N34404:859
Human nature in its fourfold state ... In several practical discourses. / By Mr. Thomas Boston, late Minister of the Gospel at Etterick.
United States : s.n. Printed for the booksellers., M,DCC,LXXXVII. 1787
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
After having evinced that there shall be a resurrection of the body, and a general judgment, I think it not needful to insist to prove the truth of future punishments. The same conscience there is in men of a future judgment, bears witness also of the truth of future punishment. (And that the punishment of the damned shall not be annihilation, or a reducing them to nothing, will be clear in the progress of our discourse.) In treating of this awful subject, I shall inquire into these four things. (1.) The curse under which the damned shall be shut up. (2) Their misery under that curse. (3.) Their society with devils in this miserable state. (4.) The eternity of the whole.
I. As to the curse under which the damned shall be shut up in hell; it is the terrible sentence of the law, by which they are bound over to the wrath of God, as transgressors. This curse does not first seize them, when, standing before the tribunal, they receive their sentence: but they were born under it, they led their life under it in this world, they died under it, rose with it out of their graves; and the Judge finding it upon them, sends them away with it, into the pit; where it shall lie on them through all the ages of eternity. By nature all men are under the curse; but it is removed from the elect, by virtue of their union with Christ. It abides on the rest of sinful mankind, and by it they are devoted to destruction, separated to evil, as one may describe the curse from Deut. xxix. 21. And the Lord shall separate him unto evil. Thus shall the damned, for ever, be persons devoted to destruction: separate and set apart from among the rest of mankind, unto evil, as vessels of wrath, set up for marks to the arrows of divine •••th; and made the common receptacle and shore of vengeance.
I. As to the curse under which the damned shall be shut up in hell; it is the terrible sentence of the law, by which they are bound over to the wrath of God, as transgressors. This curse does not first seize them, when, standing before the tribunal, they receive their sentence: but they were born under it, they led their life under it in this world, they died under it, rose with it out of their graves; and the Judge finding it upon them, sends them away with it, into the pit; where it shall ly on them through all the ages of eternity. By nature all men are under the curse; but it is removed from the elect, by virtue of their union with Christ. It abides on the rest of sinful mankind, and by it they are devoted to destruction, separated to evil, as one may describe the curse from Deut. xxix. 21. And the Lord shall separate him unto evil. Thus shall the damned, for ever, be persons devoted to destruction: separate and set apart from among the rest of mankind, unto evil, as vessels of wrath, set up for marks to the arrows of divine •••th; and made the common receptacle and shore of vengeance.
This curse hath its first fruits on earth, which are a pledge of the whole lump that is to follow. And hence it is, that as temporal and external benefits are bound up together, under the same expressions ⟨p. 322⟩in the promise to the Lord's people, as Isa xxxv. 10. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion, &c. relating both to the return from Babylon, and to the saints going to their eternal rest in heaven: even so temporal and eternal miseries, on the enemies of God, are sometimes wrapped up under one and the same expression in the threatening, as Isa. xxx. 33. For Tophet is ordained of old: yea, for the King it is prepared, he hath made it deep and large; the pile thereof is fire and much wood, the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it. Which relates both to the temporal and eternal destruction of the Assyrians, who fell by the hand of the angel before Jerusalem. See also Isa lxvi. 24. What is that judicial blindness to which many are given up in whom the God of this world hath blinded their eyes, (2 Cor iv. 4.) but the first fruits of hell and of the curse? Their sun is going down at noon day; their darkness increasing as if it would not stop, till it issue in utter darkness. Many a lash, in the dark, doth conscience give the wicked, which the world doth not hear of: and what is that, but that the never-dying worm is already begun to gnaw them? And there is not one of these, but they may call it Joseph, for the Lord shall add another; or rather God, for a troop cometh. These drops of wrath are terrible forebodings of the full shower which is to follow. Sometimes they are given up to their vile affections, that they have no more command over them, Rom. i. 26. So their lusts grow up more and more towards perfection, if I may so speak. As in heaven grace comes to its perfection, so in hell sin arrives at its highest pitch; and as sin is thus advancing upon the man, he is the nearer and the liker to hell. There are three things that have a fearful aspect here. First, When every thing that might do good to mens souls, is blasted to them; so that their blessings are cursed, (Mal. ii. 2) sermons, prayers, admonitions, and reproofs, which are powerful towards others, are quite inefficacious to them. 2dly, When men go on sinning still, in the face of plain rebukes from the Lord, in ordinances and providences:
God meets them with rods in the way of their sin, as it were striking them back; yet they rush forward. What can be more like hell, where the Lord is always smiting, and the damned always sinning against him? Lastly, When every thing in one's lot is turned into fuel to one's lusts. Thus adversity and prosperity, poverty and wealth, the want of ordinances and the enjoyment of them, do all but nourish the corruptions of many. Their vicious stomachs corrupt whatsoever they receive, and all does but increase noxious humours.
But the s• harvest follows in that misery which they shall for ever lie under in hell; that wrath, which, by virtue of the curse, shall come upon them to the uttermost: the which is the curse fully executed. This black cloud opens upon them, and the terrible thunder-bolt strikes them, by that dreadful voice from the throne, Depart from me, ye cursed, &c. Which will give the whole wicked world a dismal view of what is in the bosom of the curse. It is, ⟨p. 323⟩(1.) A voice of extreme indignation and wrath, a furious rebuke from the Lion of the tribe of Judah. His looks will be most terrible to them: his eyes will cast flames of fire on them: and his […] will pierce their hearts, like envenomed arrows. When he will thus speak them out of his presence for ever, and by his word […] them away from before the throne: They will see how keenly wrath b••• in his heart against them for their sins. (2.) It is a voice of extreme disdain and contempt from the Lord. Time was, when they were pitied, besought to pity themselves, and to be the Lord's; but they despised him, they would none of him: but ••w shall they be buried out of his sight, under everlasting contempt. (3.) It is a voice of extreme hatred. Hereby the Lord shuts them out of his bowels of love and mercy. Depart, ye cursed: q. d. I cannot endure to look at you; there is not one purpose of good to you in mine heart; nor shall ye ever hear one word mere of hope from me. Lastly, It is a voice of eternal rejection from the Lord. He commands them to be gone, and so casts them off for ever. Thus the doors of heaven are shut against them; the gul• is fixed between them and it, and they are driven to the pit•. Now should they cry with all possible earnestness, Lord, Lord, open to us! they will hear nothing but depart, depart, ye cursed. Thus shall the damned be shut up under the curse.
But the s• harvest follows in that misery which they shall for ever ly under in hell; that wrath, which, by virtue of the curse, shall come upon them to the uttermost: the which is the curse fully executed. This black cloud opens upon them, and the terrible thunder-bolt strikes them, by that dreadful voice from the throne, Depart from me, ye cursed, &c. Which will give the whole wicked world a dismal view of what is in the bosom of the curse. It is,
USE First, Let all these who, being yet in their natural state, are under the curse, consider this, and flee to JESUS CHRIST be times, that they may be delivered from it. How can ye sleep in that state, being wrapped up in the cursed JESUS CHRIST is now saving unto you, Come, ye cursed; I will take the curse from off you, and give you the blessing. The waters of the sanctuary are now running, to heal the cursed ground; take heed to improve them for that end to your own souls, and fear it as hell, to get […] spiritual advantage thereby. Remember that the •airy places (which are neither sea, nor dry land, a fit emblem of hypocr•tes) and the marishes (that neither breed fishes, nor bear trees: but the waters of the sanctuary leave them as they find them, in their barrenness) shall not be healed; (seeing they spurn the only remedy) they shall be given to salt, (left under eternal barrenness, set up for the monuments of the wrath of God, and concluded for ever under the curse). Ezek. xlvii. 11. 2dly, Let all cursers consider this, whose mouths are filled with cursing themselves and others. He who clothes himself with cursing, shall find the curse come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones, (Psal. cix. 18.) if repentance prevent it not. He shall get all his imprecations against him fully answered, in that day wherein he stands before the tribunal of God: and shall find the killing weight of the curse of God, which he makes light of now.
USE First, Let all these who, being yet in their natural state, are under the curse, consider this, and flee to JESUS CHRIST be times, that they may be delivered from it. How can ye sleep in that state, being wrapt up in the cursed JESUS CHRIST is now saving unto you, Come, ye cursed; I will take the curse from off you, and give you the blessing. The waters of the sanctuary are now running, to heal the cursed ground; take heed to improve them for that end to your own souls, and fear it as hell, to get 〈…〉 spiritual advantage thereby. Remember that the •airy places (which are neither sea, nor dry land, a fit emblem of hypocr•tes) and the marishes (that neither breed fishes, nor bear trees: but the waters of the sanctuary leave them as they find them, in their brrenness) shall not be healed; (seeing they spurn the only remedy) they shall be given to salt, (left under eternal barrenness, set up for the monuments of the wrath of God, and concluded for ever under the curse).
II. I proceed to speak of the misery of the damned, under that curse a •ty which the tongues of men and angels cannot sufficiently ⟨p. 324⟩express. God always acts like himself; no favours can be equal to his and his wrath and terrors, are without a parallel. As the saints in heaven are advanced to the highest pitch of happiness, so the damned in hell arrive at the height of misery. Two things here I shall soberly inquire into, the punishment of loss, and the punishment of sense in hell. But since these also are such things as eye has not seen, nor ear heard, we must (as Geographers do) leave a large void for the unknown land, which the d•y will discover.
First, The punishment of loss, which the damned shall undergo, is separation from the Lord, as we learn from the text, Depart from me, ye cursed. This will be a stone upon their grave's mouth, as the talent of lead, Zech. v. 7, 8. that will hold them down for ever. The, shall be eternally separated from God and Christ. Christ is the way to the Father: but the way as to them, shall be everlastingly blocked up, the bridge shall be drawn, and the great gulf fixed; so shall they be shut up in a state of eternal separation from God the Father, Son, and the holy Ghost. They will be locally separated from the Man Christ, and shall never come into the seat of the blessed, where he appears in his glory, but be cast out into utter darkness, Matth. xxii. 13. They cannot indeed be locally separated from God, they cannot be in a place where he is not, since he is, and will be present every-where: If I make my bed in hell, says the Psalmist, "behold thou art there," Psal. cxxxix 8. But they shall be miserable beyond expression, in a relative separation from God. Though he will be present in the very centre of their souls, (if I may so express it) while they are wrapped up in fiery flames, in utter darkness, it shall not only be to feed them with the vinegar of his wrath, to entertain them with the emanations of his revenging justice; but they shall never taste more of his goodness and bounty, nor have the least glimpse of hope from him. They will see his heart to be absolutely alienated from them, and that it cannot be towards them; but that they are the party against whom the Lord will have an indignation for ever. They shall be deprived of the glorious presence and enjoyment of God: they shall have no part in the beatific vision, nor see any thing in God towards them, but one wave of wrath rolling at the back of another. This will bring upon them overwhelming floods of sorrows for evermore. They shall never taste of the rivers of pleasures the saints in heaven enjoy; but shall have an everlasting winter, and a perpetual night, because the Sun of righteousness has departed from them, and so they are left in utter darkness. So great as heaven's happiness is, so great will their loss be; for they can have none of it for ever.
First, The punishment of loss, which the damned shall undergo, is separation from the Lord, as we learn from the text, Depart from me, ye cursed. This will be a stone upon their grave's mouth, as the talent of lead,
This separation of the wicked from God will be, (1.) an involuntary separation. Now they depart from him, they will not come to him, though they are called, entreated, and obtested to ⟨p. 325⟩come: but then they shall be driven away from him, when they would gladly abide with him. Although the question, What is thy beloved more than another beloved? is frequent now amongst the despisers of the gospel, there will be no such question among all the damned crew; for then they will see that man's happiness is only to be found in the enjoyment of God, and that the loss of him is a loss that can never be balanced. (2) It will also be a total and utter separation. Albeit the wicked are in this life separated from God, yet there is a kind of intercourse betwixt them: he gives them many good gifts, and they give him, at least, some good words: so that the peace is not altogether hopeless. But then there shall be a total separation, the damned being cast into utter darkness, where there will not be the least gleam of light or favour from the Lord; the which will put an end unto all their fair words to him. Lastly, It shall be a final separation: they will part with him, never more to meet, being shut up under everlasting horror and despair. The match betwixt Jesus Christ and unbelievers, which has so often been carried forward, and put back again, shall then be broken up for ever: and never shall one message of favour or good-will go betwixt the parties any more.
This separation of the wicked from God will be, (1.) an involuntary separation. Now they depart from him, they will not come to him, though they are called, intreated, and obtested to ⟨p. 325⟩come: but then they shall be driven away from him, when they would gladly abide with him. Although the question, What is thy beloved more than another beloved? is frequent now amongst the despisers of the gospel, there will be no such question among all the damned crew; for then they will see that man's happiness is only to be found in the enjoyment of God, and that the loss of him is a loss that can never be balanced. (2) It will also be a total and utter separation. Albeit the wicked are in this life separated from God, yet there is a kind of intercourse betwixt them: he gives them many good gifts, and they give him, at least, some good words: so that the peace is not altogether hopeless. But then there shall be a total separation, the damned being cast into utter darkness, where there will not be the least gleam of light or favour from the Lord; the which will put an end unto all their fair words to him. Lastly, It shall be a final separation: they will part with him, never more to meet, being shut up under everlasting horror and despair. The match betwixt Jesus Christ and unbelievers, which has so often been carried forward, and put back again, shall then be broken up for ever: and never shall one message of favour or good-will go betwixt the parties any more.
This punishment of loss, in a total and final separation from God, is a misery beyond what mortals can conceive, and which the dreadful experience of the damned can only sufficiently unfold. But that we may have some conception of the horror of it, let the following things be considered.
1st, God is the chief good, and therefore to be separated from him, must be the chief evil. Our native country, our relations, and our life, are good: and therefore, to be deprived of them, we reckon a great evil: and the better any thing is, so much the greater evil is the loss of it: wherefore God being the chief good, and no good comparable to him, there can be no loss so great as the loss of God. The full enjoyment of him is the highest pinnacle of happiness the creature is capable of arriving at: to be fully and finally separated from him must then be the lowest step of misery which the rational creature must be reduced to. To be cast off by men, by good men, by the best of men, is heavy: what must it then be, to be rejected of God, of goodness itself!
1st, God is the chief good, and therefore to be separated from him, must be the chief evil. Our native country, our relations, and our life, are good: and therefore, to be deprived of them, we reckon a great evil: and the better any thing is, so much the greater evil is the loss of it: wherefore God being the chief good, and no good comparable to him, there can be no loss so great as the loss of God. The full enjoyment of him is the highest pinacle of happiness the creature is capable of arriving at: to be fully and finally separated from him must then be the lowest step of misery which the rational creature must be reduced to. To be cast off by men, by good men, by the best of men, is heavy: what must it then be, to be rejected of God, of goodness itself!
2dly, God is the fountain of all goodness, from which all goodness flows unto the creatures, and by which it is continued in them, and to them. Whatever goodness or perfection, natural as well as moral, is in any creature, it is from God, and depends upon him, as the light is from, and depends on the sun: for every created being, as such, is a dependent one. Wherefore a total separation from God, wherein all comfortable communication betwixt God and a rational creature is absolutely blocked up, must of necessity bring along with it a total eclipse of all light of comfort and ease whatsoever. If there is but one window, or open place, in a house, and that be quite shut up; it is evident ⟨p. 326⟩there can be ••thing but darkness in that house. Our Lord tells us, (Matth. xix. […] is none good but one, that is God. Nothing good or comfortable is originally from the creature: whatever good or comfortable thing one finds in one's self, as health of body, peace of mind; whatever sweetness, rest, pleasure, or delight, one finds in other creatures, as in meat, drink, a• and sciences; all these are but some faint rays of the divine perfections, communicate from God unto the creature, and depending on a constant influence from him, for their conversation, which failing they would immediately be gone; for it is impossible that any created thing can be to us more or better than what God make it to be. All the rivulets of comfort we drink of, within or without ourselves, come from God as their spring head: the course of which toward us being stopped, of necessity they must all dry up. So that when God goes, all that is g• and comfortable goes with him: all ease and quiet of body or mind, Hos ix. 12. We also to them, when I depart from them When the wicked are totally and finally separated from him, all that is comfortable in them, or about them, returns to us fountain, as the light goes away with the sun, and darkness succeeds in the room thereof Thus, in their separation from God, all peace is removed far away from them, and pain in body and anguish of soul succeed to […] all joy goes, and unmixed sorrow settles in them: all quiet and rest separate from them, and they are filled with horror and rage: hope flees away, and despair seizeth them, common operations of the Spirit, which […] restrain them, are withdrawn for ever, and sin comes to its most height.
And thus we have a dismal view of the horrible spectacle of sin and misery, which a creature proves, when totally separated from God, and left to itself; and one may see this separation to be the very hell of hell.
Being separated from God, they are deprived of all good. The go• things, which they set their heart upon in this world, are beyond their reach there. The covetous man cannot enjoy his wealth there, nor the ambitious man his honours, nor the sensual m•n his pleasures, no […] a drop of water to cool his tongue, Luke xvi. 34, 35. No meat nor drink there to strengthen the faint; no sleep to refresh the weary; and no music, nor pleasant company to comfort […] cheer up the sorrowful. And as for these good things they despised in the world, they shall never more hear of them, nor see them. No offers of Christ there, no pardons, no peace; no wells of salvation in the pit of destruction. In one word, they shall be deprived of whatsoever might comfort them, being totally and finally separated from God, the fountain of all goodness.
Being separated from God, they are deprived of all good. The go• things, which they set their heart upon in this world, are beyond their reach there. The covetous man cannot enjoy his wealth there, nor the ambitious man his honours, nor the sensual m•n his pleasures, no 〈…〉 a drop of water to cool his tongue, Luke xvi. 34, 35. No meat nor drink there to strengthen the faint; no sleep to refresh the weary; and no musick, nor pleasant company to comfort 〈…〉 chear up the sorrowful. And as for these good things they despised in the world, they shall never more hear of them, nor see them. No offers of Christ there, no pardons, no peace; no wells of salvation in the pit of destruction. In one word, they shall be deprived of whatsoever might comfort them, being totally and finally separated from God, the fountain of all goodness.
This curse hath its first fruits on earth, which are a pledge of the whole lump that is to follow. And hence it is, that as temporal and external benefits are bound up together, under the same expressions ⟨p. 322⟩in the promise to the Lord's people, as Isa xxxv. 10. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion, &c. relating both to the return from Babylon, and to the saints going to their eternal rest in heaven: even so temporal and eternal miseries, on the enemies of God, are sometimes wrapt up under one and the same expression in the threatning, as Isa. xxx. 33. For Tophet is ordained of old: yea, for the King it is prepared, he hath made it deep and large; the pile thereof is fire and much wood, the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it. Which relates both to the temporal and eternal destruction of the Assyrians, who fell by the hand of the angel before Jerusalem. See also Isa lxvi. 24. What is that judicial blindness to which many are given up in whom the God of this world hath blinded their eyes, (2 Cor iv. 4.) but the first fruits of hell and of the curse? Their sun is going down at noon day; their darkness increasing as if it would not stop, till it issue in utter darkness. Many a lash, in the dark, doth conscience give the wicked, which the world doth not hear of: and what is that, but that the never-dying worm is already begun to gnaw them? And there is not one of these, but they may call it Joseph, for the Lord shall add another; or rather God, for a troup cometh. These drops of wrath are terrible forebodings of the full shower which is to follow. Sometimes they are given up to their vile affections, that they have no more command over them, Rom. i. 26. So their lusts grow up more and more towards perfection, if I may so speak. As in heaven grace comes to its perfection, so in hell sin arrives at its higest pitch; and as sin is thus advancing upon the man, he is the nearer and the liker to hell. There are three things that have a fearful aspect here. First, When every thing that might do good to mens souls, is blasted to them; so that their blessings are cursed, (Mal. ii. 2) sermons, prayers, admonitions, and reproofs, which are powerful towards others, are quite inefficacious to them. 2dly, When men go on sinning still, in the face of plain rebukes from the Lord, in ordinances and providences:
2dly, God is the fountain of all goodness, from which all goodness flows unto the creatures, and by which it is continued in them, and to them. Whatever goodness or perfection, natural as well as moral, is in any creature, it is from God, and depends upon him, as the light is from, and depends on the sun: for every created being, as such, is a dependent one. Wherefore a total separation from God, wherein all comfortable communication betwixt God and a rational creature is absolutely blocked up, must of necessity bring along with it a total eclipse of all light of comfort and ease whatsoever. If there is but one window, or open place, in a house, and that be quite shut up; it is evident ⟨p. 326⟩there can be ••thing but darkness in that house. Our Lord tells us, (Matth. xix. 〈…〉 is none good but one, that is God. Nothing good or comfortable is originally from the creature: whatever good or comfortable thing one finds in one's self, as health of body, peace of mind; whatever sweetness, rest, pleasure, or delight, one finds in other creatures, as in meat, drink, a• and sciences; all these are but some faint rays of the divine perfections, communicate from God unto the creature, and depending on a constant influence from him, for their conversation, which failing they would immediately be gone; for it is impossible that any created thing can be to us more or better than what God make it to be. All the rivulets of comfort we drink of, within or without ourselves, come from God as their spring head: the course of which toward us being stopt, of necessity they must all dry up. So that when God goes, all that is g• and comfortable goes with him: all ease and quiet of body or mind, Hos ix. 12. We also to them, when I depart from them When the wicked are totally and finally separated from him, all that is comfortable in them, or about them, returns to us fountain, as the light goes away with the sun, and darkness succeeds in the room thereof Thus, in their separation from God, all peace is removed far away from them, and pain in body and anguish of soul succeed to 〈…〉 all joy goes, and unmixed sorrow settles in them: all quiet and rest separate from them, and they are filled with horror and rage: hope flees away, and despair seizeth them, common operations of the Spirit, which 〈…〉 restrain them, are withdrawn for ever, and sin comes to its ••most heighth.
