Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/d_400.lzh/D_492.TXT

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49~                          OF THE FINAL STATE OF THE WICKED IN HELL.                                                    BOOK VII.

reserved to the judgment of the great day. And the
spirits that were disobedient in the days of Noah, are
expressly said to be in prison, 2 Pet. i. 4. 1 Pet. iii.
19, 20. Wicked men are not only criminals, but
debtors; and whereas they have not with which to
pay their debts, and no surety to pay them for them, to
prison they must go till the uttermost farthing is paid,
which never will be, Matt. v. 26. So Plato {} speaks
of Tartarus as a prison of just punishment; for those
who have lived unrighteously and ungodly.                   .2. It
is spoken of as a state of darkness, of blackness ofdark-
ness, Jude, v 13. of the grossest, thickest darkness that
can be conceived of; of outer darkness, Matt. viii. 12.
those in it being without, shut out of the kingdom of
light, the inheritance of the saints in light; and so
like the darkness of the Egyptians, and such as might
be felt; when the Israelites had light in all their
dwellings: or, like the kingdom of the beast, said to
be full of darkness: all which sets forth the very un-
comfortable condition of the wicked, being without
the light of God's countenance, and the joys of heaven.
- --3. It is set forth byfire, Matt. v. 21. than which
nothing gives more pain, nor is more excruciating;
by a furnace of fire, Matt. xiii. 42, 50. like that which
Nebuchadnezzar caused to be heated seven times
hotter than usual, for Daniel's three companions to be
cast into, who refused to worship his image, than which
nothing can be conceived of more dreadful; and by
a lake of fire, and of brimstone also, which enrages the
fire, and increases the strength of it, Rev. xx. 10, 15.
and xxi. 8. in allusion to the sulphureous lake Asphal-
rites, where Sodom and Gomorrah stood: all which
serve to give an idea of the wrath of God, poured
out on tke wicked like fire, and the quick sense they
will have of it.-    4. It is expressed by a worm that
never dies, Mark ix. 44, 46, 48. see Isa. lxvi. 24. to
die such a death as Herod did, to be eaten of worms,
to have a man's flesh gnawn off of his bones by them
till he dies, must be very dreadful, Acts xii. 23. but
what is this to the continual gnawlugs of a guilty con-
science; that stimulus perpetuee conscientia?e, that sting
of a perpetual conscience; or that perpetual sting of
conscience Charire threatened Thrasyllus {} with?
This continued consciousness of guilt, and feeling of
divine wrath for sin, are but faintly expressed by the
heathens, by vultures feeding on the heart of Tytius
in hell; or by a serpent eating out his live,', which
grew again {} as fast as eaten.-    5. This is what is
called the second death, Rev. xxi. 8. of which good
men shall not be hurt, and on whom it shall have no
power, Rev. ii. 11. and xx. 6. but wicked men will
ever abide under it, shall not become extinct, neither
in soul nor body, though they may wish for it. This
is death eternal, so called, not fi'om a defect of life;
nor from the quality of living, being always dying,
yet never die.. . 6. A variety of phrases is used, to
signify the terriblehess of the future punishment of
the wicked; as by tearing them in pieces, as a lion
tears his prey; by cutting them asunder, in allusion
to punishments of this kind, as Agag was hewed to
pieces by Samuel; or to sacrifices, cut up when of-

zo In Gorgia, p. 356. et Socrates apt~d Plutarch. de Consol. ad Apoll.
p. I~l.

fered as victims; and by drowning men in perdition,
which denotes the utter destruction of them; and by
weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth, through
grief, malice, and envy..    .7. By the wrath of God,
which cones upon the children of disobedience; by
wrath to come, men are warned to flee from; and
from which Christ only can deliver them; and by in-
dignation and wrath on every soul of man that does
evil. And this is what is chiefly intended by the se-
veral words and phrases before observed; and in a
sense of which the future punishment of the wicked
will greatly lie; as will appear by considering,
Thirdly, The species and sorts of that punishment;
.or the parts of which it consists, and wherein it lies:
it is usually distinguished into l:asna damni, punish-
ment of loss; and paena sensus, punishment of sense;
nor is the distinction amiss, provided they are consi-
dered as together, and meeting in the same subject,
as they do in the fallen angels; who sinning, were
cast out of heaven, were driven fi'om the presence of
God, and so lost their original happiness; and were
cast down to hell, and so punished with a sense of
divine wrath: and both may be observed together in
the sentence pronounced on the wicked at the general
judgment; Depart from me, there is the punishment
of loss; ye cursed, into everlasting fire, there is the
punishment of sense; the one is the loss of the divine
presence; the other a feeling of the curse of the law,
and the wrath of God; and there cannot be the one
without the other: some have thought, that only the
punishment of loss, but not of sense, will be sustained
by devils, and wicked men, before the day of judg-
ment; but though the devils ,nay not be in full tot'-
men, till then, yet not exempt from an),, since they
are cast down to hell; and as for wicked men, they
are immediately after death, in a state of pain, and
under a sense of it, as the rich man in hell, being in
torment: and others are of opinion, that such as die
without actual sin, and are only guilty of original sir,,
shall only suffer the former, but not the latter. But
as the scriptures say little of the case of such, it be-
comes us to say little also, and leave it to the wise
and just Disposer of all things; yet if eternal. death is
the demerit of original sin, it is not easy to say how
there can be one sort of punishment without the
other; where there is a loss, there will be a sense of
it, or else it is no punishment; and a sense of it will
give pain; though as there are degrees of punishment
of sin, as will be seen anon, it is reasonable to believe,
the punishment of such will be comparatively a milder
one, as Augustin expresses it: no doubt there were
many such among the inhabitants of Sodom and Go-
morrah, when those cities were destroyed; and yet
the apostle says of them in general, that they were
suffering the vengeance of eternal fire, Jude, v 7. But
to proceed,
1st, There is the punishment of loss, which will
consist of a privation of all good things. And,
I. Of God the chiefest good; as the enjoyment of
God is man's chief happiness, so a privation of that
enjoyment is his greatest infelicity; the angels, when

It Apulei Metamorph. !. 8. p. 114.
az Apollodorus de Deor. Orig. p. 10. Hygi,:. tab. 55.