of the Damn’d can only fufficientiy unfold. But
that we may have fome Conception of the Horror
of it, let thefe following Things be confidered.
Firfi, God is the chief Good, and therefore to
be feparated from him mud be the chief Evil. Our
native Country, our Relations, and our Life, are
good; and therefore to be depriv’d of them we reckon
a great Evil: And the better any Thing is, fo much
the greater Evil is the Lofs of it: Wherefore God
being the chief Good, and no Good comparable to
him, there can be no Lofs fo great, as the Lofs of
God. The full Enjoyment of him is the higheft
Pinacie of Happinefs, the Creature is capable ol ar¬
riving at: To be fully and finally feparated from
him mud then be the lowed Step of Mifery, which
the rational Creature can be reduc’d to. To be cad
off by Men, by good Men, by the bed of Men, is
heavy: What mud it then be, to be rejected of God,
of Goodnefs it felf!
Secondly, God is the Fountain of all Goodnefs,
from which all Goodnefs flows unto the Creatures,
and by which ’tis continu’d in them, and to them.
Whatloever Goodnefs or Perfedion, Natural as well
as Moral, is in any Creature, ’tis from God, and
depends upon him, as the Light is from, and de¬
pends en, the Sun; for every created Being, as fuch.