Indeed the eternity of that fire prepared for the devil and his angels is a sufficient demonstration of the eternity of such as suffer in it; and the question only can be what that eternity doth signify. For, because some things are called in the Scriptures eternal which have but a limited or determined duration; therefore some may imagine the fire of hell to be in that sense eternal, as lasting to the time appointed by God for the duration of it. But as the fire is termed eternal, so that eternity is described as absolute, excluding all limits, prescinding from all determinations. The end of the burning of fire is by extinguishing, and that which cannot be extinguished can never end: but such is the fire which shall 392 Matt. ii. 12. torment the reprobate; for he, whose fan is in his hand, shall burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire; and hath Matt. xviii. 8. taught us before, that it is better to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire, to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched; and hath farther yet explained himself by that unquestionable addition, and undeniable descripMark ix. 44, tion of the place of torments, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched'. And that we may yet be farther assured that this fire shall be never extinguished, we read that the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever2, and that those which are cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever; which expression of day and night is the same with that which declareth the eternal happiness in the Luke iii, 17. Mark ix. 13, 45. 46. Rev. xiv. 11. Rev. xx. 10. æternam. Si igitur hoc verum non est et recensitis, ad utriusque meriti 1 Quid illum thesaurum ignis æterni æstimamus, cum fumariola quædam ejus tales flammarum ictus suscitent, ut proximæ urbes aut jam nullæ exstent, aut idem sibi de die sperent? Dissiliunt superbissimi montes ignis intrinsecus fœtu; et, quod nobis judicii perpetuitatem probat, cum dissiliant, cum devorentur, nunquam tamen finiuntur.' Tertull. de Pænitent. c. 12. 2 Εἰς αἰῶνα δὲ αἰώνων αὐτὸν ἀναβαίνειν λέγεται, ἵνα μάθωμεν ἀτελεύτητον είναι τὴν κόλασιν τῶν ἁμαρτωλῶν, ὥσπερ καὶ τὴν τῶν δικαίων τρυφὴν αἰώνιον. Andreas Cæsariens. ad locum. [c. 42. p. 345 D.] vii. 15. heavens, where they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, Rev. iv. 8; holy, holy: where they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple. If then the fire, in which the reprobates are to be tormented, be everlasting; if so absolutely everlasting, that it shall never be quenched; if so certainly never to be quenched, that the smoke thereof shall ascend for ever and ever; if those which are cast into it shall be tormented for ever and ever (all which the Scriptures expressly teach); then shall the wicked never be so consumed as to be annihilated, but shall subsist for ever, and be coeternal to the tormenting flames. And so this language of the Scriptures proves not only an effect eternal, as annihilation may be conceived, but an eternal efficient never ceasing to produce the same effect, which cannot be annihilation, but cruciation only. And therefore the fire, which consumed Sodom and Gomorrha, bears no proportion with the flames of hell; because all men know that fire is extinguished, nor doth the smoke thereof ascend for ever and ever. Neither doth this only prove the eternity of infernal pains but clearly refute the only material argument brought against it, which is laid upon this ground, that the wicked after the resurrection shall be punished with death, and that a second death; and so they shall be no more, nor can in any sense be said to live or subsist. For, the enduring of this fire is that very death, and they are therefore said to die the second death, because they endure eternal torments. He that over- Rev. ii. 11. cometh shall not be hurt by the second death. It seems that they which shall die that death shall be hurt by it; whereas if it were annihilation, and so a conclusion of their torments, it would be no way hurtful or injurious, but highly beneficial to them. But the living torments are the second death. For death and hell were cast into the lake of fire: this is the Rev. xx. 14, second death. Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire: this is the second death. The Jews before our Saviour's time believed there was a second death; and though it were not expressed in the oracles themselves which were committed to them, yet in the received exposition of them it was often mentioned', and that as the 1 The Chaldee paraphrase maketh often mention of it, as Deut. xxxiii. 6. Let Reuben live, and not die; he ex יחי ראובן בחיי עלמא poundeth thus Let Reuben live in ומותא תנינא לא ימות : the life of the world, and not die the 15. punishment of the wicked in the life to come; and what this 393 punishment shall be, was in these words revealed to St John: Rev. xxi. & But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. Now, if the part in the lake be the second death, if that part be a perpetual permansion in torment, as before is proved; then to say that the wicked shall die the second death is not a confutation of their eternal being in misery, but an assertion of it, because it is the same thing with everlasting torments, but delivered in other terms. And, if the pretence of death will not prove an annihilation, or infer a conclusion of torment, much less will the bare phrases of perdition and destruction; for we may as well conclude that whosoever says he is undone1, intends thereby that he shall be no more. Beside, the eternity of destruction in the language of the Scripture signifies a perpetual perpession, and duration in misery. For when Christ shall 2 Thess. i. 8, 9. come to take vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, they shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. Wherefore I conclude, that the wicked shall rise to everlasting punishment, continuing both in soul and body under the wrath of God and the torments proceeding from it, never to be quitted geance for their sins, and deliver their bodies to the second death. From these and the like places it appeareth, that the Jews believed that the wicked after death should be delivered to a second death; that this death should be in the world to come; that they should by this death be punished for their sins. And St John revealed that this punishment shall be by everlasting burnings: Καὶ θάνατοι δὲ ὡσαύτως δύο ὁ μὲν τῆς σαρκὸς πρόσκαιρος· ὁ δὲ δι ̓ ἁμαρτημάτων ἔκτισιν ἐπαγόμενος ἐν τῷ μέλλοντι αἰώνιος, ὅστ περ ἐστὶν ἡ τοῦ πυρὸς γέεννα. Andreas Cæsar. in Apocal. xx. 5. [c. 62. p. 411 D.] 1 Ολλυμαι, Perii. of them by annihilation; which is our first assertion, against the covert doctrine of the Socinian1. The second assertion teacheth us, that as the reprobates shall never fail to endure the torments due unto their sins; so the justice of God will never fail to inflict those torments for their sins. They shall never live to pay the uttermost farthing, they shall never come to the days of refreshment who are cast into perpetual burnings. One part of their misery is the horror of despair; and it were not perfect hell if any hope could lodge in it. The favour of God is not to be obtained where there is no means left to obtain it; but in the world to come there is no place for faith, nor virtue in repentance. If there be now such a vast distance between the tormenting flames and Abraham's bosom, that none could pass from one to other, what impossibility must there be when the final sentence is passed upon all! As certainly as no person once received into the heavenly mansions shall ever be cast into outer darkness; so certainly none which is once cast into the fire prepared for the devil and his angels shall 394 ever enter into their Master's joy. As the tree falleth, so it lieth: there is no change to be wrought in man within those flames, no purgation of his sin, no sanctification of his nature, no justification of his person, and therefore no salvation of 1 I call it covert, because it was at first closely delivered by Socinus, and some of his brethren did profess themselves to be scandalized at it, though he thought he had so delivered it that it should sooner be believed by his writings than perceived in them, as appeareth out of his sixth Epistle to Volkelius, [Vol. 1. p. 455. col. 1.] who was offended at this doctrine, and seems never to have assented to it: Quod ais ea ibi, (in disputatione mea cum Puccio), tum de Christianorum resurrectione, tum de morte impiorum passim contineri, quæ a multis sine magna offensione, tum nostris tum alienis, legi non possint: scio equidem ista ibi contineri, sed, meo judicio, nec passim nec ita aperte (cavi enim istud quantum potui) ut quisquam vir pius facile offendi possit; adeo ut, quod nominatim attinet ad impiorum mor tem, in quo dogmate majus est multo offensionis periculum, ea potius ex iis colligi possit, quæ ibi disputantur, quam expresse literis consignata exstet; adeo ut lector, qui alioqui sententiam meam adversus Puccium de mortalitate primi hominis, quæ toto libro agitatur, quæque ob non paucos quos habet fautores, parum aut nihil offensionis parere potest, probandum censeat, prius censeat doctrinam istam sibi jam persuasam esse quam suaderi animadvertat.' Against this, Germanus, patriarch of Constantinople, in his defence of Gregory Nyssen, shewed from the words of Christ, the apostles, prophets, and the fathers, ὥσπερ αἰώνιον τὴν τῶν δικαίων ἀνεκλάλητον ἀπόλαυσιν, οὕτω καὶ τὴν τῶν ἁμαρτωλῶν ἀτελεύτητόν τε καὶ ἀνυπόσTATOV KÓλασш. Photius, in Biblioth. Cod. 233. [p. 292. col. 2.] him. Without the mediation of Christ no man shall ever 1 Cor. xv. 24. enter into heaven, and when he hath delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, then shall the office of the Mediator cease. So groundless was the opinion of Origen, who conceived that after some number of years the damned should be released from their torments, and made partakers of the joys of heaven, or at least try their fortunes in such regions of the world as he conceived should be reserved for their habitation. For he may as well imagine that Christ shall be born and Rom. vi. 9. die again (who being risen, dieth not,) as that any person being condemned to the flames for contemning of his death, should ever come to live again, and by believing in the death of Christ to be after saved. For certainly their condition is unalterable, their condemnation is irreversible, their torments inevitable, their miseries eternal. As they shall not be taken from their punishment by annihilation of themselves, which is our first; so the punishment shall not be taken off them by any compassion upon them, which is our second assertion. To conclude this branch of the Article, I conceive these certain and infallible doctrines in Christianity: That the wicked after this life shall be punished for their sins, so that in their punishment there shall be a demonstration of the justice of God revealed against all unrighteousness of men. That to this end they shall be raised again to life, and shall be judged and condemned by Christ, and delivered up under the curse, to be tormented with the devil and his angels. That the punishment which shall be inflicted on them shall be proportionate to their sins, as a recompense of their demerits, so that no man shall suffer more than he hath deserved. That they shall be tormented with a pain of loss, the loss from God, from whose presence they are cast out, the pain from themselves, in a despair of enjoying him, and regret for losing him. That they farther shall be tormented with the pain of sense inflicted on them by the wrath of God which abideth upon them, represented unto us by a lake of fire. That their persons shall continue for ever in this remediless condition, under an everlasting pain of loss, because there is no hope of heaven, under an eternal pain of sense, because there is no means to appease the wrath of God which abideth |