Works of John Bunyan Volume I Part 50

He that loseth his life for Christ, shall save it; but he that loseth himself for sin, and for the world, shall lose himself to perfection of loss; he has lost himself, and there is the full point.

There are several things fall under this first head, upon which I would touch a little.

He that has lost himself will never be more at his own dispose.

(1.) He that has lost his soul has lost himself. Now, he that lost himself is no more at his own dispose. While a man enjoys himself, he is at his own dispose. A single man, a free man, a rich man, a poor man, any man that enjoys himself, is at his own dispose. I speak after the manner of men. But he that has lost himself is not at his own dispose. He is, as I may say, now out of his own hands: he has lost himself, his soul-self, his own self, his whole self, by sin, and wrath and h.e.l.l hath found him; he is, therefore, now no more at his own dispose, but at the dispose of justice, of wrath, and h.e.l.l; he is committed to prison, to h.e.l.l prison, there to abide, not at pleasure, not as long and as little time as he will, but the term appointed by his judge: nor may he there choose his own affliction, neither for manner, measure, or continuance. It is G.o.d that will spread the fire and brimstone under him, it is G.o.d that will pile up wrath upon him, and it is G.o.d himself that will blow the fire. And 'the breathof the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it' (Isa 30:33). And thus it is manifest that he that has lost himself, his soul, is no more at his own dispose, but at the dispose of them that find him.

He that hath lost himself, is not at liberty to dispose of what he hath.

(2.) Again, as he that has lost himself is not at his own dispose, so neither is he at liberty to dispose of what he has; for the man that has lost himself has something yet of his own. The text implies that his soul is his when lost, yea, when that and his all, himself is lost; but as he cannot dispose of himself, so he cannot dispose of what he hath. Let me take leave to make out my meaning.

If he that is lost, that has lost himself, has not, notwithstanding, something that in some sense may be called his own, then he that is lost is nothing. The man that is in h.e.l.l has yet the powers, the senses, and pa.s.sions of his soul; for not he nor his soul must be thought to be stripped of these; for then he would be lower than the brute; but yet all these, since he is there, are by G.o.d improved against himself; or, if you will, the point of this man's sword is turned against his own heart, and made to pierce his own liver.

The soul by being in h.e.l.l loseth nothing of its aptness to think, its quickness to pierce, to pry, and to understand; nay, h.e.l.l has ripened it in all these things; but, I say, the soul with its improvements as to these, or anything else, is not in the hand of him that hath lost himself to manage for his own advantage, but in the hand, and in the power, and to be disposed as is thought meet by him into whose revenging hand by sin he has delivered himself--to wit, in the hand of G.o.d. So, then, G.o.d now has the victory, and disposeth of all the powers, senses, and pa.s.sions of the soul for the chastising of him that has lost himself. Now the understanding is only employed and improved in and about the apprehending of such things as will be like daggers at the heart--to wit, about justice, sin, h.e.l.l, and eternity, to grieve and break the spirit of the d.a.m.ned; yea, to break, to wound, and to tear the soul in pieces.

The depths of sin which the man has loved, the good nature of G.o.d whom the man has hated, the blessings of eternity which the soul has despised, shall now be understood by him more than ever, but yet so only, as to increase grief and sorrow, by improving of the good and of the evil of the things understood, to the greater wounding of the spirit; wherefore now, every touch that the understanding shall give to the memory will be as a touch of a red-hot iron, or like a draught of scalding lead poured down the throat. The memory also letteth those things down upon the conscience with no less terror and perplexity. And now the fancy or imagination doth start and stare like a man by fears bereft of wits, and doth exercise itself, or rather is exercised by the hand of revenging justice, so about the breadth and depth of present and future punishments, as to lay the soul as on a burning rack. Now also the judgment, as with a mighty maul, driveth down the soul in the sense and pangs of everlasting misery into that pit that has no bottom; yea, it turneth again, and, as with a hammer, it riveteth every fearful thought and apprehension of the soul so fast that it can never be loosed again for ever and ever. Alas! now the conscience can sleep, be dull, be misled, or batter, no longer; no, it must now cry out; understanding will make it, memory will make it, fancy or imagination will make it. Now, I say, it will cry out of sin, of justice, and of the terribleness of the punishment that hath swallowed him up that has lost himself. Here will be no forgetfulness; yet nothing shall be thought on but that which will wound and kill; here will be no time, cause, or means for diversion; all will stick and gnaw like a viper. Now the memory will go out to where sin was heretofore committed, it will also go out to the word that did forbid it. The understanding also, and the judgment too, will now consider of the pretended necessity that the man had to break the commandments of G.o.d, and of the seasonableness of the cautions and of the convictions which were given him to forbear, by all which more load will be laid upon him that has lost himself; for here all the powers, senses, and pa.s.sions of the soul must be made self-burners, self-tormentors, self-executioners, by the just judgment of G.o.d; also all that the will shall do in this place shall be but to wish for ease, but the wish shall only be such as shall only seem to lift up, for the cable rope of despair shall with violence pull him down again. The will indeed will wish for ease, and so will the mind, etc., but all these wishers will by wishing arrive to no more advantage but to make despair which is the most twinging stripe of h.e.l.l, to cut yet deepeer into the whole soul of him that has lost himself; wherefore, after all that can be wished for, they return again to their burning chair, where they sit and bewail their misery. Thus will all the powers, senses, and pa.s.sions of the soul of him that has lost himself be out of his own power to dispose for his advantage, and will be only in the hand and under the management of the revenging justice of G.o.d. And herein will that state of the d.a.m.ned be worse than it is now with the fallen angels; for though the fallen angels are now cast down to h.e.l.l, in chains, and sure in themselves at last to partake of eternal judgment, yet at present they are not so bound up as the d.a.m.ned sinner shall be; for notwithstanding their chains, and their being the prisoners of the horrible h.e.l.ls, yet they have a kind of liberty granted them, and that liberty will last till the time appointed, to tempt, to plot, to contrive, and invent their mischiefs, against the Son of G.o.d and His (Job 1:7; 2:2). And though Satan knows that this at last will work for his future condemnation, yet at present he finds it some diversion to his trembling mind, and obtains, through his so busily employing of himself against the gospel and its professors, something to sport and refresh himself withal; yea, and doth procure to himself some small crumbs of minutes of forgetfulness of his own present misery and of the judgment that is yet to pa.s.s upon him; but this privilege will then be denied to him that has lost himself; there will be no cause nor matter for diversion; there it will; as in the old world, rain day and night fire and brimstone from the Lord out of heaven upon them (Rev 14:10,11). Misery is fixed; the worm will be always sucking at and gnawing of, their soul; also, as I have said afore, all the powers, senses, and pa.s.sions of the soul will throw their darts inwards, yea, of G.o.d will be made to do it, to the utter, unspeakable, and endless torment of him that has lost himself. Again,

They cannot sit down by the loss.

(3.) All therefore that he that has lost himself can do is, to sit down by the loss. Do I say, he can do this?--oh! if that could be, it would be to such, a mercy; I must therefore here correct myself--That they cannot do; for to sit down by the loss implies a patient enduring; but there will be no such grace as patience in h.e.l.l with him that has lost himself; here, will also want a bottom for patience--to wit, the providence of G.o.d; for a providence of G.o.d, though never so dismal, is a bottom for patience to the afflicted; but men go not to h.e.l.l by providence, but by sin. Now sin being the cause, other effects are wrought; for they that go to h.e.l.l, and that there miserably perish, shall never say it was G.o.d by His providence that brought them hither, and so shall not have that on which to lean and stay themselves.

They shall justify G.o.d, and lay the fault upon themselves concluding that it was sin with which their souls did voluntarily work--yea, which their souls did suck in as sweet milk--that is the cause of this their torment. Now this will work after another manner, and will produce quite another thing than patience, or a patient enduring of their torment; for their seeing that they are not only lost, but have lost themselves, and that against the ordinary means that of G.o.d was provided to prevent that loss; yea, when they shall see what a base thing sin is, how that it is the very worst of things, and that which also makes all things bad, and that for the sake of that they have lost themselves, this will make them fret, and, gnash, and gnaw with anger themselves; this will set all the pa.s.sions of the soul, save love, for that I think will be stark dead, all in a rage, all in a self-tormenting fire. You know there is nothing that will sooner put a man into and manage his rage against himself than will a full conviction in his conscience that by his own only folly, and that against caution, and counsel, and reason to the contrary, he hath brought himself into extreme distress and misery.

But how much more will it make this fire burn when he shall see all this is come upon him for a toy, for a bauble, for a thing that is worse than nothing!

Why, this is the case with him that has lost himself; and therefore he cannot sit down by the loss, cannot be at quiet under the sense of his loss. For sharply and wonderful piercingly, considering the loss of himself, and the cause thereof, which is sin, he falls to a tearing of himself in pieces with thoughts as hot as the coals of juniper, and to a gnashing upon himself for this; also the Divine wisdom and justice of G.o.d helpeth on this self-tormentor in his self-tormenting work, by holding the justice of the law against which he has offended, and the unreasonableness of such offence, continually before his face. For if, to an enlightened man who is in the door of hope, the sight of all past evil practices will work in him 'vexation of spirit,' to see what fools we were, (Eccl 1:14); how can it but be to them that go to h.e.l.l a vexation only to understand the report, the report that G.o.d did give them of sin, of His grace, of h.e.l.l, and of everlasting d.a.m.nation, and yet that they should be such fools to go thither? (Isa 28:19). But to pursue this head no further, I will come now to the next thing.

[The loss of the soul a double loss.]

Secondly, As the loss of the soul is, in the nature of the loss, a loss peculiar to itself, so the loss of the soul is a double loss; it is, I say, a loss that is double, lost both by man and G.o.d; man has lost it, and by that loss has lost himself; G.o.d has lost it, and by that loss it is cast away. And to make this a little plainer unto you, I suppose it will be readily granted that men do lose their souls. But now how doth G.o.d lose it? The soul is G.o.d's as well as man's--man's because it is of themselves; G.o.d's because it is His creature; G.o.d has made us this soul, and hence it is that all souls are His (Jer 38:16; Eze 18:4).

Now the loss of the soul doth not only stand in the sin of man, but in the justice of G.o.d. Hence He says, 'What is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away' (Luke 9:25). Now this last clause, 'or be cast away,' is not spoken to show what he that has lost his soul has done, though a man may also be said to cast away himself; but to show what G.o.d will do to those that have lost themselves, what G.o.d will add to that loss.

G.o.d will not cast away a righteous man, but G.o.d will cast away the wicked, such a wicked one as by the text is under our consideration (Job 8:20; Matt 13:50). This, then, is that which G.o.d will add, and so make the sad state of them that lose themselves double. The man for sin has lost himself, and G.o.d by justice will cast him away; according to that of Abigail to David, 'The soul of my lord,' said she, 'shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord thy G.o.d; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall He sling out, as out of the middle of a sling' (1 Sam 25:29). So that here is G.o.d's hand as well as man's; man's by sin, and G.o.d's by justice. G.o.d shall cast them away; wherefore in the text above mentioned he doth not say, or cast away himself, as meaning the act of the man whose soul is lost; but, 'or be cast away' (Luke 9:25). Supposing a second person joining with the man himself in the making up of the greatness of the loss of the soul--to wit, G.o.d himself, who will verily cast away that man who has lost himself. G.o.d shall cast them away--that is, exclude them His favour or protection, and deliver them up to the due reward of their deed! He shall shut them out of His heaven, and deliver them up to their h.e.l.l; He shall deny them a share in his glory, and shall leave them to their own shame; He shall deny them a portion in His peace, and shall deliver them up to the torments of the devil, and of their own guilty consciences; He shall cast them out of His affection, pity, and compa.s.sion, and shall leave them to the flames that they by sin have kindled, and to the worm, or biting c.o.c.katrice, that they themselves have hatched, nursed, and nourished in their bosoms. And this will make their loss double, and so a loss that is loss to the uttermost, a loss above every loss. A man may cast away himself and not be cast away of G.o.d; a man may be cast away by others, and not be cast away of G.o.d; yea, what way soever a man be cast away, if he be not cast away for sin, he is safe, he is yet found, and in a sure hand. But for a man so to lose himself as by that loss to provoke G.o.d to cast him away too, this is fearful.

The casting away, then, mentioned in Luke, is a casting away by the hand of G.o.d, by the revenging hand of G.o.d; and it supposeth two things--1. G.o.d's abhorrence of such a soul. 2. G.o.d's just repaying of it for its wickedness by way of retaliation.

1. It supposeth G.o.d's abhorrence of the soul. That which we abhor, that we cast from us, and put out of our favour and respect with disdain, and a loathing thereof. So when G.o.d teacheth Israel to loathe and abhor their idols, He bids them 'to cast away their very covering as a stinking and menstruous cloth, and to say unto it, 'Get you hence' (Isa 30:22), 'He shall gather the good into vessels, and cast the bad away' (Matt 13:48; 25:41). Cast them out of My presence. Well, but whither must they go? The answer is, Into h.e.l.l, into utter darkness, into the fire that is prepared for the devil and his angels. Wherefore, to be cast away, to be cast away of G.o.d, it showeth unto us G.o.d's abhorrence of such souls, and how vile and loathsome such are in His divine eyes. And the similitude of Abigail's sling, mentioned before, doth yet further show us the greatness of this abhorrence--'The souls of thine enemies,' said she, 'G.o.d shall sling out as out of the middle of a sling.' When a man casts a stone away with a sling, then he casteth it furthest from him, for with a sling he can cast a stone further than by his hand. 'And he,' saith the text, 'shall cast them away as with a sling.' But that is not all, neither: for it is not only said that He shall sling away their souls, but that He shall sling them away as 'out of the middle of a sling.' When a stone is placed, to be cast away, in the middle of a sling, then doth the slinger cast it furthest of all. Now G.o.d is the slinger, abhorrence is His sling, the lost soul is the stone, and it is placed in the very middle of the sling, and is from thence cast away. And, therefore, it is said again, that 'such shall go into utter, outer darkness'--that is, furthest off of all. This therefore shows us how G.o.d abhors that man that for sin has lost himself. And well he may; for such an one has not only polluted and defiled himself with sin; and that is the most offensive thing to G.o.d under heaven; but he has abused the handiwork of G.o.d. The soul, as I said before, is the workmans hip of G.o.d, yea, the top-piece that He hath made in all the visible world; also He made it for to be delighted with it, and to admit it into communion with Himself. Now for man thus to abuse G.o.d; for a man to take his soul, which is G.o.d's, and prostrate it to sin, to the world, to the devil, and every beastly l.u.s.t, flat against the command of G.o.d, and notwithstanding the soul was also His; this is horrible, and calls aloud upon that G.o.d whose soul this is to abhor, and to show, by all means possible, His abhorrence of such an one.

2. As this casting of them away supposeth G.o.d's abhorrence of them, so it supposeth G.o.d's just repaying of them for their wickedness by way of retaliation.

G.o.d all the time of the exercise of His long-suffering and forbearance towards them, did call upon them, wait upon them, send after them by His messengers, to turn them from their evil ways; but they despised at, they mocked, the messengers of the Lord. Also they shut their eyes, and would not see; they stopped their ears, and would not understand; and did harden themselves against the beseeching of their G.o.d. Yea, all that day long He did stretch out His hand towards them, but they chose to be a rebellious and gainsaying people; yea, they said unto G.o.d, 'Depart from us;' and 'what is the Almighty' that we should pray unto him? (Hosea 6:2; Rev 16:21; Job 21:14,15; Mal 3:14).

And of all these things G.o.d takes notice, writes them down, and seals them up for the time to come, and will bring them out and spread them before them, saying, I have called, and you have refused; I have stretched out Mine hand, and no man regarded; I have exercised patience, and gentleness, and long-suffering towards you, and in all that time you despised Me, and cast Me behind your back; and now the time, and the exercise of My patience, when I waited upon you, and suffered your manners, and did bear your contempts and scorns, is at an end; wherefore I will now arise, and come forth to the judgment that I have appointed.

But, Lord, saith the sinner, we turn now.

But now; saith G.o.d, turning is out of season; the day of My patience is ended.

But, Lord, says the sinner, behold our cries.

But you did not, says G.o.d, behold nor regard My cries.

But, Lord, saith the sinner, let our beseeching find place in Thy compa.s.sions.

But, saith G.o.d, I also beseeched, and I was not heard.

But Lord, says the sinner, our sins lie hard upon us.

But I offered you pardon when time was, says G.o.d, and then you did utterly reject it.

But, Lord, says the sinner, let us therefore have it now.

But now the door is shut, saith G.o.d.

And what then? Why, then, by way of retaliation, G.o.d will serve them as they have served Him; and so the wind-up of the whole will be this--they shall have like for like. Time was when they would have none of Him, and now will G.o.d have none of them. Time was when they cast G.o.d behind their back, and now He will cast away their soul. Time was when they would not heed His calls, and now He will not heed their cries. Time was when they abhorred Him, and now His soul also abhorreth them (Zech 11:8). This is now by way of retaliation--like for like, scorn for scorn, repulse for repulse, contempt for contempt; according to that which is written, 'Therefore it is come to pa.s.s, that as He cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the Lord' (Zech 7:13). And thus I have also showed you that the loss of the soul is double--lost by man, lost by G.o.d.

But oh! who thinks of this? who, I say, that now makes light of G.o.d, of His Word, His servants, and ways, once dreams of such retaliation, though G.o.d to warn them hath even, in the day of His patience, threatened to do it in the day of His wrath, saying, 'Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out My hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all My counsel, and would none of My reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer; they shall seek Me early, but they shall not find Me' (Prov 1:24-28). I will do unto them as they have done unto Me; and what unrighteousness is in all this? But,

[The loss of the soul most fearful.]

Thirdly, As the loss of the soul is a loss peculiar to itself, and a loss double, so, in the third place, it is a loss most fearful, because it is a loss attended with the most heavy curse of G.o.d.

This is manifest both in the giving of the rule of life, and also in, and at the time of execution for, the breach of that rule. It is manifest at the giving of the rule--'Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen' (Deu 27:26; Gal 3:10). It is also manifest that it shall be so at the time of execution--'Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels' (Matt 25:41). What this curse is, none do know so well as G.o.d that giveth it, and as the fallen angels, and the spirits of d.a.m.ned men that are now shut up in the prison of h.e.l.l, and bear it. But certainly it is the chief and highest of all kind of curses. To be cursed in the basket and in the store, in the womb and in the barn, in my cattle and in my body, are but flea-bitings to this, though they are also insupportable in themselves; only in general it may be described thus. But to touch upon this curse, it lieth in deprivation of all good, and in a being swallowed up of all the most fearful miseries that a holy, and just, and eternal G.o.d can righteously inflict, or lay upon the soul of a sinful man. Now let Reason here come in and exercise itself in the most exquisite manner; yea, let him now count up all, and all manner of curses and torments that a reasonable and an immortal soul is, or can be made capable of, and able to suffer under, and when he has done, he shall come infinitely short of this great anathema, this master curse which G.o.d has reserved amongst His treasuries, and intends to bring out in that day of battle and war, which He purposeth to make upon d.a.m.ned souls in that day.16 And this G.o.d will do, partly as a retaliation, as the former, and partly by way of revenge. 1. By way of retaliation: 'As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him.' Again, 'As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment, so let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones; let it be unto him as a garment which covereth him, and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually' (Psa 109:17-19). 'Let this,' saith Christ, 17 'be the reward of mine adversaries from the Lord' (vs. 20 etc).

2. As this curse comes by way of retaliation, so it cometh by way of revenge. G.o.d will right the wrongs that sinners have done Him, will repay vengeance for the despite and reproach wherewith they have affronted Him, and will revenge the quarrel of His covenant.

And the beginning of revenges are terrible, (Deu 31:41,42); what, then, will the whole execution be, when He shall come in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not G.o.d, and that obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ? And, therefore, this curse is executed in wrath, in jealousy, in anger, in fury; yea, the heavens and the earth shall be burned up with the fire of that jealousy in which the great G.o.d will come, when He cometh to curse the souls of sinners, and when He cometh to defy the unG.o.dly, (2 Thess 1: 7-9).

It is little thought of, but the manner of the coming of G.o.d to judge the world declares what the souls of impenitent sinners must look for then. It is common among men, when we see the form of a man's countenance changed, when we see fire sparkle out of his eyes, when we read rage and fury in every cast of his face, even before he says aught, or doth aught either, to conclude that some fearful thing is now to be done (Dan 3:19,23). Why, it is said of Christ when He cometh to judgment, that the heavens and the earth fly away, as not being able to endure His looks, (Rev 20:11,12); that His angels are clad in flaming fire, and that the elements melt with fervent heat; and all this is, that the perdition of unG.o.dly men might be completed, 'from the presence of the Lord, in the heat of His anger, from the glory of His power' (2 Pet 3:7; 2 Thess 1:8,9). Therefore, G.o.d will now be revenged, and so ease Himself of His enemies, when He shall cause curses like millstones to fall as thick as hail on 'the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his trespa.s.ses' (Psa 68:2l). But,

[The loss of the soul a loss everlasting.]

Fourthly, As the loss of the soul is a loss peculiar to itself, a loss double, and a loss most fearful, so it is a loss everlasting.

The soul that is lost is never to be found again, never to be recovered again, never to be redeemed again, its banishment from G.o.d is everlasting; the fire in which it burns, and by which it must be tormented, is a fire that is ever, everlasting fire, everlasting burnings; the adder, the snake, the stinging worm, dieth not, nor is the fire quenched; and this is a fearful thing. A man may endure to touch the fire with a short touch, and away; but to dwell with everlasting burnings, that is fearful. Oh, then, what is dwelling with them, and in them, for ever and ever! We use to say, light burdens far carried are heavy; what, then, will it be to bear that burden, that guilt, that the law and the justice and wrath of G.o.d will lay upon the lost soul for ever? Now tell the stars, now tell the drops of the sea, and now tell the blades of gra.s.s that are spread upon the face of all the earth, if thou canst: and yet sooner mayest thou do this than count the thousands of millions of thousands of years that a d.a.m.ned soul shall lie in h.e.l.l. Suppose every star that is now in the firmament was to burn, by himself, one by one, a thousand years apiece, would it not be a long while before the last of them was burned out? and yet sooner might that be done than the d.a.m.ned soul be at the end of punishment.

There are three things couched under this last head that will fill up the punishment of a sinner. 1. The first is, that it is everlasting.

2. The second is, that, therefore, it will be impossible for the souls in h.e.l.l ever to say, Now we are got half way through our sorrows. 3. The third is, and yet every moment they shall endure eternal punishment.

1. The first I have touched upon already, and, therefore, shall not enlarge; only I would ask the wanton or unthinking sinner, whether twenty, or thirty, or forty years of the deceitful pleasures of sin is so rich a prize, as that a man may well venture the ruin, that everlasting burnings will make upon his soul for the obtaining of them, and living a few moments in them. Sinner, consider this before I go any further, or before thou readest one line more. If thou hast a soul, it concerns thee; if there be a h.e.l.l, it concerns thee; and if there be a G.o.d that can and will punish the soul for sin everlastingly in h.e.l.l, it concerns thee; because,

2. In the second place, it will be impossible for the d.a.m.ned soul ever to say, I am now got half way through my sorrows. That which has no end, has no middle. Sinner, make a round circle, or ring, upon the ground, of what bigness thou wilt; this done, go thy way upon that circle, or ring, until thou comest to the end thereof; but that, sayest thou, I can never do; because it has no end. I answer, but thou mayest as soon do that as wade half way through the lake of fire that is prepared for impenitent souls. Sinner, what wilt thou take to make a mountain of sand that will reach as high as the sun is at noon? I know that thou wilt not be engaged in such a work; because it is impossible thou shouldst ever perform it. But I dare say the task is greater when the sinner has let out himself to sin for a servant; because the wages is everlasting burnings. I know thou mayest perform thy service; but the wages, the judgment, the punishment is so endless, that thou, when thou hast been in it more millions of years than can be numbered, art not, nor never yet shalt be, able to say, I am half way through it. And yet,

3. That soul shall partake every moment of that punishment that is eternal. 'Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire' (Jude 7).

(1.) They shall endure eternal punishment in the nature of punishment.

There is no punishment here wherewith one man can chastise another that can deserve a greater t.i.tle than that of transient, or temporary punishment; but the punishment there is eternal, even in every stripe that is given, and in every moment that it grappleth with the soul; even every twinge, every gripe, and every stroke that justice inflicteth, leaveth anguish that, of their condition according as will best stand with in the nature of punishment, is eternal behind it. It is eternal, because it is from G.o.d, and lasts for ever and ever. The justice that inflicts it has not a beginning, and it is this justice in the operations of it that is always dealing with the soul.

(2.) All the workings of the soul under this punishment are such as cause it, in its sufferings, to endure that which is eternal. It can have no thought of the end of punishment, but it is presently recalled by the decreed gulf that bindeth them under perpetual punishment. The great fixed gulf, they know, will keep them in their present place, and not suffer them to go to heaven (Luke 16:26).

And now there is no other place but heaven or h.e.l.l to be in; for then the earth, and the works that are therein, will be burned up.

Read the text, 'But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens shall pa.s.s away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also and all the works that are therein, shall be burned up' (2 Peter 3:10). If, then, there will be no third place, it standeth in their minds, as well as in G.o.d's decree, that their punishments shall be eternal; so, then, sorrows, anguish, tribulation, grief, woe, and pain, will, in every moment of its abiding upon the soul, not only flow from thoughts of what has been, and what is, but also from what will be, and that for ever and ever. Thus every thought that is truly grounded in the cause and nature of their state will roll, toss, and tumble them up and down in the cogitations and fearful apprehensions of the lastingness of their d.a.m.nation. For, I say, their minds, their memories, their understandings, and consciences, will all, and always, be swallowed up with 'for ever;' yea, they themselves will, by the means of these things, be their own tormentors for ever.

(3.) There will not be s.p.a.ces, as days, months, years, and the like, as now; though we make bold so to speak, the better to present our thoughts to each other's capacities; for then there shall be time no longer; also, day and night shall then be come to an end. 'He hath compa.s.sed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end' (Job 26:10). Until the end of light with darkness.

Now when time, and day, and night, are come to an end, then there comes in eternity, as there was before the day, and night, or time, was created; and when this is come, punishment nor glory must none of them be measured by days, or months, or years, but by eternity itself. Nor shall those concerned either in misery or glory reckon of their now new state, as they need to reckon of things in this world; but they shall be suited in their capacities, in their understandings and apprehensions, to judge and count of their condition according as will best stand with their state in eternity.18

Could we but come to an understanding of things done in heaven and h.e.l.l, as we understand how things are done in this world, we should be strangely amazed to see how the change of places and of conditions has made a change in the understandings of men, and in the manner of their enjoyment of things. But this we must let alone till the next world, and until our launching into it; and then, whether we be of the right or left hand ones, we shall well know the state and condition of both kingdoms. In the meantime, let us addict ourselves to the belief of the Scriptures of truth, for therein is revealed the way to that of eternal life, and how to escape the d.a.m.nation of the soul (Matt 25:33). But thus much for the loss of the soul, unto which let me add, for a conclusion, these verses following:--