0A.34. Chapter II.
Chapter II. The ETERNITY of Misery Makes it Most Intolerable. The justice of God cleared in the eternal punishment of sinners for temporary sins. The wisdom of God requires that the punishment threatened should be powerful to preserve the commands of the law inviolable. There is as inseparable connection between the choice and actions of man here, and their condition forever. The damned are unqualified for any favor. The immense guilt of sin requires a proportion in the punishment. The eternity of their misery makes it above all other considerations intolerable. Our Savior repeats it thrice in the space of a few verses, to terrify those who spare some favorite corruption, "that in Hell their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched." God will never reverse his sentence, and they shall never change their state. How willingly would carnal men erase the word eternal out of the Scriptures; but to their grief they find eternity joined with both the felicity of Heaven and the torments of Hell. The second death has all the terrible qualities of the first death, but not the ease and end it brings to misery. All the tears of those forlorn wretches in Hell shall never quench one spark of the fire! Where are the delicious fare, the music, the purple, and all the carnal delights of the rich man? they are all changed into a contrary state of misery; and that state is fixed forever! From his vanishing paradise, he descended into an everlasting Hell! In this the vengeance of God is infinitely more heavy than the most terrible execution from men. Human justice and power can inflict but one death (that will be soon dispatched) upon a malefactor worthy to suffer a hundred deaths; if he is condemned to the fire, they cannot make him live and die together, to burn and not be consumed. But God will so far support the damned in their torments, that they shall always have strength to feel, though no strength patiently to endure them. Those extreme torments which would extinguish the present life in a moment, shall be suffered forever. This consideration infinitely aggravates the misery; for the lost soul, racked with the fearful contemplation of what it must suffer forever, feels, as it were at once, all the evils that shall torment it in its whole duration. The perpetuity of the misery is always felt by anticipation. This is as the cruel breaking of the bones upon the wheel, when the soul is tormented by the foresight of misery, that without allays shall continue in the circulation of eternal ages. To make this more sensible, let us consider, that pain makes the mind observant of the passing of the hours. In pleasures, time with a quick and silent motion, insensibly flies away. But in troubles the hours are tedious; in violent pains we reckon the minutes as long. It is observable, how passionately the afflicted psalmist complains, "Will the Lord cast off forever? Will he be favorable no more? Does his promise fail for evermore? Has he forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his tender mercies?" Psa 77:7. In what various pathetic forms does he express the same affection? Though he had assurance that the gracious God would not be always severe—yet his anguish forced from him complaints, as if the moment of his trouble were an eternity. But what strains of sorrow are among the damned, who besides the present sense of their misery, have always in their thoughts the vast eternity wherein they must suffer it! When three terrible evils were propounded to David’s choice, pining famine for three years, or bloody war for three months, or devouring pestilence for three days; he chose the shortest, though in itself the heaviest evil.
Many sad days must pass under the other judgments, where death by anticipation in such variety of shapes would be presented to the mind, that the lingering expectation of it would afflict more than the sudden stroke; whereas the fury of the pestilence would be soon over. But the damned have not this relief, "but shall be tormented day and night forever and ever!" How earnestly "do they seek for death," but cannot find it? What a favor would they esteem it to be annihilated? For certainly, if when the evils in the present state are so multiplied, that no comfort is left; or so violent that the afflicted person cannot enjoy them, and refresh his sorrowful spirit—then death is chosen rather than life. It cannot be imagined that in the future state, where the misery is extreme, and nothing remains to allay it, that the damned should be in love with the unhappy good of simple existing, and not choose an absolute extinction if it might be.
If anyone should be so foolish to think that custom in suffering will render that state more tolerable, he will find a terrible confutation of his vain imagination. Indeed, continuance under light evils may arm the mind with patience to bear them; but in great extremities it makes the evil more ponderous and intolerable. He who is tortured with the stone, or on the rack—the longer the torture continues, the less able he is to sustain it. In short, as the joy of Heaven is infinitely more ravishing, that the blessed are without fear of losing it; so the misery of Hell is proportionably tormenting, that the damned are absolutely destitute of hopes of release. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God," who lives forever, and will punish forever incorrigible sinners!
There are some who strongly imagine that it is not consistent with divine justice to inflict an eternal punishment for temporary sins. Therefore they soften the sentence, by interpreting the words of Christ, "these shall go into everlasting punishment," of the annihilation of impenitent sinners; that is, they shall be forever deprived of Heaven, but not suffer torments forever. To this there is a clear answer:
1. The direct "opposition between everlasting punishment, and everlasting life, in the words of Christ—is a convincing argument they are to be understood in the same extent for an absolute eternity. And the words in Scripture are so express, that they admit no mollifying interpretation, "they are tormented day and night, forever and ever!" which necessarily infer, the tormented have life and sense forever. In Scripture it is evident that God has decreed and denounced eternal punishment to obstinate sinners, is sufficient to satisfy all inquiries about the justice of it; for divine justice is the correspondence of God’s will and actions with the perfections of his holy nature. From hence we may infer with invincible evidence, that whatever he pronounces in judgment, and consequently inflicts, is most righteous. The truth is, we may as easily conceive there is no God, as that God is unjust; because absolute rectitude is an inseparable perfection of his nature. Thus the apostle with abhorrence rejects the question, "is God unrighteous who takes vengeance? God forbid; for then how shall God judge the world?" Rom 3:5-6. That were to deny him to be God, who is the Creator, and King, and Judge of the world!
It is a full reply to all the pitiful shifts that are made use of to elude the plain meaning of the eternal judgment that will pass upon the wicked, "shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his maker?" Job 4:17. The reprobates have now some bold advocates, who plead those things now, which they will not dare to plead for themselves at the last day. The holy judge will then cut off all their excuses, and reduce them to a defenseless silence, before he cuts them off. "God will be justified in his sentence, and righteous when he judges." The righteousness of the proceedings at the last day, in determining the wicked to a state of everlasting torments, has been considered in the Discourse on Judgment, and will farther appear by the following considerations.
1. The wisdom of God requires, that the punishment threatened in his law, as it must be so firmly decreed, that all obstinate rebels shall of necessity undergo it—so it must incomparably exceed all temporal evils, to which men may be exposed for their obedience to the divine commands, otherwise the threatening would not be an effectual restraint from sin; for the nearness of an evil makes a strong impression on the mind, and a present fear makes a person solicitous to avoid the incursion of what is ready to seize on him, without thinking to prevent an evil looked on at a distance. Therefore that the sanction of the divine law may preserve the divine precepts inviolable, that there may be a continual reverence of it, and a fixed resolution in the heart not to transgress—the penalty threatened must be in its own nature so terrible, that the fear of it may conquer the apprehension of all present evils that can be inflicted to constrain us to sin.
Therefore our Savior warns his disciples, "Do not fear those who can kill the body" (make that part die that is mortal) "but fear him who after he has killed, has power to cast into Hell; yes, I say unto you, fear him!"
Now if the threatening of an everlasting Hell, through infidelity and inconsideration, is not effectual in the minds of men to restrain them from sin; if temporary torments in the next state were only threatened, which are infinitely more easy and tolerable—then carnal sinners would follow the sway of their corrupt appetites, and commit iniquity with greediness. This would seem to reflect upon the wisdom of the lawgiver, as if he were defective in not binding his subjects firmly to their duty, and the ends of government would not be obtained.
2. God, as the sovereign ruler of the world, has established an inseparable connection between the choice and actions of men here—and their future condition forever. The promised reward of obedience is so excellent and eternal, that all the allurements of the world vanish in comparison with it! And there is such an infallible assurance of this reward in the word of God, that all, and only those who sincerely obey his commands, shall enjoy it in the future state; that a serious believer who ponders things, cannot be diverted from his duty by present temptations. Besides, by a chain of consequences sinful pleasures are linked with eternal punishment threatened in the divine law; and he who will enjoy forbidden pleasures, binds himself to suffer all the pains annexed to them.
Now when God has, from his excellent goodness and undeserved mercy, assured men of the glory and joys of Heaven that are unspeakable and eternal, upon the gracious terms of the gospel; and, upon their despising it, threatened eternal misery; if men obstinately neglect so great salvation, then how reasonable is it they should receive their own choice? Those who do not seek the kingdom of Heaven, cannot escape Hell—but by eternal consequence it will be their portion. There is no middle state in the next world—but two contrary and eternal states; and the happiness and misery are equally eternal. It is just, that all who neglect eternal life, should suffer eternal damnation; far it is the natural and necessary consequence of their choice. Therefore sinners are charged with extreme madness, "they wrong their own souls, and to love death." Pro 8:26.
3. It will appear how unqualified the damned are for the least favor, if we consider their continual hatred and blasphemies of God. The seeds of this are in wicked obstinate sinners here, who are styled "haters of God;" but in the damned this enmity is direct and explicit, the fever is heightened into a frenzy, the blessed God is the object of their curses and eternal aversion. Our Savior tells us, that in Hell there "is weeping and gnashing of teeth"—extreme sorrow, and extreme fury.
Despair and rage are the proper passions of lost souls. For when the guilty sufferers are so weak, that they cannot by patience endure their torments, nor by strength resist the power that inflicts them, and are wicked and stubborn—they are irritated by their misery, and foam out blasphemies against the righteous judge! If their rage could extend to him, and their power were equal to their desires—they would dethrone the holy God! Hatred takes pleasure in revenge, either real or imaginary; and although God is infinitely above the transports of their fury, and all their rancorous imprecations are reflexively pernicious to themselves, like arrows shot against the sun, that fell down upon their heads who shot them; yet they are always venting their malice against the just power that torments them. It is said of the worshipers of the beast, "that they gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of Heaven because of their pains." Rev 16:10-11. The torment and blasphemies of those impenitent idolaters, are a true representation of the state of the damned. From hence it appears they are the proper objects of revenging justice.
How can we reasonably conceive, that God, in favor to the reprobates, should cross the established order of creation? For two ranks of beings were made, the material, of perishing principles; the spiritual, of an immortal duration. Will God withdraw his conservative power of the guilty soul in its immortality, and to put an end to its deserved misery, and self-tormenting reflections, annihilate it?
If a criminal were justly condemned to a severe punishment, and should contumeliously and fiercely reproach the prince, by whose authority he was condemned—would it be expected there should be a mitigation of the sentence? Is it a thought consistent with the reasonable mind, that the righteous judge of the world will reverse or mitigate the sentence against the damned, who blaspheme his majesty and justice? If they were as omnipotent to effect, as they are malicious to desire, they would destroy God in a moment.
It is true that the divine threatening does not bind God to a rigorous execution of it upon sinners; for he has declared, if "sinners will turn from their evil ways, he will repent of the evil he purposed to do unto them." Jer 26:3. But when threatenings are part of the laws whereby men are governed, it is congruous to the wisdom and justice of the lawgiver to execute them in their full force upon the obstinate offenders; still considering the inflicting of them is so far from working any sincere change in those rebels, that thereby they become more fierce and obdurate.
Lastly, The immense guilt that adheres to sin, requires a proportion in the punishment. It is a rule in all courts of judicature, that the degree of an offence and its attending punishment, arise according to the degree of dignity of the person offended. Now the majesty of God is truly infinite, against whom sin is committed; and consequently the guilt of sin exceeds our boundless thoughts. This is the reason of the sentence, "cursed is every one that continues not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." The curse threatened, includes the first and the second death.
What a dishonor is it to the "God of glory," that proud and sinful dust should fly in his face, and defy his authority? What a provocation, that the reasonable creature, that is naturally and necessarily a subject—should despise the divine law and lawgiver? Though carnal minds alleviate the guilt of sin—yet weighed "in the scales of the sanctuary," it is found so heavy, that no punishment inflicted on sinners exceeds, either in the degrees or duration, the desert of sin.
God’s justice is not satisfied in merely depriving them of Heaven, but He inflicts the most heavy punishment upon sense and conscience of the damned. For as the soul and body in their state of union in this life were both guilty, the one as the guide, the other as the instrument of sin; so it is equal, when reunited, they should feel the penal effects of it.
Sinners shall then be tormented wherein they were most delighted; they shall be tormented with those objects that will cause the most dolorous perceptions in their sensitive faculties. The "lake of fire and brimstone, the blackness of darkness forever," are words of a terrible signification. But no words can fully express the terrible ingredients of their misery! The punishment will be in proportion to the glory of God’s majesty which is provoked, and the extent of his power. As the soul was the principal, and the body but an accessary in the works of sin—so its capacious faculties shall be far more tormented than the limited faculties of the outward senses. The fiery attributes of God shall be transmitted through the conscience, and concentered upon damned spirits; the fire outside them, is not so tormenting as the fire within them. How will the tormenting passions be inflamed! What rancor, rebellion, and rage against the just God who sentenced them to Hell! What impatience and indignation against themselves for their willful sins, the just cause of it! How will they curse their creation, and wish their utter extinction, as the final remedy of their misery! But all their ardent wishes are in vain; for the guilt of sin will never be expiated, nor God so far reconciled as to annihilate them. As long as there is justice in Heaven, or fire in Hell; as long as God and eternity shall continue—they must suffer those torments, which the strength and patience of an angel could not bear one moment!