Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.
— Psalm 49:14
Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.
— Malachi 3:18
Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.
— Psalm 50:22
And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
— Matthew 25:46
A Great Gulf, by John Bunyan. The following contains an excerpt from his work, “A Few Sighs From Hell.”
The wicked shall be tuned into Hell, and all the nations that forget God.
— Psalm 9:17
And whoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
— Revelation 20:15
And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.
— Luke 16:26
Verse 26.’And besides all this, between us and you a great gulf has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’
These words are still part of that answer which the souls in Hell shall have for all their sobbings, sighings, grievous cries, tears, and desires, that they have — to be released out of those intolerable pains they feel, and are perplexed with. And O! methinks the words at the first view, if rightly considered, are enough to make any hard-hearted sinner in the world to fall down dead.
The verse I last spoke to was and is a very terrible one, and aggravates the torments of poor sinners astonishingly. Where he says,’Remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus evil things,’ etc. I say, these words are very terrible to those poor souls that die out of Christ. But these latter words do much more hold out their sorrow. They were spoken as to the present condition then upon the sinner. These words in verse 26 do not only back the former — but do yet further aggravate their misery, holding forth that which will be more intolerable. The former verse is enough to smite any sinner into a swoon — but this is to make him fall down dead! Where he says,’And beside all this.’ There is still something to aggravate your misery yet far more abundantly.
I shall briefly speak to the words as they have relation to the terror spoken of in the verses before. As if he had said, You think your present state is unsupportable, it makes you sob and sigh, it makes you to rue the time that ever you were born. Now you find the lack of mercy; now you would leap at the least grain of it; now you feel what it is to slight the offers of the grace of God; now it makes you to sob, sigh, and roar exceedingly for the anguish that you are in.
‘But beside all this,’ That is, I have other things to tell you of — which will break your heart indeed. You are now deprived of being in Heaven; you are deprived of hearing the gospel; the devil has been too hard for you, and has made you miss of Heaven; you are now in Hell among an innumerable company of devils, and all your sins beset you round; you are all over wrapped in flames, and cannot have one drop of water to give you any ease; you cry in vain, for nothing will be granted. You see the saints in Heaven, which is no small trouble to your damned soul; you see that neither God nor Christ takes any care to ease you, or speak any comfort unto you. ‘But beside all this,’ there you are, and there you will lie forever — never think of any ease, never look for any comfort; repentance now will do you no good, the time is past, and can never be called again; the torment you have now — you must have forever. It is true, I spoke enough before to break your heart asunder; ‘But beside all this,’ you must lie there and swim in flames forever.
These words,’Beside all this,’ are terrible words indeed. I will give you the scope of them in a similitude. To show the dreadful case — you would take a man, and tie him to a stake, and with red-hot pinchers, pinch off his flesh by little pieces for two or three years together, and at last, when the poor man cries out for ease and help, the tormentors answer, Nay, ‘but beside all this,’ you must be handled worse! We will serve you thus, these twenty years together, and after that we will fill your mangled body full of scalding lead, or run you through with a red-hot spit! Would not this be lamentable?
Yet this is but a flea-biting compared to the sorrow of those who go to Hell; for if a man were treated so, there would, before it were long, be an end of him. But he who goes to Hell shall suffer ten thousand times worse torments than these — and yet shall never die under them. There they shall be ever whining, pining, weeping, mourning, ever tormented without ease — and yet never dissolved into nothing.
If the biggest devil in Hell might pull you all to pieces, and rend you small as dust, and dissolve you into nothing — you would count this a mercy. But here you may lie and fry, scorch, and broil, and burn forever. FOREVER! That is a long while, and yet it must be so long. ‘Depart from me, you cursed,’ says Christ,’into everlasting fire,’ into the fire that burns forever,’prepared for the devil and his angels’ Matt 25:41. O! you who were reluctant to go half a mile, yes, half a block to hear the word of God, if it were but a little dark; you who were reluctant to leave a few vain companions, to edify your soul; you shall have fire enough, you shall have night enough, and evil company enough, your belly-full — if you miss of Jesus Christ; and ‘beside all this,’ you shall have them forever, and forever!
O you who spend whole nights in carding and dicing, in rioting and wantonness; you who count it a brave thing to swear as fast as the bravest, to spend with the greatest spendthrift in the country; you who love to sin in a corner when nobody sees you! O you who for bye-ends carry on the hypocrite’s profession, because you would be counted somebody among the children of God — but are an enemy to the things of Christ in your heart. You who satisfy yourself, either with sins, or a bare profession of godliness — your soul will fall into extreme torment and anguish, as soon as ever you do depart this world, and there you shall be weeping and gnashing your teeth Matt 8:12. ‘And beside all this,’ you will never have any ease or remedy, never expect any deliverance, you shall die in your sins, and be tormented as many years as there are stars in the sky, or sands on the seashore; ‘and beside all this,’ you must abide it forever!
‘And besides all this, between us and you a great gulf has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’ ‘There is a great gulf fixed.’ You will say, what is that?
Answer.
1. See you rather to enter in at the strait gate — than curiously to inquire what this gulf is. But,
2. If you would needs know if you do fall short of Heaven, you will find it this, namely: the everlasting decree of God; that is, there is decree gone forth from God, that those who fall short of Heaven in this world, God is resolved they shall never enjoy it in the world to come. And you will find this gulf so deep — that you shall never be able to wade through it as long as eternity lasts. As Christ says,’Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are in the way with him’ Matt 5:25; ‘lest he hale you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and you be cast into prison. I tell you, you shall by no means come out thence!’ There is the gulf, the decree,’you shall not depart thence until you have paid the’ utmost farthing, or ‘very last mite’ Luke 12:58,59.
These words therefore,’there is a great gulf fixed,’ I do understand to be the everlasting decree of God. God has decreed that those who go to Heaven shall never go from thence again into a worse place; and also those who go to Hell, and would come out, they shall not come out thence again. And friend, this is such a gulf, so fixed by him who cannot lie, that you will find it so, whichever way you go, whether it be to Heaven or Hell.
Here therefore you see how secure God will make those who die in the faith; God will keep them in Heaven. But those who die in their sins — God will throw them to Hell and keep them there! So that those who would go from Hell to Heaven, cannot. Mark, he does not say, they would not for, O how gladly would these who have lost their souls for a lust, for two-pence, for a jug of ale, for a harlot, for this world — come out of that hot scalding fiery furnace of God’s eternal vengeance, if they might! But here is their misery: those who would come from Hell to Heaven, cannot, they must not, they shall not! They cannot, God has decreed it, and is resolved the contrary.
Here therefore lies the misery, not so much that they are in Hell — but there they must lie forever and ever! Therefore, if your heart would at any time tempt you to sin against God, cry out,’No, for then I must go to Hell — and lie there forever!’ If the drunkards, swearers, liars, and hypocrites did but take this doctrine soundly down, it would make them tremble when they even think of sinning. But poor souls, now they will ‘make a mock of sin’ Prov 14:9, and play with it as a child plays with a rattle; but the time is coming, that these rattles which now they play with — will make such a noise in their ears and consciences, that they shall find, that if all the devils in Hell were yelling at their heels, the noise would not be comparable to it!
Friend, your sins, as so many bloodhounds, will first hunt you out Num 32:23, and then take you and bind you, and hold you down forever Prov 5:22. They will grip you and gnaw you as if you had a nest of poisonous serpents in your belly Job 20:14. And this will not be for a time — but, as I have said, forever, forever, forever!
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