Damnation-State More Particularly Considered Under Six Heads

- 1 The torments themselves, and the kinds of them. - 2 The quantity and quality of them. - 3 The duration of them. - 4 The tormentors, or inflicters of them. - 5 The aggravations of them. - 6 The effects of them.

By that time I have set these before you, I presume you will conclude and cry out, Oh sinful sin! what a thing is sin! and who would sin at this rate, and be at such cost and charges to damn himself! To begin with the torments themselves, where I shall consider: 1 The place, with the names and appendices of it 2 The thing itself, with its names.

1 The place, with its names: In general, and most frequently, 'tis called Hell, the place and element of torment (Luke 16). This is the rendezvous general for the wicked after the day of Judgment; and to express the dreadfulness of any condition or thing, the name of Hell is annexed to it (as to signify the excellency of a thing, the name of God and Heaven is joined to it, as Cedars of God, etc.)

1 Therefore hell is a place and state of sorrow, for the greatest sorrows are called the sorrows of hell (2 Samuel 22:6). As the joys of heaven are the greatest joys, so the sorrows of hell the greatest sorrows.

2 A place and state of pains and pangs, far beyond them of a woman in travail (Psalm 116:2). The pains of hell got hold of me; there's no ease in hell.

3 Destruction is joined with it, to be in hell is to be destroyed (Proverbs 15:11). Hell and destruction are before him, and he can destroy body and soul in hell (Matthew 10:28).

So 4. 'Tis a place and state of fire, of fiery indignation (Matthew 5:22). He that calls his brother fool (namely, without cause, and in rash anger) is in danger of hell fire, the worst of flames (Luke 16).

Indeed 5. Damnation is in it, and spoken of it (Matthew 23:33). How can you escape the damnation of hell?

6 Torment is attributed to it (Luke 16:28). 'Tis called the place of torment.

Thus you see what a kind of place and condition hell is; 'tis all these, and much more than these words can express, or you conceive by these expressions. Yet more particularly.

1 Hell is called a prison: As heaven is set out by things taking and delectable, so hell is set out by what's distasteful and loathsome, among which a prison is one, and hell is called a prison (Matthew 5:25; 1 Peter 3:19). Prisons, common jails, are the worst places to live in ('tis a noisome pestilential air) but hell is worse than the worst of prisons.

2 Hell is called the bottomless pit (Revelation 9:11), and elsewhere frequently: The Devil is the Angel of the bottomless pit; 'tis a pit into which sinners must fall, and be ever falling, for there's no bottom.

3 Hell is called a furnace of fire, and that's a terrible thing: Nebuchadnezzar's furnace was terrible, especially when heated seven times more than usually; yet hell is a worse furnace of fire (Matthew 13:41-42). They that do iniquity (that are sin-makers by trade) shall be cast into a furnace of fire which shall not devour them, but torment them, and make them wail and gnash their teeth.

4 It's called a lake which burns with fire and brimstone (Revelation 21:8). Such and such (as are there named) shall have their part and portion in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone; always over head and ears in this lake, yet never drowned; always burning, but never burnt to ashes: They will in this be like the burning bush, which burnt with fire, but was not consumed; as the Church was so on earth, sinners will be so in hell.

5 This place, though it burn with fire and brimstone, is yet called utter and outer darkness; those flames will administer heat of wrath, but no light of consolation: Darkness is a dreadful thing, but to be in the fire in darkness (to live in death always) to be tormented in flames, and yet in darkness, Oh how dismal must this be? (Matthew 22:13) bind him hand and foot, and cast him into outer darkness, so that 'twill be in vain to think of making resistance, for you will be bound hand and foot, and be in darkness too; yea, 'tis called chains of darkness (2 Peter 2:4), and blackness of darkness for ever (Jude 6, 13). This of the place.

2 Let us consider the thing itself, with its names; for as its name is, so is it: The most common and usual name of this punishment is Damnation, a dreadful word! who knows how much it means? 'Twill make the stoutest heart to tremble, the most confident countenance to fall, the most daring courage to fail when they feel it: If his wrath be kindled but a little, 'tis terrible; how much more is it so, when it shall be wrath to the uttermost? For 'tis contrary to being saved to the utmost. More particularly 'tis called

1 Destruction (namely, moral destruction) not of man's being, but well being (2 Peter 2:12), they shall be taken, destroyed, and utterly perish: And (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9) they shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. Alas! it had been better for them they had never been born, or if born, that they had never died; or if died, that they had never risen again, then to be thus destroyed; [illegible], as Hierocles, to be banished from God, and the divine life, is the worst of deaths.

2 'Tis a curse, an accursed state, to be under the curse of God; as (Matthew 25:41) not only depart from me, but depart you cursed: There's not the least dram of blessing or blessedness in this state: If so many curses were to wait on the Jews on earth when they continued in impenitency, as we read (Deuteronomy 28:16-20), Oh what [illegible] cursed thing, how full of curses is damnation [illegible] this valley of Gehinnom (this hell) is a Mount Ebal, the Mount of curses (Deuteronomy 17:13).

3 Damnation is called the second death (Revelation 21:8). 'Twill be a marvelous miraculous kind of death, a living death, a death that never dies, an immortal mortality; they will live whose portion this death is, and death will be their portion all their life.

4 It's a state of shame and contempt; there is scarce any thing in the world we are less willing to undergo than shame: The thief, who is not afraid to steal, yet when taken, he is ashamed: Shame, and confusion, and contempt, will be their lot (Daniel 12:2-3). Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

2 We shall take into consideration the quantity and quality of those torments of hell and damnation.

- 1 They will be exceeding great and terrible. - 2 They will be universal. - 3 Without intermission.

1 They will be exceeding great and terrible, such as will make the stoutest hearts to quake and tremble: If the writing of Mene, Mene, Tekel, etc. made a change in Belshazzar's countenance, and trouble in his thoughts, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another (Daniel 5:6), what a commotion and heart-quake will the day of God's wrath and vengeance produce? See an instance in type, at least, of this kind of speech and thing (Revelation 6:15-17), where not only bondmen (persons of little and puny souls) but great and mighty men, chief captains and kings of the earth (persons of great souls that have made the earth to tremble) shall hide themselves in dens and rocks, and say to the mountains fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand! For bondmen to be faint-hearted and fly, is no great wonder; but for men of might and valor to run away and hide, that's strange! Yes, but it is from wrath, though but of a Lamb; what will they do then when he shall rise up, and roar like the Lion of the Tribe of Judah? It is the day of wrath, which is the terrible day of the Lord; it is the day of vengeance, which is implacable; for God who is (now) hearing prayer, will not (then) spare for their crying, no though they cry Lord, Lord. God always acts like himself, like a God; when he shows mercy, it is like the God of all grace, who is rich in mercy, and loves with a great love; so when he executes wrath and vengeance, he makes bare his arm, and strikes like a God: who knows the power of his anger? None but damned ones. The sense of it here, the receiving or fearful reception of judgment (as it is in the Greek, Hebrews 10:27), and fiery indignation makes a kind of hell, so fearful a thing is it to fall into the hands of the living God, when he acts like a God of vengeance, as the Apostle there speaks (verses 30-31). How dreadful then will it be to be in hell itself, under the tortures of his executed wrath forever? As the man is, so is his strength; it is but sport to be whipped by a child, but to be whipped and lashed by a man, a Giant, whose little finger is heavier than another's loins, how painful must it be! The rod is for the back of fools, but when it shall be turned into scorpions, and God himself shall lay on strokes without mercy or pity, oh how tormenting will it be! A stone thrown from a weak arm will not hit very hard, but when the hand and arm of God shall throw down that wrath from heaven, which is now but threatened against ungodly men, and turn them into hell, as a mighty man throws one over his shoulders, oh how will it sink them deep into hell!

2 The torments of hell will be universal, and universally inflicted.

1 The torments themselves will be universal; it will be not a torment or two or three, but all torments met together; hell is the place of torment itself (Luke 16:28), it is the center of all punishments, sorrow and pain, wrath and vengeance, fire and darkness, all are there, as we proved before: if one disease put a man so much to it, what would a complication of diseases? If one punishment, the Strapado, the Rack, or any other be so tormenting, what would all at once be? Oh what then will hell be?

2 The persons on whom these torments will be inflicted will be universally tormented; not one or two parts, but all, and all over; the whole man has sinned, and the whole man will be tormented; not soul alone, or body only, but soul and body after the Resurrection and Judgment day. As for the body, all the members of it have been instruments of unrighteousness, and therefore all the members will be punished; as man is defiled, so man will be plagued, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot. The senses which men have indulged and gratified will be filled with pain and torment, that shall be clean contrary to those pleasures with which they were gratified in this world. The eye which took so much pleasure in, and was enamored of beauty, shall then see nothing but ugly devils, and deformed hags of damned wretches, etc. What shall the ear (that was delighted with music and love-songs, what shall it) hear, but hideous cries and gnashing of teeth, the howlings and yawlings of damned fiends. The smell, that was gratified with rose-buds, and sweet perfumes, shall have no pleasing scents, but unsavory brimstone, and a stink. The taste, that was refreshed with eating the fat, and drinking the sweet, must have nothing but the dregs of the cup of God's wrath. The touch and feeling shall be sensible then, not of fine and silken things, but of burning flames, and scorching fiery indignation.

And as to the soul and all its faculties, it and they will fare no better; their understanding will be tormented with having the truth understood in miserable effects; that which it laughed at as foolishness, it will then find true by the loss of it, namely, gospel happiness. The conscience will be like a stinging adder, a gnawing worm. The will will be vexed that it had its will so long; here men think it a princely thing to have their will, but there they'll find it a devilish thing.

3 Yet further, these torments will be without intermission; they shall be tormented day and night (Revelation 14:11), and have no rest. Here our sleep is a parenthesis to care, and sorrow, and pain, but there is no sleeping there; the God that executes wrath, and they on whom wrath is executed, neither slumber nor sleep. Here they have some intermissions, and lucid intervals in their madness, but there they will be even mad continually for vexation of heart.

Methinks I cannot go on till I have a little expostulated with you, whoever you be that reads; needs there any more to frighten you from sinning, which is the way to damnation, than the thoughts of damnation (such a damnation!) which is at the end of the way of sin? For your soul's sake hear and fear, and do no more wickedly: what! will you be damned? Can you with patience think of going to hell? Have you no pity on your precious soul? Oh if you should go from reading of hell into hell, you would surely say, there was a Prophet, I would not believe it, but now I feel it: think of it, and

3 Think of what's now to be added concerning the duration of these torments: they will be for ever. Though they were great, universal, and without intermission for a time, yet if they were to have an end, it were some comfort. But here lies the misery: they will be today as yesterday, and for ever; as in the beginning, so all along, and for ever, always the same, if not increasing. This is the woe of woe, the hell of hell, that it is woe and hell for ever. After sinners have been in hell millions of millions of years, hell will be as much hell as at first; the fire that burns will never go out; the worm that gnaws will never die — which is three times repeated by our Lord and Saviour in one chapter (Mark 9:44, 46, 48). It will be a lasting, indeed an everlasting misery; it is everlasting punishment, and everlasting fire (Matthew 25:41, 46).

4 There's yet to be considered the tormentors, or inflicters of these torments: the devil, conscience, and God himself will torment the damned.

1 The devil, the tempter, will be the tormentor; they will be tormented not only with, but by devils. They will be delivered to the jailers, the tormentors, as it is in Matthew 18:34-35: "So likewise shall my heavenly Father do to you" — namely, deliver you to the tormentors. When the church excommunicates (which is an emblem of this), it does deliver to Satan; and when God excommunicates, he gives up to the devil — take him, jailer; torment him, tormentor. The Apostle thought it a great misery to fall into the hands of unreasonable men, and therefore prays and begs prayers against it. But if the tender mercies of wicked men are cruelties, what are the cruelties of the devil and his angels, especially when God delivers men up into their hands? Oh, what a misery it is to fall into the devil's clutches, to be tormented by the devil! If he does so much now by permission, what will he then do by commission, when he shall be under no restraint? We may guess by what he does do now what he is likely to do, and will do, then.

We have many instances of his malice, rage, and power — take one and another: In Mark 9:17-22, there was one possessed of a dumb spirit, and wherever this spirit took him, he [reconstructed: tore] him, so that he foamed, gnashed with the teeth, and pined away; and in verse 20, when he came into the presence of Christ Jesus, he tore him, so that he fell on the ground and wallowed foaming; oftentimes it had cast him into the fire and the water to destroy him. You know also how the devil dealt with Job, and went to the utmost extent of his commission, and tantum non — almost prevailed — for he brought him to curse the day of his birth, though he did not curse God. If the devil does so much now to the tormenting of any, when he is in chains and under restraint, ah, how sad is it likely to be with men when the devil shall have them in his hands by commission from God! When God shall say, "Take him, devil; take him, jailer; into the fire with him; do your worst with him" — oh, who can stand before the devil's rage and envy thus whetted by commission! Oh, sinful sin, that thus gives up to the devil!

2 The second tormentor is conscience — a reflecting, an accusing, an upbraiding conscience; which I may say is in some sort a greater torment than any the devil can inflict, because conscience is within us, but the devil is without us. That which is within has the greatest influence on us, whether for comfort, as in 1 John 4:4, or for torment, as in Mark 9:44 — "the worm that never dies" — which is within a man. It were a dreadful thing to be eaten up of worms, to be continually fretted and vexed with the gnawing of worms; but this worm gnaws the spirit, which is more tender than the apple of one's eye. A wounded spirit — who can bear? Judas sunk under the weight and burden of it, and so have many more. But if it be so terrible when awakened here, what will it be when a man shall be fully convinced, and have all his sins set in order before his face (Psalm 50:21)? How will conscience lash men then? As schoolmasters reckon up their boys' crimes — imprimis for this, and then a lash; item for this, and then another lash, etc. — so says conscience: "Salvation was held forth, grace was offered" — and then lashes for neglecting so great a salvation, and turning grace into wantonness. Item, says conscience, you knew that the wages of sin was death, and the judgment of God is just, and yet you would do such things — and then conscience pricks and torments, whips and lashes them. Item: after you had vomited up your pollution, and were washed from your filthiness, you did return like the dog to your vomit, and like the sow to wallowing in the [reconstructed: mire] — and then lashes him. If a man were falsely imprisoned, it would be a mitigation and some relief; but when a man is [reconstructed: self-condemned], and finds that his perdition is of himself, that his own wickedness does correct him, this will be the sting of death and damnation.

3 Not only the devil and conscience, but God also will torment them; for though God in this life suffers himself to be pressed with their sins, as a cart is pressed with sheaves, yet at last he will show his power in revenging himself on wicked men. Though now he seems to have leaden feet, and is slow to wrath, yet then he will be found to have iron hands. Here God is patient, and if he judges, yet in the midst of judgment he does remember mercy, and does not deal with men as their wickedness deserves; but then he will be extreme in punishing. The Lord himself will rain upon the wicked snares, fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest (Psalm 11:5-6). This shall be the portion of their cup from the Lord; they shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture in the cup of his indignation, and they shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb (Revelation 14:10-11). As many times, when judges suspect their officers that they will not do it thoroughly enough, they will have it done in their presence, the whole court and company looking on — so shall it be. And the smoke of their torment ascends up for ever and ever, and they have no rest day nor night. Yet further:

5 Let us consider the aggravations of these torments: as sin has been aggravated, so will the torments be. There will be degrees of torment — it will be, though intolerable for all, yet more tolerable for some than others (Matthew 11:21-24). Their torments will be aggravated.

1 Who have lived long in sin: The longer men have lived in sin on earth, the greater will their torments be in hell (Isaiah 65:20). The sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed, with a witness; for he has been long treasuring up wrath (much wrath) against the day of wrath: he has a great account to make for all the patience and forbearance of God. Some men grow rich by having other men's goods in their hands, not called in: when men forbear their money, and leave it in their hands, they grow rich by it; so do wicked men grow rich in wrath by abusing the goodness and patience of God, because God forbears them, and does not take out executions against them, and enter into judgment, they grow rich, but alas! it is in wrath. See (Revelation 21:22).

2 The more means men have had, the more cost and charges God has been at, the more pains God has taken with men, and yet they continue impenitent, the more severe will his judgment be upon them: If Christ had not come, they had had no such sin; this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men love darkness. Capernaum that was exalted to heaven, by means, will be thrown to hell in the end (Matthew 11:23). To [reconstructed: fall] from earth to hell will be a great fall, but to fall from heaven to hell will be a greater: To go from Turkey to hell will be sad, but to go from England to hell, and from London to hell, ah how ruefully sad!

3 The more knowledge men attain to, the more convictions men have had; without practice and improvement, the greater will their condemnation be (Luke 12:47). That servant which knew his Lord's will, and did not according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes: And (2 Peter 2:21) it were better they had never known the way of righteousness, than (to know it, and not walk in it, or) having walked in it, to depart from it: to him that knows to do good, and does it not, to him it is sin, great sin, sin with a witness, and condemnation with a vengeance. How can they escape the great condemnation, that neglect the great salvation; these become inexcusable under the judgment of God (Romans 1:32; Romans 2:1-3).

4 The further men have gone in a profession of religion, without the power of godliness, the greater will their condemnation be! Formalists and hypocrites will know the worst of hell, how can you escape, not only hell, but the damnation of hell, the hell of hell? (Matthew 23:33). The form of godliness, and the power of ungodliness, will fare alike, as (Matthew 24:51; Luke 12:46).

5 Apostates will meet with aggravated torments in hell: the backslider will be filled with his own ways; his latter end will be worse than his beginning (2 Peter 2:20). Better for them they had died in their sins at first, than to be as now twice dead (Jude 12). If we sin willfully after the knowledge of the truth, (if we do nuncium metere pietati, turn our backs on Christianity and godliness) there remains no more sacrifice for sin, but a certain fearful expectation, or looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour (them that by apostasy become) adversaries: He that despised Moses' Law died without mercy, and yet of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy, who treads under foot the Son of God, and counts the Blood of the Covenant, with which it was sanctified, an unholy thing, etc. Oh what fearful vengeance will such meet with! See (Hebrews 10:26-32), and this little shall suffice to have spoken to the aggravations.

6 And lastly, let's take a view of the effects of these torments.

1 There will be inexpressible sorrow, sighing and groaning that cannot be uttered; weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 8:12). Anger, indignation, vexation, even to madness and rage, will be the effects of them.

2 There will be intolerable horror and pain: if thunder, lightning, and earthquakes make men afraid, and shrink together, what will hell do! If the throbbing toothache, the gnawing gout, etc. put men to such exquisite pains, what will hell do! If sickness make us fear death, and the fear of death be so dreadful, what will hell be! If you Felix-like tremble to hear of this judgment to come, what would you do, if you were to undergo it! If seeing ugly and devilish shapes affright us, what will it do to be with the devil and his angels!

3 This will be the sad effect of these torments, [reconstructed: final] and eternal impenitency, and despair, even to cursing and blaspheming: he that dies impenitent, continues so for ever, and impenitency is attended with blasphemy (Isaiah 8:21-22). They shall pass through it hardly bestead and hungry, and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their King, and their God; which I quote to show the nature of a fretting and vexing heart under torments, a thing very common with despairing (and thereby made desperate) persons (Revelation 16:9-10). When they were scorched with great heat, they blasphemed the name of God, and repented not to give him glory: and (verses 10-11) they gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven, because of their pains, and their sores. We see that when the plagues of God are on impenitent sinners, they are cursing, and though they may repent; that is, be sorry for the plagues, yet not for the cause of them: And hence many do infer this, that if these plagues (which are far inferior to them in hell) do provoke men thus, that they will do it much more: Woe and alas! What a dismal, doleful condition it is to be damned! And then what! Oh what a sinful thing is sin that brings this damnation!

I have now dispatched the second thing, namely the contrariety of sin to the good of man, and that not only in this life, but in that to come. Before I bring in the [reconstructed: Witnesses] to prove this charge against sin to be true, as I have said in this indictment, let me a little speak to you, good reader, to consider of what has been said, and that you would be more afraid of sin than of hell, which had not been but for sin, and where you shall never be, if you repent and believe the gospel, for righteousness is not by repentance, but by faith. Believe then, and love faith as you love your soul, and heaven; hate sin, and avoid it, as you would hell and damnation; sin no more, lest a worse thing come to you, lest the rod be turned into a scorpion, lest the next loss be the loss of heaven, lest the next sickness be to death, and death to damnation; for if you die in sin, you are damned irrecoverably. It were sad to die in a hospital, in a prison, in a ditch; but as it is worst living to live in sin, so worst dying to die in sin. If you go on, these sermons will witness against you, as much as if not more than if one had risen from the dead. If two or three devils or damned wretches should come from hell, and cry fire, fire, it might startle you, but if you believe not Moses and the prophets, indeed Christ and his apostles, it will work no good upon you. Oh, mind the good of your soul, and do not bring on yourself this great, universal, intolerable and eternal damnation. Take heed lest, (Proverbs 5:11-13) when your flesh and your body are consumed, and your soul damned, you say too late, how have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof, and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to them that instructed me! Oh! oh! How have I rewarded evil to my own soul by doing evil against God! I made a pish at these things, and mocked at sin; now I would hear, now I would return, but hope is perished! Such will be the direful outcries of sinners one day; take heed therefore, for if you have not on the wedding garment, you will be cast out (Matthew 22:11), and if you be found a worker of iniquity, you must depart accursed. But not to prevent the application, which I reserve to its proper place; I now proceed to the third thing proposed.