ISA. XLII, 24, 25.] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION. 197
citizens of London would but seriously lay to heart the sad dispensa- tions of Grod towards his choicest worthies, then their hearts would neither faint nor sink under their present losses, crosses, and suffer- ings. But,
(13.) Thirteenthly and lastly, There is a ivorsejire them that lohich has turned London into a ruinous heap — viz., the fire of hell, ivhich Christ has freed believers from. There is * unquenchable fire : ' Mat iii. 12, ' He will burn up the chaff" with unquenchable fire.' There is ' everlasting burnings : ' Isa. xxxiii. 14, ' The sinners in Zion are afraid ; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings ?i Luke iii. 17; Mat. xviii. 8. Wicked men, who are now the only burning jolly fellows of the time, shall one day go from burning to burning; from burning in sin, to burning in hell ; from burning in flames of lusts, to burning in flames of torment, except there be found repentance on their sides, and pardon- ing grace on God's. 0 sirs ! in this devouring fire, in these everlast- ing burnings, Cain shall find no cities to build, nor his posterity shall have no instruments of music to invent there ; none shall take up the timbrel or harp, or rejoice at the sound of the organ. There Bel- shazzar cannot drink wine in bowls, nor eat the lambs out of the flock, nor the calves out of the midst of the stall. In everlasting burnings there will be no merry company to pass time away ; nor no dice to cast care away ; nor no cellars of wine wherein to drown the sinner's grief, Gren. iv. 17 ; Amos vi. 5 ; Job xxi, 12 ; Dan. v. 23 Amos vi. 4. There is everlasting fire : Mat. xxv. 41, ' Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand. Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.' This terrible sentence breathes out nothing but fire and brimstone, terror and horror, dread and woe. The last words that ever Christ will speak in this world will be the most tormenting and amazing, the most killing and damning, the most stinging and wounding, ' Depart from me.' There is rejection : pack, begone, get you out of my sight, let me never see your faces more ! It was a heavy doom that was passed upon Nebuchadnezzar, Dan. iv. 25, that he should be driven from the society of men, and, in an extremity of a sottish melancholy, spend his time among the beasts of the field ; but that was nothing to this soul-killing word, ' Depart from me.' It was nothing to men's being cast out of the presence of Christ for ever. The remembrance of which made one to pray thus, ' 0 Lord, deliver me at the great day from that killing word depart. 2 And what saith another ? —
' This word depart, the goats with horror hears ; But this word come, the sheep to joy appears.'*
Basil saith, ' That an alienation and utter separation from God is more grievous than the pains of hell.'* Chrysostom saith,5 ' That the torments of a thousand hells, if there were so many, comes far short of this one — to wit, to be turned out of God's presence with a
1 Some devout personages caused this scripture to be writ in letters of gold upon their chimney-pieces. — E. of Betty in France, in his Drnvght of Eternity. [Camus, Bishop of Belly, not Betty. — G ] ^ Bernard, in Ps. xci.
' Sphynx. * Basil. Asc. Etic, cap. 2. * Chrysost. in Mat., hom. xxiv.
198 London's lamentations on [Isa. XLII. 24, 25.
Koji novt vos, I know you not.' What a grief were it lierc to be banished fidui the king's court with Absalom, or to be turned out of doors with Hagar and Ishmael, or to be cast out of God's presence with cursed Cain ! But what is all this to a man's being excommuni- cated, and cast out of the presence of God, of Christ, of the angels, and out of the general assembly of the saints and congregation of the firstborn ? To bo secluded from the i)resence of God is of all miseries the greatest, Heb. xii. 22, 23. The serious thoughts of this made one say, ' Many do abhor hell, but 1 esteem the fall fi'om that glory to be a greater punishment than hell itself; it is better to endure ten thousand thunder-claps than be deprived of the beatifical vision.' Certainly the tears of hell are not sufficient to bewail the loss of heaven. If those precious souls wept because they should see Paul's face no more, Acts xx. 38, how deplorable is the eternal deprivation of the beatifical vision ! ' Depart from me,' is the first and worst of that dreadful sentence which Christ shall pass upon sinners at last. Every syllable sounds horror and terror, grief and sorrow, amazement and astonishment to all whom it doth concern.
'Ye cursed:' there is the malediction. But Lord, if we must depart, let us depart blessed. i No, 'depart ye cursed:' you have cursed others, and now you shall be cursed yourselves ; you shall be cursed in your bodies, and cursed in your souls ; you shall be cursed of God, and cursed of Christ, and cursed of angels, and cursed of saints, and cursed of devils, and cursed of your companions. Yea, you shall now curse your very selves, your very souls, that ever you have despised the gospel, refused the offers of grace, scorned Christ, and neglected the means of your salvation. O sinners, sinners, all your curses, all your maledictions shall at last recoil upon your own souls ! Now thou cursest every man and thing that stands in the way of thy lusts, and that crosses thy designs ; but at last all the curses of heaven and hell shall meet in their full power and force upon thee. Surely that man is cursed with a witness that is cursed by Christ himself !
But, Lord, if we must depart, and depart cursed, oh let us go into some good place ! No, ' Depart ye into everlasting fire.' 2 There is the vengeajicc and continuance of it. You shall go into fire, into everlasting fire, that shall neither consume itself, nor consume you. Eternity of extremity is the hell of hell. The fire in hell is like that stone in Arcadia, which 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 painted fire ujwn the wall to the fire of hell. If it be so sad a spec- tacle to behold a malefactor's flesh consumed by piecemeals 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, [Cyril,] but for a thousand years, I could bear it ; but seeing it is for eternity, this amazeth and affrighteth me ! I am
' Cursings now arc wicked men's hymns; but in hell they shall be their woes, Rev. xvi. 0,11,21.
' Uf this lire j ou had need of some devil or accursed wretch to descant, saith one.
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