But, Lord, if we must depart, and depart cursed, oh let us go into some good place ! No, ' depart ye into everlasting fire.' There is the vengeance and continuance of it. 2 You shall go into fire, into everlasting fire, that will neither consume itself, nor consume you. Eternity of extremity is the hell of hell. The fire in hell is like that stone in Arcadia, wluch being once kindled could never be quenched. If all the fires that ever were in the world were contracted into one fire, how terrible would it be ! yet such a fire would be but as a painted fire upon the wall, to the fire of hell. The greatest and the hottest fires that ever were on earth are but ice in comparison of the fire of hell. If it be so sad a spectacle to behold a malefactor's flesh con- sumed by piece-meals in a lingering fire ; ah ! how sad, how dreadful would it be to experience what it is to lie in unquenchable fire, not for a day, a month, or a year, or a hundred, or a thousand years, but for ever and ever ! ' If it were,' saith one^ ' but for a thousand years, I could bear it, but seeing it is for eternity, this amazeth and afirighteth me.* ' I am afraid of hell,' saith another, [Cyril,] ' because the worm there never dies, and the fire never goeth out : ' it is called ' unquench- able fire,' Mat. xviiL 8, and ' eternal fire ' in the Epistle of Jude, ver. 7. The torments of the damned are very grievous for the bitterness of them, but more grievous for the diversity of them, but most of all grievous for the eternity of them. To lie in everlasting torments, Mat. XXV. 46, goes beyond all the bounds of desperation. To roar for ever for disquietness of heart, to rage for ever for madness of soul, to weep, and grieve, and gnash the teeth for ever for vexation of spirit, is a misery beyond all expression. ^ Suetonius reports of Tiberius Caesar, that, being petitioned by a certain offender to hasten his punish- ment, and to grant him a speedy despatch, he made him this answer, Nondum tecum in gratiam redii: Stay sir, you and I are not friends yet.^ So if after a damned soul hath been in hell a thousand years, he should petition the Lord for a speedy death, the Lord would answer after the same manner. Stay soul, you and I are not yet friends : if after thousands and millions of thousands of years, the request should be renewed, the answer would still be the same. Stay, you and I are not yet friends. Wronged justice can never be satisfied, and
^ Cursings now are their hymns, but in hell they shall be their woes. Rev. xvi. 9, 11, 21. ' Therefore they do but dream, who think and say that the devil and damned shall be delivered at last, Ps. xi. 6, Al8ted[iu8.] 3 Dionys. in Apocalypa. xviii. fol. 301. * Lib. iii. cap. 6.
76 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.
therefore the sinner must be for ever tormented: the sinner in hell will sin for ever, and therefore he must be punished for ever. It will not stand with the unspotted justice and righteousness of Grod to cease punishing, where the sinner ceases not sinning. One tells us of some devout personages, who caused those words of the prophet, Isa. xxxiii, 14, ' Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire ? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings ? ' ^ to be written in letters of gold upon their chimney-pieces. The fear of Nebuchadnezzar's fiery- furnace made men do anything to avoid it, Dan. iii. 8 ; and shall not the fear of eternal flames, of everlasting burnings, work men to bewail their sins, to hate all their bitter-sweets, and to lay hold on everlasting strength, that it may go well with them for ever ? I have read of a chaste virgin, who being strongly tempted and solicited by a lewd ruffian to uncleanness, after some discourse, she called for a pan of burning coals, requesting him for her sake to hold his finger in them but one hour ; he answered, it is an unkind and unreasonable request : it is truth, saith she, it is so ; but you ask me a more unkind and unreasonable request, viz., to satisfy you in a thing for which I shall not only burn an hour, but burn both body and soul in hell-fire for ever and ever ; and so overcame the temptation.
But, Lord, if I must go into fire, into everlasting fire, oh let me have some good company in my misery ! No ! the devil and his angels shall be your companions. Ah ! who can conceive or express the misery of cohabitation with devils and damned spirits ! Many unholy souls would not live in a house haunted with evil spirits one night for all the world ; and yet they live as if it were nothing to b^ biUeted with helHsh fiends and furies for ever. If the sight of a seeming ghost for a moment be such a terror and torment to thee ; what wiU the horrible sight of devils, and the ghastly sight of the damned be ? If it was so great an affliction to Job to be a companion to owls, Job XXX. 29 ; what will it be to thee to be a companion to devils ? If it was so great a grief and woe to David to sojourn in Mesech, and to dwell in the tents of Kedar for a time, Ps. cxx. 5 ; what a woe will it be to unholy souls to dwell with devils and reprobates for ever ? Ah! how will Satan's deformity, antipathy, and cruelty amaze thee and torment thee ! How will the damneds' wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth abash thee and confound thee ! How will thine old companions' cursing of thee, the sight of thy near relations in misery with thee, and devils scornfully insulting over thee, and the never- dying worm feeding perpetually upon thee, be many hells of horror to thee ! Had an unholy soul as many worlds in his hand to give as there be stars in heaven, he would give them all for a licence always to sleep under those pains and torments that will admit of no intermission or mitigation.2 In Kev. xxi. 8 you have a catalogue of that damned crew, of that rout of reprobates which shall be your companions for ever : * But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth
* Jo. Pet. Camois, B[iBhop] of Betty, in France, in his ' Draught of Eternity.' [Camus, Bp. of Belly, not Betty : his ' Draught,' was a Puritan favourite in English. — G.]
* As the ancients feign of Endyiiiion, that he got leave of Jupiter always to sleep.
Hi:B. XII. 14 ] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 77
with fire and brimstone : which is the second death.' These com- panions are the devil's lime-twigs ; they are his scorpions with which he will torment and whip poor souls for ever. Such companions will make many hells to meet in one ; they will be the top of the soul's torments. Thus I have done with those arguments that prove the point ; viz. , that without holiness there is no happiness, &c.