Human nature in its fourfold state ... In several practical discourses

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.