Section 12

The twelfth subject of Meditation. Meditate on hell. 1. Meditate upon the pain of loss, Matthew 25:10. and the door was shut. To have Christ's face veiled over, and a perpetual eclipse, and midnight in the soul, to be cast out of God's presence, in whose presence is fullness of joy, this doth accent and embitter the condition of the damned; it is like mingling gall with wormwood.

2. Meditate upon the pain of sense; the Photinians hold there is no hell, but they speak in a dream, Psalm 9:17. The wicked shall be turned into hell. And here meditate on two things. 1. The place of hell. 2. The company.

1. Meditate on the place of hell. It is called a place of torment, Luke 16:28. There are two things especially in hell to torment.

1. Fire, Revelation 20:15. It is called a lake of burning fire, Augustine, Peter Lombard, Gregory the Great, say, this fire of hell is a material fire, though they say it is infinitely hotter than any culinary fire; that is but painted fire to this. I wish none of us may know what kind of fire it is, but I rather think, the fire of hell is partly material, and partly spiritual; the material fire is to work upon the body, the spiritual to torture the soul. This is the wrath of God, which is both fire and bellows, who knows the power of thy anger, Psalm 90:11.

But it may be objected, if there be any material fire in hell, it will consume the bodies there? I answer, it shall burn without consuming, as Moses' bush did, Exodus 3:2. The power of God silenceth all disputes. If God by his infinite power could make the fire of the three children not to consume, cannot he make the fire of hell burn and not consume? Augustine in his book, de civitate Dei, tells us of a strange salt in Sicily, which if it be put in the fire swims; That God which can make salt, contrary to its nature, swim in the fire, can make the bodies of the damned not consume in the fire.

2. The worm, Mark 9:44. Where the worm never dies, Homer in his Odyssey feigns, that Titius's liver was gnawed by two vultures in hell. This never-dying worm Christ speaks of, is the gnawing of a guilty conscience. Melancthon calls it Erynnis conscientiae; an hellish fury, Siculi non invenere tyranni tormentum majus,—they that will not hear conscience preaching, shall feel conscience gnawing; and so great is the extremity of these two, the fire which burns, and the worm which bites, that there will follow gnashing of teeth, Matthew 8:12. the damned will gnash their teeth for horror and anguish. That must needs be sad cheer (as Latimer saith) where weeping is served in for the first course, and gnashing of teeth for the second: to endure this will be intolerable, to avoid it will be impossible.

2. Meditate on the company in hell, the devil and his Angels, Matthew 25:41. Job complains he was a companion to owls, chapter 30:29. What will it be to be a companion to devils? Consider, 1. Their ghastly deformity, they make hell look blacker. 2. Their deadly antipathy; they are fired with rage against mankind; first they become tempters, then tormentors.

Meditate much on hell. Let us go into hell by contemplation, that we may not go into hell by condemnation. How restless is the condition of the damned; The ancients feign of Endymion, that he got leave of Jupiter always to sleep. What would the damned in hell give for such a license? in their pains is neither intermission, nor mitigation.

The serious meditation of hell, would make us, 1. Fear sin as hell. Sin is hell's fuel; sin like Samson's foxes, carries devouring fire in the tail of it.

2. The meditation of hell would cause rejoicing in a child of God. The Saints' fear of hell is like the two Marys' fear, Matthew 28:8. They departed from the Sepulcher with fear and great joy. A believer may fear to think of the place of torment, but rejoice to think he shall not come into this place. When a man stands upon a high rock, he trembles to look down into the sea, yet he rejoiceth that he is not there struggling with the waves. A child of God, when he thinks of hell, he rejoiceth with trembling. A Prison is not made for the King's sons to be put in. A great Naturalist observes that nothing will so soon quench fire as salt and blood; sure I am, the salt brinish tears of repentance, and the blood of Christ will quench the fire of hell to a believer. Christ himself hath felt the pains of hell for you. The Lamb of God being roasted in the fire of God's wrath, by this burnt-offering the Lord is now appeased towards his people. Oh how may the godly rejoice. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ, Romans 8:1. When the Son of God was in the furnace, Daniel 3:25, the fire did the three children no hurt; so Christ being for a time in the fiery furnace of God's wrath, that fire can do a believer no hurt. The Saints have the garment of Christ's righteousness upon them, and the fire of hell can never singe this garment.