USE SIXTH-USE AND APPLICATION.
2. Hell is said to be darkness, and
heaven is said to be light; light, to show the pleasurableness and the desirableness
of heaven; and darkness, to show the dolesome and wearisomeness of hell; and
how weary, oh! how weary and wearisomely, as I may say, will damned souls turn
themselves from side to side, from place to place, in hell, while swallowed up
in the thickest darkness, and griped with the burning thoughts of the
endlessness of that most unutterable misery (Matt 22:13)!
3. Men are said to go up to heaven, but
they are said to go down to hell; up, because of exaltation, and because they
must abound in beauty and glory that go to heaven; down, because of those sad
dejections, that great deformity and vile contempt that sin hath brought them to
that go to hell (Eze 32:18).
4. Heaven is called a hill or mount,
(Heb 12); hell is called a pit, or hole, (Rev 9:2); heaven, a mount, the mount
Zion, (Rev 14); to show how God has, and will exalt them that loved Him in the
world; hell, a pit or hole, to show how all the ungodly shall be buried in the
yawning paunch and belly of hell, as in a hollow cave.
5. Heaven! It is said of heaven, the
height of heaven, (Job 22:12). and of hell, the bottomless pit, (Rev 9:2;
20:3). The height of heaven, to show that the exaltation of them that do ascend
up thither is both perfect and unsearchable; and hell, the bottomless pit, to
show that the downfall of them that descend in thither will never be at an
end—down, down, down they go, and nothing but down, down still!
6. Heaven! It is called the paradise of
God, (Rev 2:7); but hell, the burning lake (Rev 20:15). A paradise, to show how
quiet, harmless, sweet, and beautiful heaven shall be to them that possess it,
as the garden was at the beginning of the creation; hell, the burning lake, to
allude to Sodom, that since its destruction is turned into a stinking lake, and
to show that as their distress was unutterable, and to the highest amazement,
full of confusion and horror, when that tempestuous storm of fire and brimstone
was rained from the Lord out of heaven upon them, so, to the utmost degree,
shall it be with the souls that are lost and cast into hell.
7. It is said that there are dwelling
houses, or places in the kingdom of heaven (John 14: 1-3; Zech 3:7; Isa 57:1,2).
And also that there are the cells or the chambers of death in hell (Prov 7:27).
There are mansions or dwelling places in heaven, to show that every one of them
that go thither might have his reward, according to his work; and that there is
hell, and the lowest hell (Deu 32:22; Psa 86:13). And the chambers of death in
hell to show there are places and states in hell too, for sinners to be
imprisoned in, according to their faults; hence it is said of some, These shall
receive greater damnation, (Luke 20:47); and of others, That it shall be more
tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the judgment than for them, etc. (Luke
10:12, 14).
The lowest hell. How many hells there
are above that, or more tolerable tormenting places than the most exquisite
torments there, God, and they that are there, know best; but degrees, without doubt, there are; and the term 'lowest' shows the utmost and most exquisite
distress; so the chambers of death, the second death in hell, for so I think
the words should be understood—' Her house is the way to hell, going down to the
chambers of death (Prov 7:27). These are the chambers that the chambers in the
temple, or that the dwelling places in the house in heaven, are opposed to: and
this opposition shows, that as there will be degrees of glory in heaven, so
there will of torments in hell; and there is all reason for it, since the
punishment must be inflicted by God, the infinitely just. Why should a poor,
silly, ignorant man, though damned, be punished with the same degree of torment
that he that has lived a thousand times worse shall be punished with? It cannot
be; justice will not admit it; guilt, and the quality of the transgression,
will not admit it; yea, the tormenting fire of hell itself will not admit it;
for if hell fire can kindle upon nothing but sin, and the sinner for the sake
of it, and if sin is as oil to that fire, as the Holy Ghost seems to intimate,
saying, 'Let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones'
(Psa 109:18). Then as the quantity of the oil is, so will the fire burn, and so
will the flaming flame ascend, and the smoke of their torment, forever and
ever.
