What Damnation Is

Damnation may be considered:

1 Privatively, as (paena damni) a punishment of loss.

2 Positively, as (paena sensus) a punishment of sense.

An instance of both we have (Matthew 25:41): Then shall he say to them on his left hand, Depart from me (there is privative damnation) into everlasting fire, there is positive damnation. As sin is negatively a not doing good, and positively a doing evil; so damnation is a denial of good to, and inflicting of evil upon sinners. Salvation is ademptio mali, the taking away of evil, and adeptio boni, an obtaining and enjoying of good; it is both ways expressed (John 3:16): God so loved the world, that he gave his Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, (there is negative salvation) but have everlasting life, there is positive salvation. So the damnation of sinners, it is negative, depart from me; and positive, into everlasting [reconstructed: fire]: In which text we may observe:

1 Who are to hear and to undergo this doom, namely them on his left hand, the goats, the sinners, the workers of iniquity, as it is Matthew 7:23.

2 The sentence or doom itself, Depart from me; woe to you, says God (Hosea 9:12), when I depart from you; but woe, woe, woe will it be when sinners must depart from God. The punishment (which is worthy of a remark) does answer to, and is called by the name of sin; What is sin? but a departure from God: And what the doom of sinners? departure from God; as if God should say to them, you liked departing while you lived, now depart from me; you would none of me, nor my company, now I'll none of you, nor yours. Depart from us, is the cry of sinners to God (Job 21:14). Depart from me will be the cry of God to sinners.

3 Here is the state wherein sinners must be when they receive this doom (Cursed) — God will not send them away in peace, or bless them before they go, but away they must with a vengeance, and with a curse at their backs; they loved cursing, and cursing shall be to them; all the curses in the Book of God shall light on them.

4 Here is the torment they are to undergo — fire, yea everlasting fire, kindled by the wrath and maintained by the wrath of God.

Lastly, the company they are to have, none but the Devil and his Angels: Depart from me you cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his Angels.

A little to gloss on this briefly; it is as if sinners should say to God in the day of Judgment — Lord have mercy upon us. Mercy! says God — mercy upon you! No, no, I will have no mercy on you; time was when you might have had mercy without judgment, but now you shall have judgment without mercy; depart, depart. If they should then beg and say, Lord, if we must depart, let it be from your Throne of judgment, but not from you. Yes, says the Lord, depart from me, depart from that presence of mine, in which there is joy, depart, and go to hell. Lord (if they say) seeing we must be gone, yet bless us before we go, let your blessing be upon us. Oh no, says God, be gone with a curse, depart you cursed. Oh Lord, if we must go from you, let us not go into the place of torment, but appoint some place, if not of pleasure, yet of ease. No, depart into fire, burning and tormenting flames. Oh Lord, if into fire, let it be but for a little while, let the fire be soon out, or we soon out of it, for who can dwell in everlasting burnings! No, no, neither shall you nor the fire know an end, be gone into everlasting fire. Ah Lord! let it be long then before we go there. No, depart presently, the sentence shall be presently put in execution. Ah Lord, let's at least have good company, that will pity us, though they cannot help us! No, no, you shall have none but tormenting Devils — they that you obeyed when they were Tempters, you shall be with as Tormentors. Oh what misery has sin brought on man! to [reconstructed: bring] him to hear this dreadful doom, Depart from me you cursed! etc.

But as to the particulars. I shall begin with the privative part, the (paena damni) penalty of loss which will not be the least plague of the sinners' hell; he shall be deprived of all good, never to enjoy good day or good thing more: when once a man is damned, he may bid adieu to all good (Luke 16:25). But to go on by degrees, and step by step: This then we say;

1 That damned sinners will be stripped naked, and deprived of all the good things they had in this life. Wicked men are called the men of this world (Psalm 17:14); they have their portion and consolation in this life (Luke 6:24 and 16:25). Many of them fare well, and prosper in this world, they have stately houses, spread tables, full cups, soft beds, pleasant walks, delightful gardens, filled with fragrant and odoriferous fruits and flowers; they sit at the upper end, they have the grandeur and gallantry of this world. But when they come to be damned, neither riches, nor honors, nor pleasures will descend with them. Wicked men would be content with the good they have, if they might have it always, if (Dives-like) they might be clothed with purple, and fine linen, and fare deliciously for ever, they would say, happy is the people that is in such a case! (Psalm 144:12-15). But this vain petty happiness, such as it is, they must part with for ever, and bid adieu for good and all to all their good. When Devils fetch away their soul, whose shall all these things be? (Luke 12:20) — none of theirs, all must be left behind; they cannot carry with them a drop of water to cool their tongue. To have a portion of this world may be a mercy, but to have the world for a portion is a misery; to have all good things in this life, and but for this life, is a misery indeed! You shall be clothed with silks no more! eat the fat, and drink the sweet no more!

Obj. But saints themselves must part with these things too?

A. [illegible] But the best of it is, they shall have better things in lieu of them. The impenitent sinner [reconstructed: goes] from all his good to all evil, but the saint goes from all his evil (and but from a little good) [illegible] — who would not part with [reconstructed: counters] for gold? with a world for heaven? This the saint does, and it is a good exchange, I think; but when a man must part with all his jewels, all his fine things, his wine and music, and the delights of the sons of men, and have no good thing left him — oh how sad!

2 Though sinners will count this a great loss, yet it is the least, for they must part not only with these things, but the joy, pleasure, and delight they had from them: these things are most considerable for the use and comfort of them: the rich man (Luke 12) cheered himself not in having much goods, but that he expected ease and mirth from them: the wicked spend their days in mirth (Job 21:12), and have a brave time of it, as they think; they sing care away all the day long, and refresh themselves with Requiems and Placebo Songs; they chant at the viol, etc., and though indeed this frolick joy be a misery of itself (for what truer misery than false joy?) their laughter being but madness, yet it is the best they have in this world: But this also must be parted with, these cracklings of thorns will go out, and their mirth will end in woe, their joy in sorrow, their light in darkness! And it will add to their grief in hell, that they were so merry on earth: when this evil day comes, they will say there is no pleasure in remembering their good days: it seems Dives was loath to think of this, and therefore Abraham says, 'Son remember,' but it was a sad remembrance to remember good as lost and gone forever! They will say then as Adrian did, Animula vagula, blandula, quo vadis? non ut soles dabis jocos! Oh my poor soul, you will laugh, and joke, and droll no more!

3 They must suffer the loss of all their peace: it is true, the wicked here have no real and solid peace, for there is no peace to the wicked, says my God (Isaiah 48:22 and 57:21), but they have that which they call peace, and which is to them instead of peace, namely, security and stupidity, a seared and benumbed conscience, and because of this they think they are in peace; but when they come to hell, all this will be otherwise. Conscience that was seared as with a red-hot iron here, will feel the flames there, and startle at it: they that met with no trouble here, will be consumed with terrors there (Psalm 73:13). There are no seared consciences in hell, they are all tender and sensible there: then will Conscience awake, and rouse up like a lion, or gnaw like a worm: that they shall no longer have the little ease of dissembling their pain, as they were wont to do here.

4 Sinners then must lose the hopes they had of heaven: wicked men have no reason to hope for heaven, and yet they will hope, though against hope; as Abraham and good men hope against hope when they have God's promise; so the wicked hope against hope, notwithstanding God's threatening; they will be building their hopes as high as heaven, though they build on the sand, and without a foundation; but this house must fall, and the fall will be great, from the hopes of heaven into hell (Matthew 7:22-27). The hope of God's people keeps their heart from breaking, and it shall never be ashamed, but this hope of sinners will break their heart in hell, for there it will be ashamed, when the wicked dies, his expectation shall perish, and the hope of unjust men perishes (Proverbs 11:7). Their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost (Job 11:20). The hypocrite's hope shall perish, and his trust is but as a spider's web; he shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand; he shall hold it fast, but it shall not endure (Job 8:13-15). Where will the hope of hypocrites be when God takes away his soul, will God hear his cry, when trouble comes upon him? No, no, he will not (Job 27:8-9).

5 They must part from, and suffer the loss of all good company; they shall no more have the company of one good man; in this world the wicked fare the better for God's people being among them; and though they despise, and scoff at them, and think them not worthy to live, yet God himself assures us, that the world is not worthy of their company, they are too good for this world (Hebrews 11:38). Yes, though the wicked count good and holy men's lives to be folly and madness, yet when they come to die, they would be glad with all their hearts, that their souls might be in as good a condition as theirs after death. Balaam that wicked wretch, who loved the wages of, and lived in unrighteousness all his days, yet could wish to die the death of the righteous, and that his latter end (Hebrew: his afterward, or after state) might be as theirs (Numbers 23:10). Then they would be glad to take hold of the shirt of a Jew (one that is so inwardly (Romans 2:28-29)) and say, 'We will go with you, for God is with you'; but they will find a great gulf fixed between them, Heaven will not hold any of the wicked, nor shall Hell have any of the righteous to hold. The wicked shall not stand in judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous (Psalm 1:5). Here below they may throng in, the bad among the good, but hereafter God will find them out, and separate them; and though now, many a sinner may separate from the world to join with saints, yet then God will separate them from saints, and join them with sinners and devils, they shall be excommunicated from the society of saints, and be delivered up to Satan (the executioner of God's wrath and vengeance) and shall have no company but the damned crew.

6 They must be not only without their hopes of heaven, but without heaven which they hoped for; to have parted with their hopes for possession, had been no loss, but gain; but to part with their hopes, and with heaven too, is a double loss: whatever shall be the saints' portion, they must go without it, and be no sharers in it in the least degree: and though perhaps (as some think) the wicked may be permitted to look into heaven, as Dives saw Lazarus in Abraham's bosom, yet it will be but to heighten the depth of their misery, by letting them see what they by their sin have deprived themselves of. To lose Heaven, is to lose a kingdom and glory, more worth and glorious than all the kingdoms of this world, and their several glories united in one; it is to part with rest (Sabbatisme) for so it is called: Sabbaths they cared not for while they lived, and Sabbatisme, or rest, they will have none, when they die. They gloried in their shame in this world, and they shall have shame enough, but no glory in the world to come: the thoughts of their having been happy, though but in conceit, and that others are really happy, and forever, but they excluded from any share in any happiness, it will cut them to the heart.

7 They must suffer the loss of God himself, who is the Heaven of Heaven: all good things are but as a drop to the Ocean, in comparison of him (Psalm 73:25) — "whom have I in Heaven but you" — as if all the rest were nothing. If a saint were to go to Heaven this very day, he would say as Absalom, "why have I come up from Geshur, if I may not see the King's face" (2 Samuel 14:32). This then will be the misery of miseries to the damned, that they must depart from God, in whose presence only there is joy and pleasures forevermore: this face of his they must see no more, unless it be as ever frowning upon them in Hell. The good people sorrowed most for the words that Paul spoke, namely, that they should see his face no more (Acts 20:38). This, this will be the pricking, cutting, wounding of sinners to the heart, that they must see God's face no more, no more of his goodness, no more of his patience, no more of his mercy. When Cain (a type of this) was turned out of, and banished from the presence of the Lord, he cries out that his punishment was intolerable (Genesis 4:13).

8. They shall not only be deprived of all good things, but continue in an utter incapacity of any alteration for the better. This makes Heaven so much Heaven, that it is always so; and this makes Hell to be so much Hell, that it is always so. In this world there is a door of hope, a day, an offer and means of grace, space for repentance, a Mediator in Heaven, a patient God, possibility of being blessed; but when once damned, the door is shut, it is in vain to knock; the day, offers, and means of grace are at an end; there is no room left for repentance; God's long suffering will suffer no longer, the mediation of Christ Jesus is over, there is no possibility of mending their condition. Oh, I think we should hear the words of the wise (Ecclesiastes 9:10): "whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work — no working out salvation — in the grave, where you are going." Think of it, poor soul, think of it in time, before it be too late; for if you die in your sins, though you should weep out your eyes in Hell, it will stand you in no stead; God will not know you, nor hear your cry, but laugh at your calamity, and mock you in the midst of your torments (Proverbs 1:25-26).

Thus I have briefly shown the privative part of damnation; wicked men must part with all their goods, with their joys, their peace, their hopes, good company — all which stood them in great stead in this world — with Heaven, and which is more and worst of all, with God himself, and be utterly incapable of ever being in a better condition. And what do you think now? Is not sin exceeding sinful? — that it separates him from all good, past, present, and to come. If it were only from past good, that which Adam enjoyed in Paradise, or only from present good, what men have in this world, it were the better to be endured; if futurity and eternity were secured, it were pretty well. But sinful sin has cut off Paradise, so that none of us were ever in Eden since we came into the world; it has spoiled, embittered, and poisoned with a curse all present temporal enjoyments, so that they prove satisfactions to none, but vexations to all. And yet so spiteful, and of so malignant a nature is sin, that it reserves its worst till last, even Hell and damnation, and it will be worse to us in eternity than it was in time. And to make this appear yet more evidently and fully, I proceed to the