maxims of right reason, doth necessarily import a punishment of the same duration that the reward is. Now the reward of the saints in that other worUl is <;ranted on all hands to he cverlastino:, to be eternal ; and therefore the punishment of the damned cannot be but everlasting and eternal too. The rewards of the elect shall never be ended, therefore the punishment of the damned shall never be ended, because as the mercy of God is infinite towards the elect, so the justice of God is infinite towards the reprobate in hell. The reprobate shall have punishment Avithout pity, misery without mercy, sorrow without succour, crying without compassion, mischief without measure, and torment without end, [Drexelius.] All men in misery comfort themselves with hope of an end. The prisoner with hope of a jail-delivery ; the mariner with the hope of his arrival in a safe liarbour ; the soldier with hope of victory ; the prentice with hope of liberty; the galley-slave Avith the hope of ransom: only the impenitent sinner hath "no hope in hell. He shall have end without end, death without death, night without day, mourning without mirth, sorrow without solace, and bondage without liberty. The damned shall live as long in hell as God himself shall live in heaven. i Their imjjrison- ment in that land of darkness, in that bottomless pit, is not an im})risonment during the king's pleasure, but an imprisonment during the evei'lasting displeasure of the King of kings. Suppose, say some, that the whole world were turned to a mountain of sand, and that a little wren should come every thousandth year and carry away from that heap one grain of sand, what an infinite number of years, not to be numbered by all finite beings, would be spent and expired before this supposed mountain could be fetched away ! Now if a man should lie in everlasting burnings so long a time, and then have an end of his woe, it would administer some ease, refreshment, and comfort to him. But when that immortal bird shall have carried away this sup- posed mountain a thousand times over and over ; alas ! alas ! man shall be as far from the end of his anguish and torment as ever lie was.2 He shall be no nearer coming out of hell than he was the very first moment that he entered into hell. Suppose, say others, that a man were to endure the torments of hell as many years, and no more, as there be sands on the sea-shore, drops of water in the sea, stars in heaven, leaves on the trees, piles of grass on the ground, hairs on his head, yea, uj)on the heads of all the sons of Adam that ever were, or are, or shall be in the world, from the beginning of it to the end of it ; yet he would comfort himself with this poor thought. Well, there will come a day when my misery and torment shall certainly have an end ! But woe and alas ! this word never, never, never, will fill the hearts of the danmed with the greatest horror and terror, ■wrath and rage, amazement and astonishment. Sujjpose, say others, that the torments of hell were to end after a little bird should have emptied the sea, and only cany out her billful once in a thou- sand years ; — suppose, say others, that the whole world, from the
' There is not a Cluistian wliicli doth not believe the fire of hell to be everlasting. — Dr Jackson on the Creed, lib. xi. c:\]t. 23.
* If the fire of hell were terminable, it mi.ffht then be tolerable ; but being endless, it must needs be casele.ss and remediless. We may well say of it, as one doth, Oh killing life I oh immortal death ! — Bellar. de Arte MoritmU, lib. ii. cap. 3.
ISA. XLII. 24, 25.] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION. 211
lowest earth to the highest heavens, were filled with grains of sand, and once in a thousand years an angel should come and fetch away- one grain, and so continue till the whole heap were spent ; — suppose, say others, if one of the damned in hell should weep after this manner — viz., that he should only let fall one tear in a hundred years, and these should be kept together till such time as they should equal the drops of water in the sea : how many millions of ages would pass before they could make up one river, much more a whole ; and when that were done, should he weep again after the same manner till he had filled a second, a third, a fourth sea, if then there should be an end of their miseries, there would be some hope, some comfort that they would end at last : but that shall never, never, never end. This is that which sinks them under the most tormenting terrors and horrors.
Drexelius makes this observation from the words of our Saviour, John XV. 6, ' If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and it is withered ; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned,' where he observeth that the words do not run in the future tense, — he shall be cast forth, and shall be cast into the fire, and burned ; but all in the present tense — he is cast forth, is withered ; men cast them into the fire, and they are burned. This, saith he, is the state and condition of the damned ; they are burned — that is, they are always burning. When a thousand years are past, as it was at first, so it is still, they are burned ; after a thousand thousand years more, as it was before, so it is still, they are burned. If after millions of years the question was asked. What is now their state and condition ? what do they ? what suffer they ? how doth it fare with them ? there can be no other answer returned but they are burned, continually and eternally burning. Socinians say there will come a time when the fallen angels and the wickedest men shall be freed from infernal torments ; and Augustine speaks of some such merciful men in his time ; and Origen held and taught that not only impenitent Christians, but even pagans and devils, after the term of a thousand years, should be released out of hell, and Ijecome as bright angels in heaven as they were before, i But these dangerous fancies and un- grounded opinions fall flat before the clear evidence of those sad and serious truths that I have now tendered to your consideration. And thus I have shewed you the difference between our fire and hell-fire.
Now, 0 ye citizens of London who truly fear the Lord, and who are united to Christ by faith, know for your everlasting comfort and sup- port, that Christ hath secured you from infernal fire, from everlasting fire, from unquenchable fire, from eternal fire, and from the worm that never dieth, as you may see clearly and fully by comparing the scriptures in the margin together.2 Christ l)y his blood hath quenched the violence of infernal flames, so that they shall never scorch you nor burn you, hurt you nor harm you. Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace was a type of hell, say some. Now look, as the three children, or rather champions, had not one hair of their heads singed in that fiery
^ Aug. lib. xxi. cap. 17-22, De Civitate Dei.