They That Are In Hell Are In Despair

They that are gone to hell are all of them in despair. A sermon by Jonathan Edwards They that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. Isaiah 38 verse 18 This is part of Hezekiah's song of praise to God when he was recovered from his dangerous sickness The argument of praise that he insists on in this verse is the greatness of the evil that God had delivered him from even of a state of death and The dolefulness of the state of death is here set forth in three things namely That those that are in this state can neither do good nor enjoy good nor hope for good The two former are implied in these expressions in the former part of the verse The grave cannot praise thee Death cannot celebrate thee They that are in a state of death can't praise and celebrate God They can't glorify God and so they can do no good for they that don't glorify God do no good and Death cannot praise God because in death there is nothing enjoyed or received to praise God for and so they enjoy no good and The third thing namely that they can hope for no good is in the last part of the verse They that go down to the pit cannot hope for thy truth Hezekiah praises God that God had delivered him from such a doleful state as this But then here a question may arise How can this be true? That none that are in a state of death can praise God or celebrate him or hope for his truth See him that many of those that are dead not only can but do praise God in heaven and praise him far better than the living and Enjoy a thousand times as much to praise him for and it is so far from being so that they cannot hope for God's truth That they do depend on God's truth to continue their happiness to all eternity And greatly to augment it at the resurrection And this would have been the case of Hezekiah himself if he had died by that sickness He'd be in a good man In answer to this I would observe That Hezekiah in this song is not only praising God For the temporal delay that he had had But while he is praising God for his preservation from temporal death He in the same song also praises him for God's spiritual salvation the redemption of his soul from destruction of Which that temporal deliverance was but an image This is plain by the words immediately foregoing this verse in the 17th verse Thou has cast all my sins behind thy back So that he is here praising God for the redemption of a soul from the guilt and punishment of sin and this may be generally observed in scripture songs for temporal deliverance as in the song of Moses at the Red Sea and others they all have a plain reference to the greater redemption of which these temporal deliverances are but images and shadows So that the death spoken of here in this verse is not mere temporal death That that Hezekiah here speaks of his death as it is in itself or as it is Originally and in its own nature and not as it is changed by a redemption from a state of death into a state of life Look upon death as it is in the Saints and death is no more death It is changed by redemption into another thing It is changed that instead of being a state of death. It is a state of more glorious sort of life than was before That which Hezekiah speaks of is that which is death indeed that is properly so called he speaks of the death in which men really die and are truly dead and not that wherein there are a thousand times more alive than they were before a a state of death as it is Originally and when it is properly death is a state in which man can't praise God nor celebrate him Nor hope for his truth It is a state in which there is no good done and no good enjoyed nor any good hoped for It is a state of evil without any good It is as Job says in chapter 10 verse 22 a land of darkness as darkness itself and of the shadow of death Without any order and where the light is as darkness They that are in hell are in such a state of death Such was death originally before Christ changed it and destroyed it Such was death as it was threatened to our first parents and very commonly when death is spoken of in the Old Testament It is in this notion of it For the change of a state of death into a state of more glorious life was not fully revealed under the Old Testament Life and immortality is brought to light through the gospel 2nd Timothy 1 verse 10 It is under this notion That death seems to be spoken of in Ecclesiastes 9 verse 5 when it is said The dead have no more a reward This is not true of those that are redeemed for with them That is a very time of their reward when they are dead Hezekiah did not mean that they that are redeemed from the power of the grave They that get the victory over death and shall never die as Christ promises his disciples Shall not praise God nor hope for his truth Doctrine they that are gone to hell are all of them in despair proposition There are many men that are gone to hell There are many of all sorts kings and beggars rich and poor old and young wise and unwise bond and free There are the generality of those of the old world that were drowned in the flood as appears by first Peter 3 verse 19 There are gone the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah Jude 7 there is Judas There are those Pharisees that we read of in Matthew 12 verse 24 and so on that blasphemed against the Holy Ghost There are gone those we read of in Jude verse 4 that were before of old ordained to condemnation And there are gone many wicked children There are gone many lewd young people that died in their youth and were cut off in the middle of their mirth and jollity In the middle of their uncleanness and pursuit of carnal pleasures There are gone Many carnal creatures unsanctified old people that laid down their whore heads in the grave and their souls went to hell There are many disobedient and undutiful children that are gone to hell There are many negligent parents that have neglected the education and government of their families There are many unrighteous creatures selfish proud magistrates And there are many unfaithful ministers that are gone to hell There are doubtless many that we have seen and conversed with here in the world Though we know not who of them ye doubtless many of them are there When they died their souls went down to hell We read much in the scriptures of hell a place of woe in misery called a furnace of fire and outer darkness the blackness of darkness The bottomless pit the lake that burns with fire and brimstone There it is That they are gone They are now tormented in that flame We can't know precisely what circumstances they are in but as the scriptures represent it They are now wailing and gnashing their teeth They are subject to the wrath of God that is executed to the utmost upon them They are many devils and men delivered up to them Proposition two They that are gone to hell Their misery will be eternal Their misery will be absolutely eternal Sometimes things are said to be everlasting is to be an always or forever when it is not meant. Absolutely Sometimes as we use the word it signifies no more than as long as a man lives Thus if it be such or such and one is like to be always poor or despised Or is like always to be subject to such a disease or infirmity. It is intended only as long as he lives Sometimes when things are said to be everlasting or forever. It is not meant. Absolutely, but only as long as the world stands Thus when we say that God would dwell in our land forever. It is so intended Things are often said to be forever or everlasting in Scripture when it is not intended that they are absolutely eternal Exodus 27 verse 21 They're speaking of a law about the sacrifices. God says it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations Leviticus 16 34 this shall be an everlasting statute unto you So it is often said of the ceremonial laws Whereby forever is meant only during the continuance of the Jewish state The things are sometimes said to be everlasting or forever and yet it is to be understood in a limited sense but the misery of those that are gone to hell will be absolutely everlasting or without end and Therefore it is said to be forever and ever Revelation 4 verses 10 and 11 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the Holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb and The smoke of their torment ascends up forever and ever and they have no rest day nor night and an end to their misery is absolutely denied in Scripture as It is positively declared that they shall not have any end Mark 9 verse 43 and 44 It is better for thee to enter into life maimed Than having two hands to go into hell into the fire that never shall be quenched Where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched There shall be no end to their misery by their being brought into a more happy state in condition For there remains no more sacrifice for sin, and it is appointed to men wants to die So Christ is but once offered Hebrews 9 verses 27 and 28 and all change after death is expressly denied in Revelation 22 verse 11 He that is unjust Let him be unjust still and there never will be any end by death or annihilation Revelation 9 verse 6 Men shall seek death and shall not find it and shall desire to die and death shall flee from them Their misery is eternal Not only as it will never wholly cease But also as it will never in part come to an end it will never be diminished But it will be increased those that are gone to hell have not their full punishment now But it is to be increased at the day of judgment Their misery is very dreadful now as appears by what we are told of the rich man in Luke 16 verses 23 and 24 and In hell, he lift up his eyes being in torments and seeth Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom And he cried and said father Abraham have mercy on me and said Lazarus That he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue For I am tormented in this flame but yet the punishment of both wicked men and devils will be greatly augmented at the day of judgment and Therefore the devil's tremble at the expectation of that day So that the misery of them that are gone to hell is not only eternal in that degree that they now suffer it But it is to be greatly increased hereafter and to remain eternal in that degree that it shall be inflicted then Some things are said to be everlasting That shall yet still come to an end when men die But this misery that is absolutely eternal does but begin when men die Some things are said to be everlasting that shall come to an end at the end of the world But this misery will but then begin its highest degree When the heavens are grown old and God shall change them as a vesture and the earth and all the works that are therein Shall be dissolved Then shall the misery of those that are gone to hell be so far from coming to an end That it shall then but commence in the highest degree of it We have this expression often in scripture as long as the Sun and Moon endures it signifies an exceeding long continuance But the space of time will be so far from being commensurate to the misery of those that are gone to hell That it is all but an introduction to it number two Those that are gone to hell know this They know that their misery will be eternal and therefore are in despair It would be well for them if it were hidden from them and they were ignorant of it It would be well for them if they could be deceived and entertain a hope that they should sometime or other be delivered Though there were no foundation for it But the eternity of their sufferings will be what they will be assured of To that degree that it won't allow of the least measure of hope Sometimes persons see no probability of their attaining such a good or being delivered from such and such a calamity Everything seems to look dark All things seem to concur against them and they are very greatly afraid They have very little hope all the room there is left to hope is that the thing is merely possible But in this case there is not so much as that They shall not only see that there is no probability of it and be very much discouraged and disheartened about it But they shall know fully that it is utterly impossible And there will not arise in their heart so much as the least glimmering of hope It is impossible that there should be such a thing as hope in hell as it is said in the text They that shall go down to the pit cannot hope for thy truth They despair of ever enjoying any good They despair of ever obtaining heaven once they had an opportunity of obtaining it And they had no reason to despair of it, but now that opportunity is passed Once the door was open, but now it is not so They came to the door too late and found it shut and it is shut forever never to be opened again And they shall lift up their eyes and see many others and some of them perhaps such as they have been acquainted with in this world with Jesus Christ in glory But at the same time see between them a great gulf fixed so that there is no passing from one to the other They shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom and many come from the east and from the west And sitting down in the kingdom of God But they utterly despair of ever being partners with them. They see that they have lost heaven forever They despair of ever returning again to this world and to the enjoyments of it They despair of ever anymore seeing the sweet light of the Sun and the many pleasant objects and entertain their eyes When they were here in this world They despair of evermore having friends to be concerned for them and to help them as once they had They despair of ever anymore gratifying their sensual appetites Those of them that were rich and great in the world despair of ever anymore having the pleasure to think That they had so much of the world and so much more than their neighbors They despair of ever having their pride gratified and seeing themselves above others the soul of man necessarily craves happiness and In hell this craving is as strong as elsewhere But there they despair of the least grain of good or comfort to gratify it They shall know that they shall never have anything but the blackness of darkness without the least glimmering of light number two They despair of ever being in any wise delivered from the evil they suffer They despair of God's being ever reconciled to them and of his hatred and wrath being at all abated They despair of God's ever having any pity upon them They despair of his heart relenting at all at the sight of their doleful case They know that all cries to him would be in vain that it is now too late to beg his mercy They despair of ever moving his pity by their cries and groans and Dolores lamentings They know that they never can fly from God or by any art or contrivance hide themselves from him or get out of that place of torment They despair of ever escaping from the tormenting hand of Satan They despair of ever being turned to nothing and having an end put to their misery that way They would be glad to be turned into a toad or a serpent that they might not be capable of such a degree of misery But they despair of it. They despair not only of an end to their misery, but of any abatement They despair of obtaining so much as one drop of water They despair of ever having one minute's rest or one breath of Relaxation from the extremity of their torments throughout the never-ending ages of eternity I will proceed now to give the reasons why they despair To take notice of the means by which they will come to be thus assured that in hell their misery will be thus eternal Or how they come to know that they shall never be delivered from it. Number one They now see that the Word of God that so often threatens that their punishment shall be eternal is true While they lived in this world, they were not sensible of the truth of God's Word They doubted whether there was any truth in the threatenings of it They questioned whether the threatenings or the Bible were God's threatenings whether the scripture was a word of God But now they are in hell Their minds are greatly altered about those things They have other notions about the things of religion than they used to have they now know that there is a God and They know that he is such a God as the scriptures declared him to be namely a sin-hating sin-revenging God They now are convinced that he is a God that is true to his word and that his threatenings are true they find a truth of the Word of God and they're being cast into hell in inflicting the threatened misery and They'll be fully assured that his word is also true in the eternal continuance Then all doubting of the truth of God's Word concerning an eternal world ceases number two The sentence of the judge that has been passed upon them assures them that they shall never be delivered When a man dies his soul goes to appear before God Ecclesiastes 12 verse 7 and the spirit returns to God that gave it It goes to appear before God to be judged and Sentences pronounced according to his works These that are gone to hell who've had sentence passed upon them by the great judge Whereby they have been doomed to eternal misery The eternity of the punishment was part of the sentence Thus it is in the sentence that is pronounced on the wicked at the day of judgment Matthew 25 verse 41 Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels There they are bid to depart into burnings that are everlasting and The sentence is the same that is pronounced on every wicked man at his particular judgment at death Only at the day of judgment it is pronounced in a more public manner This sentence shall be pronounced by the great God in such a manner With such manifestations of the awful majesty greatness holiness and wrath of God That there will give the greatest assurance of the truth of it to the subjects of it There will be no possibility of the wicked souls doubting of the truth and certainty of it They will know that God is in earnest and that he declares his fixed and unalterable decrees number three They receive these testimonies of the hatred of God as assurance that he never intends to deliver them They know that God is not only angry with them, but hates them that he hates them with perfect hatred They know his hatred from what they feel from the misery that he inflicts It is not every calamity that God brings on men. That is a sign of his hatred The most extreme temporal calamities that ever happen to men are no certain sign of God's hatred They are consistent with the love of God But the calamity that the damned are subject to is such as is a clear evidence of God's hatred It's being consistent with any mercy or love of God towards the subjects of it The misery that they suffer is so inexpressibly Dolores and attended with those dismal circumstances That renders it a perfect manifestation of God's utter hatred God will immediately give inward manifestation of his dreadful hatred and wrath in the soul and that in ways that we know not of Is that we now cannot conceive of in ways more dreadful than now we can conceive of These discoveries of God's hatred exclude all hope of ever being delivered from their misery For they're being delivered or not delivered must be according to God's will But they know that he hates them enough to continue them under the misery. They now suffer forever and ever without any pity towards them God's absolute hatred is not consistent with the design of mercy if God should entertain a design of mercy sometime or other Therein he would not absolutely hate them, but would have mercy for them But those that God absolutely hates he can have no design of any mercy towards them And as the damned have such great manifestations of God's hatred So they know that he never intends them any mercy. They know that he hates them with an eternal hatred God's eternal decrees are now made known to them number four They know that God is so powerful that he is able to do with him what he will They know what his power is now better than they did while on earth They see what a great and dreadful God God is They know his power by what they feel For so dreadful are the torments of the damned that the mighty power of God is made known in them This is one end of them Romans 9 verse 22 But if the mighty power of God is made known by them to others much more to them who suffer them They know that God is so powerful that they can never escape out of his hands They know that he is able to fulfill his threatenings and to execute his own sentence and to do them According to his hatred and wrath and that he is able to make their misery eternal is able to keep them from all remedy application number one a Use of awakening to those that are in a natural condition Those that are so are in the same condition that those that are gone to hell and are there in despair were in and that they perished in if you should look into hell and behold the state of the dam there and Hear their cries and consider that they are all of them in utter despair of ever being delivered from their misery And should inquire how they came such multitudes of them to be brought into such misery It must be answered that it was because they died in such a state as you are in and If you should inquire of particulars, it must be answered concerning of them That it was because they went on in some ways of sin that you're going on in Because they delayed and put off the concern of their souls as you do or that they flattered themselves and trusted in themselves as you do Here for your awakening consider how dreadful it argues the case of those that are in hell to be That they are in despair Despair is a thing of all things the most dark and doleful the sting of a calamity It is a misery of miseries. It is the dregs of the cup. It is a hell of hell It is that which makes any person utterly miserable and no person can be said to be perfectly miserable without it It cuts off all relief. There is no person or calamity whatsoever But what is light without it in comparison of what it is with it the wrath of Almighty God? Would itself be but light Hell fire would be cool without it in comparison of what it is with it It would be terrible beyond expression for a man to endure the pain that he would do if he were in the midst of a Great furnace of earthly fire or a red-hot oven and it could be that he could remain there full of quicksense for one day Though he knew that at the day's end his torment would be in an end and he should be in perfect ease and soundness again We cannot conceive of the dreadfulness of such a day as that would be To have the body from head to foot and within and without all red-hot and bright with fire In a sense not diminished in the pain proportionable to the fire How terrible would such a day be? Though there was no despair attended it, but the person all the while was full of hope Yeah, the person should not merely hope for deliverance but be certain of it and that is so short a time You need to endure such pain But one quarter of an hour would doubtless be inexpressibly dreadful and if a man knew what it was It is not probable than anything that could be offered him would tempt him to endure it Or that any man would be persuaded though he knew he could have all the riches of the world given him for it But how much more terrible would it be to spend a quarter of an hour in hell of which our earthly fire Though most terrible is but the image as it were only a picture of fire in comparison of it but yet if they in hell knew they were to endure what they now suffer for four thousands of years and Had hopes that then after so long a time they should have deliverance their misery would be light to what it is now If the dam could have such news as is proclaimed among them that after they had suffered for thousands of years They should be delivered. It would take off a very great part of their burden Hell would be no hell in comparison of what it is now Absolute despair is the thing perfectly overwhelming to nature There is nothing that can fill the mind with such a gloom as this This is a very blackness of darkness to be in such extreme misery and to have no hope of ever being delivered Let them look as far forward as they will let their thoughts run out to never such length and future duration Doubling and multiplying thousands and millions and yet to think that when they had worn out such ages in torment That will bring them no nearer to relief and that their eternity of misery will yet be but beginning That there will never Never come any end or any abatement of their torments This covers the dam souls and the thick clouds of most inexpressible darkness and horror This perfectly amazes them. The thought of eternity is infinitely too great for them to bear It overwhelms them Destroys them it crushes them It sinks them down into a gulf of woe and misery to unfathomable depths It is but a little that we can express or conceive of the terribleness of this state These things are too big for the conceptions or tongues of mortals The misery is too great the horror and amazement too great for us to think or speak of as they are The comparisons that we are capable of using all fail and can give us but some faint idea of it But to help your conceptions in this manner consider first That this despair is universal absolute in final First it is universal Man in this world may sometimes be said to despair of particular things that they desire as of being delivered from particular Calamities they suffer as he that loses some dear earthly relation or friend. He despairs of ever having the enjoyment of them anymore One that is carried into captivity may in a great measure Despair of ever being delivered and returning again to his possessions and friends But in such cases the despair is not universal but peculiar of particular enjoyments They don't despair of all good the despair that he has may cast him into deep despondency and melancholy But yet he doesn't despair of every enjoyment, but they that are in hell their despair is universal they utterly despair of all good of every sort they despair of pleasure of Prophet in honor of any comfort or friends or possessions or anything else They despair of the favor of God and spiritual good and they despair of all temporal good Their misery that they despair of being delivered from is universal They despair of being delivered from shame and disgrace They despair of being delivered from the manifestation of the wrath of God They despair of being delivered from the cruelty of devils. They despair of being delivered from the horrors of Conscience they despair of being delivered from torments of body, which be inflicted After the resurrection they despair of being delivered from torment in any part of their bodies Number two their despair is absolute Men in ordinary speech are sometimes said to despair of things when their despair is not altogether absolute This person is very far gone in some very mortal disease or he that is condemned to an execution May be said to despair of life Because there is no manner of prospect any way of their deliverance But yet they are not absolutely certain that they shall not be delivered And escape though altogether improbable yet may not be said to be simply impossible So the Apostle says in 2nd Corinthians 1 verse 8 But the despair of the damned is absolute despair as it is attended with the perfect assurance That they shall never escape number three their despair is final No despair and earthly things can be said in like manner to be final if men are subject to extreme poverty or captivity and carnal bondage or Imprisonment or some painful disease and despair of ever being delivered as long as they live Yet their despair with respect to those things cannot be said to be final in the same manner as that in hell For the evils that it has respect to or temporal They don't reach beyond death if they despair of ever being delivered as long as they live That is very disheartening and discouraging and greatly augments the affliction But yet death will terminate all temporal differences between one man and another as to prosperity and adversity It will put an end to earthly poverty and diseases and bondage and afflictions of all sorts as Job observes in chapter 3 verses 17 to 19 and therefore despair with respect to those things never looks any further forward than death But the despair of the damned has no such period or termination it looks forward without end Job under his calamity seems to have had very little hope of ever being delivered while he lived But yet he hoped for it when he died and this made him wish for death Job 7 verse 15 My Soul chooses strangling and death rather than my life But the damned in hell they have no such refuge for their thoughts to fly to If they might hear that news that they should die and turn to nothing that would be joyful tidings to them But they shall despair of ever being delivered by such means They wish and long for death, but shall not find it and they wish that they had never been born But that is to no purpose Number two Consider how terrible absolute despair be if it should only attend some of those pains that men are want to suffer in this world if it were only a sharp toothache or an aching finger if Persons went under those pains were at the same time assured that they must never have any relief or any rest at all But must endure that pain without intermission forever and ever how dark Discouraging and sinking would be the thought This would afflict in distress a sufferer immensely more than simply present pain When we enter pain it is hope that makes them tolerable That which we now account a light suffering Take away. Hope and it will become intolerable Despair would aggravate and enhance the affliction beyond all account and would make it overbearing though Now with hope men make no great manner of it But if despair would be so terrible when attending so light and affliction what is it when attending the torments of hell What is a toothache to the misery of the soul in hellfire under the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God? Despair is dreadful in proportion to the evil that person's despair of being delivered from Despair when it attends a great calamity it adds to the distress and is greater proportion when it attends a small one If we suppose that despair joined with pain of an aching tooth Would make the present distress and hundredfold or a thousandfold greater So will it by a parody of reason augment and multiply in a like proportion the present distress of the torments of hell You may perhaps conceive in some measure How much more dreadful absolute despair will make your present distress under temporal pains that you suffer And consider that as much in proportion are the present suffering and horror of damnation increased though they are so dreadful in themselves The despair that attends the torments of the damned is more dreadful than we can now conceive of it to be in that upon two accounts number one Because we now cannot have a notion of the dreadfulness of the pains and afflictions which they suffer And so we cannot apprehend the dreadfulness of despairing of ever being delivered from them Those torments are what we never have experienced It is difficult for us oftentimes to have an idea of temporal calamities that others suffer that we never have experienced To have a true sense of the sorrowfulness of their case Much more of the sufferings of all that are so great and so much more beyond all that we here have experienced number two Their despair is also more dreadful than we can now conceive of it to be because they have a greater sense of eternity than we have Many hear it they hear often of eternity They think little of it and don't consider what it is and therefore have very little of a sense how great and awful it is But they in hell don't want consideration They can't help thinking of it the endlessness of eternity is continually in their thoughts The more we consider of eternity the more fixedly we meditate on it now the more great and awful will it appear to us But they that are in hell have more to fix their thoughts on than we have If we were under some sharp pain of body and we're assured we must suffer it to all eternity That would make us think about eternity and would fix our thoughts upon it much more than now They are want to be fixed much more if we endured their torments The damned are not able to divert their thoughts from it Time seems long to men when they are in pain when persons lie in great pain They are ready to think the days long and the nights long and the days They say when will it be evening in an evening when will it be morning? But how much more may we conclude to the pains of hell make eternity seem long to them number three Consider how terrible are those degrees of despair of mercy that men sometimes have been the subjects of in this world There have been instances of persons while alive that have been brought to despair in a considerable degree When the appearances of distress have been far beyond all that has ever suffered under any bodily torment Some have been brought to that to which they would change places with the wood in the fire But we cannot suppose that any despair on earth Should be equal to the despair of hell The earth is not the place where God is want either to inflict such misery as is in hell Or to bestow such happiness as is enjoyed in heaven Those that seem to be in despair while living their despair can't be supposed to be so absolute as that in hell For they in hell have already had the sentence passed upon them And if they were a certain that they never should obtain mercy their despair would not be so Insupportable as it is in hell for the aforementioned reason because here they can't have that full sense of the greatness of the misery They despair of being delivered from as in hell where they know by the experience of it The foretaste some have of the wrath of God in this world are but foretastes but as preludes before the battle We can't suppose that our frail mortal nature is at all capable of persisting under the weight of such suffering As they endure in hell the despair of hell also differs from all despair on earth and that it is without the least Intermissions the least ease by diversion of thought or sleep or stupefaction from By the disorder of the body in hell souls are every way fitted to destruction The vessel is enlarged to a greater capacity that it may be able to contain more misery than we are capable of in this world Those of you that have had any sense of the terribleness of the wrath of God may consider how doleful your case would have been If you at the same time had been in absolute despair Though the notion that you had of the wrath of God was so imperfect and far short of the reality number four The despair of the dam does in a sense make future misery present According to the degree of our apprehension of future suffering so far. We suffer it beforehand It is sometimes observed that it is a mercy that God doesn't reveal to men beforehand What calamities and inflictions they are to meet with and that if he should do it It would tend much to take away the comfort of our living for it would make our future suffering present But it is made known to the damned in hell what misery they are to suffer hereafter They know that they must endure those torments forever and ever So that besides what is now immediately inflicted there is their future misery throughout eternity That is in some sense made present to them so as to endure in some sort a whole eternity of misery at once So far as they are capable of conceiving of eternity If they were capable of perfectly comprehending eternity their despair would make their misery truly infinite Their punishment is infinite considering in its whole duration. What is present and what is to come? But if they were capable of a perfect comprehension of eternity So that they could see all their future misery at once with a full view it would make their present misery Infinite and their despair does make an eternity of misery all present at once So far as they can conceive of it. So their rational faculties will be their calamity. It would be well if they were brutes Exhortation if it be so That the wicked in hell are all of them in despair. Let sinners be exhorted to improve a day of hope Now you enjoy a day in which there is room for hope There is standing open a door of hope and you have no reason to despair you now have hope that you may obtain Mercy you have ground to entertain such hope for you have an opportunity if you have but a heart to improve it You have encouragement of obtaining mercy if you do what you can for it Now you may have hope of holy escape in the misery of hell The dam would give thousands of worlds if it were possible if they might have hope of deliverance after millions of ages But you may have opportunity to escape holy and never endure it at all The dam would prize it even ten thousand times more than men prize Kingdoms as they could have hope of being delivered from some small part of their misery for some hope of mitigation of their Torments, but you may have hope of escaping of it all and never tasting at all of the misery of hell Revelation 2 verse 11 he that overcomes shall not be heard of the second death and Revelation 26 on such the second death has no power you not only so but now you may have hope of obtaining a glorious and eternal happiness a Happiness as glorious as the misery of the damned is dreadful and that shall be as lasting how blessed an opportunity Have you how happy a day do those that are in hell think the day of hope to be that the living enjoy? All that are now here present do is yet enjoy a day of hope Though it be uncertain how long they will enjoy it if you are old and old and sin and have a hard heart and a Blind mind yet. It is a day of hope. It is a glorious day of hope with you a blessed opportunity So whatever your disadvantages are Whatever your sins have been whatever courses you have taken to augment your guilt and harden your heart Though you have brought yourself into great danger by it Yet it is a day of hope and not a day of despair as it is in hell