They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation.
— Numbers 16:33
The wicked is driven away in his wickedness: but the righteous hath hope in his death.
— Proverbs 14:32
But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
— Matthew 8:12
And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
— Matthew 25:46
Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
— Romans 11:22
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. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
— Luke 16:26-31
For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.
— Isaiah 38:18
They That Are Gone to Hell, Are All of Them in Despair, by Jonathan Edwards.
They that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.
— Isaiah 38:18c
This is part of Hezekiah’s song of praise to God when he was recovered from his dangerous sickness. The argument of praise that he insists on in this verse is the greatness of the evil that God had delivered him from, even of a state of death. And the dolefulness of the state of death is here set forth in three things, namely, that those that are in this state can neither do good, nor enjoy good, nor hope for good. The two former implied in these expressions in the former part of the verse — the grave cannot praise you, death cannot celebrate you. They that are in a state of death can’t praise and celebrate God. They can’t glorify God, and so they can do no good for they don’t glorify God, nor do good. Death cannot praise God because in death there is nothing in joy to receive to praise God for, and so they enjoy no good. And the third thing, namely, that they can hope for no good is in the last part of the verse: they that go down to the pit cannot hope for your truth. Hezekiah praises God that God had delivered him from such a doleful state as this.
But then, there is a question that may arise, namely, how can this be true? Did none that are in a state of death can praise God or celebrate Him or hope for His truth, seeing that many of those that are dead not only can but do praise God in heaven, and praise Him far better than the living, and enjoy a thousand times as much to praise Him for? And it is so far from being so that they cannot hope for God’s truth that they do depend on God’s truth to continue their happiness to all eternity, and greatly to increase it to the resurrection. And this would have been the case of Hezekiah himself if he had died by that sickness, he being a good man. In answer to this, I would observe that Hezekiah in this song is not only praising God for the temporal delay that he had had, but while he is praising God for his preservation from temporal death, he in the same song also praises him for God’s spiritual salvation, the redemption of his soul from destruction, of which that temporal deliverance was but an image. This is plain by the words immediately foregoing this verse. In the seventeenth verse, you have cast all my sins behind your back. So that he is here praising God for the redemption of his soul from the guilt and punishment of sin. And this may be generally observed in scripture songs for temporal deliverances, as in the song of Moses at the Red Sea, and others. They all have a plain reference to the greater redemption of which these temporal deliverances are but images and shadows, so that the death spoken of here in this verse is not mere temporal death. That that, Hezekiah here speaks of, is death as it is in itself or as it is originally, and in its own nature, and not as it is changed by redemption from a state of death into a state of life. Look upon death as it is in the saints, and death is no more death. It is changed by redemption into another thing. It is changed that instead of being a state of death, it is a state of a more glorious sort of life than it was before. That which Hezekiah speaks of is that which is death, indeed. That is properly so called. He speaks of the death wherein men do really die and are truly dead, and not that in which they are a thousand times more alive than they were before. A state of death as it is originally, and when it is properly death, it is a state in which men cannot praise God, nor celebrate Him, nor hope for His truth. It is a state in which there is no good done, and no good enjoyed, nor any good hope for. It is a state of evil without any good. It is, as Job says in Chapter 10:22:
A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.
They that are in hell are in such a state of death. Such was death originally before Christ changed it and destroyed it. Such was death as it was threatened to our first parents. And very commonly when death is spoken of in the Old Testament, it is in this notion of it. For the change of a state of death into a state of more glorious life was not fully revealed under the Old Testament. Life and immortality is brought to light through the Gospels, 2 Timothy 1:10. It is under this notion that death seems to be spoken of in Ecclesiastes 9:5 when it is said, the dead have no more a reward. This is not true of those that are redeemed, for with them that is the very time of their reward, when they are dead. Hezekiah did not mean that they that are redeemed from the power of the grave, they that get the victory over death and shall never die, as Christ promises His disciples shall not praise God, nor hope for His truth.
Doctrine.
They that are gone into hell, are all of them in despair.
Proposition One.
There are many men that are gone to hell. There are many of all sorts, kings and beggars, rich and poor, old and young, wise and unwise, bond and free. There is the generality of those of the old world that were drowned in the flood. This appears by 1 Peter 3:19. They are gone, the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, Jude 7. And then, there is Judas. There are those Pharisees that we read of in Matthew 12:24 and so on, that blasphemed against the Holy Ghost. They are gone, those we read of in Jude 4 that were before of old ordained to condemnation. There are gone many wicked children. There are gone many lewd young people that died in their youth and were cut off in the middle of their mirth and jollity, in the middle of their uncleanness in pursuit of carnal pleasures.
There have gone into hell many carnal creatures, unsanctified old people that lay down their whore heads in the grave and their souls went to hell. There are many disobedient and undutiful children that have gone to hell. There are many negligent parents that have neglected the education and government of their families. There are many unrighteous creatures, selfish, proud Manchesterites.
And there are many unfaithful ministers that are gone to hell. There are doubtless many that we have seen and converse with here in the world, though we know not who owed them, yet doubtless many of them are there in hell. When they died, their souls went down to hell. We read much in the scriptures of hell, a place of woe and misery called a furnace of fire and outer darkness. The blackness of darkness. The bottomless pit. The lake that burns with fire and brimstone. There it is that they are gone. They are now tormented in that flame. We can’t know precisely what circumstances they are in, but as the scripture is represented, they are now wailing and gnashing their teeth. They are subject to the wrath of God. It is executed to the utmost upon them. There are many devils and men delivered up to them.
Proposition Two.
They, that are gone to hell — their misery will be eternal.
Their misery will be absolutely eternal. Sometimes things are said to be everlasting as to be an always or forever, when it has not been, absolutely. Sometimes as we use the word it signifies no more than as long as a man lives. Thus if it be such or such in one, is like to be always poor, despised, or like always to be the subject to such a disease or infirmity. It is intended only as long as he lives. Sometimes when things are said to be everlasting or forever, it is not meant absolutely, but only as long as the world stands. Thus, when we say that God would dwell in our land forever, it is so intended.
Things are often said to be forever or everlasting in Scripture when it is not intended that they are absolutely eternal. So Exodus 27:21, there speaking of a law about the sacrifices, God says that shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. Leviticus 16:34, this shall be an everlasting statute unto you.
So it is often said of the ceremonial laws whereby forever is meant only during the continuance of the Jewish state. Thus, things are sometimes said to be everlasting or forever, and yet it is to be understood in a limited sense. But the misery of those that are gone to hell will be absolutely everlasting, or without end. And therefore it is said to be forever and ever, Revelation 4:10-11, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation. And He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb, and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up of forever and ever, and they have no rest, day nor night. And, an end to their misery is absolutely denied in Scripture, as it is positively declared that they shall not have any end. Mark 9:43-44,
And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
There shall be no end to their misery by their being brought into a more happy state and condition, for there remains no more sacrifice for sin, and it is appointed to men once to die. So Christ is but once offered, Hebrews 9:27-28. And all change after death is expressly denied in Revelation 22:11, he that is unjust, let him be unjust, still. And there never will be any end by death or annihilation. Revelation 9:6, men shall seek death and shall not find it, and they shall desire to die and death shall flee from them. Their misery is eternal, not only as it will never wholly cease, but also as it will never in part come to an end. It will never be diminished, but it will be increased.
Those that are now gone to hell do not have their full punishment now, but it is to be increased at the day of judgment. Their misery is very dreadful now, as appears by what we are told of the rich men in Luke 16:23-24,
And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and he sees Abraham afar off in Lazarus and his bosom, and he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.
Yet, the punishment of both wicked men and devils will be greatly augmented at the day of judgment, and therefore the devils tremble at the expectation of that day. So that the misery of them that are gone to hell is not only eternal in that degree that they now suffer it, but it is to be greatly increased hereafter and to remain eternal in that degree that it shall be inflicted then. Some things are said to be everlasting that shall yet still come to an end when men die. But this misery that is absolutely eternal does but begin when men die. Some things are said to be everlasting that shall come to an end at the end of the world, but this misery will be then, begun in its highest degree. When the heavens are grown old, and God shall change them as a fester. And the earth and the works that are therein shall be dissolved, and shall the misery of those that are gone to hell be so far from coming to an end, that it shall then but commence in the highest degree of it. We have this expression often in Scripture. As long as the sun and moon enters, it signifies an exceeding long continuance. But this space of time will be so far from being commensurate to the misery of those that are gone to hell, that it is but all an introduction to it.
Section Two.
1. Those that are gone to hell know this. They know that their misery will be eternal, and therefore they are in despair. It would be well for them if it were hidden from them, and they were ignorant of it. It would be well for them if they could be deceived and entertain a hope that they should some time or other be delivered, though there were no foundation for it. But the eternity of their sufferings will be what they will be assured of, to that degree that it won’t allow the least measure of hope. Sometimes persons see no probability of their attaining such a good, or being delivered from such and such a calamity. Everything seems to look dark. All things seem to concur against them and they are very greatly afraid. They have very little hope. All the room there is left to hope is that the thing is merely possible. But in this case, there is not even so much of that. They shall not only see that there is no probability of it, and be very much discouraged and disheartened about it, but they shall know fully that it is utterly impossible. And there will not arise in their hearts so much as a least glimmering of hope. It is impossible that there should be such a thing as hope in hell, as it is said in a text. They that shall go down to the pit cannot hope for your truth. They despair of ever enjoying any good. They despair of ever obtaining heaven. Once they had an opportunity of obtaining it and they had a reason to despair of it. But now, that opportunity is passed. Once the door was open, but now it is not so. They came to the door too late and found it shut. And it is shut forever, never to be opened again. They shall lift up their eyes and see many others, and some of them perhaps such as they have been acquainted with in this world, with Jesus Christ and glory. But at the same time see between them, a great gulf fixed. So that there is no passing from one to the other. They shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom and many come from the east and from the west and sitting down in the kingdom of God. But they utterly despair of ever being partners with them. They see that they have lost heaven forever. They despair of ever returning again to this world and to the enjoyments of it. They despair if ever any more seeing the sweet light of the sun and the many pleasant objects that entertained their eyes when they were here in this world. They despair if ever more having friends to be concerned for them and to help them as ones they had. They despair if ever any more gratifying their sensual appetites. Those of them that were rich and great in the world despair if ever any more having the pleasure to think that they had so much of the world, and so much more than their neighbors. They despair of ever having their pride gratified and see them themselves above others? The soul of man necessarily craves happiness, and in hell this craving is as strong as elsewhere. But they that are there, despair of this least grain of good or comfort to gratify it, they shall know that they shall never have anything but the blackness of darkness without the least glimmering of light.
2. They despair of ever being in any wise delivered from the evil they suffer. They despair of God’s being ever reconciled to them, and of His hatred and wrath, being at all abated. They despair of God’s ever having any pity upon them. They despair of His heart relenting at all that decided their doleful case? They know that all Christ to Him would be in vain, that it is now too late to beg for His mercy. They despair of ever moving his pity by their cries and groans and dolour lamentings. They know that they never can fly from God or by any art or contrivance hide themselves from Him, or get out of that place of torment. They despair of ever escaping from the tormenting hand of Satan. They despair of ever being turned to nothing and having an end put to their misery that way. They would be glad to be turned into a toad or a serpent, that they might not be capable of such a degree of misery, but they despair of it. They despair not only of an end to their misery, but of any abatement of it. They despair of obtaining so much as one drop of water. They despair of ever having one minute’s rest or one breath of relaxation from the extremities of their torment throughout the never-ending ages of eternity.
I will now proceed to give the reasons why they despair, to take notice of the means by which they will come to be thus assured that in hell their misery will be thus eternal. Or how they come to know that they shall never be delivered from it. They now see that the Word of God, that so often threatens that their punishment shall be eternal is true. While they lived in this world, they were not sensible of the truth of God’s Word. They doubted whether there was any truth in the threatenings of it. They questioned whether the threatenings or the Bible were God-threatenings. Whether the scripture was the Word of God. But now they are in hell. Their minds are greatly altered about those things. They have other notions about the things of religion than they used to have. They now know that there is a God, and that they know that He is such a God as the Scriptures declared Him to be — i.e. a sin-hating, sin-revengeing God. We are now convinced that He is a God that is true to His Word and that His threatenings are true. We find the truth of the Word of God and their being cast into hell, in inflicting the threatened misery. And they’ll be fully assured that his word is also true in the eternal continuance. Then all doubting of the truth of God’s word concerning an eternal world ceases. The sentence of the judge that has been passed upon them assures them that they shall never be delivered. When a man dies, his soul goes to appear before God, Ecclesiastes 12:7,
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
It goes to appear before God to be judged, and sentence is pronounced according to his works. They that are gone to hell have had sentence passed upon them by the great judge, in which they have been doomed to eternal misery. The eternity of the punishment was part of the sentence. Thus, it is in the sentence that is pronounced on the wicked at the day of judgment — Matthew 25:41,
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.
There they are to bid to depart into burnings that are everlasting, then the sentence is the same that is pronounced on every wicked man at his particular judgment at death. Only at the day of judgment it is pronounced in a more public manner. This sentence shall be pronounced by the Great God in such a manner, with such manifestations of the awful majesty, greatness, holiness, and wrath of God, that there will give the greatest assurance of the truth of it, to the subjects of it. There will be no possibility of the wicked soul doubting of the truth and certainty of it. They will know that God is in earnest and that He declares His fixed and unalterable decrees.
They receive these testimonies of the hatred of God as assurance that He never intends to deliver them. They know that God is not only angry with them, but hates them, and that He hates them with perfect hatred. They know His hatred from what they feel, from the misery He inflicts. It is not every calamity that God brings on men that is a sign of His hatred. The most extreme temporal calamities that ever happen to men are no certain sign of God’s hatred. They are still consistent with the love of God, but the calamity that the damned are subject to is such as is a clear evidence of God’s hatred to them. It isn’t consistent with any mercy or love of God towards the subjects of it. The misery that they suffer is so inexpressibly painful and intended with those dismal circumstances that renders it a perfect manifestation of God’s utter hatred. God will immediately give inward manifestation of his dreadful hatred and wrath in their soul, and that in ways that we know not of, and that we now cannot conceive of, in ways more dreadful than now we can conceive of. These discoveries of God’s hatred exclude all hope of ever being delivered from their misery, for their being delivered or not delivered must be according to God’s will, but they know that He hates them enough to continue them under the misery they now suffer forever and ever, without any pity toward them.
God’s absolute hatred is not consistent with the design of mercy. If God should entertain a design of mercy sometime or other therein, He would not absolutely hate them, but would have mercy for them. But those that God absolutely hates, He can have no design of any mercy toward them. And as a damned have such great manifestations of God’s hatred, so they know that He never intends them any mercy. They know that He hates them with an eternal hatred. God’s eternal decrees are now made known to them. They know that God is so powerful that He is able to do with them what He wills. They know what His power is now better than they did while on earth. They see what a great and dreadful God, God is. They know His power by what they feel. For so dreadful are the torments of the damned that the mighty power of God is made known in them. This is one in of them, Romans 9:22. But if the mighty power of God is made known by them to others, much more to them who suffer them. They know that God is so powerful that they can never escape out of His hands. They know that He is able to fulfil the threatenings and to execute His own sentence, and do to them according to His hatred and wrath, and that He is able to make their misery eternal. He is able to keep them from all remedy.
Application.
Use of awakening to those that are in a natural condition.
Those that are so, are in the same condition that those that are gone to hell and are there in despair were in, and that they perished in. If you should look into hell and behold a state of the damned there, and hear their cries, and consider that they are, all of them, in utter despair of ever being delivered from their misery, and should inquire how they came. Such multitudes of them to be brought into such misery, it must be answered that it was because they died in such a state as you are in. And if you should inquire particulars, it must be answered concerning of them that it was because they went on in some ways of sin that you were going on in. Because they delayed and put off the concern of their souls as you do, or that they flatter themselves and trust it in themselves as you do. Here, for your awakening consider how dreadful it argues the case of those that are in hell to be, that they are in despair. Despair is a thing of all things, the most dark and doleful, the sting of a calamity. It is the misery of miseries. It is the dregs of the cup. It is the hell of hell. It is that which makes any person utterly miserable. And no person can be said to be perfectly miserable without it. It cuts off all relief. There is no person or calamity whatsoever, but what is light without it in comparison of what it is with it? The wrath of Almighty God would itself be but light. Hellfire would be cool without it, in comparison of what it is with it. It would be terrible, beyond expression, for a man to endure the pain that he would do if he were in the midst of a great furnace of earthly fire or a red, hot oven. And it could be that he could remain there full of quicksands for one day, though he knew that at today’s end his torment would be at an end. And he should be in perfect ease and soundness again. We cannot conceive of the dreadfulness of such a day as that would be. To have the body from head to foot, and with and without, all red-hot and bright with fire, and the sense not diminished, and the pain proportionable to the fire. How terrible would such a day be, though there was no despair attended it. But the person all the while was full of hope, yea, the person should not merely hope for deliverance, but be certain of it. And that in so short a time. Yea, to endure such pain, but one quarter of an hour would doubtless be inexpressibly dreadful. And if a man knew what it was, it is not probable that anything could be offered him that would tempt him to endure it, or that any man would be persuaded, though he knew he could have all the riches of the world given him for it. But how much more terrible would it be to spend a quarter of an hour in hell? Of which our earthly fire, though most terrible, is but the image, as it were only a picture of fire in comparison of it. But yet, if they knew in hell, they were to endure what they now suffer for four thousands of years, and had hopes that then after so long a time they should have deliverance, their misery would be light to what it is now. If the damned could have such news as is proclaimed among them, that after they had suffered for thousands of years they should be delivered, it would take off a very great part of their burden. Hell would be no hell in comparison of what it is now. Absolute despair is a thing perfectly overwhelming to nature. There is nothing that can fill the mind with such a gloom as this. This is a very blackness of darkness to be in such extreme misery and to have no hope of ever being delivered. Let them look as far forward as they will. Let their thoughts run out to number such length and future duration, doubling and multiplying thousands and millions. And yet to think that when they had worn out such ages and torment, that will bring them no nearer to relief, and that their eternity of misery will yet be but beginning, that there will never, never come any end or any abatement of their torments. This covers the damned souls and the thick clouds of most inexpressible darkness and horror. This perfectly amazes them. The thought of eternity is infinitely too great for them to bear. It overwhelms them. It destroys them. It crushes them. It sinks them down into the gulf of woe and misery so unfathomable in its depths. It is but a little that we can express or conceive of the terribleness of this state. The things are too big for the conception or tongues of mortals. The misery is too great. The horror and amazement too great for us to think or speak of as they are. The comparisons that we are capable of using all fail and give us but some faint idea of it. But to help your conceptions in this manner, consider —
1. This despair is universal, absolute, and final.
1. It is universal.
Man in this world may sometimes be said to despair of particular things that they desire. As of being delivered from particular calamities, they suffer. And he that loses some dear earthly relation or friend, he despairs of ever having the enjoyment of them anymore. One that is carried into captivity may in a great measure despair of ever being delivered, and return it again to his possessions and friends. But in such cases, the despair is non-universal, but peculiar, particular enjoyments. They don’t despair of all good. The despair that he has, may cast him into deep despondency and melancholy, but yet he doesn’t despair of every enjoyment. But they that are in hell, they despair. And it is universal. They utterly despair of all good of every sort. They despair of pleasure, of profit and honor, of any comfort or friends or possessions or anything else. They despair of the favor of God as spiritual good, and they despair of all temporal good. Their misery that they despair of being delivered from, is universal. They despair of being delivered from shame and disgrace. They despair of being delivered from the manifestation of the wrath of God. They despair of being delivered from the cruelty of devils. They despair of being delivered from the horrors of conscience. They despair of being delivered from torment, a body which will be inflicted after the resurrection. They despair of being delivered from torment in any part of their bodies.
2. Their despair is absolute.
Men in ordinary speech are sometimes said to despair of things when their despair is not altogether absolute.
As persons very far gone, in some very mortal disease, or he that is condemned to an execution may be said to despair of life, because there is no manner of prospect any way of their deliverance. But yet, they are not absolutely certain that they shall not be delivered, and escape, although altogether improbable, yet may not be said to be simply impossible. So the Apostle says in 2 Corinthians 1:8,
For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:
But the despair of the damned is absolute despair, as is intended with a perfect assurance that they shall never escape.
3. Their despair is final.
No despair in earthly things can be said in like manner to be final. If men are subject to extreme poverty or captivity or carnal bondage or imprisonment and to some painful disease, and despair of ever being delivered as long as they live, yet their despair with respect to those things can’t be said to be final in the same manner. Is that in hell? For the evil that it has respect to, or temporal, they don’t reach beyond death. If they despair of ever being delivered as long as they live, that is very disheartening and discouraging and greatly augments the affliction.
But yet death will terminate all temporal differences between one man and another as to prosperity and adversity. It will put an end to earthly poverty and diseases and bondage and afflictions of all sorts, as Job observed in Chapter 3:17-19. And therefore despair with respect to all things never looks any further forward than death. But to despair the damned has no such period or termination. It looks forward without end. Job under his calamity seems to have had very little hope of ever being delivered while he lived, but he had hope for it when he died, and it’s made him wish for death, Job 7:15,
My soul chooses strangling and death rather than my life.
But the damned in hell, they have no such refuge for their thoughts to fly to. If they might hear that news that they should die and turn to nothing, that would be joyful tidings to them, but they shall despair of ever being delivered by such means. They wish and long for death, but shall not find it. And they wish that they had never been born, but that is to no purpose.
2. Consider how terrible absolute despair is, if it should only attend some of those pains that men are wont to suffer in this world.
If it were only a sharp toothache or an aching finger. If persons when under those pains were at the same time assured that they must never have any relief or any rest at all, but must endure that pain without intermission forever and ever, how dark discouraging and sinking would be the thought. This would inflict in distress a sufferer immensely more than simply present pain. When we endure pain, it is hoped it makes him tolerable, that which we now account to life’s suffering. Take away hope, and it will become intolerable. Despair would aggravate and enhance the affliction beyond all account, and would make it overbearing, though now with hope men make it no great manner of it. But despair would be so terrible when attending so light an affliction, what is it when attending the torments of hell? What is a toothache to the misery of the soul and hell-fire, under the fierceness of the soul, and the and wrath of Almighty God? Despair is dreadful in proportion to the evil that persons despair of being delivered from. Despair, when it attends a great calamity it adds to the distress and its great apportion when it attends a small one. If we suppose the despair joined with pain of an aching tooth would make the present distress an hundredfold or a thousandfold greater. So will it by a parity of reason augment and multiply in a like proportion the present distress of the torments of hell. You may perhaps conceive in some measure how much more dreadful absolute despair will make your present distress under temporal pains that you suffer, and consider that as much in proportion are the present suffering, and horror of damnation increased — though they are so dreadful in themselves.
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