are the Devils Bayliffs and Agents shall cast some of them into Prison and then bids them be faithful unto death verse 10. which implies that it might reach even to life it self To encourage them to faithfulness in all he gives this sweet promise in the Text as if he had said get Victory here and if it comes to the worst men can do which is to kill the body I give you my faithful word they shall do no more they shall go no further I will secure you from that which is a thousand times more to be feared viz. the second death which is the sting and emphasis of the first that shall not touch or hurt you So then the observation lies plain before us viz Doct. That Overcomers shall not be hurt of the second Death Sin Satan and the World are the Enemies true Believers are the Overcomers as was declared in the former Sermon To these is this promise made hence it is said They shall never perish John 10.27 And he that believeth on the Son shall not see Death John 8.51 viz. the second Death for as to bodily death the Psalmist saith What man is he that liveth and shall not see death Psal 89.48 We shall now enquire 1. What is meant by the second death 2. What is the great hurt thereof 3. Why Overcomers shall not be hurt by it Quest 1. What is the second death Answ Death sometimes signifies great afflictions and distresses Intreat the Lord your God says Pharaoh to Moses and Aaron that he may take away from me this death only Exod. 10.17 that is the judgment of the Locusts then upon him for being such Locusts as never was before nor should be after they might be a deadly annoyance to them as well as devour the fruits of the Earth So St. Paul speaks of Gods delivering him from a great death 2 Cor. 1.10 meaning an imminent danger which he calls a death because it was past means help and hope of delivery Such deaths he was in often 2 Cor. 11.23 which were either such sicknesses and persecutions in which there appeared no hope of escaping with life or such pains as were equivalent to the pangs of death But more particularly 1. Death is taken for the dissolution of nature dissolutio compositi so some define it the dissolving the earthly house of this Tabernacle 2. Cor. 5.1 A Tent or Tabernacle is destroyed not by consuming of the parts but by taking them asunder the death of the body is no annihilation but a dissolution of the parts of which man is compounded a cutting a-sunder the soul and the body This is the first death which the Apostle Paul desired I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Phil. 1.23 The soul sleeps not when a man dies for then his wish had been vain upon his dissolution he could not have been with Christ but the union between the body and soul is cut a-sunder and the soul which wilst in the body was absent from the Lord is then absent from the body and present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.8 This is that death all must pass under or something equivalent to it It is appointed for all men once to dye Heb. 9.27 Statutum est It is enacted in the Court of Heaven by a Statute-Law more sure than the Laws of the Medes and Persians which cannot be altered A sentence gone forth out of the mouth of God concerning all men never to be reversed Death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Rom. 5.12 2. Death is taken for Hell and destruction even the wrath of God inflicted upon them that are finally overcome by the enemies of their Souls Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire this is the second death says the Apostle John Rev. 20.14 Men dead and buried before were now sent body and soul to Hell Rev. 21.8 Qu. 2. Wherein lies the great evil and hurt of the second death Answ It is altogether unexpressible and inconceivable Who knows the power of thine anger says David Psal 90.11 Let none be offended or affrighted at the opening of it A Sermon of Hell if rightly emproved may keep us from Hell The hurt and evil of the second death lies in Two things 1. There is paena damni the punishment of loss This is great and grievous for they who fall under it lose all good at once they lose Heaven that holy habitation that sedes beatorum the mansion and dwelling-place of all that are blessed When Tully was banished from Italy and Demosthenes from Athens they were so troubled that as oft as they looked towards those places they wept What is Italy and Athens and a thousand such places more if compared with Heaven Though here unsound Professors may have room in Gods sanctuary yet there will be no place for them in his Palace hereafter To be excluded hence will trouble and perplex them They lose the best dainties there seems to be eating and drinking in Heaven Christ will gird himself and make his Servants sit down to meat and will come forth and serve them Luke 12.37 They shall have flagons of Wine to comfort them and Christ will say to them eat O Friends and drink abundantly O beloved I take it spiritually in a far better way than can be here O the misery of them that shall never taste of the Supper of the Lamb of these refreshments in Heaven Poor men grieve when they are sent away empty from a rich mans Table much more sorrowful will they be who shall never eat of Christ's dainties In this also they lose the best inheritance Ahab was sick with grief when he could not enjoy Naboths inheritance as we read 1 Kings 21. It will make them head-sick and heart-sick also who shall be deprived of that incorruptible undefiled and never-fading inheritance reserved in Heaven for Overcomers for the Promise is He that overcometh shall inherit all things Rev. 21.7 Yea they lose the best company the society of Angels and Saints Here they despise their company then they would be glad of it but shall not have it How desirous was the rich man that Lazarus might be sent to him Luke 16. On Earth he despised him and in Hell desired his company but it could not be granted him a great gulph being fixed between them which would not permit it And which is yet worse they lose the company of God and Christ When Orpah was to part with Naomi her Mother-in-Law she lifted up her voice and wept Ruth 1.14 O how will they who shall be separated from God drench and even drown themselves in tears His gracious presence is the chief good of his creatures yet this is the first word of that dreadful sentence Christ at last pronounceth Depart from me Mat. 25.41 To go from him who hath the words of Eternal Life is the most bitter part of the second Death If Cain when banished from the Society of Saints where God was worshipped
Christ saith I will ransome them from the power of the Grave I will redeem them from Death Hos 13.14 It cannot deliver them over to wrath or carry a good man in Chains to the Prison of Hell This is to be killed with Death A Believer may say O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory Thanks be to God who giveth us the Victory through Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15.56 57. Once past the first Death you are for ever free from all fear of Death This Life is on this account miserable that it is in fear of Death hanging over it every moment What is your Life saith St. James it is a Vapour that now is and quickly vanishes away Jam. 4.13 14. But after this no more fear of Death to a true Christian And to make the Joy of such full there is a Meiosis in this Text when it is said they shall not be hurt of the second Death it implies that they shall be called to a blessed and immortal Life Not only not ashamed but have boldness and confidence before Christ at his coming not only sorrow and sighing will flee away but everlasting Joy shall be upon their heads not only free from the Curse but shall hear a Come ye blessed not only no Despair but no doubting yea a perpetual Plerophory and full Assurance of their happy state not only no Worm of an accusing Conscience but the testimony of an absolving Conscience which will be a continual Feast not only no Torments of Hell but the Pleasures of Heaven not only no Canaanites in that Land no Devil no wicked men but the Society of holy Angels and Saints and God's glorious Presence to all Eternity Why should not all sincere Believers comfort themselves and one another with these things and that in the worst of times A Martyr being offered Life if he would renounce the Truth answered Can you give me Eternal Life And being threatned with Death for refusal he said You cannot bring me under the second Death you cannot put me to Eternal Death You can kill my Body but that 's all you can do I must fear to offend him that can destroy Body and Soul in Hell Better it is saies he that I have a little Wormwood in my Mouth a while than to have my Bowels filled with it for ever Oh! how would the Improvement of this Text and Truth support and comfort a Christian in the saddest conditions he may be called to pass through in this world Vse 2. Is it thus that Overcomers shall not be hurt of the second Death Then let us all make out for true Faith in Jesus Christ for this is the Victory whereby we overcome the World and all that is in the World even our Faith 1 John 5.4 This is the first Resurrection which whosoever hath a part in is blessed If you ask wherein are such blessed The Text tells you Rev. 20.6 On such the second death hath no power Some understand this of Romish Idolatries and Superstitions for it is said If any man worship the Beast and his Image and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb And they have no rest night nor day who worship the Beast and his Image and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name which implies say they that those who live and dye under the dominion of those Antichristian abominations in Doctrine Worship and Practice and rise not by true Faith in Christ and Repentance towards God will fall under the power of the second death 'T is said every living soul died in the Sea for it became as the Blood of a dead man when the Vial was poured out upon it Revel 16.3 Whence some have concluded that those under the Romish Jurisdiction who live and dye under the full Dominion and Practice of their Idolatrous wicked Doctrines and Worship cannot be saved But others take this first Resurrection to be meant of a Spiritual quickning to a Divine Life the Dead hear the Voice of the Son of God in the Gospel and live this is when Faith is first wrought which is the beginning of the Soul's life and strength the first born of graces the bond of Union between Christ and Believers and so brings all the strength and Grace of Christ into their hearts for Christ and all his Fulness dwelleth there by Faith and by that is derived to the Soul to enable it to overcome all its Enemies Where this is not wrought Sin and Satan do conquer and utterly destroy the Soul If ye believe not that I am he ye shall dye in your sins saies Christ to the Jews Joh. 8.21 24. Should any one come and tell us You shall die in a Ditch or in a Goal it would sound harshly in our ears but for Christ to say Ye shall dye in your sins is yet more dreadful For a man may die in a Ditch or in a Prison and yet go to Heaven but if any one die under the full power of Sin and Satan a dead Dog is better than he it had been good for that man he had never been born for he drops presently into Hell and the Second Death hath an irrecoverable Power over him he can never get from under it because all his Sins will be laid upon him If a Debtor be Arrested and cast into Prison no sooner do his Creditors understand it but they come and bring in their several Actions that a man must lye there all his days Thus if the first Death Arrest us and we under the full Dominion of sin Satan comes in Conscience comes in the Law comes in yea God himself comes in all come in and lay Action upon Action against us and there we must lye till the last Mite be paid which because we can never do we must lye there to all Eternity We live in very dying Times and none can tell how soon the thred of his Life may be cut If we look not diligently to it we shall dye in our sins and so be undone for ever O let us look and get true Faith for it is he that believes that overcomes and he that overcomes shall not be hurt of the Second Death SERMON III. REV. II. 17. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden Manna and will give him a white stone and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it WE have here another of those excellent Promises made to Overcomers It is the concluding words of that Epistle to the Church in Pergamos as in the 12th Verse is evident Some say this was a great City distant from Jerusalem Two hundred and twenty eight miles very populous but very wicked Hence we
health to a whole Land The Inhabitant of the Land shall not say I am sick the Land shall be free from infectious pestilential and Epidemical Diseases How comes this about The People that dwell therein shall be forgiven their Iniquity Esay 33.24 Oh this is that which sweetens all other Comforts and Contentments as the want of it imbitters all our sweet things What are we the better for House Land Silver and Gold when our Sin is not pardoned when the Curse and Wrath of God hangs over our heads and is ready in this condition to fall upon us and arrest us every moment to draw us to Hell for ever But then Mercies are Mercies indeed when they come to us in the stream of Christ's Blood with a Pardon in their hand Hence Believers are taught to pray Give us this day our dayly Bread and forgive us our sins to shew that our Bread is sweet when it comes with pardoning Mercy God had given David the healing his Diseases and crowned him with loving Kindness and tender Mercies What made it so but forgiving Mercy First he sets down that Who forgiveth all thine Iniquities then follow the other Mercies Psal 103.2 3 4. Pardoning Mercy is Crowning Mercy Yea this fits us for holy Duties Prayer or Sacraments as sin unpardoned makes God hide his face that he will not hear or appear to the Soul It turns Prayer into Sin and Sacraments into Sin So if this be taken away the person is accepted and then all Duties are accepted and God will be seen in them to the Soul and give it communion with himself In a word this fits us for a Suffering state and time How will the sense of Pardon that assures a man he shall never be cast into Hell-fire make him even willingly embrace and submit to a Fiery Trial for Christ's sake It prepares for Death whether natural or violent All must die and as a mans Death is such is his Doom As Death leaves us Judgment findes us Job prayed earnestly for the white Stone of Absolution as it is an excellent preparative for his Dissolution And why dost thou not pardon my sin for now shall I sleep in the dust Job 7.21 As if he had said Lord my great Afflictions seem to hasten on my great change and therefore now especially I beg the pardon of my sin and the sense of it unto my Soul and then I am prepared to sleep in the dust We should not lye down in our Beds much less in our Graves with sin unpardoned If that be taken away no matter how soon we dye Feri Domine feri tantum ignosce mihi peccatum said Luther Smite me Lord smite as thou wilt though by sharp Afflictions or Death all is welcome if sin be forgiven This is that the Lord here promiseth to victorious Christians when he saith He will give them the white Stone 3. Anew name written in the Stone is the third and last of those special Favours promised to Overcomers in the Text. There are some that take it to be an Allusion to that Custome of giving Stones to men with their Names written on them as Tickets shewing them such as should be admitted to those Solemn Feasts held in honour of those that were Victorious in their sacred Games Then the meaning is that Christ will give conquering Christians a privy Mark whereby they may be known and admitted to the Heavenly Banquet of the hidden Manna as welcome Guests And O! how high a Favour is it to carry the Privy-Seal of Heaven about us To have a Token that we shall be taken up to the Marriage-Supper of the Lamb when others shall not taste of those Dainties But most take the new Name here to be Filius Dei an Adopted Son of God and make it an Allusion to that of Isaiah 65.15 God shall call his Servants by another Name A name better than the name of Sons and Daughters For by this they are Called and Translated out of the old family of Sin and Satan to be of the Family of God of the houshold of Faith a Priviledge far excelling the civil Adoption in use among men for he takes many Sons and brings them to Glory a man but one And when he hath done that he cannot communicate his own Likeness to him But God with the new Name gives a new Nature with the Spiritual Adoption conveys a Principle of the Divine Nature 2. Pet. 1.4 If a man adopts it is either because he hath no Son of his own or else because his Son is prodigal and disobedient but God had a Son from all Eternity one who never displeased or disobliged him in thought word or deed So that this new Name giving is an act of free and rich Grace Behold what manner of Love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God 1 Joh. 3.1 If men Adopt it is but to some earthly Inheritance But God gives an Inheritance in light incorruptible undefiled that never fadeth away reserved in Heaven for them 1 Pet. 1.4 So that all his Children are Heirs Heirs of God and Joint-heirs with Christ Roman 8.17 Heirs of the Promises Heb. 6.17 Heirs of the Righteousness which is by Faith Heb. 11.7 Heirs of Salvation of the Kingdom of Heaven Heb. 1. ult Jam. 2.5 They have a glorious Liberty called The Liberty of the Sons of God Rom. 8.21 A Liberty from sins Dominion and Pollution from the Covenant and Curse of the Law from the Power of Satan the World and Death They have a gracious Access to God their Father I will arise and go to my Father saies the Prodigal Luk. 15. And his pity in all their Troubles As a Father pities his Children so the Lord pities them that fear him Psal 103.13 They have access with boldness to the Throne of Grace and have his eye his ear his heart and his hand We read of a Child who finding himself not well ran to his Father and cried out My head my head 2 King 4.19 Thus may God's Children go to him and say My head my heart Oh! this ignorant head Father enlighten it Oh this carnal heart Father spiritualize it Oh this dead hard earthly divided heart of mine Father quicken soften make Heavenly and compose it unite my heart to fear thy Name Yea as a Father spares his obedient Son so the Lord will spare his As a man spares his own Son that serves him Malac. 3.17 If he correct them it is in love and in measure and he will provide for them here Your Heavenly Father knoweth you have need of all these things Matt. 6. Jesus Christ is your Brother he is not ashamed to call you Brethren the Angels are your Guard the King's Son hath the Nobles and Peers of the Realm to wait upon him The Angels are all Ministring Spirits sent forth for their good yea you shall be ever with your Father The Son abides in the house for ever John 8. as that
nothing but because it is but a shew they are indeed the more indigent and necessitous 4. From the riches of his own Grace verse 18. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou maist be rich c. Would men come off in good earnest to Jesus Christ and cleave to him in faithfulness they need not make such poor shifts as they do they need not make such formal counterfeit shews as they do to bear up their heads in the world he would enrich them to purpose they need not be ashamed to walk in the midst of their Enemies who wait to see their shame he would cloath them effectually 5. From an insinuating motion if they will not he must take another course with them if they will not come home willingly he must fetch them home with a rod As many as I love I rebuke and chasten be zealous therefore and repent ver 19. as if he had said if there be no other remedy though he dearly loved them yet he must rebuke and chasten them therefore as they would avoid this chastisement let them be more zealous 6. From his own importunity the longing desire he had to do good to their Souls Behold I stand at the door and knock c. vers 20. as if he had said How fain would I bless your Souls with real blessings How fain would I make over my grace and love to you but you deprive your selves of it by your Hypocrisy and Neutrality Behold I come once more to your doors and stand and knock if any man will open to me I will come in and sup with him and he with me 7. From the great honour and dignity he would raise those up to that overcome these predominant evils This is laid down in the Text the sum of which take in this proposition Doct. That as Christ overcame and sate down with his Father on his Throne so all Overcomers shall fit down with Christ in his Throne Here are three parts 1. That Christ overcame 2. Having so done he sate down in his Fathers Throne 3. All Overcomers shall sit down with him on his Throne Bra. 1. Christ overcame It is he that speaks these words in the Text I overcame All he encountred with he got Victory over He grapled with Satan and overcame him He ouercame him says the Scripture that had the power of death that is the Devil Heb. 2.14 This Seed of the Woman hath broke that Serpents head Gen. 3.15 The head is the place of policy in man of power in other creatures Christ hath got all the power and policy of Satan and crushed it under his feet The Apostle saith Colos 2.14 He spoiled Principalities and Powers That is the whole Host of Hell with all their train of Attillery were utterly divested of all their destroying power He overcame sin coming in the likeness of sinful flesh condemned sin in the flesh Rom. 8.3 so that it cannot condemn any in Christ Rom. 8.1 He overcame them by bearing them away as the word signifies 1 Pet. 2.24 An allusion to the ceremony of the Scape-goat over whose head were confessed the sins of the Children of Israel and the Goat let go into the Wilderness Levit. 16.21 22. This shadowed Christ upon whom God laid the iniquities of all his people who so bare them as to bear them away One sin sunk the Angels that kept not their first estate into their present misery and they can never overcome it yet Christ hath subdued all the iniquities of his people and cast them into the depth of the Sea Mich. 7.19 He overcame the world I have overcome the world says he John 16 33. He overcame the good things of the world by being dead to them when they sought to make him a King he withdrew himself He overcame the evil things thereof by the invincible courage and patience of his life for he meekly endured the contradictions of sinners against himself and by the victorious power of his death when he seemed to be overcome but did never conquer more eminently than by it and the consequences of it He hath overcome the justice and wrath of God by giving satisfaction out of Christ it hath a dreadful quarrel and implacable controversy and Believers are often under fears of these but Christs blood hath made it their friend In Christ God sits with a Rainbow round about his Throne Rev. 4.3 When God smelt a sweet savour of rest from Noahs Sacrifice he promised never to drown the world again and as a token he would be mindful of his Covenant he put his Rain-bow in the Clouds So in Christ there is a Rain-bow about Gods Throne his Bench of Judicature is turned into a Throne of Grace Christ overcame the. Law by fulfilling it He obeyed the precepts of it Though he was the Law-maker yet he was made under the Law Gal. 4. He was circumcised and so became a debtor to do the whole Law which he perfectly fulfilled and is in that sense the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth Rom. 10.4 He endured the penalties of it also by submitting to the curse of it Gal. 3.13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us To be under the Law is a state full of danger and terror Believers many times fear it will put in a black bill of indictment against them but Christs blood hath blotted out the hand-writings against them They are not under the Law as to its envenomed curses and intollerable penalties The Law it self to every true Believer is non-suited as one faith well by the death of the Law-maker He overcame also death and the grave Not so destroyed it that Believers shall not dye but unstinged it that it shall not destroy eternally Hence the Apostles triumphant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15.55 57. When a Bee hath fastned her sting in a mans flesh and so lost it she ever after they say turns a Drone Death once fastned its sting in Christ who overcame the venom of it and ever since it hath been like a Drone it may hum and affright but not really hurt a true Believer Death is very strong it overcomes the mighty Monarchs and Potentates of the Earth and and none can stand before it yet Christ overcame it even upon its own ground It got him into the prison of the grave but could not keep him there it was not possible for him to be holden by it Acts 2.24 And though it is the last Enemy that shall be destroyed yet Death shall he swallowed up of Victory 1 Cor. 15.26.54 Thus we see that Christ overcame the Enemies either by reconciling them or disarming them either by making them friends or leaving them impotent Enemies Bra. 2. After he had thus overcome he sate down with his
cried out My punishment is greater than I can bear for from thy face shall I be hid surely then to lose the glorious presence of God of the only true God is more than to lose a thousand worlds if there were so many We read that Absolom could take no Comfort in all he enjoyed because he could not see the King's face 2 Sam. 14. Laban made great search after his foolish Idols when they were stollen from him Gen. 31.33 And Micah lamented for the loss of his false gods Ye have taken away my gods which I made and what have I more And yet you ask me what aileth thee Judg. 18.24 How sad and fearful will the loss of the King of Kings of the only true and living God be Here men can live cheerfully if they have outward good things though strangers to the Life of God yet when they come to see what they have lost they will find it the most bitter ingredient in their cup of misery 2 There is paena sensus the punishment of sense for having lost the chief good an inundation of all mischiefs and miseries will necessarily follow and inevitably fall upon them particularly 1. Shame and confusion of face will cover them They will rise to shame and contempt Here men sin and have a whores forehead they cannot blush The unjust knoweth no shame Zephan 3.5 but then the shame of their nakedness will appear before all the World The thief is ashamed when he is found Jer. 2.26 Especially if he be taken in his wickedness before judges and great ones Oh! how confounded and abashed will sinners be when all the secret evils of their Heart and Life shall be laid open and discovered before Christ his Angels and Saints Whither will they cause their shame to go Here they glory in sin which is their shame but then they will be ashamed of this their glorying and would be glad if the Hills would hide them and the Mountains cover them 2. Sorrow and Mourning will fill them There saies Christ shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth Mat. 8.12 Where you will say even in Hell We read of Rachel mourning for her children and would not be comforted Jer. 31.15 Of Jacob's great sorrow for the supposed loss of his beloved Son Joseph Gen. 37. I will go down to the grave to my Son mourning thus his father wept for him Of the great mourning of Hadramimmon in the Valley of Megiddon where Josiah was slain and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him 2 King 23. But what are all these to the hideous cries and shrieks yellings and roarings of them that lye under the wrath of God 'T is said God will cast upon them the fury of his wrath and not spare Job 20.23 and 27.22 No man values a blow if a Child strike but if a man a giant strikes it is not easily born if an Angel smites it is yet more grievous but if God cast upon him his wrath immediately it goes to the bottom it pierces deep into the very Soul It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God and to have the living God fall upon us Can our heart endure or our hands be made strong in the day that he shall deal with us His frowns are able to sink us What unspeakable Sorrow will his blows cast upon us fill us with we know not how to bear his hand upon us here if it be in extremity though but upon one part What infinite sorrow then will it cause to have him cast his fury upon the whole man upon all the Members of the Body and all the faculties of the Soul at once and not spare A drop of his displeasure upon Heman upon David made them cry out bitterly what will a Sea an Ocean of wrath then do O the floods and seas of Tears that miserable creatures will then pour forth 3. The Curse of God shall rest upon them So it follows in that direful Sentence Mat. 25.41 Depart from me ye Cursed If they might go from his presence with Blessing it would be some comfort but to depart from him with a Curse how very dreadful are the thoughts of it Yet thus it will be Solomon saies The curse causeless shall not come Prov. 26.2 When Balaam would have cursed Israel it came not but was by God turned into a blessing because Balaam attempted this without just cause Numb 23.22 23. God requited David good for Shimei's cursing him but God never curseth without a cause and it is therefore effectual and sad are the effects thereof When Adam sinned saies God Cursed is the ground for thy sake Gen. 3. The whole Creation groans under that curse unto this day Rom. 8.22 The Disciples marvelled at the sudden withering of the Figtree Christ cursed Mat. 21.19.20 When Elisha cursed the mocking Children in the Name of the Lord there came two Bears and tore two and forty of them 2 King 2.24 Oh how insupportable will the Curse of the infinite God be that shall lie upon them in Hell 4. Darkness will annoy and trouble them Ordinarily in the greatest Darkness God commandeth some Light Vnto the upright there ariseth Light in the darkness Psal 112.4 The Lord will light my candle the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness saith David Psal 18.28 But Hell is called the blackness of Darkness yea outer darkness Mat. 25.30 meaning a state most remote from Heaven the Kingdom of Light and Blessedness We read of the Egyptians that God caused a dreadful Darkness upon them such as might be felt Exod. 10.21 22 23. Not only was the Light of the Celestial Bodies withdrawn but such gross foggy Vapours did arise as some think that might put out their Candles or other Lights so that they sate still in their places for three days being under the Arrest of that Darkness so that they knew not whether to go nor what to do But the Darkness of Hell will be much more afflictive and affrighting Some are afraid of the natural Darkness of the Night but how dismal will those chains of Darkness be wherewith they who loved the darkness of sin here shall be bound in the Prison of Hell hereafter where they shall have Darkness enough 5. The worm will gnaw upon them Of this Christ speaks Mark 9.44 46 48. Their Worm that are in Hell-fire of them he speaks v. 47. every one there hath his own Worm not Literally but Metaphorically to be taken of something that holds resemblance to it A Worm in Scripture is put to resemble two things 1. Something that is contemptible Fear not thou worm Jacob And 2. something that is tormenting and vexatious and so it is taken here It is dreadful to Nature to have a Worm breed out of a man and feed upon him thus it is with the Body in the Grave the Worms shall feed upon it Job 24.20 But to have them breed in a man and feed upon him alive is more terrible