then that which is in part shall be done away; then shall we know even as we are known, and see even as we are seen: and all this as soon as the body is quickened in the tomb. For it shall be raised immortal; then it must be immortal before it is raised; yea, raised spiritual and glorious: and thus it shall be raised. Therefore there will be, to the saints of God, a wonderful work, a strange device, perfect knowledge, and the most consummate wisdom, revealed to the children of God even in the grave, at the resurrection morning; for they shall be raised in all this glory. Hence it appears plain that, as the tree falls, whether towards the north or towards the south, where the tree falleth, there it shall lie; and that the sinner who dies in his sins shall find no works, device, knowledge, or wisdom, that shall avail him any thing, in the grave whither he goes. "For they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth."

I come now to treat of the Pit;

Which word, according to the learned, has various meanings. The word, Scheol, is used in four several senses in the scriptures. First, it is taken for hell metaphorically; that is, for deep plunging into extreme sorrow, misery, and danger, Ps. lxxxvi. 13. Secondly, for the local hell properly, Prov. xv. 11. Thirdly, it signifieth the grave, Prov. xxx. 16. Fourthly, it signifieth the lower, deep, and remote, parts of the earth, without any relation to the place of punishment,

Ps. cxxxix. 8. To which I may add a fifth acceptation of this word, for the common place or state of the dead; as Ps. lxix. 47, 48, &c. Scheol signifieth any devouring gulph, or pit, swallowing up the dead; as Numbers xvi. 33.

That there is an awful and dreadful place of punishment, prepared by a just God for the devil and his angels, and for ungodly sinners of mankind, is plain, both from the Old Testament and from the New; and this truth is realized to the soul and conscience of every sinner shut up in black despair, and given up to a fearful looking for of judgment in this world; and is often dreadfully feared, and the pains of it deeply felt, even by the elect of God, when brought under the arrests of divine justice, and arraigned at the bar of a broken law: under which dreadful sensations, and awful apprehensions, have sprung those fearful cries, and those earnest petitions, attended with such grievous complaints, so often found in holy writ; put up by those who have sunk in the horrible pit, and who have known and felt the terrors of the Lord. First,

We have the outcry of the despairing sinner; "The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites: who among us shall dwell with devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" Now this people was either in great fear where no fear was, which is not likely; or else, like the devils, they believe there is such a place of torment, and trem

ble at the dreadful apprehensions of it, and at the displeasure of an angry God, who hath prepared it.

Secondly, we have the dreadful complaints of the elect under their awful apprehensions of this place of torment, when the rod of God has been heavy upon them. "Unto thee will I cry, O Lord, my rock! be not silent to me, lest if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit." And again: "Let not the water-flood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up; and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me," Ps. lxix. "The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit.” It is clear enough that these awakened souls had awful apprehensions of a dreadful place of punishment; and laboured hard to fly from the wrath to come, and to embrace the only hiding place from the storm: and these were delivered from going down to the pit, for God has found a ransom, Job xxxiii. 24.

15.

I know the word, Pit, has various meanings in holy writ: sometimes it signifies a false church, or a whore, in a spiritual sense; in the communion of which many professors are so entangled as never to get out. "The mouth of a strange woman is a deep pit; the abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein." And a whore, in a temporal sense, is called a pit; whose ensnaring charms have held many a prisoner so fast, that all the lashes of conscience, and all the dread of damnation, could

never deter him, till he has fallen a sacrifice to vindictive justice. Many a reprobate has perished in this snare: "For a whore is a deep ditch, and a strange woman is a narrow pit."

Sarah's womb is called a pit; who was to be the mother of the elect when past age; from which, though impossible to nature, Christ, according to the flesh, came, and all the elected. thousands, both of Jews and Gentiles, in him. "Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged: look unto Abraham your father, and to Sarah that bare you."

Pit sometimes signifies deep soul trouble; in which the heart and flesh both fail; and the poor soul sinks into heaviness and despondency, while trouble upon trouble rolls over him, like wave upon wave over a drowning man, till all his strength is exhausted in struggling; and down he must go, except Divine Providence interfere. “I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings."

Pit signifies any wicked device, intended against a religious person in order to ensnare him and draw him into sin, that they may see his nakedness and reproach his profession: such as the Hottentots contrive to catch elephants in; who dig holes in the ground, in the tracks where those

animals come to drink, at the bottom of which stakes are driven, and the upper points of them made sharp; while the top of the hole is slightly covered with boughs of trees, and then green turf laid over; upon which the unwieldy creature steps, and in he goes. So the wicked often ensnare the just. "For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, which without cause they have digged for my soul." But neither of these are intended by the word, Pit, in my text; but hell itself, the place prepared for the devil and his angels. Dr. Lowth calls it perdition; his

words are these:

6

For this cause shall it be declared, O Jehovah, concerning thee,

That thou hast revived my spirit;

That thou hast restored my health, and prolonged my life.

Behold, my anguish is changed into ease!
Thou hast rescued my soul from perdition.

Verily, the grave shall not give thanks unto thee;

Death shall not praise thee;

They that go down into the pit shall not await thy truth;' Isa. xxxviii. 16, 17, 18.

That is, they that go down into the pit shall never expect thy truth; for they never were reserved or designed for it, and therefore cannot hope for it, await it, or expect it.

Perdition signifies no less than utter ruin and destruction. Judas is called the son or heir of