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Hell
258. Hell. I do not think
we have good ground to be assured that the sins of damned spirits, that
they commit after their damnation are no way liable to punishment,
because they have not been in a state of trial but in a state of
punishment. However, I believe this in one sense is true and in another
not. I believe all the misery that ever they endure, or shall endure to
all eternity, is a punishment of their sin while in a state of trial,
and every part of that misery a part of that punishment and all the
deserved and justly due punishment of that sin. So that those that have
sinned most in a state of trial shall be punished most to all eternity
and in an exact proportion. And yet it shall be so ordered by the wisdom
of God that various parts of their punishment shall be so timed and
placed and circumstanced as to be punishment also for their several acts
of pride, of malice, and spite against God, and against his creatures
that are not in a state of punishment.
Thus God brings the
punishment of the devils upon them for their proud rebellion in heaven
in this way, by making them the cause of their own vexation and torment
to all eternity by their continually renewed acts of pride and spite. He
gives them over forever to that same disposition which they exercised
when they fell, and by that means makes them forever a procuring their
own misery. And this is a misery they are plunged into as a punishment
of their first rebellion. It is certain by the Word of God that the
devils are thus punished. They are punished for their procuring the fall
of mankind. God curses the serpent for it, and without doubt, God, in
that curse, had a principal reference to the devil, who is the old
serpent, the seed of the woman breaking his head is in punishment for
that act of his. By means of Christ the Redeemer, God renders all
Satan’s incessant labors and endeavors for the overthrow of mankind and
for defeating God’s design of glorifying himself in them, a means of his
own confusion and vexation, and of abundantly more brightly manifesting
the glory of God and advancing the happiness of the elect. He is a means
of one of mankind being his Judge, and so the event of his own great
endeavors will prove every way exceeding contradiction and mortification
of his own restless, proud, malicious, and revengeful spirit.
275. Hell Torments. Hell
is represented by fire and brimstone, and if by that is meant such fire
as lightening, then without a doubt the torments of hell are
inconceivable great. For the fire of lightening is many degrees hotter
than the fire of the hottest furnace, as appears by the effects of it:
that it will in a moment, by only touching, in the twinkling of an eye
dissolve the solidest and hardest metals.
It is probable that this
earth, after the conflagration, shall be the place of the damned. We
read that the heat of the conflagration will be so violent as to melt
the very ground (2 Pet. 3:10, 12). many thousand times hotter than
ordinary fire.
279. Eternity of Hell
Torments. I am convinced that hell torments will be eternal from one
great good the wisdom of God proposes by them, which is by the sight of
them to exalt the happiness, the love, and joyful thanksgivings of the
angels and men that are saved, which it tends exceedingly to do. I am
ready to think that those beholding the sight of the great miseries of
those of their species that are damned will double the ardor of their
love and the fullness of the joy of the elect angels and men. And then
only a lively sense of the opposite misery makes any happiness and
pleasure double what it would be. Seeing therefore that this happiness
of the blessed is to be eternal, the misery of the damned will be
eternal also.
41. Hell Torments. I do
not think that from anything the Scripture says about the state of the
damned, it can be inferred that the torment of the damned is so always
alike that it admits of no sorts of difference in different moments. Yet
I believe the devil has sometimes a kind of a pleasedness, when he
accomplishes a design, and a torment when disappointed. (he was pleased
when Adam fell, and when Christ was crucified, and when the Antichrist
rose, etc.). but his pleasedness is but in order to his greater torment.
491. Punishment of the
Damned. Moses says in Psa. 90:11, “According to thy fear, so is thy
wrath,” that is, God’s wrath is dreadful according as God’s majesty is
great and awful. Whence we may gather two things. First, that the wrath
of God is dreadful according to the greatness and highness of God, as he
is in himself: that is, that it is infinitely dreadful, as it is, in
that it is eternal. Second, that the present misery of those that bear
the wrath of God is so great, or their misery is intensively so great,
as to be in a proportion to the discoveries and manifestations that are
made of his majesty.
Some may be ready to think
that it’s incredible that God should bring miseries upon a creature that
are so extreme and amazing, and also eternal and desperate. But the
dreadfulness and extremity of it is no argument against it, for those
that are damned are entirely lost and utterly thrown away by God, as to
any sort of regard that he has to their welfare. Their existence is for
nothing else but to suffer.
690. Misery of Hell. .No
degree of misery though it be eternal will satisfy him, so but that he
would be glad to have it greater. How great is this cruelty and how
great must all other wickedness be that is in proportion to it.
866. Objections to Hell.
It is much to be suspected, that notwithstanding the plausibleness of
such an objection, the very principal reason of such thoughts arising in
the mind is a want of a sense of the horrible evil of sin. This disposes
us to pity the damned wretch, and that disposes us to look back and
reflect upon the Author of his being and orderer of his misery, because
we haven’t sense enough of the evil of sin to stir up indignation enough
in us against it, to balance the horror that arises from a sense of the
dreadfulness of his suffering. This makes us pity the sufferer, and this
raises objections against God.
1284. Hell Punishment Is
Not Annihilation. It is manifest that God’s design in punishing his
enemies is in part to convince them of his greatness and majesty, and to
make them know their folly in despising them, as well as to make his
glory and majesty visible to others, even to the whole universe. Exo.
9:14-17; Psa. 50:21, “These things hast thou done, and I kept silence:
thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself; but I will
reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.” Therefore the
punishment of the wicked is not annihilation.
1348. Everlasting
Punishment in Hell (Sections 1-10).
1. Objections of modern
libertines against the Scripture evidence of future punishment, taken
from an anonymous pamphlet on that subject.
The word Gehenna signifies
only the Valley of Hinnom. That fire was said to be everlasting, because
it was kept burning night and day.
The word ever and
everlasting the Greeks understand for an age.
The word everlasting is
commonly used in the law of Moses for a limited time.
That fire is said to be
durable, or everlasting, that goes not out till the fuel is consumed.
The fire that consumed
Sodom and Gomorrah, is called eternal fire.
If the fire is everlasting,
it will not follow that what is cast into it is everlasting. But the
wicked are compared to chaff and stubble, which is quickly burnt up.
The Scripture often uses
very hyperbolical expressions.
2. The objections of Mr.
Whiston; several of which are the same with these mentioned above.
That
the words in the New Testament, translated everlasting and eternal, are
sometimes used concerning things of a temporary duration.
That the use of the same
word in both cases, viz. in both the future reward of the saints and
punishment of the wicked, does not imply the equal duration of the
punishment and the reward. Because some of the precepts of the law of
Moses are called everlasting, that are moral, and shall continue to the
end of the world, others are so called, using the same word, that were
only to last till the Christian church was established.
That if the words eternal
and everlasting do signify a proper eternity, when applied to the
punishment of the wicked, it may mean only an everlasting privation of
being.
That fire, and smoke, and
worm, etc. may be eternal, and yet the pain not be eternal, because the
wicked may be consumed, and so their pain be at an end.
That Christ speaks of them
that blaspheme the Holy Ghost as those that shall not be forgiven:
neither in this world, nor in the world to come, implying that others
shall be forgiven in the world to come.
That Christ went and
preached to the spirits in prison, i.e. preached the gospel to departed
souls of the wicked, in order to their salvation.
That αιων in the New
Testament signifies an age, that αιωνις των αιωνων signifies “ages of
ages”.
That ἀιδιος is used for a
limited time when, in Jude 6, the devils are said to be reserved in
everlasting chains, where the chains spoken of last no longer than the
day of judgment….
That the eternal misery of
sinners can be no advantage to God, to themselves, or to others.
That it is inconsistent
with God’s mercy.
That it is inconsistent with justice, to punish men
eternally for their sinning during this short life.
That the threatening such
a punishment will do no good, because if men will not be deterred from
sin by the expectation of a great temporary punishment, neither would
they by the expectation of eternal misery.
3. Evidences of the
doctrine.
The word everlasting is
used in the very sentence of the Judge at the last day, whom we cannot
suppose to use rhetorical tropes and figures. The punishment of the
devil will doubtless be eternal. But the wicked shall be sentenced to
the same everlasting fire.
The wicked that are
finally impenitent, are represented as wholly cast away, lost, made no
account of, etc. which is quite inconsistent with their punishment being
medicinal, and for their good and purification, and to fit them for
final and eternal happiness.
Eternal punishment is not
eternal annihilation. Surely they will not be raised to life at the last
day only to be annihilated. “The words used to signify the duration of
the punishment of the wicked, do, in their etymology, truly signify a
proper eternity; and if they are sometimes used in a less strict sense,
when the nature of the thing requires it, yet that can never pass as any
reason why they are not to be understood absolutely, when the subject is
capable of it. They are terms the most expressive of an endless
duration, of any that can be used or imagined. And they always signify
so far positively endless, as to be express against any other period or
conclusion, than what arises from the nature of the thing. They are
never used in Scripture in any other limited sense, than to exclude all
positive abolition, annihilation, or conclusion, other than what the
natural intent or constitution of the subject spoken of must necessarily
admit. The word αιωιοϚ, which is the word generally used by the sacred
writers, is, we know, derived from the adverb αει, which signifies
forever, and cannot without force be used in any lower sense. And,
particularly, this is the word by which the eternal and immutable
attributes of Deity are several times expressed.” Dodwell’s Sermon in
Answer to Whiston, p. 15, 16.
4. Axiom 1. If the
torments of hell are purifying pains that purge the damned from their
sins, it must be by bringing them to repentance, convincing them of the
evil of sin, and inducing them to forsake it, and with a sincere heart
to turn from sin to God, and heartily to choose virtue and holiness.
There is no other way for sinners being purged as moral agents, and if
hell fire is the means of any other purification, it cannot be a moral
purification.
Axiom 2. If the wicked in
hell are the subjects of torments, in order to their purification, and
so being fitted for and finally brought to eternal happiness, then they
are the subjects of a dispensation that is truly a dispensation of love,
and of divine and infinite goodness and benevolence, towards them.
Axiom 3. If the design of
the pains of hell be that of kind and benevolent chastisement, to bring
sinners to repentance, and compliance with the divine will, then we
cannot suppose that they will be continued after the sinner has
repented, and is actually brought to yield and comply. For that would be
to continue them for no purpose: to go on using means and endeavors to
obtain the end, when the end is accomplished, and the thing aimed at is
fully obtained already.
5. Moreover, if the
damned, after many ages suffering extreme torment in hell, are to be
delivered, and made perfectly and eternally happy, then they must be in
a state of probation during this long season of their confinement to
such extreme misery. If they are not in a state of probation, or on any
trial how they will behave themselves under these severe and terrible
inflictions of wrath, but are to be delivered, and made eternally happy
at the end of a certain period, then what restraints are they under from
giving an unbounded loose and license to their wickedness, in
expressions of enmity against God, in cursing and blaspheming, and
whatever their hearts are inclined to? And if they are in such a state
as this, wherein they are thus left to unrestrained wickedness, and
every curb to their most wicked inclination is taken off, being
nevertheless sure of deliverance and everlasting happiness, then how far
is this state fit to be a state of purgation of rational creatures and
moral agents from sin, being a state wherein they are so far from means
of repentance, reformation, and entirely reclaiming and purging them
from sin, that all manner of means are rather removed, and so much is
every restraint taken off that they are given up wholly to sin, which
instead of purifying them, will tend above all things that can be
conceived to harden them in sin, and desperately establish the habits of
it?
A state of purgation of
moral agents, that is, a state to bring sinners to repentance and
reformation, and not a state of trial, is a gross absurdity. If any
should say that though we should maintain that the pains of hell are
purifying pains, to bring sinners to repentance, in order to their
deliverance and eternal happiness, yet there will be no necessity of
supposing, either that they may sin with impunity, and so without
restraint, or that they are properly in a state of probation. For they
have no probation whether they shall finally have eternal happiness,
because it is absolutely determined by the benevolent Creator,
concerning his intelligent creatures, that they shall finally be brought
to a state of happiness. But yet their circumstances may be such as may
tend greatly to restrain their wickedness, because that the time of
their torment shall be longer or shorter, according as they behave
themselves under their chastisements more or less perversely, or that
their torment shall be raised to a greater height, and additions be made
in proportion to the wickedness they commit in their purgatory flames.
To this I ANSWER: Even on this supposition they are in a state of
probation for a more speedy possession of eternal life and happiness,
and deliverance from further misery and punishment. This makes their
state as much a state of probation, as their state in the present life.
For here it is supposed by these men that sinners are not in a state of
trial, whether ever they shall obtain eternal happiness or no, because
that is absolutely determined, and the determination known or knowable
concerning all without any trial. But only it is a state of trial
whether they shall obtain eternal life so soon as at the end of their
lives, or at the day of judgment. Neither have they any trial during
this life, whether they shall escape all affliction and chastisement for
sin or not, but whether they shall be relieved from a state of suffering
so soon, and shall escape those severer and longer chastisements that,
with respect to many, are to come afterwards.
And on the supposition of
the objection, there must be the proper circumstances of a state of
probation in hell, as well as on earth. There they must likewise be
continued in that state of free agency, that renders them properly the
subjects of judgment and retribution. For on the supposition of the
objection, they shall be punished for their wickedness in hell, by an
addition to their misery proportioned to their sin, and they shall be
the subjects of God’s merciful strivings, endeavors, and means to bring
them to repentance, as well as here. And there must be a divine judgment
after the trial, to determine their retribution, as much as after this
life. And the same, or like things, must be determined by the Supreme
Judge, as will be determined at the day of judgment. At that great day,
on the supposition of such as I oppose: What will be determined
concerning the impenitent? Not what their eternal state shall be, but
only whether they shall have eternal happiness immediately, whether they
have repented, and are qualified for immediate admission to heavenly
glory, or whether the bestowment of it shall be delay, and farther
chastisements made use of, and so it must be again after their
castigatory purifying pains. At the end of all, there must be a
judgment, whether now they truly repent, and so have performed the
condition of deliverance, and immediate admission to the state of the
blessed, or whether there shall be a further season of misery, which
brings it in all respects to be a proper judgment, as much as that at
the general resurrection. And the preceding time of the use of means and
God’s striving with them to bring them to repentance, is as much a
proper time of trial in order to judgment, as the time of this life.
6. But if the damned are
in a state of trial, let it be considered how unreasonable this is. If
they are in a state of trial, then they must be in a state of liberty
and moral agency, as those men will doubtless own, and so, according to
their notion of liberty, must be under no necessity of continuing in
their rebellion and wickedness, but may cast away their abominations,
and turn God and their duty, in a thorough subjection to his will, very
speedily. And then, seeing the end of their probationary state, and the
severe means God uses with them to bring them to repentance is obtained,
how unreasonable will it be to suppose that God, after this, would
continue them still under hell torments for a long succession of ages?
But if God should speedily deliver them on their speedy repentance, how
are the threatenings and predictions of their everlasting punishment
fulfilled in any sense, according to the sense even of those who deny
the absolute eternity of the misery of hell, and hold that the words
everlasting and forever, etc. when applied to the misery of the damned,
are not to be taken in the strictest sense? They yet allow they signify
a very long time, a great many ages.
7. If the devils and
damned spirits are in a state of probation, and have liberty of will,
and are under the last and most extreme means to bring them to
repentance, and consequently the greatest means, having the strongest
tendency of all to be effectual, I say, if thus, then is it possible
that the greatest part, if not all, of them may be reclaimed by those
extreme means, and may be brought to thorough repentance before the day
of judgment. Yea, it is possible that it might be very soon. And if so,
how could it certainly be predicted concerning the devil, that he would
do such and such great things in opposition to Christ and his church,
from age to age? And that at last he should be judged and punished, and
have God’s wrath more terribly executed upon him? As, Rev. 20:10, “And
the devil that deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and
brimstone, where the beast and false prophet are, and shall be tormented
day and night, for ever and ever.” And how is it said in Scripture that
when he fell, he was cast down from heaven, and reserved under chains of
darkness unto judgment? The expression seems naturally to signify strong
and irrefragable bonds, which admit of no comfort or hope of escape. And
besides, a being reserved in chains unto judgment, is not consistent
with the appointment of another time of trial and opportunity to escape
the judgment and condemnation. It is said, Jude 6, “They are reserved in
everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.”
And if any of the separate souls of the wicked that are in the case that
the soul of the rich man was in, when he died and lift up his eyes in
hell being in torments, should repent and be delivered before the day of
judgment, and so should appear at the right hand among the righteous at
that day, then how could that be verified, 2 Cor. 5:10, “For we must all
stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the
things done in his body, whether good or bad?” And we have reason to
think that the time of standing before the judgment seat of Christ,
which the apostle has a special respect to, is the day of judgment, if
we compare this with other scriptures: as that of the same apostle, Acts
17:31, “He hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in
righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained.” And many other
places.
8. And how does their
being in a state of trial, many of them for so many ages after death
before the day of judgment, during all which time they have opportunity
to repent, consist with those words of Christ, Mark 8:38, “Whosoever
therefore shall be ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and
sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when he
cometh in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels?” How is their
continuing in a state of trial from the time of that generation, and
from the end of their lives to the day of judgment, consistent with its
being declared to them from God beforehand, that they shall certainly be
condemned at the day of judgment? Or with Christ’s certifying them
beforehand, that whatever trial they shall have, whatever opportunity
God should give them for repentance and pardon, for so many ages, all
would be in vain, which in effect is passing the sentence.
We may argue in like
manner, from those words, Mat. 10:14, 15, “And whosoever shall not
receive you, and hear your words, — verily I say unto you, It shall be
more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of
judgment, than for that city.” So Mat. 11:21-24, “Woe unto thee,
Chorazin, woe unto thee, Bethsaida: — I say unto you, It shall be more
tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment, than for you. — And
thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be brought down to
hell. I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom
in the day of judgment, than for thee.” Two things may be noted in these
sayings of Christ.
First. It is here declared
what the state of those obstinate unbelievers should be at the day of
judgment for their wickedness here in the body, with an asseveration, I
say unto you. And sentence indeed is passed beforehand upon them by
their Judge, concerning the punishment that shall be executed upon them
at the day of judgment. The declaration is made in the form of a solemn
denunciation or sentence: Woe unto thee, Chorazin, woe unto thee,
Bethsaida, etc. And is it reasonable to suppose that the very Judge that
is to judge them at the end of the world would peremptorily declare that
they should not escape punishment at the day of judgment? Yea, [would
he] solemnly denounce sentence upon them, dooming them to the
distinguished punishment they should then suffer for their obstinacy in
their lifetime, and yet appoint another time of trial, of a great many
hundred years between their death and the day of judgment, wherein they
should have opportunity to escape that punishment?
Second. It is here
also to be observed that the wicked inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah
should be condemned to misery at the day of judgment, though they had
already been in their purifying flames, and in a state of probation. The
apostle, Rom. 2:3-12, 16, repeatedly tells us, when these things shall
be, that men shall thus receive their retribution; “In the day when God
shall judge the secrets of men according to my gospel;” which shows that
this life is the only state of trial, and that all men shall be judged
at the end of the world according to their behavior in this life, and
not according to their behavior in another state of trial, between this
life and that day. So it is apparent, by 2 Thes. 1:5-9, “Which is a
manifest token of the righteous judgment of God — seeing it is a
righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble
you. When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty
angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and
obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with
everlasting destruction,” etc. Here it is manifest that all who are
obstinate unbelievers, rejecters of the gospel, shall at the day of
judgment be punished with everlasting destruction. So that no room is
left for a state of trial, and a space to repent before that time for
ages in hell. So it is apparent, Mat. 25, that none will be found at the
right hand, but they that have done such good works, as can be done only
in this world, which would not be declared beforehand, if there was an
opportunity given for millions of others to obtain that privilege.
9. If it should be
supposed (however unreasonably), that though it be already declared by a
peremptory sentence of the Judge, that all sinners continuing obstinate
during this life should be condemned at the day of judgment, still this
is consistent with their being in a state of probation, in order to
escaping condemnation during the space between death and the general
judgment. Yet the account which the Scripture gives of that day, in
several of those forementioned texts, is inconsistent with men’s being
in a state of trial during that space. For if they are in a state of
trial during this space, then they are accountable for their ill
improvement of that space, and the proper subjects of judgment and
condemnation for their wickedness during that space. And so those works
would come into account, when they appear at the great judgment, as well
as those done in the body, which would be no more done during a state of
probation that the former. This is not consistent with everyone’s
receiving according to the things done in the body, or in proportion to
the guilt that everyone contracted then. It is inconsistent with the
description Christ gives of the day of judgment in Mat. 25, where Christ
says not only to them on his right hand, I was hungry, and ye gave me
meat, etc. — and the good works are all such as are done only in this
world. But all the wickedness which those are condemned for, who are at
the left hand, is such as is committed in this life only.
10. It may be proved that
the day of man’s trial, and the time of God’s striving in the use of
means to bring him to repentance, and waiting for his repentance under
the use of means, will not be continued after this life, from those
words, Gen. 6:3, “My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that
he also is flesh; yet his days shall be 120 years.” It is as much as to
say that it is not fit that this day of trial and opportunity should
last always to obstinate, perverse sinners. It is fit some bounds should
be set to my striving and waiting on such as abuse the day of my
patience and that merciful means and gracious calls should not be
continued, without limits, to them that trample all means and mercies
under foot, and turn a deaf ear to all calls and invitations and treat
them with constant contempt. Therefore I will fix a certain limit. I
will set their bounds to 120 years, when if they repent not, I will put
an end to all their lives, and with their lives shall be an end of my
striving and waiting. This, which in Genesis is called God’s Spirit
striving, is by the apostle Peter expressed by the waiting of the
long-suffering of God; 1 Pet. 3:20. But according to the doctrine we are
opposing, instead of God’s striving and using means to bring those
wicked men to repentance, and waiting in the use of striving and
endeavors 120 years, or to the end of their lives, and no longer, he has
gone on still since that for above 4,000 years: striving with them in
the use of more powerful means to bring them to repentance, and waiting
on them, and will continue to do so for so long a time afterwards, that
the time is often called everlasting, and represented as enduring
forever and ever.
1348. Everlasting
Punishment in Hell (Sections 11-19).
11. Those words of Christ,
“I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day, the night
cometh wherein no man can work,” John 9:4, prove that there is no other
day of trial after this life. Christ having undertaken for us, and taken
on him our nature, and appearing in the form of a servant, and standing
as our surety and representative, had a great work appointed him of God
to do in this life for eternity. He could not obtain eternal life and
happiness for himself any other way than by doing that work in this
life, which was the time of his probation for eternity, as well as ours.
And therefore his words imply as much as if he had said, I must do that
work which God has appointed me to do for eternity, that great service
which must be done, as I would be eternally happy, now while the day of
life lasts, which is the only day appointed for the trial of man’s
faithfulness in the service of God, in order to his being accepted to
eternal rewards. Death is coming, which will be the setting of the sun
and the end of this day, after which no work will remain: nothing to be
done that will be of any significance in order to the obtaining of the
recompense of eternal felicity.
12. And doubtless to the
same purpose is that in Ecc. 9, “Whatsoever thy had findeth to do, do it
with thy might: for there is no work,” (or no man can work) “nor device,
nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither thou goest.” As much as
to say that after this life, nothing can be done, nothing invented or
devised, in order to your happiness. No wisdom or art will serve you to
any such purpose, if you neglect the time of the present life. It is
unreasonable to suppose the wise man means only that we should in this
life do all that we can in temporal concerns, and to promote our
temporal interest, and that nothing can be done towards this after this
life. This would [then] be an observation of very little importance, it
being as flat and impertinent as if he had said, whatever your hand
finds to do this year, do it with your might. For nothing that you do or
devise the next year, will signify anything to promote your interest and
happiness this year: but also because the wise man himself, in the
conclusion of this book, informs us that his drift through the whole
book is to induce us to do a spiritual work, to fear God and keep his
commandments, in order, not to happiness in this life (which he tells us
throughout the book is never to be expected), but in order to a future
happiness and retribution in consequence of a judgment to come; Ecc.
12:13, 14, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God,
and keep his commandments: For this is the whole” (i.e. the whole
business, the whole concern) “of man. For God will bring every work into
judgment, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”
13. If the wicked in hell
are in a state of trial, under severe chastisement, as means in order to
their repentance and obtaining the benefit of God’s favor in eternal
rewards, then they are in a state of such freedom as makes them moral
agents, and the proper subjects of judgment and retribution. Then those
terrible chastisements are made use of as the most powerful means of
all, more efficacious than all the means used in this life which prove
ineffectual, and which proving insufficient to overcome sinners’
obstinacy, and prevail with their heard hearts. God is compelled to
relinquish them all, and have recourse to those torments as the last
means, the most effectual and powerful. If the torments of hell are to
last ages of ages, then it must be because sinners in hell all this
while are obstinate. And though they are free agents as to this matter,
yet they willfully and perversely refuse, even under such great means,
to repent, forsake their sins, and turn to God. It must be further
supposed that all this while they have the offers of immediate mercy and
deliverance made to them, if they will comply. Now, if this be the case,
and they shall go on in such wickedness, and continue in such extreme
obstinacy and pertinaciousness, for so many ages (as is supposed by its
being thought their torments shall be so long continued), how
desperately will their guilt be increased! How many thousand times more
guilty at the end of the term, than at the beginning! And therefore they
will be much the more proper objects of divine severity, deserving God’s
wrath, and still a thousand times more severe or longer continued
chastisements than the past. And therefore it is not reasonable to
suppose that all the damned should be delivered from misery, and
received to God’s favor, and made the subjects of eternal salvation and
glory at that time, when they are many thousand times more unworthy of
it, more deserving of continuance in misery, than when they were first
cast into hell. It is not likely that the infinitely wise God should so
order the matter. And if their misery should be augmented, and still
lengthened out much longer, to atone for their new contracted guilt;
they must be supposed to continue impenitent, till that second
additional time of torment is ended, at the end of which their guilt
will still be risen higher, and vastly increased beyond what it was
before. And at this rate, where can there be any place for an end of
their misery?
14. It further appears
from what was observed above, that the sinner continuing obstinate in
wickedness under such powerful means to reclaim him, for so long a time,
will be so far from being more and more purged, or brought nearer to
repentance, that he will be farther from it. Wickedness in his heart
will be vastly established and increased. For it may be laid down as an
axiom, that the longer men continue willfully in wickedness, the more is
the habit of sin established, and the more and more will the heart be
hardened in it. Again, it may be laid down as another axiom, that the
greater and more powerful the means are, that are used to bring men to
reform and repent, which they resist, and are obstinate under, the more
desperately are men hardened in sin, and the more the principle of it in
the heart is confirmed. It may be laid down as a third axiom, that long
continuance in perverse and obstinate rebellion against any particular
kind of means, tends to render those particular means vain, ineffectual,
and hopeless.
After the damned in hell have stood it out with such prodigious
perverseness and stoutness, for ages of ages, in their rebellion and
enmity against God, refusing to bow to his will under such constant,
severe, mighty chastisements, attended all the while with offers of
mercy, what a desperate degree of hardness of heart and fixed strength
of habitual wickedness will they have contracted at last, and
inconceivably farther will they be from a penitent, humble, and pure
heart, than when first cast into hell! And if the torments should be
lengthened out still longer, and also their impenitence (as by the
supposition one will not end before the other does), still the farther
will the heart be from being purified. And so, at this rate, the
torments will never at all answer their end, and must be lengthened out
to all eternity.
15. Mat. 5:25, 26, “Agree
with thine adversary quickly, while thou art in the way with him; lest
at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge
deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say
unto thee, Thou shalt not come out thence, till thou hast paid the
uttermost farthing.” These words imply that sinners are in the way with
their adversary, having opportunity to be reconciled to him but for a
short season, inasmuch as it is intimated, that they must agree with him
quickly, or they shall cease to be in the way with him, or to have
opportunity to obtain his favor any more. But if they shall be continued
in a state of probation after death to the end of the world, and after
that for ages, how far, how very far, are these words of Christ from
representing the matter as it is?
16. That some even in this
world are utterly forsaken of God, and given up to their own hearts’
lusts, proves that these men never will be purified from their sins.
That God should, in the future world, use great means to purify them,
and fit them for eternal happiness and glory, in the enjoyment of
himself, is not consistent with the supposition that, after the use of
great means and endeavors with them in this world, he gives them up to
sin, because of rebellion, under the use of those great means, and so
leaves them to be desperately hardened in sin, and to go on and increase
their guilt, and multiply transgressions to their utter ruin; which is
agreeable to manifold representations of Scripture. This is not
agreeable to the scheme of such as suppose that God is all the while,
before and after death, prosecuting the design of purifying and
preparing them for eternal glory. Consider Psa. 92:7, “When the wicked
spring as grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish, it is
that they shall be destroyed for ever.” These places show that God has
no merciful design with those whom he gives up to sin.
17. The apostle, in Heb.
6:4-6 says, “It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and
have tasted of the heavenly gift, etc., if they fall away, to renew them
again unto repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God
afresh, and put him to an open shame,” etc. The apostle speaks of their
renovation to repentance, as never likely to happen for this reason:
that they have proved irreclaimable under such great means to bring them
to repentance, and have thereby so desperately hardened their hearts,
and contracted such great guilt by sinning against such great light, and
trampling on such great privileges. But if so, how much more unlikely
still will it be, that they should ever be renewed to repentance, after
they have gone on still more and more to harden their hearts by an
obstinate, willful continuance in sin, many thousand years longer, under
much greater means. They have therefore done immensely more to establish
the habit of sin, and increase the hardness of their hearts, and that
after their guilt is so vastly increased instead of being diminished! If
it be impossible to bring them to repentance, after they have rebelled
against such light and knowledge of Christ, and the things of another
world, as they had in this life, then how much more impossible is it,
when added to this, they have had that infinitely greater and clearer
knowledge and view of those things to be manifested at the day of
judgment! Then they shall see Christ in the glory of his Father with all
his holy angels; shall see his great majesty, and know the truth of his
promises and threatenings, by sight and experience; and shall see all
those ineffable manifestations of the glory of Christ, of his power,
omniscience, strict inflexible justice, infinite holiness and purity,
truth and faithfulness, and his infinite mercy to penitents. They shall
then see the dreadful consequences of rebellion and wickedness, and the
infinitely happy and glorious consequences of the contrary. And even at
this time (on the supposition), will they have the offers of mercy and
deliverance from that dreadful misery, and the enjoyment of the favor of
their great Judge, and participation of all the happiness and glory of
the righteous which they shall see at his right hand, if then they will
throw down the weapons of their rebellion, and repent, and comply with
his will? But if they still, from the greatness of their enmity and
perverseness, obstinately and willfully refuse; yea, and continue still
thus refusing, even after they have actually felt the terrible wrath of
God, and are cast into the lake of fire; yea, after they have continued
there many ages, all the while under offers of mercy on repentance; I
say, if it be impossible to renew them to repentance, after their
rebelling against and trampling on the light and knowledge, and means
used with them in this world, so that it is not to be expected, because
of the degree of hardness and guilt contracted by it, — then how much
less is it to be expected at the day of judgment, after all this
obstinacy manifested, and guilt contracted? If guilt be contracted by
despising such means and advantages as the apostle has respect to in
this life, that it may be compared to guilt that would be contracted by
crucifying Christ afresh, then how much more, when added to this, they
shall so openly have despised Christ, when appearing to them in all the
terrors, and glories, and love, that shall be manifested at the day of
judgment, in their immediate and most clear view, and all is offered to
them, if they will but yield subjection to him. And their enmity shall
have appeared so desperate as rather to choose that dreadful lake of
fire, and shall have continued in their choice even after they have felt
the severity of that torment without rest day or night for many ages.
18. That all shall not be
finally purified and saved, is manifest from Mat. 12:31, 32, “Wherefore
I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto
men; but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto
men. And whatsoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be
forgiven him; but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall
not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to
come.” — Also, Mark 3:28, 29, “Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be
forgiven unto the sons of men, and all blasphemies wherewithsoever they
shall blaspheme; but he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost,
hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation.” — And 1
John 5:16, “If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto
death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not
unto death. There is a sin unto death; I do not say he shall pray for
it.” From each of these places it is manifest that he that is guilty of
blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, shall surely be damned, without any
deliverance from his punishment, or end to it. — The various expressions
that are used, serve much to certify and fix the import of others. In
Mat. 12:31, it is said, “The blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not
be forgiven unto men.” The negative is general, and equally respects all
times. If this sin should be forgiven at a remote time, it would be as
contrary to such a negative, as if it were forgiven immediately. But to
determine us that Christ has respect to all times, even the remotest,
and that he means to deny that he shall be forgiven at any time
whatsoever, in Mark it is said, “He shall never be forgiven; or, hath
never forgiveness;” and lest this never should be interpreted to mean,
never as long as he lives, or never in this world, it is said in Mat.
12:32, “It shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the
world to come.” And lest it should be said that although he never is
forgiven, yet that does not hinder but that there may be an end to his
punishment, because he may suffer all he deserves in suffering a
temporal punishment, or punishment of a limited, long duration. And he
that is acquitted in paying all his debt, is not said to be forgiven his
debt: another expression is used in Mark, which shows that he shall ever
suffer damnation, and never have deliverance from his misery, whether by
forgiveness or without it. — “Hath never forgiveness, but is in danger
of eternal damnation.” and the forementioned expressions, “He shall
never be forgiven;” “He hath never forgiveness;” “shall not be forgiven
in this world, nor the world to come,” who the meaning of the word
eternal here, to be such as absolutely excludes any period, any time of
favor, wherein condemnation and punishment shall have ceased. And what
the apostle John says of those who commit the unpardonable sin, confirms
the whole, and proves that he that has committed this sin remains under
no dispensation of mercy, and that no favor is ever to be hoped for from
God. And therefore it is not our duty to pray for such favor. “There is
a sin unto death, I do not say he shall pray for it;” or I give you no
direction to pray for them that sin this sin unto death.
Thus it is evident that
all wicked men will not have an end to their damnation, but when it is
said that they are in danger of eternal or everlasting damnation, the
world eternal is to be understood in the strictest sense. The same terms
are used concerning all impenitent sinners, that they shall be sentenced
to eternal punishment, and shall go into everlasting punishment, etc. —
That their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched, and they shall
be tormented forever and ever. And such terms are used after this world
comes to an end, and also when they who have committed the unpardonable
sin, and others, shall be sentenced all together to an everlasting fire,
in the same terms. It is unreasonable to suppose that the punishment of
some will be everlasting, in an infinitely different sense from others
jointly sentenced, and that the duration of the punishment of one shall
be perfectly as nothing, compared with the duration of the punishment of
the other, infinitely less than a second to a million of ages. And it is
unreasonable to suppose such a difference, also on this account, that
there cannot be such a difference in the demerit of them that commit the
unpardonable sin, and the demerit of the sins of all other wicked men,
some of whom are exceedingly, and almost inconceivably, wicked. There
cannot be a truly infinite difference in their guilt, as there must be a
properly infinite difference between the dreadfulness of those torments
that have an end, however long continued, and however great, and the
torments of a truly and strictly everlasting fire.
19. If the damned in hell
shall all finally be saved, they shall be saved without Christ. It is in
itself unreasonable to suppose that since God has done such great things
for the salvation of mankind, things that are celebrated in such a
manner of Scripture, in both Old Testament and New, expressed everywhere
in such exalted terms. I say, since God has done things so
transcendently great for the salvation of sinners, to open a door for
their escape from misery, it is unreasonable to imagine that when these
joyful tidings are proclaimed to sinners, and this glorious and great
salvation are offered to them, and they fail of being saved by Christ
only through their willful obstinacy and contempt, that, after all, God
would put them into such a state that they should have salvation offered
to them at any time, whenever they see cause to repent and subject
themselves to God, without Christ, or any concern in that sacrifice he
has offered up for sin. The Scripture teaches us that there is not
remission for sin without sacrifice to atone for sin: that without the
shedding of blood there is no remission. But since God has provided so
great a sacrifice for sin as that of his only begotten Son, the Creator
and Ruler, and Great Judge of the universe, surely it is unreasonable to
expect that any other will be appointed in the room of this for sinner’s
salvation, because they obstinately reject this. In Heb. 10:26-27, the
apostle says, “If we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge
of truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a certain
fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall
devour the adversaries.” By which two things are manifest: (1.) That
without a sacrifice for sin, there is not deliverance from punishment,
and (2.) That there is no other sacrifice for sin by which sinners can
be delivered, but that of Christ.
But now I come to observe
that the damned in hell never be saved by Christ, or through his
sacrifice. This is implied in Heb. 9:27-28, “As it is appointed unto men
once to die, and after this the judgment; so Christ was once offered;”
intimating that if after death there was not to be final and decisive
judgment, but still there was to be a door opened for sinners salvation
by Christ, there might be more reason to suppose it needful that he
should be offered again. And further, it is manifest that Christ’s
saving work will be at an end at the day of judgment, inasmuch, as
Christ has a twofold office, that of the Savior of the world, and the
Judge of the world; so, the business of the latter office properly
succeeds the former. It is not fit, in the nature of things, that he
should come into the world and appear openly in the character of
universal Judge, to decide men’s state — in consequence of the trial
there has been for making their state better by salvation — till that
trial is over, and all its effects completed, when no more is to be
hoped as to altering their state for the better by his salvation. Then
is the proper season for him to clothe himself with, and to appear in
his other character, that of a judge, and to decide and fix men’s final
and everlasting state. Therefore Christ, at his first coming, appeared
in order to save men from condemnation and a sentence of eternal misery;
and not to judge them: as he tell us, John 12:47, “If any man hear my
words and believe not, I judge him not: for I came, not to judge the
world, but to save the world.” See also John 3:17 and 8:15. But the
great business he will come upon at his second coming, as is abundantly
declared, is to judge the world. And it is also exceedingly plain that
Christ’s saving work will be at an end at the day of judgment, because
we read, 1 Cor. 15 that at the end of the world he will deliver up his
kingdom. He will resign his commission, which proves that the work of
salvation, which is the design of it, will be at an end, when all his
enemies, all that rejected him, and would not have him to rule over
them, and so have failed of his salvation, shall be made his footstool,
shall be condemned and destroyed. Instead of being the heirs of
salvation, he shall come in flaming fire to take vengeance on them that
know not God, and obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ, who shall be
punished with everlasting destruction, etc. When he shall come to be
glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe, 2 Thes.
1:8-10.
1356. Endless Punishment
of the Impenitent. (Sections 1-4)
1. If the damned, after they have suffered awhile, are to be delivered
and to have eternal life, then the present dispensation of grace and
life to the fallen children of men, that was introduced by Christ and
his apostles, after the ceasing of the old Mosaic dispensation, is not
the last, but another is to be introduced after this ceases, and with
regard to those who through the flesh or through their sins and
corruption, it has proved unprofitable and ineffectual. A new method
must be entered upon of God’s gracious dealings with sinners. And as we
must suppose that God will proceed with them in this great affair in a
method agreeable to the intelligent, volitive and active nature he has
given them, and will deal with them as moral agents, and as creatures
whom he has made to love him, to be in subjection to him, and to serve
him. So we must suppose that there will be made to them a new revelation
of the designs of his wisdom, holiness and grace, with respect to their
deliverance and being received to favor and the eternal happy fruits of
it. Doubtless they themselves must have some active concern in the
affair, in a way of repenting, seeking, obeying, or yielding subjection
to God, and in some acknowledgment of him, some yielding of themselves
to him. For God immediately to advance them from a state of great
wickedness and misery in hell, to a state of perfection and confirmed
eternal happiness, is neither agreeable to reason and the nature of
things, nor to God’s known method of dealing with intelligent creatures.
It would be much further from it than it would have been for God
immediately to have inflated all angels and men in their confirmed state
of life and eternal glory and blessedness, in the instant of their
creation, without any terms, any previous concern or act of theirs in
order to it.
But that a new
dispensation of grace should thus be introduced, because that which was
brought in by Christ and his apostles proves weak and unprofitable
through men’s corruption, and there appears to be need of one which
shall be more effectual, is not agreeable to the Scripture. For this
dispensation is spoken of as the last and most perfect, wherein
perfection was reached, Heb. 7:19, “For the law made nothing perfect,
but the bringing in of a better hope did.” And Heb. 11:40, “God having
provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be
made perfect.” The ancient dispensation is spoken of as that which God
found fault with, in proving ineffectual through the corruption of men,
and so he introduced a new administration, that should not be liable to
exception, and therefore should not wax old, or be ever liable to vanish
away and give place to another. Heb. 8:6, to the end.
So he speaks of the things
of that ancient dispensation, as things which were liable to be shaken
and removed, but of the things of the new dispensation then introduced,
as those that could not be shaken, but should remain forever, Heb. 12:25
to the end, and 2 Cor. 3:11. The dispensation of the New Testament is
often spoken of in the prophecies of the Old Testament as an everlasting
dispensation, Jer. 31:31, 32, Jer. 32:40; Isa. 61:8; Eze. 37:26.
2. To suppose that after
all the means of grace that are used in this world, Moses and the
prophets, Christ and the gospel, the warnings of God’s Word, and the
exhibitions of glorious gospel grace, have been despised and obstinately
withstood, so as to make the case desperate as to their success, God has
other means in reserve, to be used afterwards to make men holy, that
will be more powerful and shall be effectual, — this is not agreeable to
Scripture. Particularly, Luke 16:27, to the end, “Then he said, I pray
thee therefore, father, that thou wouldst send him to my father’s house:
for I have five brethren; that he may testify to them, lest they also
come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses
and the prophets, let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham,
but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said
unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be
persuaded though one rose from the dead.” And this is especially
manifest, from Rev. 22:10-12, “And he saith unto me, Seal not the
sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand. He that
is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he that is filthy, let him be
filthy be unjust still; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still.
And behold I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man
according as his works shall be.”
I think the meaning must
be either : 1st. The time is quickly coming, when every man’s state will
be fixed, inasmuch as I am quickly coming to judgment, to fix every
man’s state unalterably, according as his work shall be. After that
there will be no alteration, nor any means or endeavors in order to it:
but he that is unjust, let him be unjust still, and he that is filthy,
let him be filthy still. And if this be the meaning, it makes it evident
that Christ will not immediately proceed to the use of the most powerful
and effectual means of all, to change the state of the unjust and
filthy, to purify them and make them holy, and fit them for eternal
glory with infallible success. — Or 2ndly, the meaning must be this,
which seems to be much the most probable: Christ gave the last
revelation to his church to be added to the book of Scripture, with
which the canon was to be shut up and sealed, by the instrumentality of
the apostle John, who lived the longest of the apostles and wrote this
book after all the rest were dead. He ordered John, Rev. 22:10, to
publish this book, wherein such great future judgments are revealed as
coming on the wicked, and such an affecting declaration of the future
glory of the saints, to enforce the rest of God’s Word and means of
grace, and then he intimates that no more revelations are to be
expected, no more instructions and warnings are to be added to the Word
of God, as the steady means of grace, any further to confirm and enforce
the rest. And the next revelation that is to be expected, and that
Christ will make of himself to the world, is to be his immediate
appearance in judgment, to fix unalterably every man’s state according
to his works, according to the improvement he shall have made of those
past revelations, instructions, and warnings. And therefore, those that
will not be purified by those means are not to expect that better or
other means will ever be used with them, but he that is unjust must
remain so still, and he that is filthy must be filthy still, and he that
is righteous shall be righteous still, and he that is holy shall be holy
still. Thus Christ takes leave of his church till his last coming,
warning them to improve the means of grace they have, and informing them
that they are never to have any other: q.d. They have Moses and the
prophets, and in the writings of the New Testament, they have more
glorious, powerful, and efficacious revelations of me. Those writings I
now finish and seal. Let them hear these, and make a good improvement of
them, for these are the last means I shall ever use to change man’s
state. This is inconsistent with his reserving his greatest and most
powerful means, with a determined certain success, to be used after the
day of judgment.
3. They who suppose the
damned are made to suffer the torments of hell for their purification,
suppose that God is herein prosecuting his grand design of benevolence
to his creatures: yea, benevolence to the sufferers and that he does not
use these severe means but from necessity for their good, because all
gentle remedies prove ineffectual. Now it is unreasonable to suppose
that God is under any necessity of inflicting such extreme torments upon
them for so long a time, in order to their being brought to repentance,
and that:
First. If we consider the
nature of things: torments inflicted have no tendency to bring a wicked
man to repentance directly and properly, if by repentance we mean an
alteration of the disposition, and appetites, and taste of the mind. We
know by experience that pain inflicted for gratifying an appetite, may
make men afraid to gratify the appetite, but they do not change the
inclination, or destroy the appetite. They may make men willing to
comply with external exercises, of which they have a distaste, and to
which their heart, in its relish and inclinations, is averse: yet not
from love to the things complied with, but from hatred of pain, and love
of ease. So that the man complies in some sense, but his heart does not
comply. He is only driven, and as it were forced, and an increase of
pain alters not the nature of things. It may make a man more earnestly
to desire freedom from pain, but still there is no more to be expected
from it than is in the tendency of pain, which is not to give a new
nature, a new heart, or a new natural relish and disposition. It is not
granted that even long continued pains and practice will gradually rise
an habitual love to virtue. The pains of the damned being great and long
continued, may more and more convince them of the folly of their
negligence and fearlessness in sin, and may make them willing to take
some pains, but will not show them the beauty of holiness, or the
odiousness of sin, so as to cause them to hate sin on its own account.
Can anyone that considers
human nature, especially of those that deny an innate, desperate
wickedness of heart (as the men that we have this controversy with
generally do), doubt in the least, whether, if a man should be in a
furnace of fire for one day only, alive and full of quick sense, and
should retain and full and lively remembrance of his misery, it would
not be sufficient to make him wholly comply with all the pains and
outward self-denial requisite in order to an universal, external
obedience to the precepts of the Word of God, rather than have those
torments renewed and continued for ages, and indeed rather than endure
one more such day? What pains would not such a man be willing to suffer?
What labors could be too much? What would he not be willing to part
with, in foregoing worldly wealth or pleasures? Would not the most
covetous man, that had felt such a rod as this, be willing to part with
all his treasures of silver and gold? And the most ambitious man be
willing to live in a cottage or wilderness? The most voluptuous man to
part with his pleasures? Would he need first to endure many ages of such
torment, before he would be willing thus far to comply? It is against
all principles of human nature to suppose it. If he retains the
remembrance of the torment, in a lively idea of it, it must unspeakably
outweigh the most lively and affecting and attractive ideas of the good
things of the world. The supposition, therefore, of his not being
brought to compliance by less torment, is as unreasonable as to suppose
that a mote of dust would sink the scale, being put in a balance with a
talent of lead, or with ten thousand talents. If the Most High is
compassionate to these poor wretches, and has nothing but a kind and
gracious design of infinite mercy and bounty towards them, why does he
take such dreadful measures with them? Will no other do? Cannot infinite
wisdom find out some gentler method to bring to pass the same design? If
it be said that no other can accomplish the effect, consistently with
the freedom of will; — then I answer: What means can be devised, having
a greater tendency to drive men and compel them to comply with the thing
required (if there be any such thing), without acting freely and as
persons left to their own free choice, than such a rod not only held
over, but used upon them in such an amazing manner, by an omnipotent
hand?
Second. It is apparent,
from what has often come to pass, that God is in no necessity of making
use of such dreadful and long-continued torments, in order to bring
sinners to repentance. It is most unreasonable to suppose that no
sinners that ever were converted in this world, were, before their
conversion, as wicked and as hard-hearted as some of those that have
died impenitent: as Saul the persecutor, afterwards the apostle Paul,
and some of the converts in the Acts 2, who had had a hand in Christ’s
crucifixion, and innumerable instances of persecutors and others, who
have been brought to repentance since those days. Such were converted by
gentler means than those pains of hell, in what the Scripture calls
everlasting burnings, and that without any infringement of liberty
necessary to their being moral agents. It would be unreasonable to
suppose that all those eighteen, on whom the tower of Siloam fell, were
good men. But Christ would not have his hearers imagine they were worse
than themselves, and yet intimates that there was a possibility of their
escaping future misery by repentance.
Third. So far as pain and
affliction are made use of to bring men to repentance, it is apparent
God can make infinitely less severe chastisement effectual, together
with such influences and assistances of his Spirit, as are not
inconsistent with the persons’ moral agency in their forsaking sin and
turning to God. And if it should be said that none of them had the
habits of sin so confirmed, as all such as die in sin; I would answer:
That this is very unreasonably supposed, and if it should be allowed,
yet it cannot be pretended that the difference of guilt and
hard-heartedness is proportionable at all to the severity of the
chastisement used for purgation. If no more than ten degrees of pain, or
one year’s chastisement, be requisite for the overcoming of five degrees
of strength of the habit of sin, one would think, that less than 100,000
degrees, or 100,000 years’ chastisement, should be sufficient to
overcome ten degrees of strength of the same habit.
4. If the torments of hell
are purifying pains, and are used by a God of universal benevolence
towards his creatures, as necessary means for the purgation of the
wicked from sin, and their being fitted for, and finally brought to,
eternal happiness in the enjoyment of the love of god, then it will
follow that the damned in hell are still the objects of God’s mercy and
kindness, and that in the torments they suffer, they are the subjects of
a dispensation of grace and benevolence. All is for their good. All is
the best kindness that can be done them, the most benevolent treatment
they are capable of in their state of mind. And in all, God is but
chastising them as a wise and loving father, with a grieved and
compassionate heart, gives necessary chastisement to sons whom he loves,
and whose good he seeks to the utmost; in all he does he is only
prosecuting a design of infinite kindness and favor. And indeed, some of
the chief of those who are in the scheme of purifying pains, expressly
maintain that instead of being the fruits of vindictive justice, they
are the effects of God’s benevolence, not only to the system of
intelligent creatures in general, but to the sufferers themselves. Now
how far are these things from being agreeable to the representation
which is made of things in the Holy Scriptures?
The Scriptures represent the damned as thrown away of God; as things
that are good for nothing, and which God makes no account of; Mat.
13:48. As dross, and not gold and silver, or any valuable metal; Psa.
119:119, “Thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth as dross.” So
Eze. 22:18; Jer. 6:28-30, as salt that has lost its savor, as good for
nothing but to be cast out and trodden under-foot of men, as stubble
that is left and as the chaff thrown out to be scattered by the wind,
and go whither that shall happen to carry it, instead of being gathered
and laid up as that which is of any value. Psa. 1:4; Job 21:18; and
35:5, as that which shall be thrown away as wholly worthless, as chaff,
and stubble, and tares, all which are thrown away as not worthy of any
care to save them: yea, as fit for nothing but to be destroyed, and
therefore are cast into the fire to be destroyed and done with. Mat.
3:12, and 12:30; Job 21:18, as barren trees, trees that are good for
nothing, and not only so, but cumberers of the ground; and as such,
shall be cut down and cast into the fire. Mat. 3:10 and 7:19. Luke 13:7
as barren branches in a vine, that are cut off and cast away; as good
for nothing, and gathered and burned. John 15:6, as thrown out and
purged away as the filth of the world. Thus, it is said, Job 20:7, “That
the wicked shall perish for ever, as his own dung.” They are spoken of
as those that shall be spewed out of God’s mouth; as thrown into the
lake of fire; as the great sink of all the filth of the creation; Rev.
21:8, “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and
murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all
liars, shall have their share in the lake that burns with fire and
brimstone.” As briers and thorns that are not only wholly worthless in a
field, but hurtful and pernicious; and are nigh unto cursing, whose end
is to be burned; Heb. 6, i.e. the husbandman throws them into the fire,
and so has done with them forever. He does not still take care of them,
in order to make them fruitful and flourishing plants in his garden of
delights. The wicked, it is said, shall be driven from light into
darkness, and chased out of the world, Job 18:18. Instead of being
treated by God with benevolence, chastening them with the compassion and
kindness of a father, for their great and everlasting good, they, at
that day, when God shall gather his children together, to make them
experience the blessed fruits of the love of a heavenly Father, shall be
shut out as dogs; Rev. 21:7, 8, with chap. 22:14, 15. And are
represented as vessels to dishonor, vessels of wrath, fit for nothing
else, but to contain wrath and misery. They are spoken of as those that
perish and lose their souls: that are lost, 2 Cor. 4:4. Those that lose
themselves and are cast away, and those that are destroyed, consumed,
etc. — which representations do not agree with such as are under a
dispensation of kindness, and the means of a physicians, in order to
their eternal life, health, and happiness: though the means are severe.
When God, of old, by his prophets, denounced his terrible judgments
against Jerusalem and the people of Israel, against Moab, Tyre, Egypt,
Assyria, etc. which judgments, though long continued, were not designed
to be perpetual; there were mixed with those awful denunciations, or
added to them, promises or intimations of future mercy. But when the
Scripture speaks of God’s dealings with ungodly men in another world,
there are nothing but declarations and denunciations of wrath and
misery, and no intimations of mercy; no gentle terms used, no
significations of divine pity, no exhortations to humiliation under
God’s awful hand, or calls to seek his face and favor, and turn and
repent. The account that the Scriptures gives of the treatment that
wicked men shall meet with after this life, is very inconsistent with
the notion of their being from necessity subjected to harsh means of
cure, and severe chastisement, with a benevolent, gracious design of
their everlasting good, particularly the manner in which Christ will
treat them at the day of judgment. He will bid the wicked depart from
him as cursed.
We have no account of any
invitations to accept of mercy, nor any counsels to repent that they may
speedily be delivered from this misery. But it is represented that then
they shall be made his footstool. He shall triumph over them. He will
trample upon them as men are wont to tread grapes in a wine-press, when
they trample with all their might, to that very end that they may
effectually crush them in pieces. He will tread them in his anger, and
trample them in his fury, and, as he says, their blood shall be
sprinkled on his garments, and he will stain all his raiment, Isa. 63,
at the beginning; Rev. 14:19, 20; and Rev. 19:15, in which last place it
is said, he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of
Almighty god. These things do not savor of chastening with compassion
and benevolence, and as still prosecuting a design of love toward them,
that he may in the end actually be their Savior, and the means of their
eternal glory. There is nothing in the account of the day of judgment
that looks as though saints had any love or pity for the wicked, on
account of the terrible long-continued torments which they must suffer.
Nor indeed will the accounts that are given admit of supposing any such
thing. We have an account of their judging them, and being with Christ
in condemning them, concurring in the sentence, wherein he bids them
begone from him as cursed with devils into eternal fire. But there is no
account of their praying for them, nor of their exhorting them to
consider and repent.
They shall not be grieved,
but rather rejoice at the glorious manifestations of God’s justice,
holiness, and majesty, in their dreadful perdition, and shall triumph
with Christ, Rev. 18:20, and Rev. 19 at the beginning. They shall be
made Christ’s footstool, and so they shall be the footstool of the
saints. Psa. 68:23, “That thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine
enemies, and the tongue of thy dogs in the same.” If the damned were the
objects of divine benevolence, and designed by God for the enjoyment of
his eternal love, doubtless it would be required of all God’s children
to love them, and to pity them, and pray for them, and seek their good:
as here in this world it is required of them to love their enemies, to
be kind to the evil and unjust, and to pity and pray for the vilest of
men, that were their own persecutors, because they are the subjects of
God’s mercy in many respect, and are fit objects of infinite divine
mercy and love. If Christ, the head of all the church, pities the damned
and seeks their good, doubtless his members ought to do so too. If the
saints in heaven ought to pity the damned, as well as the saints on
earth are obligated to pity the wicked that dwell here, then doubtless
their pity ought to be in some proportion to the greatness of the
calamities of the objects of it, and the greatness of the number of
those they see in misery. But if they had pity and sympathizing grief in
such measure as this for so many ages, what an alloy would it be to
their happiness! God is represented as whetting his glittering sword,
bending his bow, and making ready his arrows on the string against
wicked men, and lifting his hand to heaven, and swearing that he will
render vengeance to his enemies, and reward them that hate him, and make
his arrows drunk with their blood, and that his sword shall devour their
flesh. Deu. 32:40-42, and Psa. 7:11-13. Certainly this is the language
and conduct of an enemy, not of a friend, or of a compassionate
chastising father.
The degree of misery and
torment that shall be inflicted, is an evidence that God is not acting
the part of benevolence and compassion, and only chastening from a kind
and gracious principle and design. It is evident that it is God’s
manner, when he thus afflicts men for their good, and chastens them with
compassion, to stay his rough wind in the day of his east wind, to
correct in measure, to consider the frame of those that are corrected,
to remember their weakness, and to consider how little they can bear. He
turns away his anger and does not stir up all his wrath. Psa. 78:37-39;
Isa. 27:8; Jer. 30:11, and 46:28. And it is his manner, in the midst
even of the severest afflictions, to order some mitigating
circumstances, and to mix some mercy. But the misery of the damned is
represented as unmixed. The wine of the wrath of God is poured out
without mixture into the cup of his indignation, that they may be
tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels,
and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment shall
ascend up forever and ever, and they have no rest day nor night. Rev.
14:10, 11. They are tormented in a flame that burns within them, as well
as round about them, and they shall be denied so much as a drop of water
to cool their tongues. And God’s wrath shall be inflicted in such a
manner, as to show his wrath, and make his strength known on the vessels
of wrath, and which shall be punished with everlasting destruction,
answerable to that glory of his Father with power and great glory in
flaming fire, to take vengeance on them that know not God and obey not
the gospel. Can any imagine that in all this God is only correcting from
love, and that the subjects of these inflictions are some of those happy
ones whom God corrects in order to teach them out of his law? Whom he
makes sore, and bindeth up? Job 5:17, 18, Psa. 94:12. There is nothing
in Scripture that looks as if the damned were under the use of means to
bring them to repentance. It is apparent that God’s manner is when he
afflicts men to bring to repentance by affliction, to join instructions,
admonitions, and arguments to persuade.
But if we judge by
scripture representations of the state of the damned, they are left
destitute of all these things. — There are no prophets, or ministers, or
good men, to admonish them, to reason and expostulate with them, or to
set them good examples. There is a perfect separation made betwixt all
the righteous and the wicked by a great gulf, so that there can be no
passing from one to the other. They are left wholly to the company of
devils, and others like them. When the rich man in hell cries to his
father Abraham, begging a drop of water, he denies his request; and adds
no exhortation to repentance. Wisdom is abundantly represented in the
book of Proverbs, as counseling, warning, calling, inviting, and
expostulating with such as are under means for the obtaining wisdom,
till the time of their punishment comes. Then it is represented that
their fear shall come as desolation, their destruction as a whirlwind,
that distress and anguish shall come upon them, and that then it will be
in vain for them to seek wisdom. If they seek her early, they shall not
find her, and if they call upon her, she will not hear. But instead of
this, she will laugh at their calamity and mock when their fear cometh:
which certainly does not consist with the idea that the God of wisdom is
still striving with them, and using means, in a benevolent and
compassionate manner, to bring them to seek and embrace wisdom, and
still offering wisdom with all her unspeakable benefits, if they will
hearken to her voice and comply with her counsel. Is wisdom then
actually using the most powerful and effectual means to bring them to
this happiness, even such as shall surely be successful, though they
have obstinately refused all others, and when wisdom called, they
heretofore refused, when she stretched forth her hand, they did not
regard? Is he still most effectually acting the part of a friend, to
deliver them from their distress and anguish, instead of laughing at
their calamity? Pro. 1, latter end. This declaration of wisdom, if it
ever be fulfilled at all, will surely be fulfilled most completely and
perfectly at the time appointed for obstinate sinners to receive their
most perfect and complete punishment.
If all mankind, even such
as live and die in their wickedness, are and ever will be the objects of
Christ’s goodwill and mercy, and those whose eternal happiness he
desires and seeks, then surely he would pray for all. But Christ
declares that there are some that he prays not for: John 17:9, “I pray
for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given
me; for they are thine.” Compared with John 17:14, “The world hath hated
them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”
Verse 25, “The world hath not known thee, but I have known thee; and
these have known that thou hast sent me;” and John 17:20. “Neither pray
I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through
their word.” By this it appears that Christ prayed for all that should
ever be true believers. — But he prayed not for those who should not be
brought by the word of the apostles, and such means of grace as are used
in this world, to believe in him, and should continue notwithstanding
not to know God, and in enmity against true holiness or Christianity.
These were such as Christ prayed not for.
1356. Endless Punishment of the Impenitent. (Sections 5-14)
5. If sin and misery, and the second death are to continue and prevail
for so long a time after the day of judgment, with respect to great
multitudes that Christ will finally save and deliver from those things,
having perfectly conquered and abolished them, then how can the
Scriptures truly represent that all enemies shall be put under his feet
at the end of the world, that the last enemy that shall be destroyed is
death, and that then, having perfectly subdued all his enemies, he shall
resign up that kingdom to the Father, and he himself be subject to the
Father? As in 1 Cor. 15:20-28. The time of Christ’s victory over death
will be at the general resurrection and day of judgment, as is evident
by verse 54 with the foregoing context. The chief enemies that Christ
came to destroy, with regard to such as should be saved, and be of his
church, were sin and misery, or death consisting in sin, and death
consisting in suffering the second death, unspeakably the greatest enemy
that came by sin: infinitely more terrible than temporal death. But if
the notion I am opposing be true, these greatest and worst enemies,
instead of being subdued, shall have their principal reign afterwards,
for many ages at least; viz. sin in the sad effect and consequence of
it, men’s misery. And God shall have his strongest conflict with those
enemies afterward, that is, shall strive against them in the use of the
most powerful means.
6. There is a great
evidence that the devil is not the subject of any dispensation of divine
mercy and kindness, and that God is prosecuting no design of infinite
goodness towards him, and that his pains are not purifying pains. It is
manifest that instead of any influence of his torments to bring him
nearer to repentance, he has been from the beginning of his damnation,
constantly, with all his might, exerting himself in prosecuting his
wickedness, his violent, and haughty, and malignant opposition to God
and man. He has been fighting especially with peculiar virulence against
Christ and his church: opposing with all his might, everything that is
good, and seeking the destruction and misery of all with boundless and
insatiable cruelty, on which account he is called Satan, the adversary,
and Abaddon, and Apollyon, the destroyer. He is represented as a roaring
lion, seeking whom he may devour, a viper, the old serpent, the great
red dragon, red on account of his bloody cruel nature. He is said to be
a murderer from the beginning. He has murdered all mankind, and has
murdered their souls as well as their bodies. He was the murderer of
Jesus Christ, by instigating Judas and his crucifiers. He has most
cruelly shed the blood of an innumerable multitude of the children of
God. He is emphatically called the evil one, that wicked one, etc. He is
a liar, and the father of lies, and the father of all the sin and
wickedness that is, or ever has been, in the world. He is the spirit
that worketh in the children of disobedience; 2 Cor. 4:3, 4. It is said
that he that committeth sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from
the beginning. And all wicked men are spoken of as his children. He has
set up himself as God of this world, in opposition to the true God, and
has erected a vast kingdom over the nations, and is constantly carrying
on a war with the utmost earnestness, subtlety, malice, and venom
against Jesus Christ and all his holy and gracious designs. He is
maintaining a kingdom of darkness, wickedness, and misery, in opposition
to Christ’s kingdom of light, holiness, and peace, and thus will
continue to do till the end of the world, as appears by Scripture
prophecies.
And God’s dealings with
him are infinitely fare from being those of a friend, kindly seeking his
infinite good, and designing nothing else in the end, but to make him
eternally happy in love and favor, and blessed union with him. God is
represented everywhere as acting the part of an enemy to him, that seeks
and designs nothing in the final event but his destruction. The grand
work of God’s providence, which he is prosecuting from the beginning to
the end of the world, viz. the work of redemption, is against him, to
bruise or break in pieces his head, to cast him like lightning from
heaven from that height of power and dominion to which he has exalted
himself, to tread him underfoot, and to cause his people to trample and
bruise or crush him underfoot, and gloriously to triumph over him.
Christ, when he conquered him, made a show of him openly, triumphing
over him. And it is evident that as it will be with the devil in this
respect, so it will be with the wicked. This is reasonable to suppose
from what the Scripture represents of the relation wicked men stand in
to the devil as his children, servants, subjects, instruments, and his
property and possession. They are all ranked together with him in one
kingdom, in one interest, and one company. And many of them are the
great ministers of his kingdom, and to whom he has committed authority,
such as the beast and false prophet that we read of in the Revelation.
Now how reasonable and natural is it to suppose that those who are thus
united should have their portion and lot together! As Christ’s
disciples, subject, followers, soldiers, children, instruments, and
faithful ministers shall have their part with him in his eternal glory,
so we may reasonably believe that the devil’s disciples, followers,
subjects, soldiers in his army, his children, instruments, and ministers
of his kingdom should have their part with him. There should not be such
an infinite difference made between them, that the punishment of the one
should be eternal, and that of the other but temporal, and therefore
infinitely less, infinitely disproportionate, so that the proportion
between the punishment of the latter and that of the former, is as
nothing: infinitely less than an unit to a million of millions. This is
unreasonable to be supposed in itself, as the difference of guilt and
wickedness cannot be so great, but must be infinitely far from it,
especially considering the aggravations of the wickedness of a great
part of damned men, as committed against Christ and gospel grace and
love, which exceeding great aggravation the sin of the devils never had.
As the devil’s ministers,
servants and instruments, of the angelic nature, those that are called
the devil’s angels, shall have their part with him, then for the like
reason we may well suppose that his servants, and instruments of the
human nature, will share with him. And not only is this reasonable in
itself, but the Scripture plainly teaches us that it shall be so. In
Rev. 19:20 it is said, “The beast and the false prophet were both cast
alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone.” So it is said,
chap. 20:10, “The devil the deceived them was cast into the lake of fire
and brimstone, where the beast and false prophet are, and shall be
tormented day and night for ever and ever;” — thus expressing both the
kind of misery and the duration. Just in the same manner it is said
concerning the followers of the beast. It is said, Rev. 14:9-11, “Saying
with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast, etc. — the same shall
be tormented with fire and brimstone, and the smoke of their torment
ascendeth up for ever and ever, and they have no rest day nor night.” —
And Rev. 21:8 of wicked men in general, it is said that they shall have
their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone. — So we
find in Christ’s description of the day of judgment, the wicked are
sentenced to everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels,. By
which it appears most plainly that they share with the devil in
suffering misery of the same kind, and also share with him in suffering
misery of the same everlasting continuance. And, indeed, not only would
the punishment infinitely differ as to quantity and duration, if the
punishment of the devils was to be eternal, and of wicked men only
temporal, but if this were known, it would, as it were, infinitely
differ in kind. The one suffering God’s hatred and mere vengeance,
inflictions that have no pity or kindness in them, while the other, the
fruit of his mercy and love, and infinitely kind intention. The one
attended with absolute despair, and a black and dismal sinking prospect
of misery, absolutely endless, while the other with the light of hope,
and a supporting prospect, not only of an end to their misery, but of an
eternal unspeakable happiness to follow.
7. This notion we are
opposing is repugnant to the representations which the Scripture makes,
as though at the day of judgment would happen the consummation of all
things, the finishing of God’s design, and end of the revolutions and
changes of a state of trial, preparation and proficience, and the
bringing all the great mutations of the world to their fixed period, and
the settling of all things in their final state. Thus the apostle says,
1 Cor. 15:24, “Then cometh the end.” And the things there spoken of,
that shall then be done, show that then will be the finishing of things,
and settling them in their final state, such as the end of Christ’s
kingdom given him for the subduing of all enemies, and his resigning his
commission for the conquering of all enemies, and subduing all evil, and
the restitution of all things (as having completed his design) that God
henceforth may be in all, according to the most natural state of things.
And therefore, when the general resurrection and day of judgment had
been represented to the apostle John, God then proclaims, Rev. 21:6,
“And he said unto me, It is done; I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end.” — By which it is very manifest that God will have so far
finished his design, as to have brought the whole course of things, in
all their mutations, to their proper and intended period, final issue,
and fixed state. Whereby it shall appear at last that as God was the
beginning, the first cause of all things, from whom the whole system and
series of things originated at their beginning, so when they are brought
to their final issue, he will appear to be also their last end, so that
as things took their first rise from him, so they shall have their last
end in him. He shall appear to be the last end of all things, when their
last end is reached, in the issue of all their changes, revolutions, and
labors. Agreeable to this, the day of judgment is from time to time,
called the last day, John 6:40, 44, 54, and the great day, Jude 6. — By
these things it is most manifest that at that day, the moral world shall
be settled in its final state, and that the judgment of that day will be
the last judgment.
But if the multitude of the damned are yet to be kept in a state of
preparation, and under the use of means for producing repentance, and so
vast a change as that from infernal misery to heavenly and eternal
glory, then how far are things from being all brought to their
consummation, last issue, and settled in their final state? And if so,
then the judgment of that day cannot be the last judgment. For the
design of the last judgment, whenever that happens, must be to settle
things in the moral world, or among such creatures as are the proper
subjects of moral government, and of a judicial proceeding, in their
last state. But the last judgment for this end, cannot be till the day
of preparation and proficience, and use of means in order to repentance
and opportunity for the obtaining the favor and rewards of the great
Judge, is over. According to the notion which I am opposing, the
judgment that shall take place at the end of the world will be so far
from being the last judgment, or any proper judgment to settle all
things in their final state, that it will, with respect to the wicked,
be no more than the judgment of a physician, whether more sharp and
powerful remedies must not be applied in order to the relief of sinners,
and the cure of their disease, which, if not cured, will make them
eternally miserable!
8. It is evident that the
future misery of the wicked in hell is not come to an end, and to be
succeeded by eternal happiness, and that their misery is not subservient
to their happiness, because the Scripture plainly signifies, concerning
those that die in their sins, that they have all the good and comfort in
this life that ever is designed for them. Luke 6:24, “Woe unto you that
are rich, for ye have received your consolation.” Luke 16:25, “Son,
remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things.” Psa.
17:13, 14, “Deliver my soul from the wicked — from the men of the world
which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with
thy hid treasure.”
9. According to the
opinion I am now opposing, God will surely at the last deliver all the
damned from their misery and make them happy. So that God will see to it
that the purifying torments shall certainly at last have their effect,
to turn them from sin. Now how can this consist with God’s treating them
as moral agents, and their acting from the freedom of their own wills,
in the affair of their turning from sin, and becoming morally pure and
virtuous, according to the notions of freedom and moral agency which now
prevail, and are strenuously maintained by some of the chief assertors
of this opinion concerning hell torments, which notion of freedom
implies contingence, and is wholly inconsistent with the necessity of
the event?
If after all the torments
used to bring sinners to repentance, the consequence aimed at, viz.
their turning from sin to virtue, be not necessary, but it shall still
remain a contingent event, whether there ever will be any such
consequence of those severe, long-continued chastisements, or no, then
how can it be determined that this will surely be the consequence? How
can it be a thing infallible that such a consequence of means used will
follow, when at the same time, it is not a consequence any way
necessarily connected with the means used, it being only a thing
contingent whether it will follow or not? If God has determined
absolutely to make them all pure and happy, and yet their purity and
happiness depend on the freedom of their will, then here is an absolute,
divine decree, consistent with the freedom of men’s will, which is a
doctrine utterly rejected by the generality of that sort of men who deny
the eternity of hell torments. If it be said that God has not absolutely
determined the duration or measure of their torments, but intends to
continue them till they do repent, or to try lesser torments first, and
if these do not answer, to increase them till they are effectual,
determining that he will raise or continue them till the effect shall
finally and infallibly follow, then that is the same thing as to
necessitate the effect. And here is necessity in such a case, as much as
when a founder puts a piece of metal into a furnace with a resolution to
melt it, and if continuing it there a little while will not dissolve it,
then he will keep it there till it does dissolve. And if by reason of
its peculiar hardness, an ordinary degree of heat of the furnace will
not be effectual, then he will increase the vehemence of the heat, till
the effect shall certainly follow.
N. B. Some of these things
observed in opposition to the notion of hell torments being only
purifying pains, may be used as arguments to prove the eternity of
future misery in general. As what is said concerning the consummation of
all things, etc. — concerning the rich man’s having received his good
things, etc. — The punishment of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. —
Concerning the last dispensation, Rev. 22:10-12. — Sinners being thrown
away, lost, etc. — The last enemy subdued. — Concerning the devil, and
wicked men’s suffering the same punishment with him.
10. If any should maintain
this scheme of temporary future punishments, viz. that the torments in
hell are not purifying pains, and that the damned are not in a state of
trial with regard to any expected admission to eternal happiness and
that therefore they are not the proper objects of divine benevolence;
that the dispensation they are under is not truly a dispensation of
mercy, but that their torments are properly penal pains, wherein God
displays his vindictive justice; that they shall suffer misery to such a
degree, and for so long a time, as their obstinate wickedness in this
world deserves; and that indeed they shall be miserable a very long
time, so long that it is often figuratively spoken of in Scripture as
being everlasting, and that then they shall be annihilated. On this I
would observe that there is nothing got by such a scheme: no relief from
the arguments taken from Scripture, for the proper eternity of future
punishment. For if it be owned that Scripture expressions denote a
punishment that is properly eternal, but that it is in no other sense
properly so, than as the annihilation, or state of non-existence that
the wicked shall return to, will be eternal, and that this eternal
annihilation is that death which is so often threatened for sin,
perishing forever, everlasting destruction, being lost, utterly
consumed, etc. And that the fire of hell is called eternal fire, in the
same sense that the external fire which consumed the cities of Sodom and
Gomorrah is called eternal fire, Jude 7, because it utterly consumed
those cities, that they might never be built more, and that this fire is
called that which cannot be quenched, or at least not until it has
destroyed them that are cast into it. — If this be all that these
expressions denote, then they do not at all signify the length of the
torments, or long continuance of their misery, so that the supposition
of the length of their torments is brought in without any necessity, the
Scripture saying nothing of it, having no respect to it, when it speaks
of their everlasting punishments. And it answers the scripture
expressions as well, to suppose that they shall be annihilated
immediately, without any long pains, provided the annihilation be
everlasting.
11. If any should suppose
that the torments of the damned in hell are properly penal, and in
execution of penal justice, but yet that they are neither eternal, nor
shall end in annihilation, but shall be continued till justice is
satisfied, and they have truly suffered as much as they deserve, whereby
their punishment shall be so long as to be called everlasting, but that
then they shall be delivered, and finally be the subjects of everlasting
happiness; and that therefore they shall not in the mean time be in a
state of trial, nor will be waited upon in order to repentance, nor will
their torments be used as means to bring them to it, for that the term
and measure of their punishment shall be fixed, from which they shall
not be soever, until justice is satisfied: I would observe, in answer to
this, that if it be so, the damned, while under their suffering, are
either answerable for the wickedness that is acted by them while in that
state, or may properly be the subjects of a judicial proceeding for it,
or not. If the former be supposed, then it will follow that they must
have another state of suffering and punishment, after the ages of their
suffering for the sins of this life are ended. And it cannot be supposed
that this second period of suffering will be shorter than the first, for
the first is only for the sins committed during a short life, often
represented in Scripture, for its shortness, to be a dream, a tale that
is told, a blast of wind, a vapor, a span, a moment, etc. But the time
of punishment is always represented as exceeding long, called
everlasting, and is represented as enduring forever and ever, as having
no end, etc. If the sins of a moment must be followed with such
punishment, then, doubtless, the sins of those endless ages must be
followed with another second period of suffering, much longer. For it
must be supposed that the damned continue sinning all the time of their
punishment, for none can rationally imagine that God would hold them
under such extreme torments, and terrible manifestations and executions
of his wrath, after they have thoroughly repented, and turned from sin,
and are become pure and holy, and conformed to God, and so have left off
sinning. And if they continue in sin during this state of punishment,
with assurance that God still has a great benevolence for them, even so
as to intend finally to make them everlastingly happy in the enjoyment
of his love, then their sin must be attended with great aggravation; as
they will have the evil and ill desert of sin set before them in the
most affecting manner, in their dreadful sufferings for it attended
besides with evidence that God is infinitely benevolent towards them,
and intends to bestow infinite blessings upon them. — But if this first
long period of punishment must be followed with a second as long or
longer, then for the same reason, the second must be followed by a
third, as long or longer than that, and so the third must be followed by
a fourth, and so in infinitum. And at this rate, there never can be an
end of their misery. So this scheme overthrows itself.
And if the damned are not
answerable for the wickedness they commit during their state of
punishment, then we must suppose that during the whole of their long
and, as it were, eternal state of punishment, they are given up of God
to the most unrestrained wickedness, having this to consider, that how
far soever they go in the allowed exercises and manifestations, of their
malice and rage against God and Christ, saints and angels, and their
fellow damned spirits, they have nothing to fear from it, it will be
never the worse. And surely, continuing in such unrestrained wickedness
for such duration, must most desperately confirm the habit of sin, must
increase the root and fountain of it in the heart. Now how unreasonable
it is to suppose that God would thus deal with such as were objects of
his infinite kindness, and the appointed subjects of the unspeakable and
endless fruits of his love, in a state of perfect holiness and purity,
and conformity to and union with himself: thus to give them up
beforehand to unrestrained malignity against himself, and every kind of
hellish wickedness, as it were infinitely to increase the fountain of
sin in the heart, and the strength of the principle and habit! Now how
incongruous is it to suppose, with regard to those for whom God has
great benevolence and designs eternal favor, that he would lay them
under a necessity of extreme, unbounded hatred of him, blasphemy and
rage against him, for so many ages, such necessity as should exclude all
liberty of their own in the case! If God intends not only punishment but
also purification by these torments, then, on this supposition, instead
of their being purified, they must be set at an infinitely greater
distance from purification. And if God intends them for a second time of
probation, in order to their being brought to repentance and the love of
God after their punishment is finished, then how can it be certain
beforehand, that they shall finally be happy, as is supposed? How can it
be certain they will not fail in their second trial, or in their third,
if there be a third? Yea, how much more likely that they will fail of
truly turning in heart from sin to the love of God in their second
trial, if there be any proper trial in the case, after their hearts have
been so much more brought under the power of a strong habit of sin and
enmity to God! If the habit proved so strong in this life that the most
powerful means and mighty inducements of the gospel would not prevail,
so that God was, as it were, under a necessity of cutting them down and
dealing thus severely with them, then how much less likely will it be
that they will be prevailed upon to love God and the ways of virtue,
after their hearts are set at so much greater distance from those
things! Yea, unless we suppose a divine interposition of almighty,
efficacious power, to change the heart in the time of this second trial,
we may be sure that, under these circumstances, the heart will not turn
to love God.
And besides, if they are
laid under such a necessity of hating and blaspheming God, for so many
ages, in the manner that has been spoken of. then how extremely
incongruous is such an imagination, that God would lay those he intended
for the eternal bounty and blessedness of dear children, under such
circumstances, that they must necessarily hate him, and with devilish
fury curse and blaspheme him for innumerable ages, and yet never have
cause, even when they are delivered and made happy in God’s love, to
condemn themselves for it, though they see the infinite hatefulness and
unreasonableness of it, because God laid them under such a necessity,
that they could use no liberty of their own in the case? I leave it for
all to judge, whether God’s thus ordering things with regard to such as
he, from great benevolence, intended for eternal happiness in a most
blessed union with himself, be credible.
12. That which lasts as
long as the world stands, is sometimes said to be forever. Yet the space
of man’s life in comparison of the state that succeeds, is often
represented as a moment, the shortest space, yea even as nothing. And so
the space of time to the end of the world is represented as very short,
Heb. 10:37. Here in a particular manner observe those words of Christ,
Rev. 22:10-12. After Christ had shown John the end of the world, the day
of judgment and consummation of all things, he says, “The time is at
hand. He that is unjust let him be unjust still, etc. Behold I come
quickly, and my reward is with me, to give to every man according as his
work shall be.” Here Christ represent to his beloved disciple the space
from that time to the end of the world to be very short, after he had
from time to time represented to him that the state of the punishment of
the wicked to be everlasting, and forever and ever (Rev. 14:10-11; Rev.
19:3; chap. 20:10). The shortness of the time before his coming to judge
and recompense men is declared for the comfort of the righteous, and
terror of the wicked. And the thing that justly renders the
consideration of the measure of duration before Christ’s coming
comfortable to the saints, is that it is very short in comparison of the
duration of the reward that shall follow. And so the thing that should
justly make the measure of time, before the judgment, terrible to the
wicked, is that though they may be ready to please themselves that the
time is so long, yet it is very short in comparison of the punishment
that shall follow. And in other places of Scripture, the time preceding
the punishment of the wicked in particular, is represented as very
short. Thus it is threatened that God would bring upon them swift
destruction, and it is said that the things that shall come upon them
“make haste” and that vengeance shall come “speedily” on the enemies of
the elect, and the like. And the punishment of the wicked itself is
always represented as everlasting and endless. Whence we may most
reasonably suppose that those phrases, when applied to future
punishment, are used in their most proper sense, and not at all in the
same manner as when applied to the space preceding, which is here spoken
of as comparatively very short.
When the fire of hell is
represented as that which shall never be quenched, it is not thereby
meant that it shall not be quenched till it has consumed its fuel and
goes out itself. For by being quenched, as the word is used in
Scripture, is meant not only a being extinguished or put out, but a
going out, or ceasing, or ending in any respect. So the words are to be
understood, Isa. 43:17, “They are extinct, they are quenched as tow,”
i.e. their power and rage shall be liked he fire of tow, that lasts but
for a very little while, and then goes out. Vessels of mercy and vessels
of wrath are expressly distinguished. And the apostle James speaks of
some that shall have judgment without mercy, Jam. 2:13, which proves the
punishment of hell is not the effect of mercy, and that mercy and pity
never shall be exercised towards the damned.
13. Hutchison on the
Passions, p. 77, 3rd edition, says, “No misery is farther the occasion
of joy to a sedate temper, than as it is necessary to some propellant
happiness in the whole. |
