5. The shamings of conscience are insufferable torments. Shame ariseth from the turpitude of discovered actions. If some men's secret filthinesses were but published in this world, it would confound them : what then will it be, when all shall lie open, as it will, after this life, and their own consciences shall cast the shame of all upon them ? They shall not only be derided by God, Prov. i. 26. but by their own consciences.
Lastly, the fearful expectations of conscience, still looking for- ward into more and more wrath to come, this is the very sum and complement of their misery. What makes a prison so dreadful to a malefactor but the trembling expectation he there lives under of the approaching assizes .^^ Much after the same rate, or rather after the rate of condemned persons preparing for execution, do these spirits in prison live in the other world. But alas ! no instance or similitude can reach home to their case.
Prop. 6. That icMch makes the torments and terrors of the damned spirits so extreme and terrible, is, that they are unrelievable miseries, and torments Jbr ever.
They are not capable either of,
1. A partial relief, by any mitigation, or
2. A complete relief by a final cessation.
1. Not of a partial relief by any mitigation ; could they but di- vert their thoughts from their misery, as they were wont to do in this w^orld, drink and forget their sorrows ; or had they but any hope of the abatement of their miserv, it would be a relief to them : But both these are impossible. " Their thoughts are fixed and determined : to remove them (though but for a moment) from their misery, is as impossible as to remove a mountain : Their sin and misery is ever before them. As the blessed in heaven are
14(^ A TREATISE OF THK SOUL OF MAN-
hono conjinnati, so fixed and settled in blessedness, that they are not diverted one moment from beliolding the blessed face of God, for they are ever with the Lord : So the damned in hell are malo objirmaf'^ so settled and fixed in the midst of all evil, that their thoughts and miseries are inseparable for ever.
2. Much less can their undone state admit the least hope of re- lief by a final cessation of their misery. All hope perisheth from them, and the perishing of their hope is the plainest proof that can be given of the eternity of their misery. For were there but the remotest possibility of deliverance at last, hope would hang upon that possibility : And whilst hope lives, the soul is not quite dead ; the death of hope is the death of a man's spirit : The cutting off of the soul from God, and the last act of hope to see or enjoy him for ever, is that death which an immortal soul is capable of suffer- ing. " Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire," is that sentence which strikes hope and soul dead for ever. In these six propositions you have the true and terrible representation of the spirits in prison, or the state of damned souls. I have not mention- ed their association with devils, or the dismal place of their con- finement, which, though they complete their misery, yet are not tile principal parts of it, but rather accessories to it, or rivers run- ning into the ocean of their misery. The sum of their misery lies in what was opened before, and the im2:>rovement of it is in that which followeth.
Infer. 1. Is this the state of ungodly souls after death ? Then it follows, that neitlier deatli noi' annihilation are the worst of evils in- cident to man. Aristotle calls death the most terrible of all terribles, and the schoolmen affirm annihilation to be a greater evil than the most miserable being : But it is neither so, nor so ; the wrath of God, the worm of conscience, are much more bitter than death. The pains of death are natural and bodily pains : The "vvTath of God and anguish of conscience are spiritual and inward : Those are but the pains of a few hours or days, these are the unrelieved tor- ments of eternity.
And as for annihilation, what a favour would the damned ac- count it ! Indeed, if we respect the glory of God's justice, which is exemplified and illustrated in the ruin of these miserable souls, it is better they should abide as the eternal monuments thereof, than not to be at all : but with respect to themselves we may say as Christ doth of the son of perdition. Mat. xxvi. 24. "Good had it been '• for them if they had never beei» born." For a man's soul to be of no other use than a vessel of wrath, to receive the indignation, and be filled with the fin-y of God ; surely an untimely birth, that never was animated with a reasonable soul, is better than they : For alas ! thev seek for death, but it flies from them. The im-
A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN. 141
mortality of tlieir souls, which was their dignity and privilege above other creatures, is now their misery, and that which continually feeds and perpetuates their flame. Here is a being without the comfort of it, a being only to howl and tremble under Divine wrath, a being therefore which they would gladly exchange with the contemptiblest fly, or most loathsome toad, but it cannot be exchanged or annihilated.
Inf. k. Hence it follows, that the pleasures of sin are dear bought, and costly pleasures. There is a greater disproportion betwixt that pleasure and this wrath, than betwixt a drop of honey and a sea of gall. Could a man distil all the imaginary pleasure of sin, and drink nothing else but the highest and most refined delights of it all his life, though his life should be protracted to the term of Methuselah's ; yet one day or night under the wrath of God would make it a dear bargain. But,
1. It is certain sin hath no such pleasures to give you : They are embittered either by adverse strokes of providence from with- out, or ])ainful and dreadful gripes and twinges of conscience within ; Job xx. 14. " His meat in his bowels is turned, it is the " gall of asps within him."
2. It is certain the time of a sinner is near its period when he is at the height of his pleasure in sin : For look, as high delights in God speak the maturity of a soul for heaven, and it ^vill not be long before such be in heaven ; so the heights of delight in sin, an- swerably speak the maturity of such a soul for hell, and it will not be long ere it be there. Sin is now a big embryo, and speedily the soul travails with death.
3. According to the measure of delights men have had in sin, will be the degrees and measures of their torments in hell. Rev. xviii. 7. so much torment and sorrow, as there was delight and pleasure in sin.