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

Head VI. in Hell. 575
gone round the World, till they had Found it out.
Defpifefs of the Gofpel will remember with Rit-
ternefs, that Jefus Chrift with all his Benefits was
offered to them, that they were exhorted, entreated,
and preffed to accept, but would not; and that
i they were warn’d of the Mifery they feel, and ob-
tefted to flee from the Wrath to come, but they
would not hearken. The Gofpel-Offer flighted
will make a hot Hell, and the Lofs of an offered
Heaven will be a finking Weight on the. Spirits
of Unbelievers in the Pit. Some will lemember that
there was a Probability of their being eternally
happy; that fometime they feem’d to ftand tair tor
it, and were not far from the Kingdom of God; that
they had once almofl confented to the bleffed Bargain,
the Pen was in their Hand (as it were) to fign
the Marriage Contract betwixt Chrift' and their
Souls ; but unhappily they drop’d it, and turned
back from the Lord to their Lufts again. And
Others will remember that they thought themfelves
fure of Heaven, but being blinded with Pride
and Self-conceit, they were above Ordinances, and
beyond Inftrudtion, and would not examine their
State, which was their Ruin : But then fhall they
in vain wifh, they had reputed themfelves the
worft of the Congregation, in which they liv’d;
and curfe the fond Conceit they had of themfelves,
and that others had of them too. Thus it wiR fling
the Damned, that they might hare efcaped this
Lofs.
Laftly, They’ll fee the Lofs to be irrecoverable ;
that they muft eternally ly under it, never, never
to be repair’d. Might the Damned, after Millions
©f Ages in Hell, regain what they have loft, it
Would be fome Ground of Hope : But the Prize is
O o gone,