[7.] Seventhly, In all things natural, and supernatural, there is an opposition and contrariety. There is good, and there is evil ; there is light and darkness, joy and sorrow. Now as there are two several ways, so there are two distinct ends : Heaven, a place of admirable and inexpressible happiness, whither the good angels convoy the souls of the saints who have, by a holy conversation, glorified God, and adorned their profession, Luke xvi. 22 ; and hell, a place of horror and con- fusion, whither the evil angels do hurry the souls of wicked, incor- rigible, and impenitent wretches, when they are once separated from their bodies. ' The rich man also died and was buried ; and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments,' ver. 22, 23 ; ' and these shall go away into everlasting punishment, and the righteous into life eternal,' Mat. xxv, 46. In these words we have described the differ- ent estate of the wicked and the righteous after judgment, * They shall go away into everlasting punishment, but these into life eternal.' After the sentence is past, the wicked go into everlasting punishment, and the righteous into life eternal. Everlasting punishment, the end thereof is not known, its duration is undetermined. Hell is a bottom- less pit, and therefore shall never be fathomed. It is an unquenchable fire, and therefore the smoke of their torments doth ascend for ever and ever, Kev. xiv. 11. Hell is a prison from whence is no freedom, because there is no ransom to be paid. No price will be accepted for one in that estate. And as there is no end of the punish- ments of hell, into which the wicked must enter, so there is no end of the joys of heaven, into which the saints must enter. ' In thy presence is fulness of joy, and at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore,' Ps. xvi. 11. Here is as much said as can be said, for quality, there is in heaven joy and pleasures ; for quantity, a fulness, a torrent ; for constancy, it is at God's right hand; and for perpetuity, it is for evermore. The joys of heaven are without measure, mixture, or end. Thus you see that there are two distinct ends, two distinct places, to which the wicked and the righteous go. And, indeed, if this were not
134 THAT THE TORMENTS OF HELL ARE
80, then Nero would be as good a man as Paul, and Esau as happy a man as Jacob, and Cain as blessed a man as Abel. Then as believers say, ' If in this Hfe only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable,' 1 Cor. xv. 19 ; because none out of hell ever suffered more, if so much, as the saints have done ; so might the wicked say, ' If in this life only we were miserable, we were then of all men most happy.' But,
[8.] Eighthly, and lastly, You kjiow that all the princes of the world, for their greater grandeur and state, as they have their royal palaces for themselves, their nobles and attendants, so they have their jails, prisons, and dark dungeons for rogues and rohhers,for malefactors and traitors. And shaU not he who is the King of kings and Lord of lords, Eev, xix. 16 ; he who is the Prince of the kings of the earth, Eev. i. 5 ; he who removeth kings and setteth up kings, Dan. ii. 21 ; shall not he have his royal palace, a glorious heaven, where he and all his noble attendants, angels, and saints shall live for ever ? Shall not the great king have his royal and magnificent court in that upper world, as poor petty princes have theirs in this lower world? Surely he shall, as you may see by comparing the scriptures in the margin together. 1 And shall not the same great King have his hell, his prison, his dungeon, to secure and punish impenitent sinners in? Surely yes. And doubtless, the least glimpse of this hell, of this place of torment, would strike the proudest, and the stoutest sinners dead with horror. 0 sirs ! they that have seen the flames, and heard the roarings of ^tna, the flashing of Vesuvius, the thundering and burning flakes evaporating from those marine rocks, have not yet seen, no, not so much as the very glimmering of hell. A painted fire is a better shadow of these, than these can be of hell torments, and the miseries of the damned therein. Now these eight arguments are sufficient to demonstrate that there is a hell, a place of torment, to which the wicked shall be sent at last. Now certainly, Socinians, atheists, and all others that are men of corrupt minds, and that believe that there is no hell, but what they carry about with them in their own con- sciences ; these are worse than those poor Indians that hold that there are thirteen hells,2 according to the differing demerits of men's sins ; yea, they are worse than devils, for they believe and tremble, James ii. 19. <f>pi<7(Tovcrt ; this Greek word signifies to roar as the sea ; from thence, saithEustatius, it is translated to the hideous clashing of armour in the battle. The original word seemeth to imply an extreme fear, which causeth not only tremblings, but also a roaring and shrieking out. Their hearts ache and quake within them, they quiver and shake as men do when their teeth chatter in their heads in extreme cold weather, Mark vi. 49, and Acts xvi. 29. The devils acknowledge four articles of our faith : Mat. viii. 29, ' And behold, they cried out, saying. What have we do with thee, Jesus, thou son of God ? Art thou come hither to torment us before the time.' 1. They acknowledge God ; 2. Christ ; 3. The day of judgment ; 4. That they shall be tor- mented then. They who scorn the day of judgment are worse than devils ; and they who deny the deity of Christ are worse than devils,
* Eph, ii. 3 John xiv. 1-4 Luke xii. 32; Ken. ix. 6; 1 Kings viii. 27 ; Heb. viii. 1 ; Eev. iii. 21, ^ Purchas his Pilarrima.so.
MATCHLESS, EASELESS, AND ENDLESS. 135
[Piscator.] The devils are, as it were, for a time respited and re- prieved, in respect of full torment, and they are suffered as free prisoners to flutter in the air, and to course about the earth till the great day of the Lord, which they tremble to think on ; and which they that mock at, or make light of, are worse than devils. The devils knew that torments were prepared for them, and a time when these torments should be fully and fatally inflicted on them, and loath they were to suffer before that time. Ah, sirs, shall not men tremble to deny what the devils are forced to confess ! Shall I now make a few short inferences from what has been said, and so conclude this head ?