Eleventhly, The Torment of the Damned is and will be intolerable, because it will be for ever and ever, the Eternity 1of their Misery is that which above all things renders it amazing, 'tis called in my Text unquenchable Fire: O how astonishing is this! all the Tears of those miserable Wretches can never quench one spark of the fire; no, no, if they could weep a Sea of Brinish Tears, or a Sea of Blood, it could not allay or extinguish the least spark of divine Wrath. God will never reverse the dismal sentence: How often doth our Saviour say, there the Worm dyeth not, and the Fire is not quenched: Sure he 2repeats it so oft, as I hinted before, because the Heart of Man is ready to question the Truth thereof. Wicked men are not willing to believe it, but they shall find it to be true, to their endless Sorrow at last: Ah Sirs, the Thoughts of this drives them into the greatest Horror imaginable; if Pain and Anguish be never so extreme, yet if there is Grounds to hope and believe it will be but short, that affords some Ease, some Relief; but when there is no hope, but they must bear it as long as they live, (tho' they may live ten, twenty or thirty years) the Thoughts of this is intolerable. What then shall we say of the Torments of the Damned, which as they are far beyond all pain and misery that ever mortal felt on Earth, so they will abide to the days of Eternity; should one of you be cast into a Fire, a fierce Fire, and it was possible that your Body might lye therein, burning, and broiling, and you not be able to dye, for an hundred years, would not the Thoughts of such Punishment be exceeding frightful and tormenting; but alas, alas! what is an hundred years to Eternity, if after ten hundred thousand million of years are run out in Hell, the damned might hope their Torments would be over, it would relieve them, but when so long a time (comparatively) is gone, they shall not be one moment nearer the end of their Sorrow and ⟨p. 64⟩Misery: If one sand of the Sea shore was removed, and but one in a year, yet should that be done or continued every year, until all the sands on the Sea-shore were removed, (tho' it would be a long time first) yet they would be all removed at last: And had the Damned but so much hope, that after so long a time as that would amount to, their Torments would have an end, it would revive their Spirits.
Eleventhly, The Torment of the Damned is and will be intolerable, because it will be for ever and ever, the Eternity 1of their Misery is that which above all things renders it amazing, 'tis called in my Text unquenchable Fire: O how astonishing is this! all the Tears of those miserable Wretches can never quench one spark of the fire; no, no, if they could weep a Sea of Brinish Tears, or a Sea of Blood, it could not allay or extinguish the least spark of divine Wrath. God will never reverse the dismal sentence: How often doth our Saviour say, there the Worm dyeth not, and the Fire is not quenched: Sure he 2repeats it so oft, as I hinted before, because the Heart of Man is ready to question the Truth thereof. Wicked men are not willing to believe it, but they shall find it to be true, to their endless Sorrow at last: Ah Sirs, the Thoughts of this drives them into the greatest Horror imaginable; if Pain and Anguish be never so extream, yet if there is Grounds to hope and believe it will be but short, that affords some Ease, some Relief; but when there is no hope, but they must bear it as long as they live, (tho' they may live ten, twenty or thirty years) the Thoughts of this is intolerable. What then shall we say of the Torments of the Damned, which as they are far beyond all pain and misery that ever mortal felt on Earth, so they will abide to the days of Eternity; should one of you be cast into a Fire, a fierce Fire, and it was possible that your Body might lye therein, burning, and broiling, and you not be able to dye, for an hundred years, would not the Thoughts of such Punishment be exceeding frightful and tormenting; but alas, alas! what is an hundred years to Eternity, if after ten hundred thousand million of years are run out in Hell, the damned might hope their Torments would be over, it would relieve them, but when so long a time (comparatively) is gone, they shall not be one moment nearer the end of their Sorrow and ⟨p. 64⟩Misery: If one sand of the Sea shore was removed, and but one in a year, yet should that be done or continued every year, until all the sands on the Sea-shoar were removed, (tho' it would be a long time first) yet they would be all removed at last: And had the Damned but so much hope, that after so long a time as that would amount to, their Torments would have an end, it would revive their Spirits.
- 1Torments of the wicked Eternal.
- 2Mark 9.
