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The Eternity of Hell's Torments
by Jonathan Edwards
Dated April, 1739
Matthew 25:46, "These
shall go away into everlasting punishment."
IN this chapter we have the most particular description of the day of
judgment, of any in the whole Bible. Christ here declares that when he
shall hereafter sit on the throne of his glory, the righteous and the
wicked shall be set before him, and separated one from the other, as a
shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. Then we have an account how
both will be judged according to their works: how the good works of the
one and the evil works of the other will be rehearsed, and how the
sentence shall be pronounced accordingly. We are told what the sentence
will be on each, and then we have an account of the execution of the
sentence on both. In the words of the text is the account of the
execution of the sentence on the wicked or the ungodly, concerning
which, it is to my purpose to observe two things.
I. The duration of the punishment on which they are here said to enter:
it is called everlasting punishment.
II. The time of their entrance on this everlasting punishment, viz.
after the day of judgment, when all these things that are of a temporary
continuance shall have come to an end and even those of them that are
most lasting — the frame of the world itself, the earth which is said to
abide forever, the ancient mountains and everlasting hills, [and] the
sun, moon, and stars. When the heavens shall have waxed old like a
garment and as a vesture shall be changed, then shall be the time when
the wicked shall enter on their punishment.
Doctrine. — The misery of the wicked in hell will be absolutely
eternal.
There are two opinions which I mean to oppose in this doctrine. One is
that the eternal death with which wicked men are threatened in
Scripture, signifies no more than eternal annihilation: that God will
punish their wickedness by eternally abolishing their being.
The other opinion which I mean to oppose is that though the punishment
of the wicked shall consist in sensible misery, yet it shall not be
absolutely eternal, but only of a very long continuance.
Therefore, to establish the doctrine in opposition to these different
opinions, I shall undertake to show,
I. That it is not contrary to the divine perfections to inflict on
wicked men a punishment that is absolutely eternal.
II. That the eternal death which God threatens is not annihilation, but
an abiding sensible punishment or misery.
III. That this misery will not only continue for a very long time, but
will be absolutely without end.
IV. That various good ends will be obtained by the eternal punishment of
the wicked.
I. I am to show that it is not contrary to the divine perfections to
inflict on wicked men a punishment that is absolutely eternal.
This is the sum of the objections usually made against this doctrine:
that it is inconsistent with the justice, and especially with the mercy,
of God. And some say [that] if it be strictly just, yet how can we
suppose that a merciful God can bear eternally to torment his creatures.
First, I shall briefly show that it is not inconsistent with the justice
of God to inflict an eternal punishment. To evince this, I shall use
only one argument, viz. that sin is heinous enough to deserve such a
punishment, and such a punishment is no more than proportionable to the
evil or demerit of sin. If the evil of sin be infinite, as the
punishment is, then it is manifest that the punishment is no more than
proportionable to the sin punished, and is no more than sin deserves.
And if the obligation to love, honor, and obey God be infinite, then sin
which is the violation of this obligation, is a violation of infinite
obligation, and so is an infinite evil. Again, if God be infinitely
worthy of love, honor, and obedience, then our obligation to love, and
honor, and obey him is infinitely great. — So that God being infinitely
glorious, or infinitely worthy of our love, honor, and obedience, our
obligation to love, honor, and obey him (and so to avoid all sin) is
infinitely great. Again, our obligation to love, honor, and obey God
being infinitely great, sin is the violation of infinite obligation, and
so is an infinite evil. Once more, sin being an infinite evil, deserves
an infinite punishment. An infinite punishment is no more than it
deserves. Therefore such punishment is just, which was the thing to be
proved. There is no evading the force of this reasoning, but by denying
that God, the sovereign of the universe, is infinitely glorious, which I
presume none of my hearers will venture to do.
Second, I am to show that it is not inconsistent with the mercy of God,
to inflict an eternal punishment on wicked men. It is an unreasonable
and unscriptural notion of the mercy of God, that he is merciful in such
a sense that he cannot bear that penal justice should be executed. This
is to conceive of the mercy of God as a passion to which his nature is
so subject that God is liable to be moved, and affected, and overcome by
seeing a creature in misery, so that he cannot bear to see justice
executed: which is a most unworthy and absurd notion of the mercy of
God, and would, if true, argue great weakness. — It would be a great
defect, and not a perfection, in the sovereign and supreme Judge of the
world, to be merciful in such a sense that he could not bear to have
penal justice executed. It is a very unscriptural notion of the mercy of
God. The Scriptures everywhere represent the mercy of God as free and
sovereign, and not that the exercises of it are necessary, so that God
cannot bear justice should take place. The Scriptures abundantly speak
of it as the glory of the divine attribute of mercy, that it is free and
sovereign in its exercises, and not that God cannot but deliver sinners
from misery. This is a mean and most unworthy idea of the divine mercy.
It is most absurd also as it is contrary to plain fact. For if there be
any meaning in the objection, this is supposed in it, that all misery of
the creature, whether just or unjust, is in itself contrary to the
nature of God. For if his mercy be of such a nature that a very great
degree of misery, though just, is contrary to his nature, then it is
only to add to the mercy. And then a less degree of misery is contrary
to his nature (again to add further to it), and a still less degree of
misery is contrary to his nature. And so the mercy of God being
infinite, all misery must be contrary to his nature, which we see to be
contrary to fact. For we see that God in his providence, does indeed
inflict very great calamities on mankind even in this life.
However strong such kind of objections against the eternal misery of the
wicked, may seem to the carnal, senseless hearts of men, as though it
were against God’s justice and mercy, yet their seeming strength arises
from a want of sense of the infinite evil, odiousness, and provocation
there is in sin. Hence it seems to us not suitable that any poor
creature should be the subject of such misery, because we have no sense
of anything abominable and provoking in any creature answerable to it.
If we had, then this infinite calamity would not seem unsuitable. For
one thing would but appear answerable and proportionable to another, and
so the mind would rest in it as fit and suitable, and no more than what
is proper to be ordered by the just, holy, and good Governor of the
world.
That this is so, we may be convinced by this consideration, viz. that
when we hear or read of some horrid instances of cruelty, it may be to
some poor innocent child or some holy martyr — and their cruel
persecutors, having no regard to their shrieks and cries, only sported
themselves with their misery, and would not vouchsafe even to put an end
to their lives — we have a sense of the evil of them, and they make a
deep impression on our minds. Hence it seems just, every way fit and
suitable, that God should inflict a very terrible punishment on persons
who have perpetrated such wickedness. It seems no way disagreeable to
any perfection of the Judge of the world. We can think of it without
being at all shocked. The reason is that we have a sense of the evil of
their conduct, and a sense of the proportion there is between the evil
or demerit and the punishment.
Just so, if we saw a proportion between the evil of sin and eternal
punishment, i.e. if we saw something in wicked men that should appear as
hateful to us, as eternal misery appears dreadful (something that should
as much stir up indignation and detestation, as eternal misery does
terror), all objections against this doctrine would vanish at once.
Though now it seem incredible, [and] though when we hear of such a
degree and duration of torments as are held forth in this doctrine and
think what eternity is, it is ready to seem impossible that such
torments should be inflicted on poor feeble creatures by a Creator of
infinite mercy. Yet this arises principally from these two causes: 1. It
is so contrary to the depraved inclinations of mankind, that they hate
to believe it and cannot bear it should be true. 2. They see not the
suitableness of eternal punishment to the evil of sin. They see not that
it is no more than proportionable to the demerit of sin.
Having thus shown that the eternal punishment of the wicked is not
inconsistent with the divine perfections, I shall now proceed to show
that it is so far from being inconsistent with the divine perfections,
that those perfections evidently require it; i.e. they require that sin
should have so great a punishment, either in the person who has
committed it, or in a surety. And therefore with respect to those who
believe not in a surety, and have no interest in him, the divine
perfections require that this punishment should be inflicted on them.
This appears as it is not only not unsuitable that sin should be thus
punished, but it is positively suitable, decent, and proper. — If this
be made to appear, that it is positively suitable that sin should be
thus punished, then it will follow that the perfections of God require
it. For certainly the perfections of God require what is proper to be
done. The perfection and excellency of God require that to take place
which is perfect, excellent, and proper in its own nature. But that sin
should be punished eternally is such a thing, which appears by the
following considerations.
1. It is suitable that God should infinitely hate sin, and be an
infinite enemy to it. Sin, as I have before shown, is an infinite evil,
and therefore is infinitely odious and detestable. It is proper that God
should hate every evil, and hate it according to its odious and
detestable nature. And sin being infinitely evil and odious, it is
proper that God should hate it infinitely.
2. If infinite hatred of sin be suitable to the divine character, then
the expressions of such hatred are also suitable to this character.
Because that which is suitable to be, is suitable to be expressed. That
which is lovely in itself, is lovely when it appears. If it be suitable
that God should be an infinite enemy to sin, or that he should hate it
infinitely, then it is suitable that he should act as such an enemy. If
it be suitable that he should hate and have enmity against sin, then it
is suitable for him to express that hatred and enmity in that to which
hatred and enmity by its own nature tends. But certainly hatred in its
own nature tends to opposition, and to set itself against that which is
hated, and to procure its evil and not its good, and that in proportion
to the hatred. Great hatred naturally tends to the great evil, and
infinite hatred to the infinite evil, of its object.
Whence it follows that if it be suitable that there should be infinite
hatred of sin in God, as I have shown it is, it is suitable that he
should execute an infinite punishment on it. And so the perfections of
God require that he should punish sin with an infinite, or which is the
same thing with an eternal, punishment.
Thus we see not only the great objection against this doctrine answered,
but the truth of the doctrine established by reason. I now proceed
further to establish it by considering the remaining particulars under
the doctrine.
II. That eternal death or punishment which God threatens to the wicked,
is not annihilation, but an abiding sensible punishment or misery. — The
truth of this proposition will appear by the following particulars.
First, the Scripture everywhere represents the punishment of the wicked,
as implying very extreme pains and sufferings. But a state of
annihilation is no state of suffering at all. Persons annihilated have
no sense or feeling of pain or pleasure, and much less do they feel that
punishment which carries in it an extreme pain or suffering. They no
more suffer to eternity than they did suffer from eternity.
Second, it is agreeable both to Scripture and reason to suppose that the
wicked shall be punished in such a manner that they shall be sensible of
the punishment they are under: that they should be sensible that now God
has executed and fulfilled what he threatened, what they disregarded and
would not believe. They should know themselves that justice takes place
upon them, that God vindicates that majesty which they despised, [and]
that God is not so despicable a being as they thought him to be. They
should be sensible for what they are punished, while they are under the
threatened punishment. It is reasonable that they should be sensible of
their own guilt, and should remember their former opportunities and
obligations, and should see their own folly and God’s justice. — If the
punishment threatened be eternal annihilation, they will never know that
it is inflicted. They will never know that God is just in their
punishment, or that they have their deserts. And how is this agreeable
to the Scriptures, in which God threatens, that he will repay the wicked
to his face, Deu. 7:10. And to that in Job 21:19, 20, “God rewardeth
him, and he shall know it; his eyes shall see his destruction, and he
shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.” And to that in Eze. 22:21,
22, “Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath,
and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof. As silver is melted in the
midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst thereof; and ye
shall know that I the Lord have poured out my fury upon you.” — And how
is it agreeable to that expression so often annexed to the threatenings
of God’s wrath against wicked men, And ye shall know that I am the Lord?
Third, the Scripture teaches that the wicked will suffer different
degrees of torment, according to the different aggravations of their
sins. Mat. 5:22, “Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause,
shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his
brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall
say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell-fire.” Here Christ teaches us
that the torments of wicked men will be different in different persons,
according to the different degrees of their guilt. — It shall be more
tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah, for Tyre and Sidon, than for the
cities where most of Christ’s mighty works were wrought. — Again, our
Lord assures us that he that knows his Lord’s will, and prepares not
himself, nor does according to his will, shall be beaten with many
stripes. But he that knows not, and commits things worthy of stripes,
shall be beaten with few stripes. — These several passages of Scripture
infallibly prove that there will be different degrees of punishment in
hell, which is utterly inconsistent with the supposition that the
punishment consists in annihilation, in which there can be no degrees.
Fourth, the Scriptures are very express and abundant in this matter:
that the eternal punishment of the wicked will consist in sensible
misery and torment, and not in annihilation. — What is said of Judas is
worthy to be observed here, “It had been good for that man if he had not
been born;” Mat. 26:24. — This seems plainly to teach us, that the
punishment of the wicked is such that their existence, upon the whole,
is worse than non-existence. But if their punishment consists merely in
annihilation, this is not true. — The wicked, in their punishment, are
said to weep, and wail, and gnash their teeth; which implies not only
real existence, but life, knowledge, and activity, and that they are in
a very sensible and exquisite manner affected with their punishment,
Isa. 33:14. Sinners in the state of their punishment are represented to
dwell with everlasting burnings. But if they are only turned into
nothing, where is the foundation for this representation? It is absurd
to say that sinners will dwell with annihilation, for there is no
dwelling in the case. It is also absurd to call annihilation a burning,
which implies a state of existence, sensibility, and extreme pain:
whereas in annihilation there is neither.
It is said that they shall be cast into a lake of fire and brimstone.
How can this expression with any propriety be understood to mean a state
of annihilation? Yea, they are expressly said to have no rest day nor
night, but to be tormented with fire and brimstone forever and ever,
Rev. 20:10. But annihilation is a state of rest, a state in which not
the least torment can possibly be suffered. The rich man in hell lifted
up his eyes being in torment, and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in
his bosom, and entered into a particular conversation with Abraham: all
which proves that he was not annihilated.
The spirits of ungodly men before the resurrection are not in a state of
annihilation, but in a state of misery. They are spirits in prison, as
the apostle says of them that were drowned in the flood, 1 Pet. 3:19. —
And this appears very plainly from the instance of the rich man before
mentioned, if we consider him as representing the wicked in their
separate state between death and the resurrection. But if the wicked
even then are in a state of torment, much more will they be, when they
shall come to suffer that which is the proper punishment of their sins.
Annihilation is not so great a calamity but that some men have
undoubtedly chosen it, rather than a state of suffering even in this
life. This was the case of Job, a good man. But if a good man in this
world may suffer that which is worse than annihilation, doubtless the
proper punishment of the wicked, in which God means to manifest his
peculiar abhorrence of their wickedness, will be a calamity vastly
greater still, and therefore cannot be annihilation. That must be a very
mean contemptible testimony of God’s wrath towards those who have
rebelled against his crown and dignity — broken his laws, and despised
both his vengeance and his grace — which is not so great a calamity as
some of his true children have suffered in life.
The eternal punishment of the wicked is said to be the second death, as
Rev. 20:14, and 21:8. It is doubtless called the second death in
reference to the death of the body, and as the death of the body is
ordinarily attended with great pain and distress, so the like, or
something vastly greater, is implied in calling the eternal punishment
of the wicked the second death. And there would be no propriety in
calling it so, if it consisted merely in annihilation. And this second
death wicked men will suffer, for it cannot be called the second death
with respect to any other than men. It cannot be called so with respect
to devils, as they die no temporal death, which is the first death. In
Rev. 2:11, it is said, “He that overcometh, shall not be hurt of the
second death;” implying that all who do not overcome their lusts, but
live in sin, shall suffer the second death.
Again, wicked men will suffer the same kind of death with the devils; as
in verse 41 of the context, “Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire,
prepared for the devil and his angels.” Now the punishment of the devil
is not annihilation, but torment. He therefore trembles for fear of it.
not for fear of being annihilated — he would be glad of that. Where he
is afraid of is torment, as appears by Luke 8:28, where he cries out and
beseeches Christ that he would not torment him before the time. And it
is said, Rev. 20:10, “The devil that deceived them was cast into the
lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are,
and shall be tormented day and night, for ever and ever.”
It is strange how men will go directly against so plain and full
revelations of Scripture, as to suppose notwithstanding all these
things, that the eternal punishment threatened against the wicked
signifies no more than annihilation.
III. As the future punishment of the wicked consists in sensible misery,
so it shall not only continue for a very long time, but shall be
absolutely without end.
Of those who have held that the torments of hell are not absolutely
eternal, there have been two sorts. Some suppose that in the
threatenings of everlasting punishment, the terms used do not
necessarily import a proper eternity, but only a very long duration.
Others suppose that if they do import a proper eternity, yet we cannot
necessarily conclude thence, that God will fulfill his threatenings. —
Therefore I shall,
First, show that the threatenings of eternal punishment do very plainly
and fully import a proper, absolute eternity, and not merely a long
duration. — This appears,
1. Because when the Scripture speaks of the wicked being sentenced to
their punishment at the time when all temporal things are come to an
end, it then speaks of it as everlasting, as in the text, and elsewhere.
It is true that the term forever is not always in Scripture used to
signify eternity. Sometimes it means “as long as a man lives.” In this
sense it is said that the Hebrew servant, who chose to abide with his
master, should have his ear bored and should serve his master forever.
Sometimes it means “during the continuance of the state and church of
the Jews.” In this sense, several laws, which were peculiar to that
church and were to continue in force no longer than that church should
last, are called statutes forever. See Exo. 27:21, 28:43, etc. Sometimes
it means as long as the world stands. So in Ecc. 1:4, “One generation
passeth away, and another generation cometh, but the earth abideth for
ever.”
And this last is the longest temporal duration that such a term is ever
used to signify. For the duration of the world is the longest of things
temporal, as its beginning was the earliest. Therefore when the
Scripture speaks of things as being before the foundation of the world,
it means that they existed before the beginning of time. So those things
which continue after the end of the world, are eternal things. When
heaven and earth are shaken and removed, those things that remain will
be what cannot be shaken, but will remain forever, Heb. 12:26-27.
But the punishment of the wicked will not only remain after the end of
the world, but is called everlasting, as in the text, “These shall go
away into everlasting punishment.” So in 2 Thes. 1:9-10, “Who shall be
punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and
from the glory of his power; when he shall come to be glorified in his
saints,” etc. — Now, what can be meant by a thing being everlasting,
after all temporal things are come to an end, but that it is absolutely
without end!
2. Such expressions are used to set forth the duration of the punishment
of the wicked, as are never used in the scriptures of the New Testament
to signify anything but a proper eternity. It is said, not only that the
punishment shall be forever, but for ever and ever. Rev. 14:11, “The
smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever.” Rev. 20:10,
“Shall be tormented day and night, for ever and ever.” Doubtless the New
Testament has some expression to signify a proper eternity, of which it
has so often occasion to speak. But it has no higher expression than
this: if this do not signify an absolute eternity, there is none that
does.
3. The Scripture uses the same way of speaking to set forth the eternity
of punishment and the eternity of happiness, yea, the eternity of God
himself. Mat. 25:46, “These shall go away into everlasting punishment:
but the righteous into life eternal.” The words everlasting and eternal,
in the original, are the very same. Rev. 22:5, “And they (the saints)
shall reign for ever and ever.” And the Scripture has no higher
expression to signify the eternity of God himself, than that of his
being for ever and ever, as Rev. 4:9, “To him who sat on the throne, who
liveth for ever and ever;” and in the 10th verse, and in Rev. 5:14;
10:6, and 15:7.
Again, the Scripture expresses God’s eternity by this: that it shall be
forever, after the world is come to an end, Psa. 102:26-27, “They shall
perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a
garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed.
But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.”
4. The Scripture says that wicked men shall not be delivered till they
have paid the uttermost farthing of their debt, Mat. 5:26. The last
mite, Luke 12:59, i.e. the utmost that is deserved, and all mercy is
excluded by this expression. But we have shown that they deserve an
infinite, an endless punishment.
5. The Scripture says absolutely that their punishment shall not have an
end, Mark 9:44, “Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not
quenched.” Now it will not do to say that the meaning is [that] their
worm shall live a great while, or that it shall be a great while before
their fire is quenched. If ever the time comes that their worm shall
die, if ever there shall be a quenching of the fire at all, then it is
not true that their worm dieth not and that the fire is not quenched.
For if there be a dying of the worm and a quenching of the fire, let it
be at what time it will, nearer or further off, it is equally contrary
to such a negation — it dieth not, it is not quenched.
Second, there are others who allow that the expression of the
threatenings do denote a proper eternity. But then, they say, it does
not certainly follow that the punishment will really be eternal, because
God may threaten, and yet not fulfill his threatenings. Though they
allow that the threatenings are positive and peremptory, without any
reserve, yet they say [that] God is not obliged to fulfill absolute
positive threatenings, as he is absolute promises. Because in promises a
right is conveyed that the creature to whom the promises are made will
claim. But there is no danger of the creature’s claiming any right by a
threatening. Therefore I am now to show that what God has positively
declared in this matter, does indeed make it certain that it shall be as
he has declared. To this end, I shall mention two things:
1. It is evidently contrary to the divine truth, positively to declare
anything to be real, whether past, present, or to come, which God at the
same time knows is not so. Absolutely threatening that anything shall
be, is the same as absolutely declaring that it is to be. For any to
suppose that God absolutely declares that anything will be, which be at
the same time knows will not be, is blasphemy, if there be any such
thing as blasphemy.
Indeed, it is very true that there is no obligation on God, arising from
the claim of the creature, as there is in promises. They seem to reckon
the wrong way, who suppose the necessity of the execution of the
threatening to arise from a proper obligation on God to the creature to
execute consequent on his threatening. For indeed the certainty of the
execution arises the other way, viz. on the obligation there was on the
omniscient God, in threatening, to conform his threatening to what he
knew would be future in execution. Though, strictly speaking, God is not
properly obliged to the creature to execute because he has threatened,
yet he was obliged not absolutely to threaten, if at the same time he
knew that he should not or would not fulfill, because this would not
have been consistent with his truth. So that from the truth of God there
is an inviolable connection between positive threatenings and execution.
They who suppose that God positively declared that he would do contrary
to what he knew would come to pass, do therein suppose, that he
absolutely threatened contrary to what he knew to be truth. And how
anyone can speak contrary to what he knows to be truth, in declaring,
promising, or threatening, or any other way, consistently with
inviolable truth, is inconceivable.
Threatenings are significations of something, and if they are made
consistently with truth, they are true significations, or significations
of truth, that which shall be. If absolute threatenings are
significations of anything, they are significations of the futurity of
the things threatened. But if the futurity of the things threatened be
not true and real, then how can the threatening be a true signification?
And if God, in them, speaks contrary to what he knows, and contrary to
what he intends, how he can speak true is inconceivable.
Absolute threatenings are a kind of predictions. And though God is not
properly obliged by any claim of ours to fulfill predictions, unless
they are of the nature of promises, yet it certainly would be contrary
to truth, to predict that such a thing would come to pass, which he knew
at the same time would not come to pass. Threatenings are declarations
of something future, and they must be declarations of future truth, if
they are true declarations. Its being future alters not the case any
more than if it were present. It is equally contrary to truth, to
declare contrary to what at the same time is known to be truth, whether
it be of things past, present, or to come: for all are alike to God.
Beside, we have often declarations in Scripture of the future eternal
punishment of the wicked, in the proper form of predictions, and not in
the form of threatenings. So in the text, “These shall go away into
everlasting punishment.” So in those frequent assertions of eternal
punishment in the Revelation, some of which I have already quoted. The
Revelation is a prophecy, and is so called in the book itself. So are
those declarations of eternal punishment. — The like declarations we
have also in many other places of Scripture.
2. The doctrine of those who teach that it is not certain that God will
fulfill those absolute threatenings, is blasphemous another way, and
that is, as God, according to their supposition, was obliged to make use
of a fallacy to govern the world. They own that it is needful that men
should apprehend themselves liable to an eternal punishment, that they
might thereby be restrained from sin, and that God has threatened such a
punishment, for the very end that they might believe themselves exposed
to it. But what an unworthy opinion does this convey of God and his
government, of his infinite majesty, and wisdom, and all-sufficiency! —
Beside, they suppose that though God has made use of such a fallacy, yet
it is not such an one but that they have detected him in it. Though God
intended men should believe it to be certain that sinners are liable to
an eternal punishment, yet they suppose that they have been so cunning
as to find out that it is not certain. And so that God had not laid his
design so deep, but that such cunning men as they can discern the cheat
and defeat the design, because they have found out that there is no
necessary connection between the threatening of eternal punishment, and
the execution of that threatening.
Considering these things, is it not greatly to be wondered at, that
Archbishop Tillotson, who has made so great a figure among the
new-fashioned divines, should advance such an opinion as this?
Before I conclude this head, it may be proper for me to answer an
objection or two that may arise in the minds of some.
Objection 1. It may be here said [that] we have instances wherein God
has not fulfilled his threatenings: as his threatening to Adam, and in
him to mankind, that they should surely die, if they should eat the
forbidden fruit. I answer, it is not true that God did not fulfill that
threatening. He fulfilled it and will fulfill it in every jot and
tittle. When God said, “Thou shalt surely die,” if we respect spiritual
death, it was fulfilled in Adam’s person in the day that he ate. For
immediately his image, his holy spirit and original righteousness, which
was the highest and best life of our first parents, were lost, and they
were immediately in a doleful state of spiritual death.
If we respect temporal death, that was also fulfilled. He brought death
upon himself and all his posterity, and he virtually suffered that death
on that very day on which he ate. His body was brought into a
corruptible, mortal, and dying condition, and so it continued till it
was dissolved. If we look at all that death which was comprehended in
the threatening, it was, properly speaking, fulfilled in Christ. When
God said to Adam, “If thou eatest, thou shalt die,” he spoke not only to
him, and of him personally, but the words respected mankind, Adam and
his race, and doubtless were so understood by him. His offspring were to
be looked upon as sinning in him, and so should die with him. The words
do as justly allow of an imputation of death as of sin. They are as well
consistent with dying in a surety, as with sinning in one. Therefore,
the threatening is fulfilled in the death of Christ, the surety.
Objection 2. Another objection may arise from God’s threatening to
Nineveh. He threatened, that in forty days Nineveh should be destroyed,
which yet he did not fulfill. — I answer, that threatening could justly
be looked upon no otherwise than as conditional. It was of the nature of
a warning, and not of an absolute denunciation. Why was Jonah sent to
the Ninevites, but to give them warning, that they might have
opportunity to repent, reform, and avert the approaching destruction?
God had no other design or end in sending the prophet to them, but that
they might be warned and tried by him, as God warned the Israelites,
Judah and Jerusalem, before their destruction. Therefore the prophets,
together with their prophecies of approaching destruction, joined
earnest exhortations to repent and reform, that it might be averted.
No more could justly be understood to be certainly threatened, than that
Nineveh should be destroyed in forty days, continuing as it was. For it
was for their wickedness that that destruction was threatened, and so
the Ninevites took it. Therefore, when the cause was removed, the effect
ceased. It was contrary to God’s known manner, to threaten punishment
and destruction for sin in this world absolutely, so that it should come
upon the persons threatened unavoidably, let them repent and reform and
do what they would; Jer. 18:7, 8, “At what instant I shall speak
concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull
down, and to destroy it; if that nation against whom I have pronounced
turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do
unto them.” So that all threatenings of this nature had a condition
implied in them, according to the known and declared manner of God’s
dealing. And the Ninevites did not take it as an absolute sentence of
denunciation: if they had, they would have despaired of any benefit by
fasting and reformation.
But the threatenings of eternal wrath are positive and absolute. There
is nothing in the Word of God from which we can gather any condition.
The only opportunity of escaping is in this world. This is the only
state of trial, wherein we have any offers of mercy, or place for
repentance.
IV. I shall mention several good and important ends, which will be
obtained by the eternal punishment of the wicked.
First, hereby God vindicates his injured majesty. Wherein sinners cast
contempt upon it, and trample it in the dust, God vindicates and honors
it and makes it appear, as it is indeed infinite, by showing that it is
infinitely dreadful to condemn or offend it.
Second, God glorifies his justice. — The glory of God is the greatest
good. It is that which is the chief end of the creation. It is of
greater importance than anything else. But this one way wherein God will
glorify himself, as in the eternal destruction of ungodly men, he will
glorify his justice. Therein he will appear as a just governor of the
world. The vindictive justice of God will appear strict, exact, awful,
and terrible, and therefore glorious.
Third, God hereby indirectly glorifies his grace on the vessels of
mercy. — The saints in heaven will behold the torments of the damned:
“the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever.” Isa. 66:24,
“And they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that
have trangressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall
their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.”
And in Rev. 14:10 it is said, that they shall be tormented in the
presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. So they
will be tormented in the presence also of the glorified saints.
Hereby the saints will be made the more sensible how great their
salvation is. When they shall see how great the misery is from which God
has saved them, and how great a difference he has made between their
state and the state of others, who were by nature (and perhaps for a
time by practice) no more sinful and ill-deserving than any, it will
give them a greater sense of the wonderfulness of God’s grace to them.
Every time they look upon the damned, it will excite in them a lively
and admiring sense of the grace of God, in making them so to differ.
This the apostle informs us is one end of the damnation of ungodly men;
Rom. 9:22-23, “What if God willing to show his wrath, and to make his
power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath
fitted to destruction: and that he might make known the riches of his
glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory?”
The view of the misery of the damned will double the ardor of the love
and gratitude of the saints in heaven.
Fourth, the sight of hell torments will exalt the happiness of the
saints forever. It will not only make them more sensible of the
greatness and freeness of the grace of God in their happiness, but it
will really make their happiness the greater, as it will make them more
sensible of their own happiness. It will give them a more lively relish
of it: it will make them prize it more. When they see others, who were
of the same nature and born under the same circumstances, plunged in
such misery, and they so distinguished, O it will make them sensible how
happy they are. A sense of the opposite misery, in all cases, greatly
increases the relish of any joy or pleasure.
The sight of the wonderful power, the great and dreadful majesty, and
awful justice and holiness of God, manifested in the eternal punishment
of ungodly men, will make them prize his favor and love vastly the more.
And they will be so much the more happy in the enjoyment of it.
APPLICATION
I. From what has been said, we may learn the folly and madness of the
greater part of mankind, in that for the sake of present momentary
gratification, they run the venture of enduring all these eternal
torments. They prefer a small pleasure, or a little wealth, or a little
earthly honor and greatness, which can last but for a moment, to an
escape from this punishment. If it be true that the torments of hell are
eternal, what will it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose
his own soul, or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? What is
there in this world, which is not a trifle and lighter than vanity, in
comparison with these eternal things?
How mad are men, who so often hear of these things and pretend to
believe them; who can live but a little while (a few years); who do not
even expect to live here longer than others of their species ordinarily
do; and who yet are careless about what becomes of themselves in another
world, where there is no change and no end! How mad are they, when they
hear that if they go on in sin, they shall be eternally miserable — that
they are not moved by it, but hear it with as much carelessness and
coldness as if they were no way concerned in the matter — when they know
not but that it may be their case, that they may be suffering these
torments before a week is at an end!
How can men be so careless of such a matter as their own eternal and
desperate destruction and torment! What a strange stupor and
senselessness possesses the hearts of men! How common a thing is it to
see men, who are told from Sabbath to Sabbath of eternal misery, and who
are as mortal as other men, so careless about it that they seem not to
be at all restrained by it from whatever their souls lust after! It is
not half so much their care to escape eternal misery, as it is to get
money and land, and to be considerable in the world, and to gratify
their sense. Their thoughts are much more exercised about these things,
and much more of their care and concern is about them. Eternal misery,
though they lie every day exposed to it, is a thing neglected, it is but
now and then thought of, and then with a great deal of stupidity, and
not with concern enough to stir them up to do anything considerable in
order to escape it. They are not sensible that it is worth their while
to take any considerable pains in order to it. And if they do take pains
for a little while, they soon leave off, and something else takes up
their thoughts and concern.
Thus you see it among young and old. Multitudes of youth lead a careless
life, taking little care about their salvation. So you may see it among
persons of middle age, and with many advanced in years, and when they
certainly draw near to the grave. — Yet these same persons will seem to
acknowledge that the greater part of men go to hell and suffer eternal
misery, and this through carelessness about it. However, they will do
the same. How strange is it that men can enjoy themselves and be at
rest, when they are thus hanging over eternal burnings: at the same
time, having no lease of their lives and not knowing how soon the thread
by which they hang will break. Nor indeed do they pretend to know. And
if it breaks, they are gone: they are lost forever, and there is no
remedy! Yet they trouble not themselves much about it, nor will they
hearken to those who cry to them, and entreat them to take care for
themselves, and labor to get out of that dangerous condition. They are
not willing to take so much pains. They choose not to be diverted from
amusing themselves with toys and vanities. Thus, well might the wise man
say, Ecc. 9:3, “The heart of the sons of men is full of evil. Madness is
in their heart while they live; and after that they go to the dead.” —
How much wiser are those few, who make it their main business to lay a
foundation for eternity, to secure their salvation!
II. I shall improve this subject in a use of exhortation to sinners, to
take care to escape these eternal torments. If they be eternal, one
would think that would be enough to awaken your concern, and excite your
diligence. If the punishment be eternal, it is infinite, as we said
before. And therefore no other evil, no death, no temporary torment that
ever you heard of, or that you can imagine, is anything in comparison
with it, but is as much less and less considerable, not only as a grain
of sand is less than the whole universe, but as it is less than the
boundless space which encompasses the universe. — Therefore here,
First, be entreated to consider attentively how great and awful a thing
eternity is. Although you cannot comprehend it the more by considering,
yet you may be made more sensible that it is not a thing to be
disregarded. — Do but consider what it is to suffer extreme torment
forever and ever: to suffer it day and night from one year to another,
from one age to another, and from one thousand ages to another (and so
adding age to age, and thousands to thousands), in pain, in wailing and
lamenting, groaning and shrieking, and gnashing your teeth — with your
souls full of dreadful grief and amazement, [and] with your bodies and
every member full of racking torture; without any possibility of getting
ease; without any possibility of moving God to pity by your cries;
without any possibility of hiding yourselves from him; without any
possibility of diverting your thoughts from your pain; without any
possibility of obtaining any manner of mitigation, or help, or change
for the better.
Second, do but consider how dreadful despair will be in such torment.
How dismal will it be, when you are under these racking torments, to
know assuredly that you never, never shall be delivered from them. To
have no hope: when you shall wish that you might be turned into nothing,
but shall have no hope of it; when you shall wish that you might be
turned into a toad or a serpent, but shall have no hope of it; when you
would rejoice if you might but have any relief; after you shall have
endured these torments millions of ages, but shall have no hope of it.
After you shall have worn out the age of the sun, moon, and stars, in
your dolorous groans and lamentations, without rest day and night, or
one minute’s ease, yet you shall have no hope of ever being delivered.
After you shall have worn a thousand more such ages, you shall have no
hope, but shall know that you are not one whit nearer to the end of your
torments. But that still there are the same groans, the same shrieks,
the same doleful cries, incessantly to be made by you, and that the
smoke of your torment shall still ascend up forever and ever. Your
souls, which shall have been agitated with the wrath of God all this
while, will still exist to bear more wrath. Your bodies, which shall
have been burning all this while in these glowing flames, shall not have
been consumed, but will remain to roast through eternity, which will not
have been at all shortened by what shall have been past.
You may by considering make yourselves more sensible than you ordinarily
are. But it is a little you can conceive of what it is to have no hope
in such torments. How sinking would it be to you, to endure such pain as
you have felt in this world, without any hopes, and to know that you
never should be delivered from it, nor have one minute’s rest! You can
now scarcely conceive how doleful that would be. How much more to endure
the vast weight of the wrath of God without hope! The more the damned in
hell think of the eternity of their torments, the more amazing will it
appear to them. And alas, they will not be able to keep it out of their
minds! Their tortures will not divert them from it, but will fix their
attention to it. O how dreadful will eternity appear to them after they
shall have been thinking on it for ages together, and shall have so long
an experience of their torments! The damned in hell will have two
infinites perpetually to amaze them, and swallow them up: one is an
infinite God, whose wrath they will bear, and in whom they will behold
their perfect and irreconcilable enemy. The other is the infinite
duration of their torment.
If it were possible for the damned in hell to have a comprehensive
knowledge of eternity, their sorrow and grief would be infinite in
degree. The comprehensive view of so much sorrow, which they must
endure, would cause infinite grief for the present. Though they will not
have a comprehensive knowledge of it, yet they will doubtless have a
vastly more lively and strong apprehension of it than we can have in
this world. Their torments will give them an impression of it. — A man
in his present state, without any enlargement of his capacity, would
have a vastly more lively impression of eternity than he has, if he were
only under some pretty sharp pain in some member of his body, and were
at the same time assured that he must endure that pain forever. His pain
would give him a greater sense of eternity than other men have. How much
more will those excruciating torments, which the damned will suffer,
have this effect!
Besides, their capacity will probably be enlarged, their understandings
will be quicker and stronger in a future state, and God can give them as
great a sense and as strong an impression of eternity, as he pleases, to
increase their grief and torment. — O be entreated, ye that are in a
Christless state and are going on in a way to hell, that are daily
exposed to damnation, to consider these things. If you do not, it will
surely be but a little while before you will experience them, and then
you will know how dreadful it is to despair in hell. And it may be
before this year, or this month, or this week, is at an end: before
another Sabbath, or ever you shall have opportunity to hear another
sermon.
Third, that you may effectually escape these dreadful and awful
torments. Be entreated to flee and embrace him who came into the world
for the very end of saving sinners from these torments, who has paid the
whole debt due to the divine law, and exhausted eternal in temporal
sufferings. What great encouragement is it to those of you who are
sensible that you are exposed to eternal punishment, that there is a
Savior provided, who is able and who freely offers to save you from that
punishment, and that in a way which is perfectly consistent with the
glory of God: yea, which is more to the glory of God than it would be if
you should suffer the eternal punishment of hell. For if you should
suffer that punishment you would never pay the whole of the debt. Those
who are sent to hell never will have paid the whole of the debt which
they owe to God, nor indeed a part which bears any proportion to the
whole. They never will have paid a part which bears so great a
proportion to the whole, as one mite to ten thousand talents. Justice
therefore never can be actually satisfied in your damnation. But it is
actually satisfied in Christ. Therefore he is accepted of the Father,
and therefore all who believe are accepted and justified in him.
Therefore believe in him, come to him, commit your souls to him to be
saved by him. In him you shall be safe from the eternal torments of
hell. Nor is that all: but through him you shall inherit inconceivable
blessedness and glory, which will be of equal duration with the torments
of hell. For, as at the last day the wicked shall go away into
everlasting punishment, so shall the righteous, or those who trust in
Christ, go into life eternal.
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