Part 6
[2.] Secondly, Final rejection and desperation, blasphemy, and the worm of conscience, agrees not with the holiness of his nature, "Who was a lamb without a spot," Heb. 9:14; 1 Pet. 1:19, and therefore we do not, we dare not ascribe them to him. But,
[3.] Thirdly, Destruction of body and soul, which is the second death, could not fall upon Christ; for this were to have destroyed the work of our redemption, if he had been subject to destruction. But,
[4.] Fourthly and lastly, Blasphemy and despair are no parts of the pains of the damned—but the consequents, and follow the sense of God's wrath in a sinful creature that is overcome by it. But Christ had no sin of his own, neither was he overcome of wrath, and therefore he always held fast his integrity and innocency, Rev. 16:9, 11. Despair is an unavoidable companion, attending the pains of the second death, as all reprobates do experience. Desperation is an utter hopelessness of any good, and a certain expectation and waiting on the worst that can befall; and this is the lot and portion of the
damned in hell. The wretched sinner in hell, seeing the sentence passed against him, God's purpose fulfilled, never to be reversed, the gates of hell made fast upon him, and a great gulf fixed between hell and heaven, which renders his escape impossible; he now gives up all, and reckons on nothing but uttermost misery, Luke 16:26.
Now mark, this despair is not an essential part of the second death— but only a consequent, or, at the most, an effect occasioned by the sinner's view of his remediless, woeful condition. But this neither did nor could possibly befall the Lord Jesus. He was able, by the power of his Godhead, both to suffer and to satisfy and to overcome; therefore he expected a good outcome, and knew that the end should be happy, and that he should not be ashamed, Isaiah 50:6-7, etc.; Psalm 16:9-10; Acts 2:26, 28, 31. Though a very shallow stream would easily drown a little child, there being no hope of escape for it unless one or another should step in seasonably to prevent it—yet a man who is grown up may groundedly hope to escape out of a far more deep and dangerous place, because by reason of his stature, strength, and skill he could wade or swim out. Surely the wrath of the Almighty, manifested in hell, is like the vast ocean, or some broad, deep river; and therefore when the sinful sons and daughters of Adam, which are without strength, Romans 5:6, are hurled into the midst of it, they must needs lie down in their confusion, as altogether hopeless of deliverance or escaping. But this despair could not seize upon Jesus Christ, because, although his Father took him and cast him into the sea of his wrath, so that all the billows of it went over him, Isaiah 63:1-3, seq.—yet being the mighty God, with whom nothing is impossible, he was very able to pass through that sea of wrath and sorrow, which would have drowned all the world, and come safe to shore.
Objection 4. But when did Christ suffer hellish torments? They are inflicted after death, not usually before it—but Christ's soul went straight after death into paradise. How else could he say to the penitent thief, "This day shall you be with me in paradise"? Now, to this objection I shall give these following answers:
Answer 1. First, That Christ's soul, after his passion upon the cross, did not really and locally descend into the place of the damned, may be thus made evident:
[1.] First, All the evangelists, and so Luke among the rest, intending to make an exact narrative of the life and death of Christ, has set down at large his passion, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension; and besides, they make rehearsal of very small circumstances; therefore we may safely conclude, that they would never have omitted Christ's local descent into the place of the damned, if there had been any such thing. Besides, the great end why they penned this history was, that we might believe that "Jesus Christ is the Son of God; and that thus believing we might have life everlasting," John 20:31. Now there could not have been a greater matter for the confirmation of our faith than this—that Jesus, the son of Mary, who went down to the place of the damned, returned thence to live in all happiness and blessedness forever. But,
[2.] Secondly, If Christ did go into the place of the damned, then he went either in soul, or in body, or in his Godhead. Not in his Godhead, for that could not descend, because it is everywhere, and his body was in the grave; and as for his soul, it went not to hell—but immediately after his death it went to paradise—that is, the third heaven, a place of joy and happiness: "This day shall you be with me in paradise," Luke 23:43; which words of Christ must be understood of his manhood or soul, and not of his Godhead; for they are an answer to a demand, and therefore unto it they must be suitable. The thief makes his request, "Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom," verse 42; to which Christ answers, "Truly I say unto you, Today shall you be with me in paradise." "I shall," says Christ, "this day enter into paradise, and there shall you be with me." Now, there is no entrance but in regard of his soul or manhood, for the Godhead, which is at all times in all places, cannot be properly said to enter into a place, Psalm 139:7, 13; Jer. 23:23-24. But,
[3.] Thirdly, When Christ says, "Today shall you be with me in paradise," he does intimate, as some observe, a resemblance which is between the first and second Adam. The first Adam quickly sinned against God, and was as quickly cast out of paradise by God. Christ, the second Adam, having made a perfect and complete satisfaction to the justice of God, and the law of God, for man's sin, must immediately enter into paradise, Heb. 9:26, 28, and 10:14. Now to say that Christ, in soul, descended locally into hell, is to abolish this analogy between the first and second Adam. But,
Answer 2. Secondly, It is not impossible that the pains of the second death should be suffered in this life. Time and place are but circumstances. The main substance of the second death is the bearing of God's fierce wrath and indignation. Divine favor shining upon a man in hell, would turn hell into a heaven. All sober, seeing, serious Christians will grant, that the true, though not the full joys of heaven may be felt and experienced in this life: 1 Pet. 1:8, "Whom having not seen, you love; in whom, though now you see him not— yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory," or glorious; either because this their rejoicing was a taste of their future glory, or because it made them glorious in the eyes of men. The original word is glorified already; a piece of God's kingdom and heaven's happiness aforehand. Ah, how many precious saints, both living and dying, have cried out, "Oh the joy! the joy! the inexpressible joy that I find in my soul!" Eph. 2:6, "He has made us sit together in heavenly places, in Christ Jesus." What is this else— but even while we live, by faith to possess the very joys of heaven on this side heaven!
Now look, as the true joys of heaven may be felt on this side heaven, so the true, though not the full pains of hell, may be felt on this side hell; and doubtless Cain, Judas, Julian, Spira, and others have found it so. That writer hit the mark, who said, "The judge's tribunal-seat is in your soul, God sits there as judge, your conscience is the accuser, and fear is the tormentor." Now if there be in the soul a judge, an
accuser, and a tormentor, then certainly there is a true taste of the torments of hell on this side hell.
Answer 3. Thirdly, The place hell is no part of the payment. The laying down of the price makes the satisfaction. This is all that is spoken and threatened to Adam, "You shall die the death," Gen. 2:17; and this may be suffered here. The wicked go to hell as their prison, because they can never pay their debts, otherwise the debt may as well be paid in the market as the jail. [Peter says, the devils are cast down to hell, and kept in chains of darkness, 2 Pet. 2:4. And Paul calls the devil the prince that rules in the air, Eph. 2:2. The air then is the devil's hell. Well, then, seeing this air is the devil's present hell, we may safely conclude that hell may be in this present world; and therefore it is neither impossible nor improbable that the cross was Christ's hell.]
Now Christ did discharge all his people's debts in the days of his flesh, when he offered up strong cries and tears, Heb. 5:7, and not after death. Look, as a king entering into prison to loose the prisoners' chains, and to pay their debts, is said to have been in prison; so our Lord Jesus Christ, by his soul's sufferings, which is the hell he entered into, has released us of our pains and chains, and paid our debts, and in this sense he may be said to have entered into hell, though he never actually entered into the local place of the damned, which is properly called hell; for in that place there is neither virtue nor goodness, holiness nor happiness, and therefore the holiness of Christ's person would never allow him to descend into such a place. In the local place of heaven and hell, it is not possible for any either to be at once, nor yet at sundry times successively, for there is no passing from heaven to hell, or from hell to heaven, Luke 16:26. The place of suffering is but a circumstance in the business. Hell, the place of the damned, is no part of the debt, therefore neither is suffering there locally any part of the payment of it, no more than a prison is any part of an earthly debt, or of the payment of it. The surety may satisfy the creditor in the place appointed for payment, or in the open court, which being done, the debtor and
surety both are acquitted, that they need not go to prison. If either of them go to prison, it is because they do not or cannot pay the debt; for all that justice requires is to satisfy the debt, to the which the prison is merely extrinsic. Even so the justice of God cannot be satisfied for the transgression of the law—but by the death of the sinner—but it does not require that this should be done in the place of the damned. The wicked go to prison because they do not, they cannot, make satisfaction; otherwise Christ, having fully discharged the debt, needed not go to prison.
Objection 5. But the pains and torments which are due to man's sins are to be everlasting, so how then can Christ's short sufferings counterbalance them?
Answer 1. That Christ's sufferings in his soul and body were equivalent to it; although, to speak properly, eternity is not of the essence of death, which is the payment of sin and threatened by God —but it is accidental, because man thus dying is never able to satisfy God, therefore, seeing he cannot pay the last farthing, he is forever kept in prison, Mat. 18:28, 35. Look, as eternal death has in it eternity and despair necessarily in all those who so die, so Christ could not suffer. But what was lacking in duration was supplied—
1. By the immensity of his sorrows conflicting with the sense of God's wrath, because of our sins imputed to him, so that he suffered more grief than if the sorrows of all men were put together. Christ's hellsorrows on the cross were meritorious and fully satisfactory for our everlasting punishment, and therefore in greatness were to exceed all other men's sorrows, as being answerable to God's justice.
2. By the dignity and worth of him who suffered. Therefore the Scripture calls it the blood of God. The damned must bear the wrath of God to all eternity, because they can never satisfy the justice of God for sin. Therefore they must lie in hell, world without end. But Christ has made an infinite satisfaction in a finite time, by undergoing that fierce battle with the wrath of God, and getting
the victory in a few hours, which is equivalent to the creatures bearing it and grappling with it everlastingly. This length or shortness of durance is but a circumstance, not of any necessary consideration in this case. Suppose a man indebted £100, and likely to lie in prison until he shall pay it—yet utterly unable, if another man comes and lays down the money on two hours' warning, is not this as well, or better done? that which may be done to as good or better purpose in a short time, what need is there to draw it out at length? The justice of the law did not require that either the sinner or his surety should suffer the eternity of hell's torments—but only their extremity. It does abundantly counterpoise the eternity of the punishment, that the person who suffered was the eternal God. Besides, it was impossible that he should be detained under the sorrows of death, Acts 2:24. And if he had been so detained, then he had not "spoiled principalities and powers, nor triumphed over them," Col. 2:15—but had been overcome, and so had not attained his end. But,
Answer 2. Secondly, The pains of hell which Christ suffered, though they were not infinite in time—yet were they of an infinite price and value for the dignity of the person who suffered them. Christ's temporal enduring of hellish sorrows was as effectual and meritorious, as if they had been perpetual. The dignity of Christ's person did bear him out in that which was not fit for him to suffer, nor fit in respect of our redemption; for if he should have suffered eternally, our redemption could never have been accomplished. But for him to suffer in soul as he did in body, was neither derogatory to his person nor harmful to his work. Infinitely in time Christ was not to suffer.
Times are in the world where the sun rises and sets. Unto this time he died. But where there is no time, there he was found, not only living—but conquering. Christ, God-man, suffered punishment in measure infinite, and therefore there is no ground why he should endure it eternally; and indeed it was impossible that Christ should
be held by death, Acts 2:24, because he was both the Lord of life and the Lord's Holy One, 1 Cor. 2:8; Acts 2:27. But,
Answer 3. Thirdly, If the measure of a man's punishment were infinite, the duration needs not be infinite. Sinful man's measure of punishment is finite, and therefore the duration of his punishment must be infinite, because the punishment must be answerable to the infinite evil of sin committed against an infinite God. O sirs, continual imprisonment in hell arises from man's not being able to pay the price; for could he pay the debt in one year, he needs not lie two years in prison. Now the debt is the first and second death; and because sinful man cannot pay it in any time, he must endure it eternally. But now Christ has laid down the price to the full, for all his chosen ones, and therefore it is not required of him, that he should suffer forever, neither can it stand with the holiness or justice of God to hold him under the second death, he having paid the debt to the utmost farthing. Now that he has fully paid the debt himself, witnesses John, chapter 19:30, saying when he had received the vinegar, "It is finished;" so verse 28, "After this, Jesus knowing that all things were accomplished." Though there are many interpretations given of this—yet doubtless this alone will hold water—namely, that the heavy wrath of the Lord which did pursue Christ, and the second death which filled him with grievous terrors, is now over and past, and man's redemption finished. He speaks here of that which presently should be, and in the yielding up his Spirit was accomplished.
And thus you see that Jesus Christ did feel and suffer the very torments of hell, though not after a hellish manner; and you see also that Christ did not locally descend into hell. We shall make a few INFERENCES from hence:
1. First, then, Oh, how should these sad sufferings of Christ for us endear Christ to us! Oh, what precious thoughts should we have of him! Psalm 136:17-18. Oh, how should we prize him! how should we honor him! how should we love him! and how should we
be swallowed up in the admiration of him! As his love to us has been matchless, so his sufferings for us has been matchless. I have read of Nero, that he had a shirt made of a salamander's skin, so that if he did walk through the fire in it, it would keep him from burning. Just so, Christ is the true salamander's skin that will keep the soul from everlasting burnings, Isaiah 33:14; and therefore well may Christians cry out with that martyr Lambert, "None but Christ, none but Christ!" So every believer should esteem nothing worth a looking on —but that Jesus who has redeemed him with his own blood, 1 Cor. 6:20; Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 1:18-19.
Oh, then, what infinite cause have we to exalt and cry up our dear Lord Jesus, who by the hellish sorrows that he suffered for us, has freed us from that more dreadful bondage of sin, Satan, and wrath that we lay under! Oh, prize that Jesus! Oh, exalt that Christ! Oh, extol that Savior, who has saved you from that eternal wrath—which all the angels in heaven, and all the men on earth could never have saved you from!
"The name of Jesus," says Chrysostom," has a thousand treasures of joy and comfort in it, and is therefore used by Paul some five hundred times." "The name of a Savior," says Bernard, "is honey in the mouth, and music in the ears, and a jubilee in the heart." "Christ is a whole paradise of delight," says Justin Martyr. "I had rather," says Luther, "be in hell with Christ, than in heaven without him, for Christ is the crown of crowns, the glory of glories, and the heaven of heaven." Austin says, "that he would willingly go through hell to Christ." Bernard says, "he had rather be in his chimney-corner with Christ, than in heaven without him." One cried out, "I had rather have one Christ, than a thousand worlds!"
Jesus, in the Chinese tongue, signifies the rising sun, and such a rising sun was he to Julius Palmer, that when all concluded that he was dead, being turned as black as a coal in the fire, at last he moved his scorched lips, and was heard to say, "Sweet Jesus!" Mal. 4:2. It was an excellent answer of one of the martyrs, when he was offered
riches and honors if he would recant: "Do but," said he, "offer me something that is better than my Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall see what I will say to you." Now, oh that the hellish sorrows and sufferings of Christ for us, might raise in all our hearts such a high estimation, and such a deep admiration, as has been raised in those worthies last mentioned! It was a sweet prayer of him who thus prayed, "Lord, make your Son dear, very dear, exceeding dear, and alone dear and precious to me." Whenever we seriously think of the great and sore sufferings of Christ, it will be good to pray as he prayed. But,
2. Secondly, If Jesus Christ did feel and suffer the very torments of hell, (though not after a hellish manner,) then let me infer—that certainly there is a hell, a place of torment provided and prepared for all wicked and ungodly people. Danaeus reckons up no less than nineteen different kinds of heretics, which deny the doctrine of hell; and are there not many erroneous and deluded people, who stoutly and daily assert that there is no hell but what men feel in their own consciences? Ah, how many are there that rejoice to do evil, and delight in their abominations, and take pleasure in unrighteousness! [Jer. 11:15; Proverbs 2:14; Isaiah 65:3; 2 Thes. 2:11; Mat. 25:41; Isaiah 30:33.] But could men do thus, dared men do thus—did they really believe that hell was prepared and fitted for them, and that the fiery lake was but a little before them? Heaven is a place where all is joyful, and hell is a place where all is doleful. In heaven there is nothing but happiness, and in hell there is nothing but heaviness, nothing but endless, easeless, and remediless torments. Did men believe this, how could they go so merrily on in the way to hell?
Cato once said to Caesar, "I believe that you think all that is said of hell to be false and mythical." Just so, I may say to many in this day, Surely you think that all that is spoken and written of hell is but a story. Don't you look upon the people of God to be of all men the most miserable, and yourselves of all men the most happy? Yes! Oh— but how can this be, did you really believe that there was a heaven for
the righteous and a hell for the wicked? It is an Italian proverb, "He who has not seen and lived some time in Venice does not understand what a city it is." This in a sense is true of hell.
Hell is a place of endless, easeless, and
remediless torment.
But now for the fact, that there is a hell, that there is such a place of misery prepared and appointed for the wicked—I shall briefly demonstrate against the high atheists and Socinians of this day.
[1.] First, God created angels and men after his own image. Man must be so much honored as to be made like God; and no creature must be so much honored as to be made like man. The pattern after which man was made is sometimes called image alone. "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him," Gen. 1:27. Sometimes likeness alone: Gen. 5:1, "In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him." Sometimes both: Gen. 1:26, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness;" which makes a prudent interpreter think that when they are joined, that the Holy Spirit means an image most like his own. It is exceeding much for man's honor that he is an epitome of the world, an abridgment of other creatures, partaking with the stones in being, with the stars in motion, with the plants in growing, with the beasts in sense, and with angels in knowledge. But his being made after God's image is far more. You know, when great men erect a stately building, they cause their own picture to be hung upon it, that spectators may know who was the chief builder of it. Just so, when God had created the fabric of this world, the last thing he did was the setting up his own picture in it, creating man after his own image.
When the great Creator went about that noble work, that prime piece of making of man, he does, as it were, call a solemn council of the sacred persons in the Trinity: "And God said, Let us make man in our image," etc., Gen. 1:26. Man before his fall was the best of creatures— but since his fall he is become the worst of creatures. ["Man," says one, "in his creation is angelic; in his corruption diabolical; in his renovation theological; in his translation majestical. Man was angel
in Eden, a devil in the world, a saint in the church, a king in heaven.] He who was once the image of God, the glory of Paradise, the world's master, and the Lord's darling, has now become an abomination to God, a burden to heaven, a plague to the world, and a slave to Satan. When man first came out of God's mint, he did shine most gloriously, as being bespangled with holiness and clad with the royal robe of righteousness; his understanding was filled with knowledge; his will with uprightness; his affections with holiness, etc. But yet, being a mutable creature, and subject to temptations, Satan quickly stripped him of his happiness, and cheated and cozened him out of his imperial crown—with an apple.
If God had created angels and men immutable, he had created them gods and not creatures—but being made mutable we know they did fall from their primitive purity and glory; and we know that out of the whole host of angels, he kept some from falling; and when all mankind was fallen, he redeemed some by his Son. Now mark, as he shows mercy upon some in their salvation, so it is fit that he should glorify his justice upon others in their condemnation, Romans 7:2123. And because there must be distinct places for the exercise of the one and for the execution of the other, which are in God equally infinite by an irreversible decree from the foundation of the world—a glorious habitation was prepared for the one, and a most hideous dungeon for the other. "These shall go into everlasting punishment, and the righteous into life eternal," Mat. 25:46. Yes, so certain are both these places, that they were of old prepared for that very purpose. "Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;" and so, "Depart, you cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels," verse 41.
Look! As God foresaw the different estates and conditions of men and angels, so he provided for them distinct and different places. Doubtless, hell was constituted before angels or men fell. Hell was framed before sin was hatched—just as heaven was formed and fitted before any of the inhabitants were produced. But,
[2.] Secondly, That there is a hell, both the Old and New Testament cloth clearly and fully testify. Take some instances: Psalm 9:17, "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." In the Hebrew there are two "intos," "into, into" hell; that is, "The wicked shall certainly be turned into the nethermost hell;" yes, they shall forcibly be turned into the lowest and darkest place in hell. [Sheol is often put for the grave, Psalm 16:10—but not always.] God will, as it were, with both hands thrust him into hell. If Sheol here signify the grave only, what punishment is here threatened to the wicked, which the righteous is not equally liable to? Doubtless, Sheol here is to be taken for that prison or place of torment where divine justice detains all those in hold that have all their days rebelled against him, scorned his Son, despised the means of grace, and died in open rebellion against him.
"The psalmist," says Mollerus, "declares the miserable condition of all those who live and die in their sins—They shall be everlastingly punished." And Musculus reads the place thus: "The souls of the ungodly shall be punished in hell with deserved torments." Certainly, the very place in which the wicked shall lodge and be tormented to all eternity—namely, hell, the bottomless pit, a dungeon of darkness, a lake of fire and brimstone, a fiery furnace,—will extremely aggravate the dolefulness of their condition. O sirs, were all the water in the sea ink, and every blade of grass a pen, and every hair on all the men's heads in the world the hand of a ready writer, all would be too short graphically to delineate the nature of this dungeon, where all lost souls must lodge forever. Where is the man who, to gain a world, would lodge one night in a room that is haunted with devils; and is it nothing to dwell in hell with them forever?
So Solomon, Proverbs 5:5, says of the harlot, "that her feet go down to death, her steps take hold on hell." Here Sheol is translated hell, and in the judgment of Lavater is well translated too: "which," says he, "is spoken not so much of natural death as of spiritual, and that eternal destruction which follows thereupon." And he gives this for a reason why we should understand the place so, because whoredom
being an abominable sin, defiling the members of the body of Christ, dissolving and making void the covenant between God and man, must needs be accompanied with an equivalent judgment, even excluding those who are guilty thereof, without repentance, the kingdom of heaven, into which pure and undefiled place no unclean thing can enter. ["By death and hell is in this place meant not only temporal death and the visible grave—but also eternal death and hell itself, even the place of the damned." The Dutch Annotations.]
And mark those words of the apostle, "Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." If men will not judge them, God himself will, and give them a portion of misery answerable to their transgression. [1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:19-21; Rev. 21:27; Heb. 13:4.] Though the magistrate be negligent in punishing them—yet God will judge them. Sometimes he judges them in this life, by pouring forth of his wrath upon their bodies, souls, consciences, names, and estates—but if he does not thus judge them in this life—yet he will be sure to judge them in the life to come; which Bishop Latimer well understood when he presented to Henry the Eighth, for a New-year's gift, a New Testament, with a napkin, having this note on it, "Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge;" yes, he has already adjudged them "to the fiery lake of burning sulfur," Rev. 21:8. "Nothing," says one, "has so much enriched hell as beautiful faces." The Germans have a proverb that "the pavement of hell is made of the skulls of shaved priests and the glorious crests of gallants." Their meaning is, that these sorts of people being most given up to fleshly lusts and pleasures, they shall be sure to have the lowest place in hell. The harlot's feet go down to death, and her steps take hold on hell. Immorality brings men to hell. "Whoremongers shall have their part in fiery lake of burning sulfur," Rev. 21:8. "For fornication and uncleanness the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience," Col. 3:5-6. The adulterer herself goes there; and is it not fit that her companions in sin should be her companions in misery? "I will cast her into a bed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation," Rev. 2:22. She hastens with sails and oars to hell, and draws her lovers with her. All her courses tend
towards hell. The unchaste are the foundations and upholders of hell; they are the devil's best customers.
Oh, the thousands of men and women who are sent to hell for sexual immorality! Hell would be very thin and empty were it not for these. Other sins are toilsome and troublesome—but sexual immorality is pleasant, and sends men and women merrily to hell.
I have read a story, that one asking the devil which were the greatest sins? he answered, "Covetousness and lust." The other asking again, whether perjury and blasphemy were not greater sins? the devil replied, "that in the schools of divinity they were the greater sins— but for the increase of his revenues the other were the greater." Bede, therefore, styles lust, "the daughter of the devil, which brings forth many children to him." Oh, that all wantons would take that counsel of Bernard, "Let the fire of hell extinguish the fire of lust in you; let the greater burning overcome the lesser," 1 Tim. 5:6. Ponder upon that Proverbs 9:18, "But he knows not that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depths of hell." Namely, those who are spiritually dead, and who are in the highway to be cut off, either by filthy diseases, or by the rage of the jealous husband, or by the sword of the magistrate, or by some quarrels arising among those who are rivals in the harlot's love, and are as sure to be damned as if they were in hell already. It is a metaphor from a dungeon. He knows not that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depths of hell. Aben Ezra will have the original word "there," to be referred to hell; and the meaning of the whole verse to be more plainly thus, "He knows not that her guests being dead are in the depth of hell."
But the Hebrew word here used and translated dead, is Rephaim, which word properly signifies giants. The meaning of this place seems to be no other—but that the immoral woman will bring those who are her guests to hell, to keep the apostate giants company,— those mighty men of renown of the old world, whose wickedness was so great in the earth, that it repented and grieved God that he had made man, Gen. 6:4-5; and to take vengeance on whom he brought
the general deluge upon the earth, and destroyed both man and beast from the face thereof. These giants are called in Hebrew Nephilim, such as, being fallen from God, fell upon men, and by force and violence made others fall before them, even as the beasts of the field do fall before the roaring lions. These great oppressors were first drowned, and then damned, and sent to that accursed place which was appointed for them. Now to that place and condition, in which they are, the harlot will bring all her wanton lovers.
Take one scripture more: Proverbs 15:11, "Hell and destruction are before the Lord; how much more then the hearts of the children of men." [Destruction is put as an epithet of hell.] Some by Sheol understand the grave, and by Abaddon hell. There is nothing so deep, or secret, that can be hid from the eyes of God. He knows the souls in hell, and the bodies in the grave, and much more men's thoughts here in this place, Proverbs 15:11. The Jews take the word Abaddon, which we render destruction, for Gehenna, that is, elliptically for Beth-Abaddon, the house of destruction.
Though we know not where hell is, nor what is done there—though we know not what is become of those who are destroyed, nor what they suffer—yet God does; and if the secrets of hell and devils are known to him, then much more the secrets of the hearts of the children of men. The devil, who is the great executioner of the wrath of God, is expressed by this word; as hell is called destruction in the abstract, so the devil is called a destroyer in the concrete. "And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, or hell, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon—but in the Greek tongue has his name Apollyon," Rev, 9:11. Both the one and the other, the Hebrew and the Greek, signify the same thing—a destroyer. The devil, who is the jailer of hell, is called a destroyer, as hell itself is called destruction. Oh, sirs! hell is destruction; those who are once there are lost, yes, lost forever, Rev. 14:11. The reason why hell is called destruction, is because those who are cast to hell are undone to all eternity. "If hell," said one, "were to be endured a
thousand years, methinks I could bear it—but forever—that astonishes me."
Bellarmine tells us of a learned man, who after his death appeared to his friend, complaining that he was adjudged to hell-torments, which, says he, were they to last but a thousand thousand years, I should think it tolerable—but alas! they are eternal. The fire in hell is like that stone in Arcadia I have read of, which being once kindled, could not be quenched. There is no estate on earth so miserable—but a man may be delivered out of it—but out of hell there is no deliverance. No prayers can rescue any who are once become hell's prisoners! I might add other scriptures out of the Old Testament— but let these suffice.
That there is such a place as hell is, prepared for the torment of the bodies and souls of wicked and impenitent sinners, is most clear and evident in the New Testament as well as in the Old. Among the many that might be produced, take these for a taste: Mat. 5:22, "Whoever shall say, You fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." "You fool," the word signifies unsavory, or without relish; a fool here is, by a metaphor, called insipid, Hebrew, Sote, which we call Sot.
"Shall be in danger of hell-fire," or to be cast into Gehenna. Gehenna comes from the Hebrew word Gettinnom, that is, the valley of Hinnom, lying near the city of Jerusalem; in which valley, in former times, the idolatrous Jews caused their children to be burned alive between the glowing arms of the brazen image of Moloch, imitating the abominations of the heathen, Josh. 15:8. And hence the Scripture often makes use of that word to signify the place of eternal punishment, where the damned must abide under the wrath of God forever, 2 Kings 23:10; Jer. 7:31, 32:35, and 19:46.
There were four kinds of punishments exercised among the Jews—
1. Stranglings;
2. The sword;
3. Stoning;
4. The fire.
Now this last they always judged the worst. In these words, "shall be in danger of hell-fire," Christ alludes to the highest degree of punishment that was inflicted by them, namely, to be burned in the valley of Hinnom, which, by a known metaphor, is transferred to hell itself, and the inexpressible torments thereof. For as those poor wretches being inclosed in a brazen idol, heated with fire, were miserably tormented in this valley of Hinnom; so the wicked being cast into hell, the prison of the damned, shall be eternally tormented in unquenchable fire. This valley of Hinnom, by reason of the pollution of it with slaughter, blood, and stench of carcasses, did become so execrable, that hell itself did afterwards inherit the same name, and was called Gehenna of this very place. And that,
1. In respect of the hollowness and depth thereof, being a low and deep valley.
2. This valley of Hinnom was a place of misery, in regard of those many slaughters that were committed in it through their barbarous idolatry; so hell is a place of misery and sorrowfulness, wherein there is nothing but sorrow.
3. Thirdly, by the bitter and lamentable cries of poor infants in this valley, is shadowed out the cries and lamentable torments of the damned in hell.
4. In this valley of Hinnom was another fire which was kept continually burning for the consuming of dead carcasses, and filth, and the garbage that came out of the city. Now our Savior, by the fire of Gehenna, in Mat. 5:22, has reference principally to this fire, signifying hereby the perpetuity and everlastingness of hellish pains. To this last judgment of burning, does Christ appropriate that kind of open reviling of a brother, that he might notify the heinousness of that sin.
See also Mat. 5:29-30, "If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell-fire." Julian, taking these commands literally, mocked at the Christian religion, as foolish, cruel, and vain, because they require men to maim their members. He mocked at Christians because no man did it; and he mocked at Christ because no man obeyed him. But this apostate might have seen from the scope that these words were not to be taken literally—but figuratively. Some of the ancients, by the right hand, and the right eye, do understand relations, friends, or any other dear enjoyments which draws the heart from God. Others of them, by the right eye, and the right hand, do understand such darling sins which are as dear to men as their right eyes or right hands. That this hell here spoken of is not meant of the grave, into which the body shall be laid, is most evident, because those Christians who do pull out their right eyes, and cut off their right hands—that is, mortify those special sins which are as dear and near to them as the very members of their bodies—shall be secured and delivered from this hell, whereas none shall be exempt from the grave, though they are the choicest people on earth for grace and holiness.
Death knows no difference between robes and rags, between prince and peasant. "All flesh is grass," Isaiah 40:6. The flesh of princes, nobles, counselors, generals, etc., is grass, as well as the flesh of the lowest beggar that walks the streets. "The mortal scythe," says one, "is master of the royal scepter, it mows down the lilies of the crown, as well as the grass of the field." Never was there orator so eloquent, nor monarch so potent, who could either persuade or withstand the stroke of death when it came! Death's motto is, "I spare none!" It is one of Solomon's sacred aphorisms, "The rich and the poor meet together," Proverbs 22:2, sometimes in the same bed, sometimes at the same board, and sometimes in the same grave. Death is the common inn of all mankind. "There is no defense against the stroke
of death, nor no discharge in that war," Heb. 9:27; Eccles. 8:8. Death is that only king against whom there is resistance, Proverbs 30:31. If your houses be on fire, by good help they may be quenched; if the flood breaks out, by art and industry it may be repaired; if princes invade by power and policy, they may be repulsed; if devils from hell shall tempt, by assistance from heaven they may be resisted. But death comes into royal palaces, and into the poorest cottages, and there is not a man to be found, who can make resistance against this king of terrors and terror of kings.
Thus you see that by hell in Mat. 5:29-30, you may not, you cannot, understand the grave; and therefore by it you must understand the place of the damned.
But if you please you may cast your eye upon another scripture, namely, Mat. 10:28, "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell." We should not fear man at all—when he stands in competition with God. Just so, Victorian, the proconsul of Carthage, being solicited to Arianism by the ambassadors of King Hunnerick, answered thus, "Being assured of God and my Lord Christ, I tell you, what you may tell the king, Let him burn me, let him drive me to the beasts, let him torment me with all kinds of torments, I shall never consent to be an Arian!" And though the tyrant afterwards did torture him with very great tortures—yet he could never force him over to Arianism. The best remedy against the slavish fear of tyrants, is to set that great God up as the object of our fear, who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
Mark, Jesus does not say to destroy soul and body simply or absolutely, so that they should be no more—but to punish them eternally in hell, where the worm never dies, nor the fire ever goes out. Now by hell in Mat. 10:28, the grave cannot be meant, because the soul is not destroyed with the body in the grave, as they both shall be, if the person be wicked, after the morning of the resurrection, in hell, Eccles. 12:7, and Phil. 1:3.
From the immortality of the soul, we may infer the eternity of man's future condition. The soul being immortal, it must be immortally happy or immortally miserable.
Take one scripture more, namely, 1 Pet. 3:19-20, "By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which once were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah." [Spirits, that is, the souls departed, not men—but spirits, to keep an analogy to the 18th verse, Christ suffered, being made dead in the flesh, and made alive by the Spirit; in which Spirit he had gone and preached to those who are now spirits in prison, because they disobeyed, when the time was, when the patience of God once waited in the days of Noah.] That is, Christ by his Spirit, in the ministry of Noah, did preach to the men of the old world, who are now in hell. In Noah's time they were on earth—but in Peter's time they were in hell. Mark, Christ did not preach by his Spirit, in his ministry, or any other way, to spirits who were in prison or in hell while he preached to them. There are no sermons in hell, nor any salvation there. The loving-kindness of God is abundantly declared on earth—but it shall never be declared in hell. Look, as there is nothing felt in hell but destruction, so there is nothing found in hell of the offers of salvation. One offer of Christ in hell would turn hell into a heaven!
One of the ancients has reported the opinion of some in his time who thought, that though there is destruction in hell—yet not eternal destruction—but that sinners should be punished, some a lesser, others a longer time, and that, at last, all shall be freed. "And yet," says he, "Origen was more merciful in that point than these men, for he held that the devil himself should be saved at last." Of this opinion I shall say no more in this place, than this one thing which he there said. These men will be found to err by so much the more foully, and against the right words of God so much the more perversely, by how much they seem to themselves to judge more mercifully; for indeed the justice of God in punishing of sinners is as much above the reach of man's thoughts—as his mercies in pardoning them are, Isaiah
55:7-9. Oh, let not such who have neglected the great salvation when they were on earth, Heb. 2:3, ever expect to have an offer of salvation made to them when they are in hell! Consult these scriptures, Mat. 25:30, 13:41-42; Rev. 9:2, 14:19-20, 20:1-3, 7. I must make haste, and therefore may not stand upon the opening of these scriptures, having said enough already to prove both out of the Old and New Testament that there is a hell, a place of torment, provided and prepared for all wicked and ungodly men. But the third argument to prove that there is a hell, is this,
[3.] The beams of natural light in some of the heathens have made such impressions on the heart of natural conscience, that several of them have had confused notions of a hell, as well as of a judgment to come. Though the poor blind heathens were ignorant of Christ and the gospel, and the great work of redemption, etc.—yet by the light of nature, and reasonings from thence, they did attain to the understanding of a deity, who was both just and good; as also, that the soul was immortal, and that both rewards and punishments were prepared for the souls of men after this life, according as they were found either virtuous or wicked. Profound Bradwardine, and several others, have produced many proofs concerning their apprehensions of hell, of wrath to come. What made the heathen Emperor Adrian when he lay a-dying, cry out, "O my little wretched wandering soul, where are you now hastening? Oh, what will become of me! Live I cannot, die I dare not!" Look, as these poor heathens did imagine such a place as the Elysian fields, where the virtuous should spend an eternity in pleasures; so also they did feign a place called Tartarum, or hell, where the wicked should be eternally tormented. Tertullian, and after him Chrysostom, affirms that poets and philosophers, and all sorts of men, speaking of a future retribution, have said that many are punished in hell. Plato is very plain, that the profane shall go into hell to be tormented for their wickednesses, with the greatest, most bitter and terrible punishments, forever in that prison in hell.
And Jupiter, speaking to the other gods concerning the Grecians and Trojans, says— If any shall so hardy be, To aid each part in spite of me; Him will I tumble down to hell, In that infernal place to dwell.
So Horace, speaking concerning Jove's thunderbolts, says— With which earth, seas, the Stygian lake, And hell with all her furies quake.
And Trismegistus affirms concerning the soul's going out of the body defiled, that it is tossed to and fro with eternal punishments. Nor was Virgil ignorant thereof when he said— They all shall pack, Sentence once past, to their deserved rack.
The horror of which place he acknowledges he could not express, No heart of man can think, no tongue can tell, The direful pains ordained and felt in hell.
It was the common opinion among the poor heathen that the wicked were held in chains by Pluto—so they called the prince of devils—in chains which cannot be loosed. To conclude, the very Turks speak of the house of perdition, and affirm that they who have turned the grace of God into impiety, shall abide eternally in the fire of hell, and there be eternally tormented. I might have spent much more time upon this head—but that I do not judge it expedient, considering the people for whose sakes and satisfaction I have sent this piece into the world. But,
[4.] Fourthly, The secret checks, gripes, stings, and the amazing horrors and terrors of CONSCIENCE, which sometimes astonish, affright, and even distract sinful wretches—do clearly and abundantly evidence that there is a hell, that there is a place of torment prepared and
appointed for ungodly sinners. ["Every man is tormented with his own conscience," says the philosopher.] Doubtless, it was not merely the dissolution of nature—but the sad consequences, which so startled and terrified Belshazzar when he saw the handwriting on the wall, Dan. 5:5-6. Guilty man, when conscience is awakened, fears an after-reckoning, when he shall be paid the wages of his sins, proportionate to his demerits.
Wolfius tells you of one John Hufmeister, who fell sick in his inn as he was traveling towards Augsburg in Germany, and grew to that horror that they had to bind him in his bed with chains, where he cried out that "he was for ever cast off from before the face of God, and should perish forever, he having greatly wounded his conscience by sin," etc.
James Abyes, who suffered martyrdom for Christ's sake and the gospel's, as he was going along to execution he gave all his money and his clothes away to one, and another to his shirt, upon which one of the sheriff's attendants scoffingly said that "he was a madman and a heretic;" but as soon as the godly man was executed this wretch was struck mad, and threw away his clothes, and cried out that "James Abyes was a godly man, and gone to heaven—but he was a wicked man, and was damned!" And thus he continued crying out until his death.
Dionysius was so troubled with fear and horror of conscience, that, not daring to trust his best friends with a razor, he used to singe his beard with burning coals—says Cicero.
Bessus having slain his father, and being afterwards banqueting with several nobles, arose from the table and beat down a swallow's nest which was in the chimney, saying they lied "to say that he slew his father," for his guilty conscience made him think that the swallows, when they chattered, proclaimed his parricide to the world.
Theodoricus the king having slain Boetius and Symmachus, and being afterwards at dinner, began to change countenance, his guilty conscience so blinding his eyes that he thought the head of a fish which stood before him to have been the head of his cousin Symmachus, who bit at him and threatened him, the horror whereof did so amaze him, that he presently died.
Nero, that monster of nature, having once slain his mother, had never more any peace within—but was plagued with horrors, fears, visions, and clamors which his guilty conscience set before him and suggested unto him. He suspected his nearest and dearest friends and favorites, he trembled at the barking of a puppy, and the crowing of a rooster, yes, the shaking of a leaf, and neither dared speak unto others nor could endure others to speak to him, when he was retired into a private house, lest the noise should be heard by some who lay in wait for his life.
Now were there not a hell, were there not a place of torment where God will certainly inflict unspeakable miseries and intolerable torments upon wicked and ungodly men, why should their consciences thus plague, torture, and torment them? Yes, the very heathen had so much light in their natural consciences, as made such a discovery of that place of darkness, that some of them have been terrified with their own inventions concerning it, and distracted with the very sense of those very torments which they themselves have described. The very flashes of hell-fire which sinners daily experience in their own consciences—may be an argument sufficient to satisfy those who there is a hell, a place of torment provided for them in the eternal world.
[5.] Fifthly, Those matchless, easeless, and endless torments that God will certainly inflict upon the bodies and souls of all wicked and ungodly men, after the resurrection, does sufficiently evidence that there is a hell —that there is a place of torment provided, prepared, and fitted by
God, wherein he will, "pour forth all the vials of his wrath upon wicked and ungodly men."
Isaiah 30:33, "Topheth has long been prepared. Its fire pit has been made deep and wide, with an abundance of fire and wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of burning sulfur, sets it ablaze." This place that was so famous for judgment and vengeance is used to express the torments of hell, the place of the damned. Tophet was a place in the valley of Hinnom; it was the place where the angel of the Lord destroyed the host of Sennacherib, king of Assyria, Isaiah 30:31, 33; and this was the place where the idolatrous Jews were slain and massacred by the Babylonian armies, when their city was taken and their carcasses left, for lack of room for burial, for food for the fowls of heaven and beasts of the field, according to the word of the Lord by the prophet Jeremiah, Jer. 7:31-33, and 19:4-6. And this was the place where the children of Israel committed that abominable idolatry in making their children pass through the fire to Moloch; that is—burnt them to the devil, 2 Kings 23:10; 2 Chron. 33:6. Therefore king Josiah polluted it, and made it a place execrable, ordaining it to be the garbage dump where dead carcasses, rubbish, and other unclean things should be cast out. For consuming whereof, to prevent annoyance, a continual fire was there burning, 2 Kings 33:8. Now this place, being so many ways execrable for what had been done therein, especially having been as it were the gate to eternal destruction, by so remarkable judgments and vengeance of God there executed for sin, it came to be translated to signify the place of the damned—as the most accursed, execrable, and abominable place of all places.
The Spirit of God, in Scripture, by metaphors of all sorts of things which are dreadful unto sense—sets forth the condition of the damned, and the torments that he has reserved for them in the life to come. Hell's punishments do infinitely exceed all other punishments, that there is no pain so extreme—as that of the damned. Look, as there are no joys which can compare to the joys of heaven, so there are no pains which can compare to the pains of hell, Psalm 116:3. All
the cruelties in the world cannot possibly make up any horror comparable to the horrors of hell. The brick-kilns of Egypt, the furnace of Babylon—are but as a fleeting spark—compared to this tormenting Tophet which has been prepared of old to punish the bodies and souls of sinners with. Hanging, racking, burning, scourging, stoning, sawing asunder, flaying of the skin, etc., are not to be compared with the tortures of hell. If all the pains, sorrows, miseries, and calamities which have been inflicted upon all men, since Adam fell in Paradise, should meet together and center in one man--they would not so much as amount to one of the least of the pains of hell.
Who can sum up the diversity of torments which are in hell!
1. In hell there is darkness; hell is a dark region.
2. In hell there are sorrows!
3. In hell there are bonds and chains!
4. In hell there are pains and pangs!
5. In hell there is the worm that never dies!
6. In hell there is a lake of fire!
7. In hell there is a furnace of fire!
8. In hell there is the devil and his demons! And oh, how dreadful must it be to be shut up forever with those roaring lions!
9. In hell there is weeping and gnashing of teeth! [Jude 13; Psalm 116:3; 2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6; Mark 9:44; Rev. 20:15; Mat. 13:4142, 25:41, 24:51, 25:30, 13:42.]
10. In hell there is unquenchable fire! Mat. 3:12, "He will burn the chaff with unquenchable fire;" in hell there is "everlasting burnings."
"The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling grips the godless—Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?" Isaiah 33:14 Wicked men, who are now the only jolly fellows of the time, shall one day go from burning to burning; from burning in sin to burning in hell; from burning in flames of lusts to burning in flames of torment, except there be found true repentance on their sides, and pardoning grace on God's. [Gen. 4:17; Amos 6:7; Job 21:12; Dan. 5:21; Amos 6:4.]
O sirs! in this devouring fire, in these everlasting burnings, Cain shall find no cities to build, nor shall his posterity have any instruments of music to invent there; none shall take up the timbrel or harp, or rejoice at the sound of the organ. There Belshazzar cannot drink wines in bowls, nor eat the lambs out of the flocks, nor the calves out of the midst of the stall. In everlasting burnings there will be no merry company to pass time away, nor any dice or cards to pass care away. Nor shall there be bottles of wine wherein to drown the sinner's grief. By fire in the scriptures last cited, is meant, as I conceive, all the positive part of the torments of hell; and because they are not only upon the soul but also upon the body. As in heaven there shall be all bodily perfection, so there shall be also in hell all bodily miseries. Whatever may make a man perfectly miserable shall be in hell; therefore the wrath of God and all the positive effects of this wrath is here meant by fire.
I have read of Pope Clement the Fifth, that when a nephew of his, whom he had loved sensually and sinfully, died, he sent one to a necromancer to learn how it fared with him in the other world. The conjuror showed him the nephew lying in a fiery bed in hell; which when it was told the Pope, he never more joyed after it—but, within a short time after, died also. Out of this fiery bed there is no deliverance. When a sinner is in hell, shall another Christ be found to die for him, or will the same Christ be crucified again? Oh, no!
O sirs, the torments of hell will be exceeding great and dreadful, such as will make the stoutest sinners to quake and tremble! If the
handwriting upon the wall, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin, made Belshazzar's "countenance to change, his thoughts to be troubled, and his joints to be loosed, and his knees to knock one against another," Dan. 5:5, 6:25. Oh, how terrible will the torments of hell be to the damned! The torments of hell will be universal torments. All torments meet together in that place of torment. Hell is the center of all punishments, of all sorrows, of all pains, of all wrath, and of all vengeance, etc.
One of the ancients says that, "the least punishment in hell is more grievous than if a child-bearing woman should continue in the most violent pangs and throes a thousand years together, without the least ease or intermission."
A heathen poet, speaking of the multitude of the pains and torments of the wicked in hell, affirmed, "that although he had a hundred mouths, and as many tongues, with a voice as strong as iron—yet were they not able to express the names of them." But this poet spoke more like a prophet, than a poet. The poets tell you of a place called Tartarum, or hell, where the impious shall be eternally tormented. This Tartarum the poets did set forth with many fictions to affright people from wicked practices, such as of the four lakes of Acheron, Styx, Phlegethon, and Cocytus; over which Charon, in his boat, did waft over the departed souls. They also tell of the three judges, Aeacus, Minos, and Rhadamanthus, who were to call the souls to an account, and judge them to their state. They also tell of the three furies, Tisophone, Megaera, and Alecto, who lashed guilty souls to extort confession from them. They also tell of Cerberus, the dog of hell, with three heads, which would let none come out when once they were in. They also tell of several sorts of punishments inflicted, as iron chains, horrid stripes, gnawing of vultures, wheels, rolling great stones, and the like. In the chapel of Ticam, the China Pluto, the pains of hell were so pictured, that they could not but strike terror into the beholders—some roasted in iron beds, some fried in scalding oil, some cut in pieces, or divided in the middle, or torn by
dogs, etc. In another part of the chapel were painted the dungeons of hell, with horrible serpents, flames, devils, etc.
"In hell," says one "there is the floor of brimstone, smoky, pitchy, with stinking flames, deep pits of scalding pitch, and sulphurous flames wherein the damned are punished daily." There the wicked shall be fed with the tree Ezecum, which shall burn in their bellies like fire; there they shall drink fire, and be held in chains. In the midst of hell, they say, is a tree full of fruit, every apple being like to the head of a devil, which grows green in the midst of all those flames, called the tree of bitterness; and the souls that shall eat thereof, thinking to refresh themselves, shall so find them, and by them and their pains in hell, they shall grow mad; and the devils shall bind them with chains of fire, and shall drag them up and down in hell; with much more which I am not free to transcribe.
Now, although most of those things which you may find among many poets, heathens, and Turks, concerning the torments of hell, are fictions of their own brains—yet that there is such a place as hell, and that there are diversity of torments there, the very light of nature does witness, and has forced many to confess, etc.
And as there are diversity of torments in hell, so the torments of hell are everlasting. Mark, everything that is conducible to the torments of the damned is eternal.
1. God himself, who damns them, is eternal, Deut. 33:27; 1 Tim. 1:17.
2. The fire which torments them is eternal, Isaiah 30:33, and 66:24; Jude 7.
3. The prison and chains which hold them are eternal, Jude 67, 13; 2 Pet. 2:17.
4. The worm which gnaws them is eternal, Mark 9:44. 5.
5. The sentence which shall be passed upon them, shall be eternal, Mat. 25:41, "Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire."
You know that fire is the most tormenting element. Oh, the most dreadful impression that it makes upon the flesh—everlasting fire! There is the vengeance and continuance of it—You shall go into fire, into everlasting fire—which shall never consume itself, nor consume you. The eternity of hell—is the hell of hell.
The fire in hell is like that stone in Arcadia, which being once kindled could never be quenched. If all the fires which ever were, or which be in the world, were contracted into one fire—how terrible would it be! Yet such a fire would be but as a painted fire—compared to the fire of hell. For to be tormented without end, this is that which goes beyond all the bounds of desperation. Grievous is the torment of the damned, for the bitterness of the punishments—but it is more grievous for the diversity of the punishments—but most grievous for the eternity of the punishments! If, after so many millions of years as there are drops in the ocean, there might be a deliverance out of hell, this would yield a little ease, a little comfort to the damned. Oh—but this word Eternity! Eternity! Eternity! this word Everlasting! Everlasting! Everlasting! this word Forever! Forever! Forever! will even break the hearts of the damned in ten thousand pieces!
Oh, that word 'never', said a poor despairing creature on his deathbed, breaks my heart. "The reprobate shall have punishment without pity; misery without mercy, sorrow without support, crying without compassion, mischief without measure, and torment without end," (Drexelius.) Plato could say, "That the profane shall go into hell, to be tormented for their wickedness, with the greatest, the most bitter and terrible punishments, forever in that prison of hell." And Trismegistus could say, "That souls going out of the body defiled, were tossed to and fro with eternal punishments." Yes, the very Turks, speaking of the house of perdition, do affirm, "That they
who have turned God's grace into wantonness, shall abide eternally in the fire of hell, and there be eternally tormented."
A certain man going to visit Olympius, who lived cloistered up in a dark cell, which he thought uninhabitable, by reason of heat, and swarms of gnats and flies, and asking him how he could endure to live in such a place, he answered, "All this is but a light matter, that I may escape eternal torments: I can endure the stinging of gnats, that I might not endure the stinging of conscience, and the gnawing of that worm that never dies; this heat you think grievous, I can easily endure, when I think of the eternal fire of hell; these sufferings are but short—but the sufferings of hell are eternal." [There is no Christian which does not believe the fire of hell to be everlasting. Jackson]
Certainly, infernal fire is neither tolerable nor terminable. Impenitent sinners in hell shall have end without end, death without death, night without day, mourning without mirth, sorrow without solace, and bondage without liberty. The damned shall live as long in hell as God himself shall live in heaven. Their imprisonment in that land of darkness, in that bottomless pit, is not an imprisonment during the king's pleasure—but an imprisonment during the everlasting displeasure of the King of kings.
Suppose that the whole world were turned to a mountain of sand, and that a little bird should come once every thousand years and carry away from that heap, one grain of sand. What an infinite number of years, not to be numbered by all finite beings, would be spent before this great mountain of sand would be fetched away! Just so—if a man should lie in everlasting burnings so long a time as this, and then have an end of his woe—it would give some ease, some hope, and some comfort to him. But when that immortal bird shall have carried away this great mountain of sand—a thousand times over and over—alas, alas, sinful man shall be as far from the end of his anguish and torment as ever he was! He shall be no nearer coming out of hell, than he was the very first moment that he entered
into hell! If the fire of hell were terminable, it might be tolerable—but being endless, it must needs be easeless, and remediless. We may well say of it, as one does, "Oh, killing life! oh, immortal death!"
Suppose, say others, that a man were to endure the torments of hell as many years, and no more, as there be sands on the sea-shore, drops of water in the sea, stars in heaven, leaves on trees, blades of grass on the ground, hairs on the heads of every person who ever was, or shall be in the world, from the beginning of it to the end of it —yet he would comfort himself with this poor thought, "Well, there will come a day when my misery and torment shall certainly have an end." But woe and alas, this word, "Forever! Forever! Forever!" will fill the hearts of the damned with the greatest horror and terror, anger and rage, bewilderment and astonishment.
Suppose, say others, that the torments of hell were to end, after a little bird should have emptied the sea, and only carry out one drop once in a thousand years.
Suppose, say others, that the whole world, from the lowest earth to the highest heavens, were filled with grains of sand, and once in a thousand years an angel should fetch away one grain, and so continue until the whole heap were gone.
Suppose, say others, if one of the damned in hell, should weep after this manner, namely—that he should only let fall one tear in a thousand years; and these tears should be kept together, until such time as they should equal the water in the sea. How many millions of ages would pass! And when that were done, that he must weep again after the same manner, until he had filled a second, a third, and a fourth sea!