Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

sayed to repent, to forsake sin, and to be holy, but still missed of repentance, reformation, and holiness and therefore, thou saidst, there is no hope. No, for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go." Truly, no marvel, that the success has not answered thy expectation, since thou hast always begun thy work amiss. But do thou, first of all, honour God, by believing the testimony he has given of his Son, namely, that eternal life is in him; and honour the Son of God, by believing on him, that is, embracing and falling in with the free offer c. Christ, and of his salvation, from sin and from wrath, made to thee in the gospel, trusting in him confidently for righteousness to thy justification, and also for sanctification; seeing of God he is made unto us both righteousness and sanctification, 1 Cor. i. 30. Then, if thou hadst as much credit to give to the word, as thou wouldst allow to the word of an honest man offering thee a gift, and saying, take it, and it is thine; thou mayest believe that God is thy God, Christ is thine, his salvation is thine, thy sins are pardoned, thou had strength in him for repentance and for holiness; for all these are made over to thee in the free offer of the gospel. Believing on the Son of God, thou art justified, the curse is removed. And while it lies upon thee, how is it possible, thou shouldst bring forth the fruits of holiness? But, the curse is removed, that death, which seized on thee with the first Adam, (accord ing to the threatening, Gen. ii. 17.) is taken away. In consequence of which, thou shalt find the bands of wickedness (now holding thee fast in impenitency) broken asunder, as the bands of death: so as thou wilt be able to repent indeed from the heart; thou shalt find the spirit of life, on whose departure, that death ensued, returned to thy scul, so as thenceforth thou shalt be enabled to live unto righteousness. No man's case is so bad, but it may be mended this way in time, to be perfectly right in eter nity; and no man's case is so good but another way being taken, it will be marred for time and eternity too.

III. The damned shall have the society of devils in their miserable state in hell; for they must depart into fire prepared for the devil and his angels. O horrible company! O frightful association! who would chuse to dwell in a palace haunted by devils? To be confined to the most

pleasant spot of earth, with the devil and his infernal furies would be a most terrible confinement. How would mens ` hearts fail them, and their hair stand up, finding themselves environed with the hellish crew, in that case! But ah! how much more terrible must it be to be cast with the devils into one fire, locked up with them in one dungeon, shut up with them in one pit! to be closed up in a den of roaring lions, girded about with serpents, surrounded with venomous asps, and to have the bowels eaten out by vipers all together, and at once, is a comparison too low, to shew the misery of the damned, shut up in hell with the devil and his angels. They go about now as roaring lions seeking whom they may devour; but then shall they be confined in their dens with their prey, they shall be filled to the brim with the wrath of God, and receive the full torment, Matth. viii. 29. which they tremble in expectation of, James ii. 19, being cast into the fire prepared for them. How will these lions roar and tear! how will these serpents hiss! these dragons vomit out fire? what horrible anguish will seize the damned, finding themselves in the lake of fire, with the devil who deceived them; drawn hither with the silken cords of temptation, by these wicked spirits, and bound with them in everlasting chains under darkness! Rev. xx. 10. "And the devil that deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever.

O! that men would consider this in time, renounce the devil and his lusts, and join themselves to the Lord in faith and holiness. Why should men chuse that company in this world, and delight in that society they would not desire to associate with in the other world? Those who like not the company of the saints on earth, will get none of it in eternity; but as godless company is their delight now, they will afterwards get enough of it; when they have an eternity to pass in the roaring and blaspheming society of devils and reprobates in hell. Let those who use to invocate the devil to take them, soberly consider, that the company so often invited will be terrible at last, when come.

IV. and Lastly, Let us consider the eternity of the whole,

the everlasting continuance of the miserable state of the damned in hell.

First, If I could, I should shew what eternity is, I mean, the creature's eternity. But who can measure the waters of the ocean, or who can tell you the days, year, and ages of eternity, which are infinitely more than the drops of the ocean? None can comprehend eternity, but the eternal God. Eternity is an ocean whereof we will never see the shore; it is a deep where we can find no bottom; a labyrinth from whence we cannot extricate ourselves, and where we shall ever lose the door. There are two things one may say of it, (1.) It has a beginning. God's eternity has no beginning, but the creature's eternity has. Sometime there was no lake of fire, and those who have been there, for some thousands of years, were once in time, as we now are. (2.) It shall never have an end. The first who entered into the eternity of wo, is as far from the end of it, as the last who shall go thither, will be at his entry. They who have launched out farther into that ocean, are as far from land, as they were the first moment they went into it; and thousands of ages after this they will be as far from it as ever. Wherefore, eternity which is before us, is a duration that hath a beginning, but no end. It is a beginning without a middle, a beginning without an end. After millions of years, still it is a beginning. God's wrath in hell will ever be the wrath to come. But there is no middle in eternity. When millions of ages are past in eternity, what is past bears no proportion to what is to come; no not so much as one drop of water, falling from the tip of one's finger, bears to all the waters of the ocean. There is no end of it; while God is, it shall be. It is an entry without an outgate, a continual succession of ages, a glass always running, which

shall never run out.

Observe the continual succession of hours, days, months and years, how one still follows upon another; and think of eternity, wherein there is a continual succession without end. When you go out in the night, and behold the stars of heaven, how they cannot be numbered for multitude, think of the ages of eternity; considering withal, there is a certain definite number of the stars, but no number of the ages of eternity. When you see a water running,

think how vain a thing it would be to sit down by it, and wait till it should run out, that you may pass over; look how new water still succeeds to that which passeth by you: and therein you will have an image of eternity, which is a river that never dries up. They who wear rings have an image of eternity on their fingers; and they who handle the wheel have an emblem of eternity before them; for to which part soever of the ring or wheel one looks, one will still see another part beyond it, a..d on whatsoever moment of eternity you condescend, there is still another beyond it. When you are abroad in the fields, and behold the piles of grass on the earth which no man can reckon, think with yourselves, that, were as many thousands of years to come as there are piles of grass on the ground, even those would have an end at length, but eternity will have none. When you look to a mountain, imagine in your hearts, how long would it be, ere that mountain should be removed, by a little bird coming once every thousand years, and carrying away but one grain of the dust at once; the mountain would at length be removed that way and brought to an end, but eternity will never end. Suppose this with respect to all the mountains of the earth; nay, with respect to the whole globe of the earth, the grains of dust whereof the whole earth is made up are not infinite, and therefore the last grain would, at long-run, come to be carried away in the way supposed; but when that slowest work would be brought to an end, eternity would be, in effect but beginning.

These are some rude draughts of eternity; and now add misery and woe to this eternity, what tongue can express it? What heart can conceive? In what balance can that misery and that woe be weighed?

Secondly, Let us take a view of what is eternal, in the State of the damned in hell. Whatsoever is included in the fearful sentence, determining their eternal state, is everlasting; therefore all the doleful ingredients of their miserable state, will be everlasting; they will never end. The text expressly declares the fire into which they must depart, to be everlasting fire. And our Lord elsewhere tells us, that in hell, the fire shall never be quenched, Mark ix. 43. with an eye to the valley of Hinnom, in which, besides the already mentioned fire for burning of the children to Molech, there was also another fire, burning

Pp

continually, to consume the dead carcases and filth of Jerusalem; so the scripture representing hell fire by the fire of that valley, speaks it not only to be most exquisite, but also everlasting. Seeing then the damned must depart as cursed ones into everlasting fire, it is evident that,

1st, The damned themselves shall be eternal; they will have a being for ever, and will never be substantially destroyed or annihilated. To what end is the fire eternal, if these who are cast into it, be not eternally in it! It is plain, the everlasting continuance of the fire, is an aggravation of the misery of the damned: but surely if they be annihilated, or substantially destroyed, it is all a case to them, whether the fire be everlasting or not. Nay, but they part into everlasting fire, to be everlastingly punished in it: Matth. xxv. 46. "They shall go away into everlasting punishment.' Thus the execution of the sentence is a certain discovery of the meaning of it. The worm that dieth not, must have a subject to live in; they who shall have no rest day nor night, Rev. xiv. 11. but shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever, chap. xx. 10. will certainly have a being for ever and ever, and not be brought into a state of eternal rest in annihilation. Destroyed indeed they shall be, but their destruction will be an everlasting destruction, 2 Thes. i. 9. a destruction of their well-being, but not of their being. What is destroyed is not therefore annihilated: "Art thou come to destroy us?" said the devil unto Jesus Christ, Luke iv. 34. Howbeit, the devils are afraid of torment, not of annihilation, Matth. viii. 29. “ Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?" The state of the damned is indeed a state of death; but such a death it is as is opposite only to a happy life; as is clear from other notions of their state, which necessarily include an eternal existence, of which before. As they who are dead in sin, are dead to God and holiness, yet live to sin; so dying in hell, they live, but separated from God and his favour, in which life lies, Psal. xxx. 5. They shall never be under the pangs of death ever dying, but never dead, or absolutely void of life. How desirable would such a death be to them! but it will flee from them for ever. Could each one kill another, or could they with their own hands, rent themselves into lifeless pieces, their misery would quickly be at an

« AnteriorContinuar »