Christian Theology - Media Sabda Org

e made to the damned, then we may expect that the worm that dieth not,
shall die; and the fire that is not quenched, shall burn out!
We have no evidence from Scripture or reason that there are
emendatory punishments in the eternal world. The state of probation
certainly extends only to the ultimate term of human life. We have no
evidence, either from Scripture or reason, that it extends to another state.
There is not only a deep silence on this in the divine records, but there are
the most positive declarations against it. In time and life, the great
business relative to eternity is to be transacted. On passing the limits of
time, we enter into eternity: this is the unchangeable state. In that awful
and indescribable infinitude of incomprehensible duration, we read of but
two places or states: heaven and hell; glory and misery; endless suffering
and endless enjoyment. In these two places or states, we read of but two
descriptions of human beings: the saved and the lost; between whom
there is that immeasurable gulf, over which no one can pass. In the one
state we read of no sin, no imperfection, no curse: there all tears are for
ever wiped away from off all faces; and the righteous shine like the sun
in the kingdom of their Father. In the other we read of nothing but
"weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth;" of the worm that dieth not; and of
"the fire which is not quenched." Here, the effects and consequences of
sin appear in all their colourings, and in all their consequences. Here, no
dispensation of grace is published; no offers of mercy made: the unholy
are unholy still, nor can the circumstances of their case afford any means
by which their state can be meliorated; and it is impossible that
sufferings, whether penal or incidental, can destroy that cause (sin) by
which they were produced.
It cannot be said that beings, in a state of penal sufferings, under the
wrath and displeasure of God, (for if they suffer penally, they must be
under that displeasure,) can either love or serve him. Their sufferings are
the consequences of their crimes, and can form no part of their obedience.
Therefore, all the ages in which they suffer, are ages spent in sinning
against the first and essential law of their creation; and must necessarily
increase the aggregate of their demerit, and lay the eternally successive