'But now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.' As if he should say, Now hath God recompensed both Lazarus and you, according to what you sought after while you were in this world. As for your part, you did neglect the precious mercy and goodness of God, you did turn your back on the Son of God, that came into the world to save sinners; you made a mock of preaching the gospel; you was admonished over and over, to close in with the loving kindness of the Lord, in his Son Jesus Christ. The Lord let you live twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty years; all which time you, instead of spending it 'to make your calling and election sure' (2 Peter 1:10), did spend it in making of eternal damnation sure to thy soul (Job 21:29,30). And also Lazarus, he in his lifetime did make it his business to accept of my grace and salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. When thou wast in the ale-house, he frequented the word preached; when thou wert jeering at goodness, he was sighing to the sins of the times (Eccl 9:4-6). While thou wert swearing, he was praying; in a word, while thou wert making sure of eternal ruin, he, by faith in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, was making sure of eternal salvation. Therefore, 'Now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.'
Here, then, you may see, that as the righteous shall not be always void of comfort and blessedness; so neither shall the ungodly go always without their punishment. As sure as God is in heaven, it will be thus. They must have their several portions. And, therefore, you that are the saints of the Lord, follow on, be not dismayed, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord (1 Cor 15:58). Your portion is eternal glory. And you that are so loth now to close in with Jesus Christ, and to leave your sins to follow him, your 'day is coming' (Psa 37:13), in which you shall know, that your sweet morsels of sin, that you do so easily take down (Job 20:12-14), and it scarce troubles you, will have a time so to work within you to your eternal ruin, that you will be in a worse condition than if you had ten thousand devils tormenting of you. Nay, you had better have been plucked limb from limb a thousand times, if it could be, than to be partakers of this torment that will, assuredly without mercy, lie upon you.
Verse 26.—'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.'
These words are still part of that answer, that 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 spake to was and is a very terrible one, and aggravates the torments of poor sinners wonderfully. Where he saith, 'Remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and Lazarus evil things,' &c. 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 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 saith, 'And beside all this.' There is still something to aggravate thy 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, Thou thinkest thy present state unsupportable, it makes thee sob and sigh, it makes thee to rue the time that ever thou wert born. Now thou findest the want of mercy; now thou wouldst leap at the least dram of it: now thou feelest what it is to slight the tenders of the grace of God; now it makes thee to sob, sigh, and roar exceedingly for the anguish that thou art in. 'But beside all this,' I have other things to tell thee of, that will break thine heart indeed. Thou art now deprived of a being in the world; thou art deprived of hearing the gospel; the devil hath been too hard for thee, and hath made thee miss of heaven; thou art now in hell among an innumerable company of devils, and all thy sins beset thee round; thou art all over wrapped in flames, and canst not have one drop of water to give thee any ease; thou criest in vain, for nothing will be granted. Thou seest the saints in heaven, which is no small trouble to thy damned soul; thou seest that neither God nor Christ takes any care to ease thee, or speak any comfort unto thee. 'But beside all this,' there thou art, and there thou art like to lie, never think of any ease, never look for any comfort; repentance now will do thee no good, the time is past, and can never be called again, look what thou hast now, thou must have for ever.
It is true, I spoke enough before to break thine heart asunder; 'But beside all this,' there lie and swim in flames for ever. These words, 'Beside all this,' are terrible words indeed. I will give you the scope of them in a similitude. Set the case you should 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 to the sorrow of those that go to hell; for if a man were served so there would, ere it were long, be an end of him. But he that goes to hell shall suffer ten thousand times worse torments than these, and yet shall never be quite dead 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 thee all to pieces, and rend thee small as dust, and dissolve thee into nothing, thou wouldst count this a mercy. But here thou mayst lie and fry, scorch, and broil, and burn for ever. For ever, that is a long while, and yet it must be so long. 'Depart from me, ye cursed,' saith Christ, 'into everlasting fire,' into the fire that burns for ever, 'prepared for the devil and his angels' (Matt 25:41). O! thou that wast loth to foul thy foot if it were but dirty, or did but rain; thou that was loth to come out of the chimney-corner, if the wind did but blow a little cold; and was loth to go half-a-mile, yea, half-a-furlong to hear the word of God, if it were but a little dark; thou that wast loth to leave a few vain companions, to edify thy soul; thou shalt have fire enough, thou shalt have night enough, and evil company enough, thy bellyfull, if thou miss of Jesus Christ; and 'beside all this,' thou shalt have them for ever, and for ever.
O thou that dost spend whole nights in carding and dicing, in rioting and wantonness; thou that countest it a brave thing to swear as fast as the bravest, to spend with the greatest spendthrift in the country; thou that lovest to sin in a corner when nobody sees thee! O thou that for bye-ends dost carry on the hypocrite's profession, because thou wouldst be counted somebody among the children of God,[22] but art an enemy to the things of Christ in thine heart. Thou that dost satisfy thyself, either with sins, or a bare profession of godliness, thy soul will fall into extreme torment and anguish, so soon as ever thou dost depart this world, and there thou shalt be weeping and gnashing thy teeth (Matt 8:12). 'And beside all this,' thou art like never to have any ease or remedy, never look for any deliverance, thou shalt die in thy sins, and be tormented as many years as there are stars in the firmament, or sands on the seashore; 'and beside all this,' thou must abide it for ever.
'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.' 'There is a great gulf fixed.' You will say, what is that? Answ. It is a nice question; therefore,
1. See thou rather to enter in at the strait gate, than curiously to inquire what this gulf is. But,
2. If thou wouldst needs know if thou do fall short of heaven, thou wilt 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 thou wilt find this gulf so deep, that thou shalt never be able to wade through it as long as eternity lasts. As Christ saith, 'Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him' (Matt 5:25); 'lest he hale thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. I tell thee thou shalt by no means come out thence,' there is the gulf, the decree, 'thou shalt not depart thence till thou hast 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 hath decreed that those who go to heaven shall never go from thence again into a worse place; and also those that 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 that cannot lie, that thou wilt find it so, which way soever thou goest, whether it be to heaven or hell.
Here therefore thou seest how secure God will make those who die in the faith; God will keep them in heaven; but those that die in their sins, God will throw them to hell and keep them there; so that they that would go from heaven to hell, cannot; neither can they come from hell that would go to heaven. Mark, he doth not say, they would not—for, O how fain would these who have lost their souls for a lust, for two-pence, for a jug of ale, for a strumpet, for this world, come out of that hot scalding fiery furnace of God's eternal vengeance, if they might—but here is their misery, they that would come from you to us, that is, from hell to heaven, cannot, they must not, they shall not; they cannot, God hath 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 for ever and ever. Therefore, if thy heart would at any time tempt thee to sin against God, cry out, No, for then I must go to hell, and lie there for ever. If the drunkards, swearers, liars, and hypocrites did but take this doctrine soundly down, it would make them tremble when they think of sinning. But poor souls, now they will 'make a mock of sin' (Prov 14:9), and play with it as a child doth play with a rattle; but the time is coming, that these rattles that 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, thy sins, as so many bloodhounds, will first hunt thee out (Num 32:23), and then take thee and bind thee, and hold thee down for ever (Prov 5:22). They will gripe thee and gnaw thee as if thou hadst a nest of poisonous serpents in thy bowels (Job 20:14). And this will not be for a time, but, as I have said, for ever, for ever, for ever.