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 God. 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 God that giveth it, and as the fallen angels, and the
spirits of damned men that are now shut up in the prison of hell, 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 God 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 God has reserved amongst His
treasuries, and intends to bring out in that day of battle and war,
which He purposeth to make upon damned souls in that day.16 And this
God 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. God 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 God, 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 God will
come, when He cometh to curse the souls of sinners, and when He cometh
to defy the ungodly, (2 Thess 1: 7-9).
It is little thought of, but the manner of the coming of God 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 ungodly 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, God 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 trespasses’ (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 God 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 God 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
grass 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 damned soul shall lie in hell. 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
damned 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
hell 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 hell, it concerns thee; and if there be a
God that can and will punish the soul for sin everlastingly in hell, it
concerns thee; because,
2. In the second place, it will be impossible for the damned 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 title 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 God, 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 hell 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 pass
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 God’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 damnation. For, I say, their minds, their
memories, their understandings, and consciences, will all, and always,
be swallowed up with ‘for everl’ yea, they themselves will, by the
means of these things, be their own tormentors for ever.
(3.) There will not be spaces, 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
compassed 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
hell, 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 damnation 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:—
These cry alas! But all in vain;
They stick fast in the mire;
They would be rid of present pain,
Yet set themselves on fire.
Darkness is their perplexity,
Yet do they hate the light;
They always see their misery,
Yet are themselves, all night.
They are all dead, yet live they do,
Yet neither live nor die;
They die to weal, and live to woe—19
This is their misery.
Now will confusion so possess,
These monuments of ire,
And so confound them with distress,
And trouble their desire,
That what to think, or what to do,
Or where to lay their head,
They know not: ’tis the damned’s woe,
To live, and yet be dead.
These castaways would fain have life,
But know they never shall;
They would forget their dreadful plight.
But that sticks fast’st of all.
God, Christ, and heav’n, they know are best,
Yet dare not on them think;
They know the saints enjoy their rest,
While they their tears do drink.
[OF THE CAUSE OF THE LOSS OF THE SOUL.]
FOURTH, And now I am come to the fourth thing—that is, to show you the
cause of the loss of the soul. That men have souls, that souls are
great things, that souls may be lost, this I have showed you already;
wherefore I now proceed to show you the cause of this loss. The cause
is laid down in the 18th chapter of Ezekiel, in these words—‘Behold,
all souls,’ says God, ‘are Mine; as the soul of the father, so also the
soul of the son is Mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die’ (5:4).
[Sin the cause of the loss of his soul.]
First, It is sin, then, or sinning against God, that is the cause of
dying, or damning in hell fire, for that must be meant by dying;
otherwise, to die, according to our ordinary acceptation of the notion,
the soul is not capable of, it being indeed immortal, as hath been
afore asserted. So, then, the soul that sinneth—that is, and
persevering in the same—that soul shall die, be cast away, or damned;
yea, to ascertain us of the undoubted truth of this, the Holy Ghost
doth repeat it again, and that in this very chapter, saying, ‘The soul
that sinneth, it shall die’ (5:20). Now, the soul may divers ways be
said to sin against God; as,
1. In its receiving of sin into its bosom, and in its retaining and
entertaining of it there. Sin must first be received before it can act
in, or be acted by, the soul. Our first parents first received it in
the suggestion or motion, and then acted it. Now it is not here to be
disputed when sin was received by the soul, so much as whether ever the
soul received sin; for if the soul has indeed received sin into itself,
then it has sinned, and by doing so, has made itself an object of the
wrath of God, and a fire brand of hell. I say, I will not here dispute
when sin was received by the soul, but it is apparent enough that it
received it betimes, because in old time every child that was brought
unto the Lord was to be redeemed, and that at a month old, (Exo 13:13;
34:20; Num 18:15, 16); which, to be sure, was very early, and implied
that then, even then, the soul in God’s judgment stood before Him as
defiled and polluted with sin. But although I said I will not dispute
at what time the soul may be said to receive sin, yet it is evident
that it was precedent to the redemption made mention of just before,
and so before the person redeemed had attained the age of a month. And
that God might, in the language of Moses, give us to see cause of the
necessity of this redemption, he first distinguisheth, and saith, ‘The
firstling of a cow, or the firstling of a sheep, or the firstling of a
goat,’ did not need this redemption, for they were clean, or holy. But
the firstborn of men, who was taken in lieu of the rest of the
children, and the ‘firstling of unclean beasts, thou shalt surely
redeem,’ saith He. But why was the firstborn of men coupled with
unclean beasts, but because they are both unclean? The beast was
unclean by God’s ordination, but the other was unclean by sin. Now,
then, it will be demanded, how a soul, before it was a month old, could
receive sin to the making of itself unclean? I answer, There are two
ways of receiving, one active, the other passive; this last is the way
by which the soul at first receiveth sin, and by so receiving, becometh
culpable, because polluted and defiled by it. And this passive way of
receiving is often mentioned in Scripture. Thus the pans received the
ashes, (Exo 27:3); thus the molten sea received three thousand baths,
(2 Chron 4:5); thus the ground receiveth the seed, (Matt 13:20-23); and
this receiving is like that of the wool which receiveth the dye, either
black, white, or red; and as the fire that receiveth the water till it
be all quenched therewith: or as the water receiveth such stinking and
poisonous matter into it, as for the sake of it, it is poured out and
spilt upon the ground. But whence should the soul thus receive sin? I
answer, from the body, while it is in the mother’s belly; the body
comes from polluted man, and therefore is polluted (Psa 51: 5). ‘Who
can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?’ (Job 14:4). The soul comes
from God’s hand, and therefore as so is pure and clean: but being put
into this body, it is tainted, polluted, and defiled with the taint,
stench, and filth of sin; nor can this stench and filth be by man
purged out, when once from the body got into the soul; sooner may the
blackamoor change his skin, or the leopard his spots, than the soul,
were it willing, might purge itself of this pollution. ‘Though thou
wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is
marked before Me, saith the Lord God’ (Jer 2:22).
2. But as I said, the soul has not only received sin, but retains it,
holds it, and shows no kind of resistance. It is enough that the soul
is polluted and defiled, for that is sufficient to provoke God to cast
it away; for which of you would take a cloth annoyed with stinking,
ulcerous sores, to wipe your mouth withal, or to thrust it into your
bosoms? and the soul is polluted with far worse pollution than any such
can be. But this is not all; it retains sin as the wool retains the
dye, or as the infected water receives the stench or poisonous scent; I
say, it retains it willingly; for all the power of the soul is not only
captivated by a seizure of sin upon the soul, but it willingly,
heartily, unanimously, universally falleth in with the natural filth
and pollution that is in sin, to the estranging of itself from God, and
an obtaining of an intimacy and compliance with the devil.
Now this being the state and condition of the soul from the belly,20
yea, from before it sees the light of this world, what can be concluded
but that God is offended with it? For how can it otherwise be, since
there is holiness and justice in God? Hence those that are born of a
woman, whose original is by carnal conception with man, are said to be
as serpents so soon as born. ‘The wicked (and all at first are so) go
astray as soon as they be born, speakings lies. Their poison is like
the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder, that stoppeth
her ear’ (Psa 58:3,4). They go astray from the belly; but that they
would not do, if aught of the powers of their soul were unpolluted.
‘But their poison is like the poison of a serpent.’ Their poison—what
is that? Their pollution, their original pollution, that is as the
poison of a serpent—to wit, not only deadly, for so poison is, but also
hereditary. It comes from the old one, from the sire and dam; yea, it
is also now become connatural to and with them, and is of the same date
with the child as born into the world. The serpent has not her poison,
in the original of it, either from imitation or from other infective
things abroad, though it may by such things be helped forward and
increased; but she brings it with her in her bowels, in her nature, and
it is to her as suitable to her present condition as it is that which
is most sweet and wholesome to other of the creatures. So, then, every
soul comes into the world as poisoned with sin; nay, as such which have
poison connatural to them; for it has not only received sin as the wool
has received the dye, but it retaineth it. The infection is got so
deep, it has taken the black so effectually, that the tint, the very
fire of hell, can never purge the soul therefrom.
And that the soul has received this infection thus early, and that it
retains it so surely, is not only signified by children coming into the
world besmeared in their mother’s blood, and by the firstborn’s being
redeemed at a month old, but also by the first inclinations and actions
of children when they are so come into the world (Exo 26). Who sees not
that lying, pride, disobedience to parents, and hypocrisy, do put forth
themselves in children before they know that they do either well or ill
in so doing, or before they are capable to learn either of these arts
by imitation, or seeing understandingly the same things done first by
others? He that sees not that they do it naturally from a principle,
from an inherent principle, is either blinded, and has retained his
darkness by the same sin as they, or has suffered himself to be swayed
by a delusion from him who at first infused this spawn of sin into
man’s nature.
Nor doth the averseness of children to morality a little demonstrate
what has been said; for as it would make a serpent sick, should one
give it a strong antidote against his poison, so then are children, and
never more than then, disturbed in their minds, when a strict hand and
a stiff rein by moral discipline is maintained over and upon them.
True, sometimes restraining grace corrects them, but that is not of
themselves; but more oft hypocrisy is the great and first moving wheel
to all their seeming compliances with admonitions, which indulgent
parents are apt to overlook, yea, and sometimes, through unadvisedness,
to count for the principles of grace. I speak now of that which comes
before conversion. But as I said before, I would not now dispute, only
I have thought good thus to urge these things to make my assertion
manifest, and to show what is the cause of the damnation of the soul.
3. Again; as the soul receives sin, and retains it, so it also doth
entertain it—that is, countenance, smile upon, and like its complexion
and nature well. A man may detain—that is, hold fast—a thing which yet
he doth not regard; but when he entertains, then he countenances,
likes, and delights in the company. Sin, then, is first received by the
soul, as has been afore explained, and by that reception is polluted
and defiled. This makes it hateful in the eyes of justice: it is now
polluted. Then, secondly, this sin is not only received, but
retained—that is, it sticks so fast, abides so fixedly in the soul,
that it cannot be gotten out; this is the cause of the continuation of
abhorrence; for if God abhors because there is a being of sin there, it
must needs be that he should continue to abhor, since sin continues to
have a being there. But then, in the third place, sin is not only
received, detained, but entertained by the now defiled and polluted
soul; wherefore this must needs be a cause of the continuance of anger,
and that with aggravation. When I say, entertained, I do not mean as
men entertain their enemies, with small and great shot, 21 but as they
entertain those whom they like, and those that are got into their
affections. 22 And therefore the wrath of God must certainly be let out
upon the soul, to the everlasting damnation of it.
Now that the soul doth thus entertain sin, is manifest by these several
particulars—
(1.) It hath admitted it with complacence and delight into every
chamber of the soul; I mean, it has been delightfully admitted to an
entertainment by all the powers or faculties of the soul. The soul hath
chosen it rather than God: it also, at God’s command, refuseth to let
it go; yea, it chooseth that doctrine, and loveth it best, since it
must have a doctrine, that has most of sin and baseness in it (Isa
65:12; 66:3). They ‘say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets,
Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things,
prophesy deceits’ (Isa 30:10). These are signs that the soul with
liking hath entertained sin; and if there be at any time, as indeed
there is, a warrant issued out from the mouth of God to apprehend, to
condemn, and mortify sin, why then,
(2.) These shifts the souls of sinners do presently make for the saving
of sin from those things that by the Word men are commanded to do unto
it—
(a) They will, if possible, hide it, and not suffer it to be
discovered. ‘He that hideth his sins23 shall not prosper’ (Prov 28:13).
And again, they hide it, and refuse to let it go (Job 20:12,13). This
is an evident sign that the soul has a favour for sin, and that with
liking it, entertains it.