that death hath seized upon every soul already; for the Scripture
saith, that every natural or unconverted man is dead (Eph 2:1-3). Dead!
How? Is his body dead? No, verily; his body liveth, but his soul is
dead (1 Tim 5:6). Dead! But with what death? Dead to God, and to all
things gospelly good, by reason of that benumbing, stupifying, and
senselessness, that, by God’s just judgment for and by sin, hath
swallowed up the soul. Yea, if you observe, you shall see that the soul
goeth first, or before, in punishment, not only by what has been said
already, in that the soul is first made a partaker of death, but in
that God first deals with the soul by convictions, yea, and terrors,
perhaps, while the body is well; or, in that He giveth up the soul to
judicial hardness and further blindness, while He leaveth the body to
do His office in the world; yea, and also when the day of death and
dissolution is come, the body is spared, while the soul is tormented in
unutterable torment in hell. And so, I say, it shall be spared, and the
clods of the valley shall be sweet unto it, while the soul mourneth in
hell for sin. It is true, at the day of judgment, because that is the
last and final judgment of God on men, then the body and soul shall be
re-united, or joined together again, and shall then, together, partake
of that recompence for their wickedness which is meet. When I say, the
body is spared and the soul tormented, I mean not that the body is not
then, at death, made to partake of the wages of sin, ‘for the wages of
sin is death’ (Rom 3:23). But I mean, the body partakes then but of
temporal death, which, as to sense and feeling, is sometimes over
presently, and then resteth in the grave, while the soul is tormenting
in hell. Yea, and why is death suffered to slay the body? I dare say,
not chiefly for that the indignation of God most burneth against the
body; but the body being the house for the soul in this world, God even
pulls down this body, that the soul may be stript naked, and being
stript, may be carried to prison, to the place where damned souls are,
there to suffer in the beginning of suffering, that punishment that
will be endless.
Answer 2. Therefore, the soul must be the part most sorely punished,
because justice must be distributed with equity. God is a God of
knowledge and judgment; by Him actions are weighed; actions in order to
judgment (1 Sam 2). Now, by weighing of actions, since He finds the
soul to have the deepest hand in sin; and He says that He hath so, of
equity the soul is to bear the burden of punishment. ‘Shall not the
Judge of all the earth do right’ in His famous distributing of
judgment? (Gen 18:25). ‘He will not lay upon man more than right, that
he should enter into judgment with God’ (Job 34:23). The soul, since
deepest in sin, shall also be deepest in punishment. ‘Shall one man
sin,’ said Moses, ‘and wilt Thou be wroth with all the congregation?’
(Num 1:22). He pleads here for equity in God’s distributing of
judgment; yea, and so exact is God in the distribution thereof, that He
will not punish heathens so as He will punish Jews; wherefore He saith,
‘Of the Jew first,’ or chiefly, ‘and also of the Gentile’ (Rom 2:9).
Yea, in hell He has prepared several degrees of punishment for the
several sorts or degrees of offenders; And some ‘shall receive greater
damnation’ (Luke 22:47). And will it not be unmeet for us to think,
since God is so elect in all His doings, that He will, without His
weights and measures, give to soul and body, as I may say, carelessly,
not severally, their punishments, according to the desert and merit of
each?
Answer 3. The punishment of the soul in hell must needs, to be sure, as
to degree, differ from the punishment of the body there. When I say,
differ, I mean, must needs be greater, whether the body be punished
with the same fire with the soul, or fire of another nature. If it be
punished with the same fire, yet not in the same way; for the fire of
guilt, with the apprehensions of indignation and wrath, are most
properly felt and apprehended by the soul, and by the body by virtue of
its union with the soul; and so felt by the body, if not only, yet, I
think, mostly, by way of sympathy with the soul; and the cause, we say,
is worse than the disease; and if the wrath of God, and the
apprehensions of it, as discharging itself for sin, and the breach of
the law, be that with which the soul is punished, as sure it is: then
the body is punished by the effects, or by those influences that the
soul, in its torments, has upon the body, by virtue of that great
oneness and union that is between them.
But if there be a punishment prepared for the body distinct in kind
from that which is prepared for the soul, yet it must be a punishment
inferior to that which is prepared for the soul; not that the soul and
body shall be severed, but being made of things distinct, their
punishments will be by that which is most suitable to each. I say, it
must be inferior, because nothing can be so hot, so tormenting, so
intolerably insupportable, as the quickest apprehensions of, and the
immediate sinking under, that guilt and indignation that is
proportional to the offence. Should all the wood, and brimstone, and
combustible matter on earth be gathered together for the tormenting of
one body, yet that cannot yield that torment to that which the sense of
guilt and burning-hot application of the indignation of God will do to
the soul; yea, suppose the fire wherewith the body is tormented in hell
should be seven times hotter than any of our fire; yea, suppose it,
again, to be seven times hotter than that which is seven times hotter
than ours, yet it must, suppose it to be but created fire, be
infinitely short, as to tormenting operations, of the unspeakable wrath
of God, when in the heat thereof He applieth it to, and doth punish the
soul for sin in hell therewith. So, then, whether the body be tormented
with the same fire wherewith the soul is tormented, or whether the fire
be of another kind, yet it is not possible that it should bear the same
punishment as to degree, because, or for the causes I have showed. Nor,
indeed, is it meet it should, because the body has not sinned so, so
grievously as the soul has done; and God proportioneth the punishment
suitable to the offence.
Answer 4. With the soul by itself are the most quick and suitable
apprehensions of God and His wrath; wherefore, that must needs be made
partaker of the sorest punishment in hell; it is the soul that now is
the most subtle at discerning, and it is the soul that will be so; then
conscience, memory, and understanding, and mind; these will be the seat
of torment, since the understanding will let wrath immediately upon
these, from what it apprehends of that wrath; conscience will let the
wrath of God immediately upon these, from what it fearfully feels of
that wrath; the memory will then, as a vessel, receive and retain up to
the brim of this wrath, even as it receiveth by the understanding and
conscience, the cause of this wrath, and considers the durableness of
it; so, then, the soul is the seat and the receiver of wrath, even as
it was the receiver and seat of sin; here, then, is sin and wrath upon
the soul, the soul in the body, and so soul and body tormented in hell
fire.
Answer 5. The soul will be most tormented, because strongest; the
biggest burden must lie upon the strongest part, especially since,
also, it is made capable of it by its sin. The soul must bear its own
punishment, and a great part of the body’s too, forasmuch as, so far as
apprehension goes, the soul will be quicker at the work than the body.
True, the body, by the help of the soul, will see too, but the soul
will see yet abundantly further. And good reason that the soul should
bear part of the punishment of the body, because it was through its
allurements that the body yielded to help the soul to sin. The devil
presented sin, the soul took it by the body, and now devil, and soul,
and body, and all must be lost, cast away; that is, damned in hell for
sin; but the soul must be the burden bearer.
Objection. But you say, Doth not this give encouragement to sinners to
give way to the body to be in all its members loose, and vain, and
wicked, as instruments to sin?
Answer. No; forasmuch as the body shall also have his share in
punishment. For though I have said the soul shall have more punishment
than the body, yet I have not said, that the body shall at all be eased
by that; no, the body will have its due. And for the better making out
of my answer further, consider of these following particulars:—
(1.) The body will be the vessel to hold the tormented soul in; this
will be something; therefore man, damned man, is called a vessel of
wrath, a vessel, and that in both body and soul (Rom 9:22). The soul
receiveth wrath unto itself, and the body holdeth that soul that has
thus received, and is tormented with, the wrath of God. Now the body
being a vessel to hold this soul that is thus possessed with the wrath
of God, must needs itself be afflicted and tormented with that torment,
because of its union with the body; therefore the Holy Ghost saith,
‘His flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall
mourn’ (Job 14:22). Both shall have their torment and misery, for that
both joined hand in hand in sin, the soul to bring it to the birth, and
the body to midwife it into the world; therefore it saith again, with
reference to the body, ‘Let the curse come into his bowels like water,
and like oil into his bones.’ Let it be unto him as the garment which
covereth him, and for a girdle, etc. (Psa 109:17-19). The body, then,
will be tormented as well as the soul, by being a vessel to hold that
soul that is now possessed and distressed with the unspeakable wrath
and indignation of the Almighty God, and this will be a great deal, if
you consider,
(2.) That the body, as a body, will, by reason of its union with the
soul, be as sensible, and so as capable in its kind, to receive
correction and torment as ever, nay, I think more; for if the quickness
of the soul giveth quickness of sense to the body, as in some case, at
least, I am apt to think it doth, then forasmuch as the soul will now
be most quick, most sharp in apprehension, so the body, by reason of
union and sympathy with the soul, will be most quick and most sharp as
to sense. Indeed, if the body should not receive and retain sense, yea,
all its senses, by reason of its being a vessel to hold the soul, the
torment of the soul could not as torment, be ministered to the body, no
more than the fire tormented the king of Babylon’s furnace (Dan 3). Or
than the king of Moab’s lime kiln was afflicted because the king of
Edom’s bones were burnt therein. But now the body has received again
its senses, now therefore it must, yea, it cannot choose but must feel
that wrath of God that is let out, yea, poured out like floods of water
into the soul. 27 Remember also, that besides what the body receiveth
from the soul by reason of its union and sympathy therewith, there is a
punishment, and instruments of punishment, though I will not pretend to
tell you exactly what it is, prepared for the body for its joining with
the soul in sin, therewith to be punished; a punishment, I say, that
shall fall immediately upon the body, and that such an one as will most
fitly suit with the nature of the body, as wrath and guilt do most
fitly suit the nature of the soul.
(3.) Add to these, the durable condition that the body in this state is
now in with the soul. Time was when the soul died, and the body lived,
and the soul was tormented while the body slept and rested in the dust;
but now these things are past; for at the day of judgment, as I said,
these two shall be re-united, and that which once did separate them, be
destroyed; then of necessity they must abide together, and, as
together, abide the punishment prepared for them; and this will greaten
the torment of the body.
Death was once the wages of sin, and a grievous curse; but might the
damned meet with it in hell, they would count it a mercy, because it
would separate soul and body, and not only so, but take away all sense
from the body, and make it incapable of suffering torment; yea, I will
add, and by that means give the soul some ease; for without doubt, as
the torments of the soul extend themselves to the body, so the torments
of the body extend themselves to the soul; nor can it be otherwise,
because of union and sympathy. But death, natural death, shall be
destroyed, and there shall be no more natural death, no, not in hell (1
Cor 15:26). And now it shall happen to men, as it hath done in less and
inferior judgments. They shall seek death, and desire to die, and death
shall not be found by them (Job 3:21; Rev 9:6). Thus therefore they
must abide together; death that used to separate them asunder is now
slain—1. Because it was an enemy in keeping Christ’s body in the grave;
and, 2. Because a friend to carnal men in that, though it was a
punishment in itself, yet while it lasted and had dominion over the
body of the wicked, it hindered them of that great and just judgment
which for sin was due unto them; and this is the third discovery of the
manner and way of punishing of the body. But,
(4.) There will then be such things to be seen and heard, which the eye
and the ear—to say no more than has been said of the sense of
feeling—will see and hear, that will greatly aggravate the punishment
of the body in hell; for though the eye is the window, and the ear a
door for the soul to look out at, and also to receive in by, yet
whatever goeth in at the ear or the eye leaves influence upon the body,
whether it be that which the soul delighteth in, or that which the soul
abhorreth; for as the eye affecteth the heart, or soul (Lam 3:51) so
the eye and ear, by hearing and beholding, doth ofttimes afflict the
body. ‘When I heard, my belly trembled—rottenness entered into my
bones.’ (Hab 3:16).
Now, I say, as the body after its resurrection, to damnation, to
everlasting shame and contempt (Dan 12:2; John 5:29) will receive all
its senses again, so it will have matter to exercise them upon, not
only to the letting into the soul those aggravations which they by
hearing, feeling, and seeing are capable to let in thither, but, I say,
they will have matter and things to exercise themselves upon for the
helping forward of the torment of the body. Under temporal judgments of
old, the body as well as the soul had no ease, day or night, and that
not only by reason of what was felt, but by reason of what was heard
and seen. ‘In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! And
at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning!’ (Deu 28:67). 1.
‘For the fear of thine heart, wherewith thou shalt fearl’ 2. ‘And for
the sight of thine eyes, which thou shalt see.’ Nay, He tells them a
little before, that they should be mad for the sight of their eyes
which they should see (verse 34).
See! why, what shall they see? Why, themselves in hell, with others
like them; and this will be a torment to their body. There is bodily
torment, as I said, ministered to the body by the senses of the body.
What think you? If a man saw himself in prison, in irons, upon the
ladder, with the rope about his neck, would not this be distress to the
body, as well as to the mind? To the body, doubtless. Witness the heavy
looks, the shaking legs, trembling knees, pale face, and beating and
aching heart; 28 how much more, then, when men shall see themselves in
the most dreadful place; it is a fearful place, doubtless, to all to
behold themselves in that shall come thither (Luke 16:28).
Again; they shall see others there, and shall by them see themselves.
There is an art by which a man may make his neighbour look so ghastly,
that he shall fright himself by looking on him, especially when he
thinks of himself, that he is of the same show also. It is said
concerning men at the downfall of Babylon, that they shall be amazed
one at another, for ‘their faces shall be as flames’ (Isa 13:8). And
what if one should say, that even as it is with a house set on fire
within, where the flame ascends out at the chimneys, out at the
windows, and the smoke out at every chink and crevice that it can find,
so it will be with the damned in hell. That soul will breathe hell fire
and smoke, and coals will seem to hang upon its burning lips; yea, the
face, eyes, and ears will seem all to be chimneys and vents for the
flame and smoke of the burning which God by His breath hath kindled
therein, and upon them, which will be beheld one in another, to the
great torment and distress of each other.
What shall I say? Here will be seen devils, and here will be heard
howlings and mournings; here will the soul see itself at an infinite
distance from God; yea, the body will see it too. In a word, who knows
the power of God’s wrath, the weight of sin, the torments of hell, and
the length of eternity? If none, then none can tell, when they have
said what they can, the intolerableness of the torments that will
swallow up the soul, the lost soul, when it is cast away by God, and
from Him, into outer darkness for sin. But this much for the cause of
the loss of the soul.
DOCTRINE SECOND,
I now come to the second doctrine that I gathered from the
words—namely, that how unconcerned and careless soever some now be
about the loss or salvation of their souls, the day is coming, but it
will then be too late, when men will be willing, had they never so
much, to give it all in exchange for their souls. There are four things
in the words that do prove this doctrine.
1. There is an intimation of life and sense in the man that has lost,
and that after he has lost, his soul in hell—‘Or what shall a man give
in exchange for his soul?’ These words are by no means applicable to
the man that has no life or sense; for he that is dead according to our
common acceptation of death, that is, deprived of life and sense, would
not give twopence to change his state; therefore the words do intimate
that the man is yet alive and sensible. Now were a man alive and
sensible, though he was in none other place than the grave, there to be
confined, while others are at liberty, what would he give in exchange
for his place, and to be rid of that for a better! but how much more to
be delivered from hell, the present place and state of his soul!
2. There is in the text an intimation of a sense of torment ‘Or what
shall a man give in exchange for his soul?’ I am tormented in this
flame. Torment, then, the soul is sensible of, and that there is a
place of ease and peace. And from the sense and feeling of torment, he
would give, yea, what would he not give, in exchange for his soul?
3. There is in the text an intimation of the intolerableness of the
torment, because that it supposeth that the man whose soul is swallowed
up therewith would give all, were his all never so great, in exchange
for his soul.
4. There is yet in the text an intimation that the soul is sensible of
the lastingness of the punishment, or else the question rather argues a
man unwary than considerate in his offering, as is supposed by Christ,
so largely, his all in exchange for his soul.
But we will, in this manner, proceed no further, but take it for
granted that the doctrine is good; wherefore I shall next inquire after
what is contained in this truth. And,
FIRST, That God has undertaken, and will accomplish, the breaking of
the spirits of all the world, either by His grace and mercy to
salvation, or by His justice and severity to damnation. The damned soul
under consideration is certainly supposed, as by the doctrine, so by
the text, to be utterly careless, and without regard of salvation, so
long as the acceptable time did last, and as the white flag, that
signifies terms of peace, did hang out; and, therefore, it is said to
be lost; but, behold, now it is careful, but now it is solicitous, but
now, ‘what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?’ He of whom you
read in the gospel, that could tend to do nothing in the days of the
gospel but to find out how to be clothed in purple and fine linen, and
to fare sumptuously every day, was by God brought so down, and laid so
low at last, that he could crouch, and cringe, and beg for one small
drop of water to cool his tongue—a thing, that but a little before he
would have thought scorn to have done, when he also thought scorn to
stoop to the grace and mercy of the gospel (Luke 16:19,24). But God was
resolved to break his spirit, and the pride of his heart, and to humble
his lofty looks, if not by His mercy, yet by His justice; if not by His
grace, yet by hell fire.
This he also threatens to bring upon the fool in the Proverbs—‘They
shall call, they shall seek, they shall cry’ (Prov 1:22-32). Who shall
do so? The answer is, They that sometimes scorned either to seek, or
call, or cry; they that stopped their ears, that pulled away their
shoulders, and that refused to seek, or call, or cry to God for mercy
(Zech 7:11-13).
Sinner, careless sinner, didst thou take notice of this first inference
that I have drawn from my second doctrine? If thou didst, yet read it
again: it is this, ‘God has undertaken, and will accomplish, the
breaking of the spirits of all the world, either by His grace and mercy
unto salvation, or by His justice and severity to damnation.’ The
reason for this is this: God is resolved to have the mastery, He is
resolved to have the victory. ‘Who would set the briers and thorns
against Me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them
together’ (Isa 27:4). I will march against them. God is merciful, and
is come forth into the world by His Son, tendering of grace unto
sinners by the gospel, and would willingly make a conquest over them
for their good by His mercy. Now He being come out, sinners like briars
and thorns do set themselves against Him, and will have none of His
mercy. Well, but what says God? Saith He, Then I will march on, I will
go through them, and burn them together. I am resolved to have the
mastery one way or another; if they will not bend to Me, and accept of
My mercy in the gospel, I will bend them and break them by My justice
in hell fire. They say they will not bend; I say they shall; now they
‘shall know whose words shall stand, Mine or theirs.’ (Jer 44:25-28).
Wherefore the apostle, when he saw that some of the Corinthians began
to be unruly, and to do those things that did begin to hazard them,
saith, ‘Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than He?’
(1 Cor 5:22). As who should say, My brethren, are you aware what you
do? do you not understand that God is resolved to have the mastery one
way or another? and are you stronger than He? if not, tremble before
Him, or He will certainly have you under His feet—‘I will tread them in
Mine anger, and trample them in My fury’ (Isa 63:3). Thus He speaks of
them that set themselves against Him; therefore beware. Now the reason
of this resolution of God, it flows from a determination in Him to make
all His sayings good, and to verify them on the consciences of sinners.
And since the incredulous world will not believe now, and fly from
wrath, they shall shortly believe and cry under it; since they will not
now credit the Word, before they see, unto salvation, they shall be
made to credit it by sense and feeling unto damnation.
SECOND, The second inference that I draw from my second doctrine is
this: ‘That it is, and will be the lot of some to bow and break before
God, too late, or when it is too late.’ God is resolved, as I said. to
have the mastery, and that not only in a way of dominion and lordship
in general, for that He has now, but He is resolved to master, that is,
to break the spirit of the world, to make all men cringe and crouch
unto Him, even those that now say, ‘There is no God,’ (Psa 14:1); or if
there be, yet, ‘What is the Almighty, that we should serve Him?’ (Job
21:15; Mal 3:14).
This is little thought of by those that now harden their hearts in
wickedness, and that turn their spirit against God; but this they shall
think of, this they must think of, this God will make them think of in
that day, at which day they also now do mock and deride, that the
Scripture might be fulfilled upon them (2 Peter 3:3,4). And, I say,
they shall think then of those things, and break at heart, and melt
under the hand, and power, and majesty of the Almighty; for, ‘As I
live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me; and every tongue
shall confess to God’ (Isa 45:23; Rom 14:11). And again, ‘The nations
shall see, and be confounded at all their might; they shall lay their
hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf. They shall lick the
dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms,’ or
creeping things, ‘of the earth; they shall be afraid of the Lord our
God, and shall fear because of Thee’ (Micah 7:16,17).