From Burning to Burning!
The Spirit of God, in Scripture, by metaphors of all sorts of things which are dreadful unto sense - sets forth the condition of the damned, and the torments which He has reserved for them in the life to come. Hell's punishments do infinitely exceed all other punishments, that there is no pain so extreme - as that of the damned.
Look! As there are no joys which can compare to the joys of Heaven - so there are no pains which can compare to the pains of hell. All the cruelties in the world cannot possibly make up any horror comparable to the horrors of hell. The brick-kilns of Egypt, the fiery furnace of Babylon - are but as a fleeting spark - compared to this Tophet tormenting which has been prepared of old to punish the bodies and souls of sinners with. Hanging, racking, burning, scourging, stoning, sawing asunder, flaying of the skin, etc., are not to be compared with the tortures of hell.
If all the pains, sorrows, miseries, and calamities which have been inflicted upon all men, since Adam fell in Paradise, should meet together and center in one man - they would not so much as amount to one of the least of the pains of hell.
Who can sum up the diversity of torments which are in hell! In hell there is darkness, hell is a dark region! In hell there are sorrows! In hell there are bonds and chains! In hell there are pains and pangs! In hell there is the worm which never dies! In hell there is the lake of fire! In hell there is the furnace of fire! In hell there are the devil and his demons! And oh, how dreadful must it be to be shut up forever with those roaring lions! In hell there is weeping and gnashing of teeth! In hell there is unquenchable fire - everlasting fire!
O sirs, the torments of hell will be exceeding great and dreadful - such as will make the stoutest sinners to quake and tremble!
Wicked men, who are now such jolly fellows, shall one day go from burning to burning! They shall go from burning in sin - to burning in hell; from burning in flames of lusts - to burning in flames of torment!
Oh, how terrible will the torments of hell be to the damned! The torments of hell will be universal torments. All torments meet together in that place of torments. Hell is the center of all punishments, of all sorrows, of all pains, of all wrath, of all vengeance!
All the pains, torments, curse, and wrath which were due to the elect - fell on Christ, until divine justice was fully satisfied. "For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Thess. 5:9). Oh, exalt that Christ! Oh, extol that Saviour, who has saved you from that eternal wrath!
~Thomas Brooks~
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