A Few Sighs from Hell

There was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar, named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in 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. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. 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 16:19-31).

Our Lord Jesus Christ did not speak this Scripture to show you the state of two single persons only, as some dream, because they do not understand the drift of Christ in his parables. He spoke it to show you the state of the godly and the ungodly to the world’s end, as is clear to anyone who has an understanding heart. For he spoke these things so that later generations would take notice of them, and fear, lest they too fall into the same condition.

Now in my discourse on these words I will not be tedious. As briefly as I can, I will go through the several verses and lay out for you some of the various truths contained in them. And the Lord grant that they may be profitable and of great benefit to those who read them, or hear them read.

I will not spend much time on verses 19 and 20 either. I will only give you three or four short hints, and so pass on to the next verses, for those are the words I most especially intend to dwell on. Verses 19, 20, and 21 run like this: “There was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared” deliciously, or “sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar, named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate full of sores” (Luke 16:19-20).

1. If Jesus Christ had spoken these verses and no more, the whole world would very nearly have put a wrong interpretation on them. I say, if Jesus had said only this much, “There was a certain rich man” who “fared sumptuously daily, and a certain beggar laid at his gate full of sores,” the world would have drawn this conclusion from it: the rich man was the happy man. For at first sight it does look that way. But take it all together, that is, read the whole parable, and you will find that there is no man in a worse condition than he is, as I will clearly show afterward.

2. Again, if someone judges people by outward appearance, he will often miss his mark. Here is a man who, to outward appearance, seems the only blessed man, better by half than the beggar. He is rich; the beggar is poor. He is well clothed, but the beggar is perhaps naked. He has good food, but the beggar would be glad of dog’s meat: “And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table.” The rich man fares well every day, but the beggar must be glad of a bite when he can get it.

Oh, who would not be in the rich man’s state? A wealthy man, with all sorts of new suits and dainty dishes every day! It is enough to make someone who cares for nothing but his belly, his back, and his lusts say, “Oh, that I were in that man’s condition! Oh, that I had around me what that man has! Then I would live a life indeed. Then I would have heart’s ease in plenty. Then I would live pleasantly, and could say to my soul, ‘Soul,’ be of good cheer, ‘eat, drink, and be merry’ (Luke 12:19); you have plenty of everything, and you are in a most blessed condition.”

I say, this might be, yes, and is, the conclusion of those who judge by outward appearance. But if the whole parable is well considered, you will see that what is held in high esteem among men is an abomination in the sight of God (Luke 16:15). And again, you will see that the condition which is saddest to outward appearance is often the most excellent (John 16:20-22). For the beggar had it ten thousand times better, though to outward appearance his state was the saddest. From this we will observe these two things:

(1) Those who judge by outward appearance for the most part judge wrongly (John 7:24).

(2) Those who look on their outward good things as a token of God’s special grace to them are also deceived (Rev 3:17). For as it is here in the parable, a man of wealth and a child of the devil may be one and the same person. Or a man may have an abundance of outward good things, and yet be carried by the devils into eternal burnings (Luke 12:20). But this is the trap in which the devil has caught many thousands of poor souls: he gets them to judge by outward appearance, or by God’s outward blessings.

Just ask a poor, carnal, covetous wretch how we may know that a man is in a happy state, and he will answer, “Those whom God blesses, and to whom he gives an abundance of this world.” Yet for the most part these are the very men who are cursed. Alas, poor men! They are so ignorant as to think that because a man has increased in outward things, and that from a small stock, God must therefore love that man with a special love. Otherwise, they think, he would never do so much for him, never bless him so, and never prosper the work of his hands. Ah, poor soul, it is the rich man who goes to hell! And “the rich man died,” and in hell (mark this), “in hell he lift up his eyes.”

It makes me wonder sometimes to see how the great ones of the world go strutting up and down the streets. Surely they look on themselves as the only happy men. But that is because they judge by outward appearance. They look on themselves as the only blessed men, when the Lord knows that most of them are left out of that blessed condition. “Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called” (1 Cor 1:26). Ah, if those who now brag so much that hardly anyone dares look at them would only believe this, it would make them hang their heads and cry, “Oh, give me Lazarus’s portion!”

I could enlarge on this a great deal, but I will not. I will only say this much to you who have much of this world: Take care that your portion is not in this world. Take heed that it is not said to you hereafter, when you would very gladly have heaven, “Remember, in your lifetime you had your good things; in your lifetime you had your portion” (Ps 17:14).

And friend, you who are seeking after this world and desire riches, let me ask you this question. Would you be content for God to put you off with a portion in this life? Would you be glad to be kept out of heaven with a back well clothed and a belly well filled with the dainties of this world? Would you be glad to have all your good things in your lifetime, so that your heaven lasts no longer than you live in this world? Would you be willing to be deprived of eternal happiness and bliss? If you say no, then beware of the world and your sins. Beware of desiring to be a rich man, lest your table be made a snare to you (Ps 69:22), and lest the wealth of this world bar you out of glory. For as the apostle says, “They that will be rich, fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition” (1 Tim 6:9). So much in general; but now more particularly.

These two men spoken of here, as I said, set before us the state of the godly and the ungodly. The beggar represents the godly, and the rich man the ungodly: “There was a certain rich man.” But why are the ungodly set forth under the figure of a rich man?

1. Because Christ would not have them look too high, as I said before. He would have those who have riches take care that riches are not all their portion (Jas 1:10-12; 1 Tim 6:17).

2. Because rich men are the most exposed to the devil’s temptations. They are the most ready to be puffed up with pride and haughtiness, and with the cares of this world. In these things they spend most of their time, in lusts, drunkenness, wantonness, and idleness, together with the other works of the flesh, “for which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience” (Col 3:6).

3. Because he would comfort the hearts of his own, who are most commonly of the poorer sort. Indeed, God has chosen the poor, despised, and base things of this world (1 Cor 1:27-28). If God had set the rich man in the blessed state, his children, being poor, would have concluded that they had no share in the life to come.

And again, if God had not given such a revelation of the sad condition of those who are, for the most part, rich men, we would have had men concluding outright that the rich are the blessed men. No, even though the Lord himself so plainly declares that the rich ones of the world are, for the most part, in the saddest condition, yet through unbelief, or else presumption, they harden themselves. They seek the glory of this world as though the Lord Jesus Christ did not mean what he said, or else as though he would say more than will surely come to pass. But let them know that the Lord has a time to fulfill what he had a time to declare, for “the scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35).

But again, by this word the Lord does not mean that those who are rich in the world are ungodly, and no one else. For then all who are poor, yet graceless and vain men, would have to be saved and delivered from eternal vengeance. That would be contrary to the Word of God, which says that together with the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, there are bondmen or servants, and slaves, who cry out at the appearing of Almighty God and his Son Jesus Christ to judgment (Rev 6:15).

So although Christ says, “There was a certain rich man,” you must understand that he means all the ungodly, rich or poor. No, if you will not understand it so now, you will be made to understand that this is what it meant on the day of Christ’s second coming. Then all who are ungodly will stand at the left hand of Christ, with pale faces and guilty consciences, and with the vials of the Almighty’s wrath ready to be poured out on them. So much, in brief, concerning verse 19. I might have observed other things from it, but I refrain now, having other things to speak of at this time.

And there was a certain beggar, named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores (Luke 16:20).

This verse chiefly sets forth these things.

1. The saints of God are a poor, contemptible people: “There was a certain beggar.” If you take the word beggar to mean outward poverty, or a lack of outward things, that is what the saints of the Lord are, for they are for the most part a poor, despised, contemptible people. But if you allegorize it and interpret it this way, that they are people who beg earnestly for heavenly food, this is also the spirit of the children of God. It may be, and is, a truth in this sense, though it is not drawn so naturally from this scripture.

2. “He was laid at his gate, full of sores.” These words, that he was “full of sores,” set forth the ailments of believers. This may signify the many troubles, temptations, persecutions and afflictions in body and spirit that believers meet with while they are in the world, and also the treatment they get at the hands of those ungodly ones who live on the earth. Now, where it says he was “laid at his gate, full of sores,” mark it: he was laid at his gate, not in his house. That was thought too good for him. No, he was laid at his gate, full of sores. From this, observe:

(1) The ungodly world does not want to take the poor saints of God in and receive them into their houses. If the saints must be somewhere near them, still they shall not come into their houses. “Shut them out of doors,” the world says; “if they insist on being near us, let them be at the gate.” And he “was laid at his gate, full of sores.”

(2) Observe that the world is not touched at all by the afflictions of God’s children, even though they are full of sores. The world does not pity a despised, afflicted, tempted, persecuted people. No, it rather labors to make their trouble worse by shutting them out of doors. Sink or swim, what does the world care? The ungodly are resolved to disown them; they will give them no welcome. If lying in the streets will do them any good, if hard usage will do them any good, if being disowned, rejected and shut out of doors by the world will do them any good, they shall have enough of that. But otherwise there is no refreshment, no comfort, from the world. And he “was laid at his gate, full of sores.”

And he desired to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: the dogs came also and licked his sores (Luke 16:21).

By these words our Lord Jesus shows us the frame of a Christian’s heart, and also the heart and behavior of worldly men toward the saints of the Lord. The Christian’s heart is set forth by this: anything will content him while he is on this side of glory. “And he desired to be fed with the crumbs”: the dogs’ food, anything. I say a Christian will be content with anything, if he has only enough to keep body and soul together. As we used to say, he is content, he is satisfied. He has learned (if he has learned to be a Christian) to be content with anything. As Paul says, “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content” (Phil 4:11). In every condition he learns to make it his study to love God, to walk with God, and to give himself up to God. And if the crumbs that fall from the rich man’s table will only satisfy nature and give him bodily strength, so that he may be all the better able to walk in the way of God, he is content.

And he “desired to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table.” But notice: he did not get them. You do not find that he had so much as a crumb or a scrap allowed him. No, for then the dogs would be cheated; that must be kept for the dogs. From this observe that the ungodly world loves its dogs better than the children of God. You will say that is strange. It is strange indeed, yet it is true, as will be made plain. For instance, how many pounds do some men spend in a year on their dogs, while in the meantime the poor saints of God may starve with hunger? They will build houses for their dogs, while the saints must be glad to wander about and lodge in dens and caves of the earth (Heb 11:38). And if the saints are renting any of their houses, they will give them notice to leave, or throw them out, or pull the house down over their heads, rather than fail to rid themselves of such tenants.

Again, some men cannot go half a mile from home without dogs at their heels, yet they can quite willingly go ten miles without the company of a Christian. Indeed, if while they are busy with their dogs they should happen to meet a Christian, they would gladly give him the slip if they could. They will go on the other side of the hedge or the road rather than have any company with him. And if at any time a child of God should come into a house where there are just two or three ungodly wretches, they commonly wish either themselves or the saint out of doors. And why so? Because they cannot stomach the company of a Christian. Yet if at the same time a dog came in, or a drunken, swearing wretch (who is worse than a dog), they will make him welcome; he shall sit down with them and share their delicacies.

And now tell me, you who love your sins and your pleasures: would you not rather keep company with a drunkard, a swearer, a prostitute, a thief, even a dog, than with an honest-hearted Christian? If you say no, what is the meaning of your sour behavior toward the people of God? Why do you look at them as if you would eat them up? Yet at the very same time, if you can only meet your dog or a drunken companion, you can fawn on them, strike up an acquaintance with them, and go off to the tavern or alehouse with them, as often as two or three times a week. But if the saints of God meet together, pray together, and labor to build one another up, you will wait till doomsday before you will look into the house where they are. Ah, friends, when all is said and done, you will be found to love drunkards, prostitutes, dogs, anything, even to serve the devil, rather than to have loving and friendly fellowship with the saints of God.

Moreover, “the dogs came and licked his sores.” Here again you may see not only the afflicted state of the saints of God in this world, but also that even dogs themselves, after their own kind, are kinder to the saints than the sinful world is. Though the ungodly will have no mercy on the saints, yet it is so ordered that these creatures (dogs, lions, and the like) will. Though the rich man would not take him into his house, yet his dogs will come and do him the best good they can, even to licking his running sores. It was like this with Daniel. When the world was mad against him and would have him thrown to the lions to be devoured, the lions shut their mouths at him, or rather the Lord shut them, so that no such harm befell him as his adversaries desired (Dan 6). And of this I am persuaded: if the creatures would do as some men would have them do, the saints of God would not walk so quietly up and down the streets and other places as they do.

And as I said before, so I say again: I am persuaded that at the day of judgment many men’s conditions and conduct will be so laid open that it will plainly appear they have been very merciless and mad against the children of God. They have been so merciless that when the providence of God fell out so as to cross their expectations, they were greatly offended at it. This is plainly seen in those who set themselves to study how to bring the saints into bondage and to thrust them into corners, as in these recent years (Ps 31:13). And because God in his goodness has ordered things otherwise, they have gnashed their teeth at it. From this, then, let the saints learn not to commit themselves to their enemies: “beware of men” (Matt 10:17). They are very merciless men, and if they can help it, they will not favor you as much as you might suppose they would. No, unless the overruling hand of God in goodness orders things contrary to their natural inclination, they will not favor you so much as a dog.

And it came to pass that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried (Luke 16:22).

The verses before this one briefly set out how the ungodly behave toward the saints in this life. Now this verse sets out the departure of both the godly and the ungodly out of this life.

Where he says, “And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried … into Abraham’s bosom,” and “the rich man also died,” the beggar who died represents the godly, and the rich man who died represents the ungodly. From this, observe that neither the godly nor the ungodly may live forever without a change, whether by death or by judgment. The good man died, and the bad man died. That scripture also backs up this truth marvelously well, that good and bad alike must die, where it says, “And it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb 9:27).

Notice, he does not say that men may happen to die by chance. That might breed some hope in people’s hearts, especially in the hearts of the ungodly, of escaping the bitterness of death. But he says it is a thing most certain: it is appointed. Notice, “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” God has decreed that since men have fallen from that happy state in which God first set them, they shall die (Rom 6:23).

Now when it says that the beggar died and the rich man died, part of the meaning is that they ceased to be in this world any longer. I say this is part of the meaning, but not the whole of it. When some of the other creatures die, that is the whole meaning. But it is only part of the meaning when it is said that men, women, or children die, for there is something more to be said of them than merely that they go out of the world. If there were an end of unregenerate men and women when they die, not only in this world but also in the world to come, they would be far better off than they will be now. For when ungodly men and women die, something comes after death that will be very terrible to them. They will be carried by the angels of darkness from their deathbeds to hell, to be kept there for the judgment of the great day. On that day body and soul will meet and be united together again, and be made able to undergo the uttermost vengeance of the Almighty to all eternity.

This, I say, is what follows after death for anyone who is not born again. That is clear from 1 Peter 3:18-19. There, having first spoken of Christ being raised again by the power of his eternal Spirit, he says, “By which” (that is, by that Spirit) “he went and preached unto the spirits in prison.” But what does this mean? Why, this much: those souls who were once alive in the world in the time or days when Noah lived were disobedient in their time to the calls of God by his Spirit in Noah (for that is how I understand it). So, just as that preacher had foretold, they were robbed of life and overwhelmed by the flood, and they are now in prison. Notice, he preached to the spirits in prison. He does not say spirits who were in prison, but those in prison, that is, now in prison, under chains of darkness. They are reserved, or kept, in that prison where they now are, waiting like criminals in jail to be brought before the judgment seat of Christ on the great day. But I will speak more of this shortly.

Now if this one truth were believed, that men must die and leave this world, and either enter into joy or else into prison to be kept for the day of judgment, we would not have so many lewd and reckless people walking up and down the streets as we do. At the very least it would put a mighty check on their filthy behavior, so that they would not, could not, walk as basely and sinfully as they do. Belshazzar was as far from the fear of God as he was, yet when he merely saw that God was offended and was threatening him for his wickedness, it made him hang his head and knock his knees together (Dan 5:5-6). If you read the verses before, you will find that he was careless, satisfying his lusts with drinking and playing the wanton with his concubines. But as soon as he saw the finger of the handwriting, “then,” says the Scripture, “the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.” And when Paul told Felix of righteousness, self-control, and judgment to come, it made him tremble.

And let me tell you, soul, whoever you are: if you truly believed that you must die and come into the judgment, it would make you turn over a new leaf. But this is the misery of it. Just as the devil works by every means to keep out other good things, so he works, as far as he can, to keep the thought of passing from this life into another world out of the heart. For he knows that if he can only keep people from serious thoughts of death, he will more easily keep them in their sins, and so keep them from closing with Jesus Christ. As Job says, “Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them” (Job 21:9). And this makes them say to God, “Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways” (Job 21:14). Because they have no fear of death and the judgment to come, they put off God and his ways, spend their days in their sins, and in a moment, that is, before they know it, go down to the grave (Job 21:13).

That is just how it went with the man spoken of in Luke 12:20. Instead of thinking about death, the man thought about how he could make his barns bigger. But in the middle of his business in the world he lost his soul before he knew it, supposing that death was many years away. But God said to him, “Thou fool”: you trouble yourself about the things of this life, you put off the thought of leaving this world, when this very night your soul will be taken from you; or, this night they, that is, the devil, will fetch your soul away from you.

And so it comes about, because men do not exercise their minds with thoughts of leaving this life, that they are taken away so unexpectedly, to themselves and to their neighbors, from the pleasures and profits, yes, and all the enjoyments they busy themselves with while they live in this world. This is also why some in your towns and cities are taken away so suddenly: some from haunting the alehouses, others from haunting the brothels, others from playing and gambling, others from their cares and covetous longings after this world, without either they or their companions expecting it. This is also why people are so astonished at news like this: “So-and-so is dead; so-and-so has passed away.” It is because they give so little thought to how passing and frail both they and their neighbors are. For if their thoughts were well exercised about the shortness of this life, and the danger that will come on those who miss the Lord Jesus Christ, it would make them more watchful and sober. They would spend more time in the service of God, and be more delighted and diligent in seeking after the Lord Jesus, who is the deliverer “from the wrath to come” (1 Thess 1:10).

For, as I said before, it is evident that those who live after the flesh, in its lusts, do not really and seriously think about death and the judgment that follows it. Nor do they really try to. For if they did, it would make them say with holy Job, “All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come” (Job 14:14).

And as I said before, not only the wicked but also the godly have their time to leave this life. “And the beggar died.” The saints of the Lord must be deprived of this life too. They must yield up their spirit into the hands of the Lord their God. They too must be separated from their wives, children, husbands, friends, goods, and everything they have in the world. For God has decreed it. It is appointed, that is, by the Lord, for men once to die, and “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,” as it says in 2 Corinthians 5:10-11.

Objection. But someone may object: “If the godly die as well as the wicked, and if the saints must appear before the judgment seat as well as sinners, then what advantage do the godly have over the ungodly? And how can the saints be in a better condition than the wicked?”

Answer. Read the twenty-second verse over again, and you will find a marvelous difference between them, as great as the difference between heaven and hell, between everlasting joy and everlasting torment. For you find that when the beggar died (and he represents the godly), he was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom, that is, into everlasting joy (Ps 1). But it is not so with the ungodly. They are hurried by the devils into the bottomless pit, drawn away in their wickedness (Prov 14:32), for he says, “And in hell he lifted up his eyes.” When the ungodly die, their misery begins. For then the devils appear, like so many lions, waiting every moment for the soul to leave the body. Sometimes they are very visible to the dying person, and sometimes more hidden from sight. But this is always certain: they never fail to get the soul if it dies outside the Lord Jesus Christ. They drag it away to the prison, as I said before, to be tormented there and kept until that great and general day of judgment. On that day they must, body and soul, receive a final sentence from the righteous Judge, and from then on be shut out from the presence of God into everlasting woe and distress.

But with the godly, when the time of their departure is at hand, the angels of the Lord are at hand as well. Yes, they stand ready, waiting on the soul to bring it safely into Abraham’s bosom. I do not deny that the devils are often very busy, no doubt, attending the saints in their sickness. Yes, and there is no question that they would gladly rob the soul of glory. But here is the comfort: just as the devils come up from hell to devour the soul at its departure, if they can, so the angels of the Lord come down from heaven to watch over the soul and bring it safely into Abraham’s bosom, in spite of the devil.

David had the comfort of this, and he declares it for the comfort of his brothers, saying, “The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them” (Ps 34:7). Notice, the angel of the Lord encamps around his children to deliver them. From what? From their enemies, and the devil is not the least of them. It is an excellent comfort at any time for a poor man or woman to have the holy angels of God attending them. But it is especially comforting in the time of distress, at the time of death, when the devils besiege the soul with all the power that hell can give them.

Now it may be that the glorious angels of God do not appear to the soul’s view at first. No, rather hell stands before it, and the devils are ready, as if they would carry it there. But this is the comfort: the angels always appear at the last, and they will not fail the soul, but will carry it safely into Abraham’s bosom.

Ah, friends, consider this. Here is an ungodly man on his deathbed, and he has no one to speak for him, no one to speak comfort to him. But it is not so with the children of God, for they have the Spirit to comfort them. Here are the ungodly, and they have no Christ to pray for their safe passage to glory; but the saints have an intercessor (John 17:9). Here are the people of the world: when they die, they have none of the angels of God to attend them; but the saints have their company. In a word, when the unconverted person dies, he sinks into the bottomless pit; but when the saints die, they ascend with the angels, and by them, into Abraham’s bosom, that is, into unspeakable glory (Luke 23:43).

Again, it says that when the rich man died he was buried, or put into the earth; but when the beggar died, he was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom. The second is a very excellent way of putting it, where he says the beggar was carried by angels into Abraham’s bosom. It shows the excellent condition of the saints of God, as I said before. And not only that, but also how precious the death of the saints is in the eyes of the Lord (Ps 116:15). When he says that they are carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom, it is so that later generations may see how precious in the sight of the Lord the death of his saints is.

In this way the Lord often adorns the death and departure of his saints, to show later generations how excellent they are in his eyes. It is said of Enoch that God took him; of Abraham, that he died in a good old age; of Moses, that the Lord buried him; of Elijah, that he was taken up into heaven. It is said that the saints sleep in Jesus; that they die in the Lord; that they rest from their labors; that their works follow them; that they are under the altar; that they are with Christ; that they are in light; that they are to come with the Lord Jesus to judge the world. All these sayings mean this much: to die a saint is a very great honor and dignity.

But it is not so with the ungodly. The rich or ungodly man dies and is buried. He is carried from his house to the grave, and there he is buried, hidden in the dust. And his body does not molder and come to nothing there any faster than his name stinks in the world, as the holy Scripture says: “The name of the wicked shall rot” (Prov 10:7). And indeed, as much honor as the names of the godly have after they depart, so much do the wicked and their names rot. What a disgrace in the eyes of later generations was the death of Balaam, Agag, Ahithophel, Haman, Judas, and Herod, along with the rest of their companions!

So the wicked have their names written in the earth, and they perish and rot; but the names of the saints give off a sweet fragrance to the generations that follow. And the Lord Jesus signifies this where he says that the godly are “carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom”; and he signifies that the wicked are worth nothing where he says that the ungodly die and are buried.

And in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom (Luke 16:23).

The former verse speaks only of the departure of the ungodly out of this life, together with the glorious escort that the godly have into the kingdom of their Father. Now in this verse our Lord shows, in part, what does and shall befall the reprobate after this life is ended, where he says, “And in hell he lifted up his eyes.” That is, the ungodly, after they depart this life, lift up their eyes in hell.

From these words we may observe these things. First, that there is a hell for souls to be tormented in when this life is ended. Mark it: after he was dead and buried, “In hell he lifted up his eyes.” Second, that all who are ungodly, who live and die in their sins, go into hell as soon as ever they die. He died and was buried, “And in hell he lifted up his eyes.” Third, that some are so fast asleep and so complacent in their sins that they hardly know where they are until they come into hell. I gather that from these words, “In hell he lifted up his eyes.” He was asleep before, but hell makes him lift up his eyes.

As I said before, it is evident that there is a hell for souls, yes, and for bodies too, to be tormented in after they depart this life. This is clear, first, because the Lord Jesus Christ, who cannot lie, said that after the sinner was dead and buried, “In hell he lifted up his eyes.”

Now if someone objects that by hell the grave is meant here, I flatly deny it.

1. Because in the grave the body feels neither torment nor ease. But in that hell into which the spirits of the damned depart, they do feel torment, and they would very gladly be freed from it to enjoy ease, for they feel the lack of it. This is clearly shown in this parable: “Send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue.”

2. The grave is not meant, but some other place, because the bodies, as long as they lie there, are not capable of lifting up their eyes to see the glorious condition of the children of God, as the souls of the damned do. “In hell he lifted up his eyes.”

3. It cannot be the grave, for then it would follow that the soul was buried there with the body. That cannot stand with the kind of death mentioned here, for he says, “The rich man died”; that is, his soul was separated from his body. “And in hell he lifted up his eyes.”

If someone objects again that there is no hell except in this life, I deny that too, as I said before: after he was dead and buried, “In hell he lifted up his eyes.”

And let me tell you, O soul, whoever you are: if you do not close in savingly with the Lord Jesus Christ, and lay hold on what he has done and is doing in his own person for sinners, you will find such a hell after this life is ended that you will never get out of it again, for ever and ever. And you who are wanton, who do nothing but mock the servants of the Lord when they tell you of the torments of hell: you will find, when you depart out of this life, that hell, even the hell which is after this life, will meet you on your journey there. With its hellish crew it will give you such a sad greeting that you will not forget it to all eternity. That will be when this scripture comes to be fulfilled on your soul, in Isaiah 14:9-10: “Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they,” that is, all who are in hell, shall say, “Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?”

O, sometimes when I have had only the thought of going to hell, and have considered the everlastingness of the ruin of those who fall in there, it has stirred me up to seek the Lord Jesus Christ to deliver me from it, rather than to slight it and make a mock of it. “And in hell he lifted up his eyes.”

The second thing I told you was this: that all the ungodly who live and die in their sins descend into hell as soon as ever they depart this life. This too is confirmed by the words of this parable, where Christ says that he “died and was buried, and in hell he lifted up his eyes.” As the tree falls, so it shall be, whether it falls to heaven or to hell (Eccl 11:3). And as Christ said to the thief on the cross, “Today thou shalt be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43), so in the same way the devil may say to your soul, “Tomorrow you shall be with me in hell.” See, then, what a miserable case he is in who dies in an unregenerate state. He departs from a long sickness to a longer hell, from the grip of death to the everlasting torments of hell. “And in hell he lifted up his eyes.”

Ah, friends! If you were only in your right minds, you would take care of your souls. If you would only pay attention, you would see how mad they are who slight the salvation of their souls. O, what will it profit your soul to have pleasure in this life and torments in hell (Mark 8:36)? You had better part with all your sins and pleasures and companions, or whatever you delight in, than have soul and body cast into hell. O then, do not neglect our Lord Jesus Christ now, lest you drop down into hell (Heb 2:3).

Consider: would it not wound you to the heart to come to your deathbed and, instead of having the comfort of a well-spent life and the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, together with the comforts of his glorious Spirit, to have, first, the sight of an ill-spent life? To have your sins flying in your face, your conscience speaking against you in thunderclaps, the thoughts of God terrifying you, death with his merciless paw seizing on you, the devils standing ready to scramble for your soul, and hell enlarging herself and ready to swallow you up, with an eternity of misery and torment waiting on you, from which there will be no release?

For mark this: death does not come alone to an unconverted soul, but with such company as would make you tremble, if only you were aware of it. I beg you, consider that scripture: “And I looked and behold a pale horse, and his name that sat on him was Death, and hell followed with him” (Rev 6:8). Mark it: death does not come alone to the ungodly. No, hell goes with him. O miserable comforters! O miserable company! Here come death and hell to you. Death goes into your body and separates body and soul; hell stands outside, so to speak, to embrace, or rather to crush, your soul between its everlasting grinders. Then your mirth, your joy, and your sinful delights will be ended, when this comes to pass. Look, it will come! Blessed are all those who, through the merits of Christ Jesus, by faith, escape these soul-murdering companions. “And in hell he lifted up his eyes.”

The third thing, you know, that we observed from these words was this: that some are so fast asleep and so complacent in their sins that they hardly know where they are until they come into hell. And I told you that I gather this from these words, “In hell he lifted up his eyes.” Mark it: it was in hell that he lifted up his eyes. Now some understand these words to mean that he came to himself, or began to consider or think with himself what a state he was in and what he was deprived of. That still confirms the point I have laid down. It is there that they come to themselves; that is, there they realize where they really are. So it goes with some men: they hardly know where they are until they lift up their eyes in hell. It is with these people as with those who fall down in a swoon. You know that if a man falls down in a swoon in one room, though you pick him up and carry him into another, he still does not know where he is until he comes to himself and lifts up his eyes.

Truly, it is to be feared that this is how it is with many poor souls. They are so senseless, so hard, so seared in their conscience (1 Tim 4:2), that they are very ignorant of their state. When death comes, it strikes them into a swoon, as it were, especially if they die suddenly; and so they are hurried away and hardly know where they are until in hell they lift up their eyes. This is he who “dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet” (Job 21:23). Of this sort are those spoken of in Psalm 73, where he says, “There are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm.” “They are not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other men.” And again, “They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment” (mark it, “in a moment,” before they are aware) they “go down to the grave” (Job 21:13).

Indeed, this is all too well known by woeful daily experience. Sometimes when we go to visit the sick in the towns and places where we live, O how senseless, how seared in their consciences they are! They have no sense of heaven or of hell, of sin or of a Savior. Speak to them of their condition and the state of their souls, and you will find them as ignorant as if they had no souls to care for. Others, though they lie ready to die, are still busying themselves about their outward affairs, as though they were certain to live here, and to live and enjoy those things forever.

Again, go to others and speak to them about the state of their souls. Though they have no more experience of the new birth than a beast, yet they will speak as confidently of their eternal state and the welfare of their souls as if they had the most excellent experience of any man or woman in the world, saying, “I shall have peace” (Deut 29:19). Yet, as I said just now, the Lord knows they are as ignorant of the new birth, of the nature and working of faith, and of the witness of the Spirit, as if there were no new birth, no faith, no witness of the Spirit of Christ in any of the saints in the world. Yes, many of them are like this even an hour or less before their departure.

Ah, poor souls! Though they may go away here like a lamb, as the world says, yet if you could only follow them a little way, and stand and listen soon after their departure, it is to be feared you would hear them roar like a lion at their first entrance into hell, far worse than Korah and the others ever did when they went down alive into the ground (Num 16:31-35).

Now by this one thing the devil takes great advantage of the hearts of the ignorant. He suggests to them that because the deceased departed so quietly, they are without all doubt gone to rest and joy. Yet alas, it is to be feared that the reason they went away so quietly was rather that they were senseless and hardened in their consciences; yes, dead already in sins and trespasses. For had they had even some awakenings on their deathbeds, as some have had, they would have made the whole town ring with their doleful condition. But because they are seared and ignorant, and so depart quietly, the world takes heart, as we say, and thinks it no great matter to live and die without knowing how. “Therefore pride compasseth them as a chain” (Ps 73:6). But let them look to themselves. For if they have no share in the Lord Jesus now, while they live in the world, then whether they die raging or quiet, they will go to the same place, and lift up their eyes in hell.

O my friends, if you only knew what a miserable condition they are in who go out of this world without a share in the Son of God, it would make you strike your thigh and cry out in the bitterness of your souls, “Men and brethren, what shall we do to be saved?” (Acts 16:29-31). And not only so, but you would not be comforted until you found a rest for your soul in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom (Luke 16:23).

I have observed something, in brief, from the first part of this verse, namely from these words, “And in hell he lifted up his eyes.” And indeed I have observed only something, for they are very full of matter, and many things might be noticed in them. There is one thing more that I might touch on, as it is touched on in this saying, and it is this. It seems to me that the Lord Jesus Christ means to show by this that men are naturally unwilling to see or take notice of their sad state. I say, by nature. But though they are willingly ignorant now, yet in hell they will lift up their eyes. That is, in hell they will see and understand their miserable condition. And therefore, to these words, “In hell he lifted up his eyes,” he adds, “being in torments.” It is as if he had said: though once they shut their eyes, though once they were willingly ignorant (2 Pet 3:5), yet when they depart into hell they will be so miserably handled and tormented that they will be forced to lift up their eyes.

While men live in this world and are in a natural state, they will have a good opinion of themselves and of their condition. They will conclude that they are Christians, that Abraham is their father, and that their state is as good as the best (Matt 3:7-9). They will conclude that they have faith, the Spirit, a good hope, and an interest in the Lord Jesus Christ. But then they drop into hell and lift up their eyes there. They see, first, their soul in extreme torments; their dwelling the bottomless pit; their company thousands of damned souls, and also the innumerable company of devils; and the hot, scalding vengeance of God not only dropping but falling very violently on them. Then those who all their lifetime were in a dead sleep will begin to be awakened. I say, when this comes to pass (and come to pass it will), then in hell they will lift up their eyes; in the midst of torments they will lift up their eyes.

Again, you may observe in these words, “And in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments,” that the time when ungodly men will smart for their sins will be in the torments of hell. Here I am brought to a standstill when I consider the torments of hell into which the damned fall. Oh, unspeakable torments! Oh, endless torments! Now, so that your soul may be made to flee from those unbearable torments into which the damned go, I will briefly show you what the torments of hell are: first, by their names; second, by the sad state you will be in if you come there.

First. The names. It is called a never-dying worm (Mark 9). It is called a hot oven fire (Mal 4:1). It is called a furnace, a fiery furnace (Matt 13). It is called the bottomless pit, the unquenchable fire, fire and brimstone, hellfire, the lake of fire, devouring fire, everlasting fire, eternal fire, a stream of fire (Rev 21).

Second. The sad state you will be in if you come there.

1. One part of your torment will be this: you will have a full sight of all your ill-spent life, from first to last. Here you can sin today and forget it by tomorrow; but there you will be made to remember how you sinned against God at such a time, and in such a place, for such a thing, and with such a person, and that will be a hell to you. God will “set them in order before thine eyes” (Ps 50:21).

2. You will have the guilt of them all lying heavy on your soul. Not only the guilt of one or two, but the guilt of them all together; and there they will lie in your soul as if your belly were full of pitch and set ablaze. Here men can sometimes think of their sins with delight, but there they will think of them with unspeakable torment. For I understand that to be the fire Christ speaks of, which shall never be quenched (Mark 9:43-49). While men live here, oh, how the guilt of one sin sometimes crushes the soul! It puts a man in such a plight that he is weary of his life, so that he can rest neither at home nor away, neither up nor in bed. Indeed, I know that some have been so tormented with the guilt of one sinful thought that they have been at their wits’ end, and have hanged themselves. But now you come into hell. You have not just one or two or a hundred sins with the guilt of them all on your soul and body, but all the sins you ever committed since you came into the world, all clapped on your conscience at one time, as if someone clapped a red-hot iron to your chest, there to stay to all eternity. This is miserable.

3. Again, then you will have brought to your remembrance how you slighted the gospel of Christ. There you will consider how willing Christ was to come into the world to save sinners, and for what a trifle you rejected him. This is plainly set forth in Isaiah 28. There, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, the foundation of salvation (Isa 28:16), he says of those who reject the gospel that when the overflowing scourge passes through the earth (which I understand to be at the end of the world), then, he says, it shall take you morning by morning; by day and by night shall it pass over you; that is, continually, without any break. “And it shall be a vexation only to understand the report” (Isa 28:19). “A vexation,” that is, a torment, or a great part of hell, only to understand the report: to understand the good news that came into the world by Christ’s death for poor sinners. And you will find that this truly is the mind of the Spirit if you compare it with Isaiah 53:1. There, where he speaks of men turning their backs on the offers of God’s grace in the gospel, he says, “Who hath believed our report?” or, the gospel declared by us. Now this will be a mighty torment to the ungodly. They will understand that the goodness of God was so great that he even sent his Son out of his bosom to die for sinners, and yet that they were so foolish as to put him off from one time to another. They will understand that they were so foolish as to lose heaven and Christ and eternal life in glory for the company of a crowd of drunkards; that they would lose their souls for a little sport, for this world, for a prostitute, for that which is lighter than vanity and nothing. I say, this will be a very great torment to you.

4. Another part of your torment will be this: you will see your friends, your acquaintances, your neighbors; indeed, it may be your father, your mother, your wife, your husband, your children, your brother, your sister, with others, in the kingdom of heaven, and yourself thrust out. “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham (your father), and Isaac, and Jacob, (together with your brethren), and all the prophets in the kingdom of heaven, and you yourselves thrust out” (Luke 13:28). Indeed, he says, “They shall come from the east, and from the west” (Luke 13:29). That is, those you never saw in all your life before will come, and they will sit down with your friends and your neighbors, your wife and your children, in the kingdom of heaven. And you, for your sins and disobedience, will be shut out; indeed, thrust out. Oh, wonderful torment!

5. Again, you will have none but a company of damned souls, with an innumerable company of devils, to keep you company. While you are in this world, the very thought of devils appearing to you makes your flesh tremble and your hair ready to stand on end. But oh, what will you do when it is not merely the thought of devils appearing, but the real company of all the devils in hell will be with you? They will be howling and roaring, screeching and roaring, in such a hideous manner that you will be at your wits’ end, and ready to go stark raving mad for anguish and torment.

6. Again, so that you may be thoroughly tormented, the mighty God of heaven will lay as great wrath and vengeance on you as ever he can by the might of his glorious power. As I said before, you will have his wrath, not by drops; it will come by whole showers, thunder, thunder, on your body and soul, so fast and so thick that you will be tormented beyond measure. And so the Scripture says, speaking of the wicked, “Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power” (2 Thess 1:9), while the saints will be admiring his goodness and glory. Again, as I said before, you will have this without any break. You will not have ease even for as long as it takes a man to turn himself around. You will have it always, every hour, day and night; for their worm never dies but always gnaws, and their fire is never quenched, as it is written in Mark 9.

7. Again, you must be in this condition forever, and that is as sad as all the rest. Suppose a man were to have all his sins laid to his charge, and communion with the devils, and as much wrath as the great God of heaven can inflict on him. I say, if it were only for a time, even ten thousand years, and then it ended, there would be ground for comfort and hope of deliverance. But here is your misery: this is your state forever; here you must be forever. When you look about you and see what an innumerable company of howling devils you are among, you will think this again: “This is my portion forever.” When you have been in hell as many thousand years as there are stars in the sky, or drops in the sea, or grains of sand on the seashore, yet you still have to lie there forever. Oh, this one word ever, how it will torment your soul!

Friends, I have given only a very short touch of the torments of hell. Oh, I am at a loss, I am at a loss, and I cannot put into words what my mind conceives of the torments of hell. Yet let me say this to you: accept God’s mercy through our Lord Jesus Christ, or else you will feel that in your conscience which I cannot express with my tongue, and say, “I am sorely tormented in this flame.”

“And seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.”

When the damned are in this pitiful state, surrounded with fears, with terrors, with torment and vengeance, one thing they will have, and it is this: they will see the happy and blessed state of God’s children. He sees Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom; which, as I said before, is the happy state of the saints when this life is ended. This will be so far from being any ease to them that it will most wonderfully aggravate, or heighten, their torment, as I said before. There will be weeping, or cause for lamentation, when they see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, and themselves thrust out.

1. Observe: those who die in their sins are far from going to heaven. He sees Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And indeed it is just of God to deal with those who die in their sins according to what they have done, and to make those who are far from righteousness now stand far from heaven to all eternity. Listen to this, you stout-hearted, who are far from righteousness and are resolved to go on in your sins: when you die you will be far from heaven. You will see Lazarus, but it will be afar off.

Again, he “seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.”

These are some of the things the damned behold as soon as they come into torment. Mark it: he “seeth Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom.” Lazarus, who was he? Why, the very one who was so slighted, so disregarded, so undervalued by this ungodly man while he was in the world. He sees Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom.

From this observe that those who live and die as enemies of the saints of God will see something whether they like it or not. Let them be ever so great or stout, let them bear ever so much sway while they are in the world, let them brag and boast ever so much while they are here: they will see the saints, yes, the poor saints, even the Lazaruses, the ragged ones who belong to Jesus, in a better condition than themselves. Oh, who do you think was in the best condition? Who do you think saw themselves in the best condition? The one who was in hell, or the one who was in heaven? The one who was in darkness, or the one who was in light? The one who was in everlasting joy, or the one who was in everlasting torments? The one was with God, Christ, saints and angels; the other was in tormenting flames, under the curse of God’s eternal hatred, with the devils and their angels, together with an innumerable company of howling, roaring, cursing, ever-burning reprobates. Certainly, anyone who looks on this observation with an understanding heart will easily prove it true here in this world; and it will show itself to be true in the world to come, to those who go either to heaven or to hell.

2. The second observation from these words, “And seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom,” is this. Those who persecute the saints of the Lord now in this world will see that the Lord’s persecuted ones are the very people so highly esteemed by the Lord as to sit, or to be, in Abraham’s bosom, in everlasting glory. And this though they, the enemies of the children of God, esteemed them so lightly that they scorned to let them gather up the dogs’ scraps that fall under their table. This also is verified and plainly set forth by this parable. And therefore do not be grieved, O you tempted, persecuted, afflicted, sighing, praying saints of the Lord. Though your adversaries look on you now with a disdainful, surly, harsh, proud and haughty face, yet the time will come when they will spy you in Abraham’s bosom!

I might enlarge on these things, but I will leave them to the Spirit of the Lord, who can enlarge them on your heart and conscience ten thousand times better than I can on a piece of paper. Therefore, leaving these things to the blessing of the Lord, I will come to the next verse, and will be brief in speaking to that also, and so pass on to the rest.

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 (Luke 16:24).

You know I told you that verse 22 shows the departure of the godly and the ungodly out of this life, where it says the beggar died, and the rich man also died. The twenty-third verse shows the proper places of both the godly and the ungodly after death: one is in Abraham’s bosom, or in glory, the other in hell. Now this twenty-fourth verse shows part of the too-late repentance of the ungodly when they have dropped down into hell: “And he cried, and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me.” From these words, “And he cried,” we may observe, first, what a change the ungodly will have when they come into hell.

“He cried.” It is likely he was laughing, jesting, jeering, drinking, mocking, swearing, cursing, prattling, and persecuting the godly in his prosperity, among his filthy companions. But now the case is different. Now he is in another frame. Now his proud, stubborn, surly bearing has come down: “And he cried.” The laughter of the ungodly will not last forever, but will be sure to end in a cry: “The triumphing of the wicked is short” (Job 20:5). Consider this: you must have a change either here or in hell. If you are not new creatures, regenerate persons, newborn babes in this world before you go from here, your tune will be changed and your condition will be changed; for if you come into hell, you must cry. Oh, if only the singing drunkards, when they are making merry on the alehouse bench, would think on this! It would make them change their tune and cry, “What shall I do? Where shall I go when I die?” But, as I said before, the devil labors to get poor souls to follow their sins, and so he labors also to keep the thoughts of eternal damnation out of their minds. And indeed these two things are so closely linked together that the devil cannot well get the soul to go on in sin with delight unless he can keep the thought of that terrible blow that comes afterward out of their minds.

But let them know that it will not always be this way with them. For if, when they depart, they drop down into eternal destruction, they will have such a sense of their sins, and of the punishment due to them, that it will make them cry: “And he cried.” Oh, what a change there will be among the ungodly when they go out of this world! It may be that a fortnight or a month before their departure they were frivolous, stubborn and surly, drinking themselves drunk, slighting God’s people, mocking at goodness, delighting in sin, following the world, seeking after riches, eating and drinking in luxury, and keeping company with the finest swaggering gallants. But now that they have dropped down into hell, they cry. A little while ago they were painting their faces, feeding their lusts, following their whores, robbing their neighbors, telling lies, and going after plays and sports to pass the time; but now that they are in hell, they cry. It may be that last year they heard some good sermons, were invited to receive heaven, and were told that their sins would be pardoned if they would embrace Jesus. But because they refused his offers and slighted the grace that was once held out to them, they are now in hell, and they cry.

Before, they had so much time that they thought they could not tell how to spend it, unless it was in hunting and whoring, in dancing and playing, and in spending whole hours, yes, days, even weeks, in the lusts of the flesh. But when they depart into another place, and begin to lift up their eyes in hell and consider their miserable and irrecoverable condition, they will cry.

Oh, what a condition you will fall into when you depart this world! If you depart unconverted and not born again, you would have been better off smothered in the first hour you were born. You would have been better off pulled apart limb from limb. You would have been better off made a dog, a toad, a serpent, indeed any other creature in the visible world, than to die unconverted. And you will find this to be true when you lift up your eyes in hell and cry.

Here then, before we go any further, you may see that it is not without good grounds that our Lord speaks these words here, showing that when any of the ungodly depart into hell, they will cry. Cry? Why so?

1. They will cry to think that they have been cut off from the land of the living, never again to have any footing in it.

2. They will cry to think that the gospel of Christ was offered to them so often, and yet they did not profit by it.

3. They will cry to think that now, however willingly they would repent and be saved, they are past all recovery.

4. They will cry to think that they were so foolish as to follow their pleasures when others were following Christ (Luke 13:28).

5. They will cry to think that they must be separated from God, from Christ, and from the kingdom of heaven, and that forever.

6. They will cry to think that their crying will do them no good now.

7. They will cry to think that at the day of judgment they must stand at the left hand of Christ, among an innumerable company of the damned.

8. They will cry to think that Lazarus, whom they once slighted, must be one of those who will sit down with Christ to judge, or, together with Christ, to pass a sentence of condemnation on their souls forever and ever (1 Cor 6:2-3).

9. They will cry to think that when the judgment is over, and others are taken into the everlasting kingdom of glory, they must then depart back again into that dungeon of darkness from which they came out to appear before the terrible tribunal. There they will be tormented as long as eternity lasts, without the least pause or ease.

What do you say, you wanton, proud, swearing, lying, ungodly wretch? Is this something to be slighted and mocked? And tell me again now: is it not better to leave sin and embrace Christ Jesus, despite the reproach you will meet with for doing so, than to live a little while in this world in pleasures, feeding your lusts, neglecting the welfare of your soul, and refusing to be justified by Jesus, and then in a moment to drop down to hell and cry? Oh, consider, I say, consider in good time, and do not put off the offers of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, or you may lift up your eyes in hell and cry for anguish of spirit.

“And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus…”

These words do not only set forth the lamentable condition of the damned, and their lamentable howling and crying out under their anguish of spirit. As I said before, they also show us their too-late repentance, and that they would very willingly be set free, if they might, from that everlasting misery into which they have plunged themselves by their sins. I say, these words set forth a desire that the damned have to be delivered from the torments they are now in: “Father Abraham,” he says, “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.”

These words, “Father Abraham,” may have some difficulty in them. Some may possibly think they refer to Abraham himself, and that those who cry out here (or the one who cries out) are the Jews. Or perhaps some may understand that the one cried out to here is God, or Jesus Christ his Son. That is what I rather suppose it may be, because you find the same cry made to him, as it were, by the ungodly in other places of Scripture. In Luke 13:25-26, for example: “Then shall they say, Lord, Lord, we have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets.” More than that: “In thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works” (Matt 7:22). This was just at the moment of their rejection. And again, in Matthew 25:11, they cry once more to him, to Jesus himself: “Lord, Lord, open to us.” And there he gives them a refusal again, just as he does in this parable.

But whatever Abraham means here, and whoever he is, these truths may still be observed from the words.

1. The damned, when they are in an irrecoverable state, will seek for, or desire, deliverance from the wrath that they are in and will be in for eternity. “Surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him” (Ps 32:6).

2. They will pray, if I may call it that, earnestly for deliverance from their miserable state. These two things are clear from the words. For notice: he did not only say, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me”; but “he cried, and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me.”

3. From this take a third observation, which is this: a time is coming in which, though people will both cry and pray, they are still likely to have no mercy at the hands of God. For that is how this man was treated, as I will show further by and by when I come to it.

Some people are so deluded by the devil as to think that God is so merciful that he will accept or regard anything at all as prayer. Through ignorance of the true nature of God’s mercy, and of the way in which God is satisfied for sinners, they think that anything will pass as good coin and full satisfaction while they are here in this world. Now I say, through ignorance they think that if they only mutter over some form of prayers, though they do not know what they are saying or what they are asking, God is still satisfied, yes, very well satisfied with what they do. Alas, nothing could be further from the truth! Oh friends, I beg you to look about you, and to seek in good earnest for the Spirit of Christ to help you now to strive and pray, and to enable you to lay hold of Christ, so that your souls may be saved. Otherwise the time may come when, though you cry and pray, and wish too that you had laid hold of the Lord Jesus, you must and will be damned.

Then again, you may see that though God is willing to save sinners at a certain time, that time does not last forever. No; whoever can find it in his heart to turn his back on Jesus Christ now will have the back turned on him hereafter, when he may cry and pray for mercy and yet go without it. God will have a time to meet with those who do not seek after him now. They will have a time, yes, time enough hereafter, to repent of their folly and to call themselves fools for turning their backs on the Lord Jesus Christ. “I will laugh at your calamity,” he says, and “mock when your fear cometh” (Prov 1:26).

Again, this should warn us to make use of time while it is offered, or we may repent of our unbelief and rebellion when we are deprived of it. Ah, friends! Time is precious. An hour’s time to hear a sermon is precious. I have sometimes thought this to myself: Suppose the Lord sent two or three of his servants, the ministers of the gospel, to hell among the damned, with this commission: “Go to hell, and preach my grace to those who are there. Let your sermon be an hour long. Set forth the merits of my Son’s birth, righteousness, death, resurrection, ascension and intercession, with all my love in him, and offer it to them. Tell them that now, once more, and only once, I am offering them the means of reconciliation.” Those who are now roaring there, being past hope, would leap at the least offer of mercy. Oh, those who could spend whole days, weeks, even years, rejecting the Son of God would now be glad of one offer of that mercy! “Father,” he says, “have mercy on me.”

Again, from these words you may observe that mercy would be welcome when souls are under judgment. Now his soul is in the fire. Now he is under the wrath of God. Now he is in hell, there to be tormented. Now he is with the devils and damned spirits. Now he feels the vengeance of God. Now, oh now, have mercy on me! Here you may see that mercy is prized by those who are in hell; they would be glad if they could have it. “Father, have mercy on me; for my poor soul’s sake, send me a little mercy!”

“And send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue.”

These words show not only that the ungodly desire mercy, but also what those mercies are, and what these poor creatures would be glad of.

1. They would be glad to have the company of a Lazarus granted to them: “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus.” Now Lazarus was the one who was loved by God, and also the one who was hated by them.

2. Observe, therefore, that those saints whom the world could not endure in its lifetime, the world would be glad to have fellowship with now that it has departed. “Oh, send Lazarus now! Though there was a time when I did not care for him, let me have some fellowship with him now.”

Though the world disregards the fellowship of God’s children now, a time is coming in which they would be glad of the least company with them. More than that, just notice: from the very saints whom they reject most now, they will be glad to receive comfort, if they could have it. “Send Lazarus, the one I slighted more than my dogs, the one I could not stand to have come into my house, who had to lie at my gate. Send him. Now Lazarus would be welcome to me. Now I long for some comfort from him.” But he will go without it.

From this observe again, you surly, dogged persecutors of the saints, that a time is coming when they will slight you as much as ever you slighted them. You have given them many a hard word, told many a lie about them, and given them many a blow. And now, in your greatest need and extremity, they will not pity you; rather the righteous will “rejoice when he seeth the vengeance” of God on you (Ps 58:10).

Again, “Send Lazarus.” From this observe that any of the saints will then be acknowledged by you as saints. Now you look on them as belonging to a sect along with Hymenaeus and Philetus, but then you will see them to be the Lazaruses of God, God’s own dear children. Though you will not acknowledge the saints of the Lord now, because they are beggarly, lowly, poor and contemptible among you, the day is coming when you will acknowledge them, desire their company, and wish for the least kindness from them.

“Send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.”

This is how the souls that remain in their sins will cry out, in the bitterness of their spirits, with amazing anguish and torment of conscience, without any pause: “That he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue.” That he, the man I once scorned to let eat with the dogs of my flock, the one I slighted and had no regard for, the one I shut out of doors, “send him, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue.”

Now these words, “that he may dip the tip of his finger in water...,” set forth the least act of friendship or favor. It is as if he had said, “Now I would be glad of the least mercy. Now I would be glad of the least comfort, even if it is only one drop of cold water on the tip of his finger.” You would have thought this was a small request, a small kindness. One drop of water, what is that? Take a pailful, if that will do you any good! But notice: he is not allowed to have so much as one drop, not even as much as a man can hold on the tip of his finger. This shows that those who fall short of Christ will be tormented as long as eternity lasts, and will not have even the least ease. No, not for as long as it takes a man to turn himself around; not even enough relief to swallow his spittle; not a drop of cold water.

Oh, if only these things took hold in your hearts! How it would make you seek rest for your souls before it is too late, before the sun of the gospel has set on you! Consider, I say, the misery that the ungodly will be in, and avoid their vices by embracing the offers of mercy. Otherwise you may share the same portion with them, and cry out in the bitterness of your souls, “One drop of cold water to cool my tongue!”

“For I am tormented in this flame.”

Indeed, the reason the poor world does not desire mercy more earnestly is partly that people do not seriously consider the torment they must certainly fall into if they die out of Christ. For let me tell you, if poor souls truly considered the wrath that by right falls to their share because of their sins against God, they would make more haste than they do to come to God through Christ for mercy. Then we would hear them say, “It is good to embrace Christ today, before we fall into such distress.”

But why does it say, Let him “dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue”? Because, just as the various members of the body have their share in sin and in committing it, so the various members of the body will be punished for it at that time. That is why, when Christ is warning his disciples not to turn aside from him, and to fear and dread the power of their God rather than any other power, he says, “Fear him,” therefore, who can cast both body and soul into hell (Luke 12:5). And again: “Fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt 10:28). Here it is not one member only, but all the body, the whole body, of which the hands, feet, eyes, ears and tongue are members. And I am persuaded that though some may judge this carnal now, it will prove to be true then, to the greater misery of those who will be forced to undergo what God, in his just judgment, will inflict on them.

Oh, then they will cry, “One dram of ease for my cursing, swearing, lying, jeering tongue! Some ease for my bragging, swaggering, flattering, threatening, dissembling tongue!” Now people can let their tongues run at random, as we say. Now they are apt to say, “Our tongues are our own; who shall control them?” (Ps 12:4). But then they will be of another mind. Then it will be, “Oh, that I might have a little ease for my deceitful tongue!” Sometimes, when I consider how some people let their tongues run at random, it makes me marvel. Surely they do not think they will be made to give an account for offending with their tongue. If they only thought that they will be made to give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead, surely they would be more wary of their tongue and have more regard for it.

“The tongue,” says James, “is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison” (Jas 3:8); “it setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell” (Jas 3:6). The tongue! How much mischief it will stir up in a very little time! How many blows and wounds it causes! How many times, as James says, it curses men! How often the tongue is made the carrier of that hellish poison that is in the heart, to the dishonor of God, the hurt of its neighbors, and the utter ruin of its own soul! And do you think the Lord will sit still, so to speak, and let your tongue run as it pleases, and yet never bring you to account for it? No, wait. The Lord will not always keep silent, but will rebuke you, sinner, and set your sins in order before your eyes. Yes, and your tongue, together with the rest of your members, will be tormented for sinning.

And I say I am very confident that though this is made light of now, the time is coming when many poor souls will rue the day that they ever spoke with a tongue. “Oh,” one will say, “that I should have disregarded my tongue so! Oh, that I had bitten off my tongue before I said this or that! That I had been born without a tongue! My tongue, my tongue! A little water to cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame, the very flame that my tongue, together with the rest of my members, has brought me to by sinning!” Poor souls now will let their tongues say anything for a little profit, for two or three pennies’ gain. But oh, what a grief this will be on that day, when they, together with their tongue, must smart for what they have done with their tongues while they were in this world!

So then, you who love your souls, watch your tongues, or you may bind yourselves down so fast to hell with the sins of your tongues that you will never be able to get loose again for all eternity. “For by thy words thou shalt be condemned” (Matt 12:37), if you do not take care of your tongue. For “I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment” (Matt 12:36).

But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented (Luke 16:25).

These words are the answer to the request of the damned. The verse before, as I told you, shows us the desires they have after they depart this world. Here is the answer: “Son, remember…”

The answer amounts to this: instead of getting any relief or ease, they are tormented all the more by it, and that through fresh recollections, by having their former ill-spent life in the world brought back into their memory. “Son, remember”: you had good things in your lifetime. It is as much as if he had said, “Now you feel what it is to lose your soul. Now you feel what it is to put off repentance. Now you feel that you have made a fool of yourself, because you spent the time you should have spent in seeking to make Jesus Christ sure to your soul in chasing after outward, momentary, earthly things. And now, in your anguish of spirit, in the pains of hell, you would like to enjoy what in former times you made light of. But alas, here you are deceived and completely disappointed. Your crying will do you no good at all now. This is not the acceptable time (2 Cor 6:2). This is not a time to answer the desires of damned reprobates. If you had cried out in good earnest while grace was offered, much might have come of it. But then you were careless, and turned the forbearance and goodness of God into wantonness. Were you not told that those who would not hear the Lord when he called should not be heard when they called, if they had turned away from him? On the contrary, he would laugh at their calamity and mock when their fear came (Prov 1:24-28).

“Now therefore, instead of expecting the least drop of mercy and favor, call to mind how you spent those days that God allowed you to live. I say, remember that in your lifetime you behaved rebelliously against the Lord, in that you were careless of his word and ordinances, yes, and of the welfare of your own soul too. Therefore, I say, instead of expecting or hoping for any relief, you must now be forced to call your filthy ways to remembrance and feed on them, to your everlasting astonishment and confusion.”

From these words, then, which say, “Remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things,” these things are to be noted.

First. Those who lose their souls by putting off repentance and living in their sins will not have the least measure of comfort when they come into hell. Instead, they will have their ill-spent life always very fresh in their memory. While they live here they can sin and forget it, but when they depart they will have it before them. They will have a memory that has been remarkably enlightened, and a clearer and continual sight of all the wicked practices they committed while they were in the world. “Son, remember,” he says. Then you will be made to remember:

(1) How you were born in sin and brought up in it.

(2) Remember how many a time you had the gospel preached to you for the taking away of that sin, by him whom the gospel holds forth.

(3) Remember that out of love for your sins and lusts you turned your back on the offers of that same gospel of good news and peace.

(4) Remember that the reason you lost your soul was that you did not embrace free grace and the offers of a loving and freehearted Jesus Christ.

(5) Remember how near you were to turning at such and such a time, except that you were willing to give way to your lusts when they stirred, to drunkards when they called, to pleasures when they offered themselves, and to the cares and burdens of the world, which, like so many thorns, choked the conviction or convictions that had been pressed on your heart.

(6) Remember how willing you were to satisfy yourself with a hypocrite’s hope, and with a notion of the things of God without their real power and life.

(7) Remember how, when you were warned to turn, you put off turning and repenting until another time.

(8) Remember how you deceived at such a time, lied at such a time, cheated your neighbor at such a time, and mocked, sneered at, scoffed at, taunted, hated and persecuted the people of God at such a time, in such a place, in such company.

(9) Remember that while others were gathered together in the fear of the Lord to seek him, you were gathered with a crowd of empty companions to sin against him. While the saints were praying, you were cursing. While they were speaking well of the name of God, you were speaking evil of the saints of God.

Oh, then you will have a scalding hot remembrance of all your sinful thoughts, words and actions, from the very first to the very last that you ever committed in your whole lifetime. Then you will find this scripture to be true: “The Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind. And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee, and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life. In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see” (Deut 28:65-67). No, you will find worse things to your sorrow than this scripture shows. For indeed, no tongue is able to express the horror, terror, torment and eternal misery that those poor souls will undergo, without the least easing of it. And a very great part of it will come from that quick, full and continual remembrance of their sins that they will have. And therefore there is great weight in these words: “Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things.”

From these words, you see, this is to be observed: the ungodly will remember, or have in their memory, how they misspent their lives. “Remember that in thy lifetime thou receivedst thy good things.” You may take these words “good things” simply for the things of this world, which in themselves are called, and may be called, good things. Or else you may take them, together with these, for all the pleasures, delights, profits and vanities of this life, which the ignorant people of the world count as their good things, and with which they cheer themselves very much, saying, “Soul, soul, eat, drink, and be merry; for thou hast much goods laid up for many years” (Luke 12:19-20). Now I say that God, according to his glorious power and wisdom, will make poor creatures always have a fresh and clear memory of their ill-spent life in their minds. He will say to them, “Remember, remember, that in your lifetime it was like this and like this with you, and in your lifetime you conducted yourself in such and such a way.”

If sinners could have their choice, they would not have their sins and transgressions so much in their memory, as is evident from their conduct here in this world. They cannot bear to entertain one serious thought of their filthy life. They “put far away the evil day” (Amos 6:3; Ezek 12:27), and labor by every means to put the thought of it out of their minds. But there they will be made to remember in earnest, and to think continually of their ungodly deeds. And therefore it is said that when our Lord Jesus Christ comes to judgment, it will be to convince the ungodly world of their wicked and ungodly deeds. Mark it: “to convince” them (Jude 14-15). They will not willingly take notice of their deeds now, but hereafter they will have to, whether they like it or not. And also, between now and then, those who die out of Christ will be made to see, acknowledge and confess them, do what they can, when they lift up their eyes in hell and remember their transgressions. God will be a swift witness against them (Mal 3:5), and will say, “Remember what you did in your lifetime, how you lived in your lifetime.” Ha, friend! If in these days of light you do not “remember the days of darkness” (Eccl 11:8), the days of death, hell and judgment, then in the days of darkness, death and hell, and at the judgment too, you will be made to remember the days of the gospel, and how you disregarded them, to your own destruction and everlasting misery. This is hinted at in Matthew 25.

“Remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things.”

The great God, instead of giving the ungodly any ease, will even make their torments worse. First, he will do it by slighting their perplexities and by telling them what they must be thinking of. “Remember,” he says, “O you lost souls, that you had your joy in your lifetime, your peace in your lifetime, your comforts, delights, ease, wealth and health, your heaven, your happiness and your portion in your lifetime.” Oh, miserable state! You will be in a sad condition indeed then, when you see that you have had your good things, your best things, your pleasant things. For that is clearly meant by these words, “Remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things,” that is, all the good things you are ever likely to have.

Second. From this, take notice of another truth, though it is a dreadful one. It is this: there are many poor creatures who have all their good, sweet and comfortable things in this life, or while they are alive in this world (Ps 17:14). “Remember,” he says, “that in thy lifetime thou receivedst thy good things.”

The good things of the wicked will soon come to an end. They will last them no longer than this life, their lifetime. That scripture was not written in vain: they are like “the crackling of thorns under a pot” (Eccl 7:6), which make a little blaze all of a sudden and a little heat for a while. But come and look at them a little later, and instead of a comfortable heat you will find nothing but a few dead ashes, and instead of a flaming fire, nothing but a smell of smoke.

A time is coming when the ungodly would be glad of a better portion, when they see the emptiness of this one, that is, when they see what a poor thing it is for a man to have his portion in this world. It is true that while they are here on this side of hell, they think there is nothing to be compared with riches, honors and pleasures in this world. That is what makes them cry out, “Who will show us any good?” (Ps 4:6), meaning, who will show us anything comparable to the pleasures, profits and glory of this world? But then they will see that there is another thing that is better and of more value than ten thousand worlds.

And seriously, friends, will it not grieve you, trouble you, perplex you and torment you, when you see that you lost heaven for a little pleasure and profit in your lifetime? Certainly it will grieve and perplex you exceedingly to see what a blessed heaven you left for a dunghill world. Oh, if only you would believe this! If only you would consider it, and say within yourselves, “What! Shall I be content with my portion in this world? What! Shall I lose heaven for this world?” I say, consider it while you have daylight and gospel light, while the Son of God holds out terms of reconciliation to you, or you may be made to hear a voice like this: “Son, remember that in thy lifetime thou receivedst thy good things,” your comforts, your joys, your ease, your peace, and all the heaven you are ever likely to have. Oh, poor heaven! Oh, short pleasures! What a pitiful thing it is to be left in such a case! Soul, consider: is it not miserable to lose heaven for twenty, thirty or forty years of sinning against God? Is it not miserable that when your life is done, your heaven is done too? That when death comes to separate your soul and body, on that day your heaven and happiness must also be separated from you, and you from them?

Consider these things in good time, so that you do not have your portion in your lifetime. “For if in this life only we have hope,” our portion, “we are of all men most miserable” (1 Cor 15:19). Consider again that when other men, the saints, are to receive their good things, then you will have had yours. When others are to enter into joy, then you are to leave and depart from your joy. When others are to go to God, you must go to the devil. Oh, how miserable! You would have been better off never born than to be the heir of such a portion. Therefore, I say, take care that this is not your condition.

“Remember that thou receivedst thy good things, and Lazarus evil things.”

These words do not only set forth the misery of the wicked in this life, but also bring great consolation to the saints, where he says, “And Lazarus evil things,” that is, Lazarus had his evil things in his lifetime, or while he was in the world. From this, observe:

1. The life of the saints, as long as they are in this world, is attended with many evils or afflictions, and these can be shown to be of various kinds. As the Scripture says, “Many are the troubles of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all” (Ps 34:19).

2. Take notice that the afflictions or evils that go along with the saints may stay with them all their lifetime, as long as they live in this vale of tears. Yes, and they may be of several sorts, some outward and some inward, and that for as long as the saints remain here below. This has been the experience of all saints in all ages, and it could be proved at length. But I only touch on these things, although I could enlarge much on them.

3. The evils that go along with the saints will stay with them no longer than their lifetime. And here indeed lies the comfort of believers, the Lazaruses, the saints: they must have their whole bitter cup wrung out for them in their lifetime. Here must be all their trouble; here must be all their grief. See what Christ says: “The world shall rejoice, but ye shall lament; but your mourning,” mark it, “shall be turned into joy” (John 16:20). You will lament, you will be sorrowful, you will weep in your lifetime, but your sorrow will be turned into joy, and your joy no one will take from you, no one, whoever he may be.

Now if you think that when I say the saints have all their evil things in their lifetime, I mean they have nothing but trouble in this lifetime of theirs, you are mistaken. For let me tell you that though the saints have all their evil things in their lifetime, yet even in their lifetime they also have “joy unspeakable and full of glory” (1 Pet 1:8), while they look not at the things that are seen but at the things that are not seen. The joy that the saints sometimes have in their hearts, through a believing consideration of the good things to come when this life is ended, fills them fuller of joy than all the crosses, troubles, temptations and evils that go along with them in this life can fill them with grief (2 Cor 4).

But some saints may say, “My troubles are such that they are ready to overcome me.”

Answer. Still, be of good comfort: they will last no longer than your lifetime.

“But my trouble is that I am burdened with a heart full of corruption and sin, so that I am greatly hindered in walking with God.”

Answer. That may well be so, but you will have these troubles no longer than your lifetime.

“But I have a difficult husband, and that is a great grief to me.”

Well, but you will be troubled with him no longer than your lifetime. Therefore do not be dismayed; do not be discouraged. You will have no trouble longer than this lifetime. Are you troubled with difficult children, difficult relatives, difficult neighbors? They will trouble you no longer than this lifetime. Are you troubled with a cunning devil, with unbelief? Yes, let it be whatever it may, you will say goodbye to them all, if you are a believer, once your lifetime is ended. Oh, excellent! “Then God shall wipe away all tears from your eyes; and there shall be no more death nor sorrow, neither crying, nor any more pain; for the former things are passed away” (Rev 21:4).

But now, on the contrary, if you are not a true and sound believer, then even if you were to live a thousand years in this world and meet with severe afflictions every day, those afflictions, however great and grievous, are nothing compared with the torment that will come on you, both in soul and in body, after this life is ended.

I say, be what you will, if you are found in unbelief, or under the first covenant, you are sure to smart for it when you depart this world. But what is to be lamented is this: though it is so sad a condition to fall into, poor souls are for the most part senseless of it. Yes, at times they are as senseless as if there were no such misery to come hereafter. Because the Lord does not strike at once with his sword, but bears long with his creature, waiting so that he might be gracious, therefore, I say, the hearts of some of the sons of men are wholly set on doing mischief (Eccl 8:11). And as for that forbearance and goodness of God, which, one would think, should lead them to repentance: the devil hardens them through their continuing in sin, and blinds their eyes to the purpose of God’s forbearance toward them, and so they are led away with a very hardened and senseless heart until they drop into eternal destruction.

But, poor hearts, a time must come when they will be made to feel their former behavior, when the just judgments of the Lord will flame about their ears, so that they will be made to cry out again in anguish, “I am sorely ‘tormented in this flame.’”

“But now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.” It is as if he should say, “Now God has repaid both Lazarus and you according to what you sought after while you were in this world. As for your part, you neglected the precious mercy and goodness of God. You turned your back on the Son of God, who came into the world to save sinners. You made a mockery of the preaching of the gospel. You were warned over and over to embrace the loving-kindness of the Lord in his Son Jesus Christ. The Lord let you live twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty years, and all that time, instead of spending it ‘to make your calling and election sure’ (2 Pet 1:10), you spent it in making eternal damnation sure to your soul (Job 21:29-30). And as for Lazarus, in his lifetime he made it his business to accept my grace and salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. When you were in the alehouse, he was attending the preaching of the word. When you were jeering at goodness, he was sighing for the sins of the times (Ezek 9:4-6). While you were swearing, he was praying. In a word, while you were 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 will not always be without comfort and blessedness, so neither will the ungodly always go without their punishment. As sure as God is in heaven, it will be so. They must each have their own portion. And therefore, you who are the saints of the Lord, follow on, and do not be dismayed, since you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord (1 Cor 15:58). Your portion is eternal glory. And you who are so unwilling now to embrace Jesus Christ and to leave your sins to follow him, your “day is coming” (Ps 37:13), when you will know that your sweet morsels of sin, which you swallow down so easily now (Job 20:12-14) and which scarcely trouble you, will have their time to work within you to your eternal ruin. Then you will be in a worse condition than if you had ten thousand devils tormenting you. No, you would be better off torn limb from limb a thousand times, if that could be, than to share in this torment, which will assuredly lie on you without mercy.

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 (Luke 16:26).

These words are still part of the answer that the souls in hell will receive for all the sobbing, sighing, grievous cries, tears and longing they have to be released from the unbearable pains they feel and are tormented with. And oh, it seems to me that these words, at first sight, if they are rightly considered, are enough to make any hard-hearted sinner in the world fall down dead.

The verse I spoke on last was, and still is, a very terrible one, and it heightens the torments of poor sinners wonderfully. There he says, “Remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and Lazarus evil things…” (Luke 16:25). I say, those words are very terrible to the poor souls who die out of Christ. But these words that follow set out their sorrow much more fully. Those were spoken about the condition the sinner was then in. These do not only back up the former words; they make their misery heavier still, holding out something that will be even more unbearable. The former verse is enough to strike any sinner into a faint, but this one is enough to make him fall down dead.

Here he says, “And beside all this.” There is still something to make your misery far greater still. I will speak briefly to these words as they relate to the terror spoken of in the verses before. It is as if he had said: “You think your present state is unbearable. It makes you sob and sigh; it makes you rue the day you were ever born. Now you find out what it is to lack mercy. Now you would leap at the smallest dram of it. Now you feel what it is to slight the offers of God’s grace. Now it makes you sob, sigh and roar exceedingly for the anguish you are in. ‘But beside all this,’ I have other things to tell you that will break your heart indeed.

“You are now cut off from any being in the world. You are cut off from hearing the gospel. The devil has been too strong for you and has made you miss heaven. You are now in hell among an innumerable company of devils, and all your sins surround you. You are wrapped in flames all over, and you cannot have one drop of water to give you any relief. You cry in vain, for nothing will be granted. You see the saints in heaven, which is no small trouble to your damned soul. You see that neither God nor Christ takes any care to ease you or to speak any comfort to you. ‘But beside all this,’ there you are, and there you are likely to lie. Never think of any relief; never look for any comfort. Repentance will do you no good now. The time is past, and it can never be called back. Whatever you have now, you must have forever.

“It is true, what I said before was enough to break your heart in two. ‘But beside all this,’ there you must lie and swim in flames forever.”

These words, “Beside all this,” are terrible words indeed. I will show you their scope with a comparison. Suppose you were to take a man, tie him to a stake, and with red-hot pincers pinch off his flesh in little pieces for two or three years on end. And at last, when the poor man cries out for relief and help, suppose the tormentors answered, “No, ‘but beside all this,’ you must be handled worse. We will treat you like this for twenty years together, and after that we will fill your mangled body with scalding lead, or run you through with a red-hot spit.” Would that not be pitiful?

Yet this is only a flea bite compared with the sorrow of those who go to hell. For if a man were treated like that, there would be an end of him before long. But whoever goes to hell will suffer torments ten thousand times worse than these, and yet will never be quite dead under them. There they will be forever whining, pining, weeping and mourning, forever tormented without relief, and yet never dissolved into nothing.

If the biggest devil in hell could pull you all to pieces, tear you as small as dust and dissolve you into nothing, you would count it a mercy. But here you may lie and fry, scorch and broil and burn forever. Forever: that is a long while, and yet it must be that long. “Depart from me, ye cursed,” says Christ, “into everlasting fire,” that is, into the fire that burns forever, “prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt 25:41).

Oh, you who were unwilling to dirty your feet if it was only muddy or only raining! You who were unwilling to come out of the chimney corner if the wind blew just a little cold, and unwilling to walk half a mile, yes, half a furlong, to hear the word of God if it was only a little dark! You who were unwilling to leave a few empty companions to build up your soul! You will have fire enough, you will have night enough, and evil company enough, your bellyful, if you miss Jesus Christ. “And beside all this,” you will have them forever and ever.

Oh, you who spend whole nights playing cards and dice, in rioting and wantonness! You who count it a fine thing to swear as fast as the boldest, and to spend with the greatest spendthrift in the country! You who love to sin in a corner when nobody sees you! Oh, you who keep up the profession of a hypocrite for selfish ends, because you would like to be counted somebody among the children of God, but who are an enemy to the things of Christ in your heart! You who satisfy yourself either with sins or with a bare profession of godliness! Your soul will fall into extreme torment and anguish the moment you depart from this world, and there you will be weeping and gnashing your teeth (Matt 8:12). “And beside all this,” you are likely never to have any relief or remedy. Never look for any deliverance. You will die in your sins and be tormented as many years as there are stars in the sky or grains of sand on the seashore; “and beside all this,” you must endure it forever.

“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?”

Answer. It is a delicate question; therefore:

1. Seek to enter in at the narrow gate rather than to inquire curiously into what this gulf is. But,

2. If you must know, then if you fall short of heaven, you will find it to be this: the everlasting decree of God. That is, a decree has gone out from God that those who fall short of heaven in this world, God is resolved, will never enjoy it in the world to come. And you will find this gulf so deep that you will never be able to wade through it as long as eternity lasts. As Christ says, “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).

Therefore I understand these words, “there is a great gulf fixed,” to be the everlasting decree of God. God has decreed that those who go to heaven will never go from there again into a worse place, and also that those who go to hell and would like to come out will never come out from there again. And friend, this is such a gulf, so fixed by him who cannot lie, that you will find it so whichever way you go, whether it is to heaven or to hell.

Here, then, you see how secure God will make those who die in the faith. God will keep them in heaven. But those who die in their sins God will throw into hell and keep them there; so that those who would go from heaven to hell cannot, and neither can those who would go to heaven come out of hell. Notice that he does not say they would not want to. For oh, how gladly would those who have lost their souls for a lust, for twopence, for a jug of ale, for a harlot, for this world, come out of that hot, scalding, fiery furnace of God’s eternal vengeance, if they might! But here is their misery: those who would come from you to us, that is, from hell to heaven, cannot. They must not; they shall not. They cannot, for God has decreed it and is resolved otherwise. Here, then, lies the misery: not so much that they are in hell, but that there they must lie forever and ever.

Therefore, if your heart should ever tempt you to sin against God, cry out, “No, for then I must go to hell and lie there forever.” If drunkards, swearers, liars and hypocrites would only take this doctrine soundly to heart, it would make them tremble whenever they think of sinning. But poor souls, for now they will “make a mock of sin” (Prov 14:9), and play with it as a child plays with a rattle. But the time is coming when these rattles they now play with will make such a noise in their ears and consciences that they will find that if all the devils in hell were yelling at their heels, the noise would not compare with it. Friend, your sins will first hunt you out like so many bloodhounds (Num 32:23), and then take you, bind you and hold you down forever (Prov 5:22). They will grip you and gnaw you as if you had a nest of poisonous serpents in your bowels (Job 20:14). And this will not be for a time, but, as I have said, forever, forever, forever.

Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house (Luke 16:27).

As I told you, the verses before were spoken partly to show the desire the damned have to be freed from their endless misery. Now this verse still shows the cries of those poor souls, and very fierce cries they are. They would dearly love to have something granted to them, but it will not be, as will appear more clearly later on.

“Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father …” It is as if he said: Seeing I have brought myself into such a miserable condition that God will not regard me, and my exceedingly loud and bitter cries will not be heard for myself; seeing I must not be allowed so much as one drop of cold water, nor the least help from the poorest saints; and seeing that, “beside all this,” my soul must lie here to all eternity, broiling and frying; seeing I must, whether I like it or not, undergo the hand of eternal vengeance and the rebukes of devouring fire; seeing my state is such that I would not wish a dog in my condition, “send him to my father’s house.”

It is worth noticing, again, who it is he wanted sent, namely, Lazarus. O friend, see here how the proud hearts and stubborn spirits of poor creatures will be humbled! As I said before, they will be brought so low that the very things they despised and made light of in this world, they would be glad of in the life to come. Lazarus was the one this man so slighted that he thought it a dishonor for him to eat even with the dogs of his flock. “What, shall I regard Lazarus, scruffy, beggarly Lazarus? What, shall I so far dishonor my fine, lavish, and splendid house with such a scabby hedge-creeping tramp as he? No, I scorn to have him entertained under my roof.” So it was in his lifetime, while he was in all his finery. But now he has come into another world. Now he is parted from his pleasures. Now he sees that his fine house, his dainty dishes, his rich neighbors and companions, and he himself are parted from one another. Now he finds torments instead of pleasures, heaviness instead of joys, hell instead of heaven, and the horror and guilt of sin instead of the pleasures of sin. O, now send Lazarus!

It may be that Lazarus might have done him some good if he had been welcomed in time past. He might have persuaded him at least not to go on in such grievous wickedness. But he slights him, he will not regard him, he is resolved to disown him, though he lose his own soul for doing so. Ah, but now send Lazarus! If not to me, then to my father’s house, and let him tell them from me that if they run on in sin as I have done, they must and shall receive the same wages that I have received.

Take notice of this, you who despise the least of the Lazaruses of our Lord Jesus Christ. It may be that you are now unwilling to receive these little ones of his, because they are not gentlemen, because they cannot speak Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, as Pontius Pilate could. No, such people must not and shall not speak to you to admonish you, and all because of this.

Though the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ may now be preached to such despisers freely and for nothing, though they are even begged to hear it and receive it, they will not now own, regard, or embrace these Christian offers of the glorious truth of Jesus, because they come out of some of the lowliest earthen vessels (1 Cor 1:26). Yet the time is coming when they will both sigh and cry, “Send him to my father’s house.” I say, remember this, you who despise the day of small things. The time is coming when you would be glad if you might receive from God, from Christ, or from his saints, one small drop of cold water, though now you are unwilling to receive the glorious distilling drops of the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

Again, see here the lamentable state of those who go to hell from their fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, and the rest. While they are in this world, parents delight to set their children bad examples, and children also love to follow the wicked steps of their ungodly parents. But when they depart this life, and drop down into hell, and find themselves in misery past all recovery, then they cry, “Send somebody to my father’s house, to my brother’s house. Tell them my state is miserable. Tell them I am undone forever. And tell them also that if they will keep walking in the ungodly steps I left them in, they will surely fall into this place of torments.”

“I pray thee … send him to my father’s house.” Ah, friends and neighbors, it may be you little think of this: that some of your friends and relatives are crying out in hell, “Lord, send somebody to my father’s house to preach the gospel to them, so that they do not also come into these torments!”

Here, while people live, they can willingly walk together in the way of sin. And when they are parted by death, those who are living seldom or never consider the sad condition that the dead have gone down into. But you ungodly fathers, how your ungodly children are roaring now in hell! And you ungodly children, how your ungodly parents, who lived and died ungodly, are now in the pains of hell too! One drunkard is singing on the alehouse bench, and another is roaring under the wrath of God, saying, “O that I were with him! How I would rebuke him, and persuade him by every means to leave off these evil ways. O that they would only consider what I now suffer for pride, covetousness, drunkenness, lying, swearing, stealing, whoring, and the like! O, if they only felt the thousandth part of it, it would make them look about them, and not buy sin at so dear a price as I have done, even with the loss of my precious soul.”

“Send him to my father’s house.” Not to my father, but to my “father’s house.” It may be there are ungodly children there, and ungodly servants, wallowing in their ungodliness. Send him therefore to my father’s house. They are probably still the same as when I left them. I left them wicked, and they are wicked still. I left them slighting the gospel, the saints, and the ways of God, and they do it still. “Send him to my father’s house.” Very likely there is only a little between them and the place where I am. Send him today, before tomorrow, “lest they also come into the same place of torment. I pray thee that thou wouldst send him.” I beg it on my bended knee, with crying and with tears, in the agony of my soul. It may be they will not consider their ways if you do not send him. I left them stupid enough, as hardened as I was. They have the same devil to tempt them, the same lusts and world to overcome them. “I pray thee therefore, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house.” Make no delay, or they may lose their souls and come here. If they do, they are never likely to return again. O, how little they think how easily they may lose their souls! They are apt to think their condition is as good as the best, as I once did through ignorance. But send him, send him without delay, “lest they also come into this place of torment.”

O that you would give him a commission! Send him yourself. There was a time when I, together with them, slighted those who were sent by God. Though we could not deny that he spoke the word of God and was sent by him, as our consciences told us, still we preferred the calls of men to the calls of God. For though they had the one call, from God, yet because they did not have the other, from men, in that antichristian way we thought proper, we could not and would not either hear him ourselves or give our consent that others should. But now a call from God is worth everything. Do you, then, “send him to my father’s house.”

There was a time when we did not like it unless it could be preached in the synagogue. We thought it a low thing to preach and pray together in houses. We were too high-spirited, too superstitious. The gospel would not go down with us unless we had it in such a place and by such a man; and no, not even then to any real effect. But now, O that I were to live in the world again, and might have the privilege of some acquaintance with blessed Lazarus, some familiarity with that holy man! What attention I would give to his wholesome words! How I would love his doctrine, and close in with it! How I would square my life by it! Now therefore, just as it is better to hear the gospel under a hedge than to sit roaring in a tavern, so it is better to welcome God’s begging Lazaruses than the wicked companions of this world. It is better to receive a saint in the name of a saint, and a disciple in the name of a disciple (Matt 10:41-42), than to do as I have done. O, it is better to receive a child of God who can deliver from experience the things of God (his free love, his tender grace, his rich forbearance, and also the misery of man if he is without it) than to be “daubed with untempered mortar” (Ezek 13:10). O, I may curse the day that I ever gave way to the flatteries and fawning of a company of carnal clergymen! But this repentance of mine comes too late. I should have looked about me sooner, if I had wanted to be saved from this woeful place. Therefore send him, not only to the town I lived in and to some of my acquaintances, but to my father’s house.

In my lifetime I did not care to hear the word that cut me most and showed me my true state. I was vexed to hear my sins mentioned and laid to my charge. I loved him best who deceived me most (Jer 5:30-31), who said, “Peace, peace,” when there was no such thing (Jer 6:14). But now, O that I had been soundly told of it! O that it had pierced both my ears and my heart, and had stuck so fast that nothing could have cured me except the blood of Christ! It is better to be dealt with plainly than to be deceived. They had better see their lost condition in the world than wait until they are damned, as I have done. Therefore send Lazarus, send him to my father’s house. Let him go and say, “I saw your son, your brother, in hell, weeping and wailing and gnashing his teeth.” Let him press it home on them, and tell them plainly that it is so, and that they shall see their own everlasting misery if they do not take special care. “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 (Luke 16:28).

These words are, if I may put it so, a reason given by those in hell for why they are so restless and cry so loud. It is that their companions might be delivered from those unbearable torments which they must and will undergo if they fall short of everlasting life by Jesus Christ. “Send him to my father’s house; for I have five brethren” (Luke 16:27-28). While they lived among them in the world, they were not so aware of their ruin. But now they have passed out of the world, and they share in the very thing they were warned of before. Then, I say, they can cry out, “Now I find that to be true indeed which I was told and told again, and which was declared to me would certainly come to pass.”

“For I have five brethren.” Here you may see that there may be, and there are, whole households in a damnable state and condition, as our Lord Jesus signifies by this. “Send him to my father’s house,” for they are all in one state; I left all my brothers in a pitiful case. While people live here, they cannot bear to hear that they are all in a miserable condition. But when they are under the wrath of God, they see it, they know it, and they are very sure of it. For when they themselves were in the world, they lived as their friends now live, and they fell short of heaven; and therefore, if their friends go on, so will they. O, therefore, send him quickly to my father’s house, for the whole house is in an undone condition, and must be damned if they continue as they are.

The thing to be observed is this: those who are in hell do not desire that their companions should come there. No, on the contrary, he says, “Send him to my father’s house,” and let him testify to those who are in it, “lest they also come…”

Question. But some may say, “What could be the reason that the damned should desire their companions not to come into the same condition they have fallen into, but rather that they might be kept from it and escape that dreadful state?”

Answer. I do believe there is hardly so much love in any of the damned in hell as really to desire the salvation of anyone. But insofar as there is any desire in the damned that their friends and relatives should not come into that place of torment, it seems to me to be rather for their own ease than for their neighbor’s good. For let me tell you, this I do believe: it will add to their grief and horror to see their ungodly neighbors in the same destruction with them. For where the ungodly live and die together, and go down into the pit together, each is more of a torment to the other than anything else.

And it must be so, because no ungodly people live ungodly lives together without learning bad examples from one another. Take this case: if there is someone in the town who is very skilled and cunning in the ways of the world, why, the rest who are of the same mind as he is will labor to imitate him and follow his steps. This is commonly seen.

Again, if there is one given to drunkenness, others in the town run all the more into that sin with him by his means, and they accustom themselves to it all the more because he entices them, and also because he sets such a bad example before them. And so, if there are any addicted to pride, who must have all the newest fashions, how their example provokes others to love and follow the same vanity, spending on their lusts what should relieve their own needs and the needs of others! Also, if there are any given to jesting, scoffing, lying, whoring, backbiting, carousing, wantonness, or any other sin, those who are most expert in these things often entangle others. Perhaps those others would not have been as vile as they are now if they had not had such an example. And this is why such people are called corrupters (Isa 1:4).

Now these people, by what they do, will greatly increase one another’s condemnation. He who set his neighbor a bad example, and so caused him to walk in sin, will be found to be one cause of his friend’s destruction. He will have to answer for his own sins and for a great part of his neighbor’s sins too, and this will add to his destruction. That scripture in Ezekiel shows it, where it speaks of the watchman who was to give the people warning. If he did not, then though the man did die in his sins, yet “his blood shall be required at the watchman’s hand” (Ezek 33).

So here let me tell you: suppose you are someone whose way of life and practices become a trap and a stumbling block, causing your neighbor to fall into eternal ruin. Though he is damned for his own sins, yet God may, no, he will, charge you as guilty of his blood. For you were not content to keep yourself from heaven, but by your filthy way of life you also kept others away and caused them to fall with you. O, then, will this not add to your torment? Yes, if you should die and go to hell before your neighbor or your companions, then besides the guilt of your own sins, you would be so weighed down with the fear of having the damnation of others laid to your charge that you would cry out, “O send someone from the dead to this companion and that companion I kept company with in my lifetime! For I see that my cursed conduct will be one cause of his condemnation if he falls short of glory.

“I left him living in foul and heinous offenses, and I was one of the first instruments to bring him to them. O, I will be guilty of both my own damnation and his too! O that he might be kept out of this place, lest my torment be made worse by his coming here!”

For where ungodly people live together, they are a snare and a stumbling block to one another by their practices, and so they must be a torment to one another and an aggravation of each other’s damnation. “O, cursed be your face,” says one, “that I ever set my eyes on you! It was your fault. I have you to thank. It was you who enticed me and ensnared me. It was your filthy way of life that was a stumbling block to me. It was your covetousness, it was your pride, your haunting the alehouse, your gambling and whoring. It was your fault that I fell short of life. If you had set me a good example, as you set me a bad one, perhaps I might have fared better than I do now. But I learned from you, I followed your steps, I took counsel from you. O that I had never seen your face! O that you had never been born to do my soul this wrong, as you have done!”

“O,” says the other, “and I can blame you just as much. Don’t you remember how at such a time, and at such a time, you drew me out and drew me away, and asked me if I would go with you, when I was going about other business, about my work? But you called me away, you sent for me; you are as much at fault as I am. Though I was covetous, you were proud; and if you learned covetousness from me, I learned pride and drunkenness from you. Though I taught you to cheat, you taught me to whore, to lie, to scoff at goodness. Though I, wretch that I am, made you stumble in some things, you made me stumble just as much in others. I can blame you as you blame me. And if I have to answer for some of your most filthy deeds, you have to answer for some of mine. I wish you had not come here! The very sight of you wounds my soul, by bringing my sins fresh into my mind: the time when, the manner how, the place where, the persons with whom. It was with you, you! Grief to my soul! Since I could not shun your company there, O that I could be without your company here!” Such language is sometimes heard at the gallows; but, for all I can learn, it is heard more in hell.

I say, therefore, that for those who have sinned together to go to hell together will greatly perplex and torment them both. Therefore I judge this to be one reason why those who are in hell desire that their friends or companions should not come there, into the same place of torment where they are. And so, where Christ says that these damned souls cry out, “Send to our companions, that they may be warned and commanded to look to themselves; O send to my five brothers!” it is because they would not have their own torments heightened by their company, and by a sense, yes, a continual sense, of the sins which they caused them to commit when they were in the world with them.

For I do believe that the very looks of those who have been led astray by their fellows, I say their very looks, will be a torment to the ones who led them astray. For by this the memory of their own sins which they committed with them will be kept, if possible, all the fresher on their consciences. And they will also have the guilt of the other’s sins upon them to an astonishing degree, because they were partly the cause of his committing them, being instruments in the hands of the devil to draw him in too.

And therefore, lest this come to pass, “I pray thee send him to my father’s house.” “For if they might not come here, perhaps my torment might be somewhat relieved. That is, if they might be saved, then their sins will be pardoned, and not charged so heavily on my soul. But if they fall into the same place where I am, the sins I caused them to commit will lie so heavy, not only on their souls but also on mine, that they will sink me deeper and deeper into eternal misery. O, therefore, send him to my father’s house, to my five brothers, and let him testify to them, lest they come into this place of torment.”

With these words understood in this way, what a condition they show those people to be in who now take great delight in being the very ringleaders of their companions into sins of every sort! While men live here, if they can be counted the cleverest at cheating, the boldest at lying, the most practiced at whoring, the craftiest at coveting and getting the world; if they can just cunningly defraud, undermine, thwart and anger their neighbors, yes, and hinder them from the means of grace, the gospel of Christ, they glory in it and take pride in it. They think themselves fairly well at ease, and their minds are somewhat quiet, being deceived by sin.

But, friend, when you have lost this life and begin to lift up your eyes in hell, and see what your sins have brought you to; and not only that, but see that by your filthy sins you caused others, like the devil, to fall into the same condemnation with you; and that one of the reasons for their damnation was this, that you led them into the wicked practices of this world and its lusts: then you will cry, “O that somebody would stop them from coming, lest they also come into this place of torment and be damned as I am! How it will torment me!” Balaam could not be content to be damned himself, but by his wickedness he also had to cause others to stumble and fall. The scribes and Pharisees could not be content to keep out of heaven themselves, but they had to labor to keep others out too. Therefore theirs is the greater damnation.

The deceived man cannot be content to be deceived himself, but he must labor to deceive others as well. The drunkard cannot be content to go to hell for his own sins, but he must labor to make others fall into the same furnace with him. But look to yourselves, for here will be damnation upon damnation: damned for your own sins, damned for being a partaker with others in their sins, and damned for being guilty of the damnation of others. O how the drunkards will cry for leading their neighbors into drunkenness! How the covetous man will howl for setting his neighbor, his friend, his brother, his children and relatives so wicked an example, by which he has wronged not only his own soul but the souls of others too! The liar, by lying, taught others to lie; the swearer taught others to swear; the whoremonger taught others to whore.

Now all these, with others of the same sort, will be guilty not only of their own damnation but also of the damnation of others. I tell you, some men have been the authors of the damnation of others to such a degree that I am inclined to think the damnation of those others will trouble them as much as their own. It is to be feared that some men, at the day of judgment, will be found to be the authors of destroying whole nations. How many souls do you think Balaam will have to answer for, with his deceit? How many Muhammad? How many the Pharisees, who hired the soldiers to say the disciples stole Jesus away (Matt 28:11-15)? By that means they made their brothers stumble to this day. It was one means of hindering them from believing the things of God and of Jesus Christ, and so it has been the cause of the damnation of their brothers to this very day.

How many poor souls has Bonner to answer for, do you think, and various filthy, blind priests? How many souls have they been the means of destroying by their ignorance and corrupt doctrine, preaching what was no better for their souls than rat poison is for the body, and all for the sake of filthy gain? O you priests, this word is for you! They will see that many of them, it is to be feared, will have whole towns to answer for, whole cities to answer for.

Ah, friend, I tell you, you who have taken it in hand to preach to the people, it may be you have taken in hand you know not what. Will it not grieve you to see your whole parish come bellowing after you to hell, crying out, “We have you to thank for this! This is your fault! You did not teach us the truth. You led us away with fables. You were afraid to tell us of our sins, for fear we would not put food into your mouth fast enough. O cursed wretch, that you should ever beguile us like this, deceive us like this, flatter us like this! We would have gone out to hear the word preached elsewhere, but you rebuked us, and also told us that what we now see is the way of God was heresy and a deceitful doctrine. And, blind guide that you were, you were not content to fall into the ditch yourself, but you have also led us there with you.”

I say, look to yourself, lest you cry out when it is too late, “Send Lazarus to my people, my friends, my children, my congregation to whom I preached and whom I beguiled through my folly! Send him to the town where I last preached, lest I be the cause of their damnation! Send him to my friends where I came from, lest I be made to answer for their souls and my own too!” (Ezek 33:1-6). “O send him, therefore, and let him tell them and testify to them, lest they also come into this place of torment.”

Consider this, you who live this way in the world, while you are in the land of the living, lest you fall into this condition. Suppose that by your conduct you should destroy but a single soul, just one poor soul, by one of your deeds or actions, by your sinful works. Consider it now, I say, lest you be forced to cry, “I pray thee therefore, that thou wouldst 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” (Luke 16:27-28).

If so, then I will not speak only to the blind guides, saying, “Look to yourselves, and do not shut others out.” No, this reaches further than those who keep souls from heaven by preaching and the like; it pronounces the doom of all who are in any way instrumental in hindering others from embracing Jesus Christ. O what red lines these will be against all those rich, ungodly landlords who so oppress their poor tenants that they dare not go out to hear the word, for fear their rent will be raised or they will be turned out of their houses! What do you say, landlord? Will it not cut your soul when you see that you could not be content to miss heaven yourself, but had to labor to hinder others too? Will it not give you an eternal wound in your heart, both at death and at judgment, to be accused of the ruin of your neighbor’s soul, your servant’s soul, your wife’s soul, together with the ruin of your own? Think about this, you drunken, proud, rich and scornful landlords. Think about this, you mad-brained, blaspheming husbands who oppose the godly and chaste lives of your wives; and you also who hold your servants so hard to their work that you will not spare them time to hear the word, unless it is where and when your lusts will let you. If you love your own souls, your tenants’ souls, your wives’ souls, your servants’ souls, your children’s souls; if you would not cry, if you would not howl, if you would not bear the burden of the ruin of others forever, then I beg you to consider this doleful story. Labor to avoid the soul-killing torment that this poor wretch groans under when he says, “I pray thee therefore, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house,” “for I have five brethren, that he may testify”; mark it, “that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment” (Luke 16:27-28).

These words still have something more in them than I have yet drawn out of them. There are one or two more things that I will briefly touch on. So mark: he says, “That he may testify unto them….” Mark, I beg you, and take notice of the word testify. He does not say, “And let him go to them,” or “speak with them,” or “tell them such and such things.” No, but “let him testify,” that is, affirm it constantly, in case anyone should oppose it. “Let him testify unto them.”

It is the same word the Scripture uses to set forth how vehemently Christ told his disciples about the one who would betray him: he testified, saying, “One of you shall betray me” (John 13:21). He testified: that is, he spoke it so as to dash or overcome anyone who might have said, “It shall not be.” It is a word that signifies that, even if anyone should oppose the thing spoken of, the one speaking should still continue constant in what he says. And he commanded them to preach, “and to testify, that it is he which was ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead” (Acts 10:42). To testify, mark, is to be constant, irresistible, undaunted, in case the thing should be opposed and objected against. So here: let him testify to them, lest they come into this place of torment.

From this observe that it is no easy matter to persuade those who are alive in this world in their sins that they must and will be damned if they do not turn and be converted to God. “Let him testify to them”: let him speak confidently, even if they frown on him or dislike his way of speaking. And how plainly this truth is verified and cleared by the behavior of almost everyone in the world today toward those who preach the gospel and show them plainly how miserable their state is if they do not embrace it!

If a man truly labors to convince sinners of their sins and their lost condition by nature, and that they must be damned if they live and die in that condition, oh, how angry they are at it! “Look how he judges!” they say. “Listen how he condemns us! He tells us we must be damned if we live and die in this state. We are offended at him. We cannot stand to hear him, or anyone like him. We will believe none of them, but go on in the way we are going.” “Forbear, why shouldest thou be smitten,” said the ungodly king to the prophet when he told him of his sins (2 Chr 25:16).

I say, tell the drunkard he must be damned if he does not leave his drunkenness. Tell the swearer, liar, cheater, thief, the covetous, railers, or any ungodly persons that they must and will lie in hell for it if they die in this condition. They will not believe you, nor credit you.

Again, tell some that there are many in hell who lived and died in their condition, and that they are likely to end up there too unless they turn to Jesus Christ and are found in him. Or take others, who are more civil and sober men. We know their civility will not save them. But if we just tell them plainly of the emptiness and unprofitableness of that civility for the saving of their souls, and that God will not accept them or love them for all these things, and that if they mean to be saved they must be better provided than with such a righteousness as this, then they will either fling off and come to hear no more, or else, if they do come, they will bring such prejudice in their hearts that the word preached will not profit them. For it is mixed, not with faith, but with prejudice in those who hear it (Heb 4:1-2). Indeed, some of them will be so full of anger that they will break out and call even those who speak the truth heretics; yes, and kill them (Luke 4:25-29).

And why? Because we tell them that if they live in their sins, that will damn them; and yet if they turn and live a righteous life according to the holy, just, and good law of God, that will not save them. Yes, because we tell them plainly that unless they leave their sins and their righteousness too, and embrace Jesus Christ alone, his blood and merits, and what he has done and is now doing for sinners, they cannot be saved; and that unless they eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, they have no life abiding in them. At this they are galled at once, and are offended at it, as the Jews were with Christ for saying the same thing to them (John 6:53, 60). And they fling away themselves, their souls and all, by quarreling against the doctrine of the Son of God, as indeed they do, though they will not believe they do.

Therefore whoever is a preacher of the word needs not only to tell them but to testify to them, again and again, that their sins, if they continue in them, will damn them, and damn them again. And he must tell them again that their living honestly according to the law, their paying everyone what is theirs, their living quietly with their neighbors, their giving to the poor, their notions of the gospel, and their saying they believe in Christ will do them no good at the general day of judgment.

Ah, friends! How many of you are there, at this very day, who have been told again and again of your lost, undone condition, because you lack the right, real, and saving work of God on your souls! I say, has this not been told you, yes, testified to you from time to time, that your state is miserable? And yet you are none the better, but still stand where you did: some in an open, ungodly life, and some drowned in a self-conceited holiness of Christianity. Therefore, for God’s sake, if you love your souls, consider. Beg God for Jesus Christ’s sake to work such a work of grace in your hearts, and to give you such a faith in his Son Jesus Christ, that you may not only have rest here, as you think, and not only think your state safe while you live here, but may be safe indeed, not only here but also when you are gone. Otherwise you may cry in the anguish and perplexity of your souls, “Send someone to my companions, who have been deceived by Satan as I was, and who by going on will come into this place of torment as I have done!”

Again, there is one more thing to be observed from these words: let him “testify to them, lest they also come into this place of torment.” Mark: lest they come in. It is as if he had said, “Or else they will come into this place of torment, as sure as I am here.” From this observe that although some souls fall for their sin into the bottomless pit of hell before their fellows, because they leave this world before them, yet the others, continuing in the same course, are as sure to go to the same place as if they were there already. How so? Because all are condemned together. They have all fallen under the same law and have all offended the same justice, and if they die in that condition they must certainly drink as deeply of the same destruction, if not more deeply. Mark, I beg you, what the Scriptures say: “He that believeth not, is condemned already” (John 3:18).

The unbeliever here is condemned as well as those who are gone, having broken the same law they broke. If so, what is to hinder him from sharing the same destruction with them? There is only this difference: the one has not yet had the law executed on him, because he is still here, while the others have had the law executed on them. They are gone to drink what they have been brewing, and you are brewing in this life what you must certainly drink. The same law, I say, is in force against you both; only he has been executed, and you have not. It is just as if there were a company of prisoners at the bar, all condemned to die. What? Because they are not all executed on one day, shall they therefore not be executed at all? Yes, they shall. The same law that carried out its severity on those who have now died will certainly be carried out on those who are alive, in its appointed time. So it is here. We are all condemned by nature. If we do not embrace the grace of God by Jesus Christ, we must and shall be destroyed with the same destruction. “And therefore send him,” he says, “lest,” mark, “lest they also come into this place of torment.”

Again, “Send him to my father’s house,” and let him “testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.” It is as if he had said, “It may be that he will prevail with them. It may be that he will win them over, and so they may be kept from coming here into this grievous place of torment.” Observe again that there is a possibility of obtaining mercy if now, I say now, in this day of grace, we turn from our sins to Jesus Christ. Yes, it is more than possible. And therefore, for your encouragement, know for certain that if in this your day you accept mercy on God’s own terms and truly embrace him, God has promised, yes, has made many promises, that your soul shall be brought safely to glory and shall certainly escape all the evils I have told you of, yes, and many more than I can imagine.

Just search the Scriptures and see how full of consolation they are to a poor soul who is minded to embrace Jesus Christ. “Him that cometh to me,” says Christ, “I will in no wise cast out.” Though he is an old sinner, “I will in no wise cast him out.” Mark: in no wise. Though he is a great sinner, I will in no wise cast him out, if he comes to me. Though he has slighted me ever so many times and not cared about the welfare of his own soul, yet let him come to me now, and in spite of all this, “I will in no wise cast him out,” nor throw away his soul (John 6:37).

Again, the apostle says, “Now,” mark, now, “is the accepted time, now is the day of their salvation.” Now here is mercy in plenty. Now God’s heart is open to sinners. Now he will make you welcome. Now he will receive anybody, if they will only come to Christ. “He that cometh to me,” says Christ, “I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). And why? Because “now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6:2). It is as if the apostle had said, “If you will have mercy, have it now, receive it now, embrace it now.”

God has a set day for holding out his grace to sinners. Now is the time; now is the day. It is true there is a day of damnation, but this is a day of salvation. A day is coming in which sinners must cry to the mountains to fall on them, and to the hills to cover them from the wrath of God; but now, now is the day in which he holds out his grace. A day is coming in which you will not be allowed the privilege of one drop of water to cool your tongue, if now, I say, if now you slight the grace and goodness he holds out to you. Ah, friends, consider: now there is hope of mercy, but then there will not be. Now Christ holds out mercy to you, but then he will not (Matt 7:23). Now his servants are begging you to accept his grace; but if you lose the opportunity that is put into your hand, you yourself may beg hereafter, and no mercy be given you. “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” (Luke 16:24). And none was given. Therefore never let it be said of you, as it will be said of some, “Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool, seeing he hath no heart to it?” (Prov 17:16). That is, seeing he has no heart to make good use of it.

So consider with yourself and say, “It is better to go to heaven than to hell. It is better to be saved than damned. It is better to be with saints than with damned souls, and to go to God is better than to go to the devil.” Therefore, “seek ye the Lord while he may be found, and call ye upon him while he is near” (Isa 55:6), so that he does not leave you to yourself in your trouble and tell you plainly that where he is, “ye cannot come” (John 8:21).

Oh, if those who are in hell might have just one more invitation like this, how they would leap for joy! I have sometimes thought that if God would send just one of his ministers to the damned in hell, and commission him to preach to them the free love of God in Christ, extended and held out to them, if now, while it is offered, they will accept his kindness, oh, how welcome they would make this news, and how they would embrace it on any terms! Surely they would say, “We will accept grace on any terms in the world, and thank you too, though it cost us life and limb to boot. We will spare no cost or expense, if only mercy may be had.” But poor souls, while they live here they will not part with sin, with hell-bred, devilish sin. No, they would rather lose their souls than lose their filthy sins.

But, friend, you will change your tune before long, and cry, “Oh, what a simple wretch I am, that I should damn my soul by sin! It is true, I have had the gospel preached to me and have been invited in. I have been preached to, and have been warned of this; but ‘how have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me.’” (Prov 5:12-13). Oh, therefore, I say, poor soul, is there hope? Then lay your hand on your mouth and kiss the dust, and embrace the Lord Jesus Christ, and make much of his glorious mercy. And invite your companions also to embrace the same Lord Jesus Christ, so that one of you does not go to hell ahead of the rest and then wait, with grief of heart, for your companions to come after, and in the meantime sigh with anguish of heart and say, “Oh, send him to my companions, and let him testify to them, so that they do not also come into this place of torment!”

Now then, from what has been said, many things might be spoken by way of use and application. But I will be very brief, and only touch on some things, and so wind up. First, I will begin with the sad condition of those who die out of Christ, and say something about that. Secondly, I will turn to the latter end of the parable, which more evidently concerns the Scripture, and say something about that.

1. You see, then, that the former part of the parable contains a sad declaration of the state of someone who lives and dies out of Christ: how such people lose heaven for hell, God for the devil, light for darkness, and joy for sorrow.

2. It shows that those who, in the time they live here below, neglect coming to God for mercy do not have even the least comfort from him; not so much as one drop of cold water.

3. It shows that such souls will repent of their folly when repentance will do them no good, that is, when they are past recovery.

4. It shows that all the comfort such souls are likely to have, they have in this world.

5. It shows that all their groanings and sighs will not move God to lighten in the least the heavy hand of vengeance that is upon them for the transgressions they have committed against him.

6. It shows that their sad state cannot be recovered: they must never (mark it, never) come out of that condition.

7. It shows that their desires for their ungodly neighbors will not be heard.

From these things, then, I beg you to consider the state of those who die out of Christ Jesus. Yes, I say, consider their miserable state, and think this way to yourself: “Well, if I neglect coming to Christ, I must go to the devil, and he will not neglect to fetch me away into those unbearable torments.”

Think this way to yourself: “What, shall I lose a long heaven for a short pleasure? Shall I buy the pleasures of this world at so dear a price as to lose my soul to get them? Shall I content myself with a heaven that will last no longer than my lifetime? What advantage will these things be to me when the Lord separates my soul and body, and sends one to the grave and the other to hell, and when at the judgment day the final sentence of eternal ruin must be passed upon me?”

1. Consider that the profits, pleasures, and vanities of this world will not last forever. The time is coming, yes, it is right at the door, when they will give you the slip and leave you in the lurch, tangled in the brambles of all that you have done. And therefore, to prevent this:

2. Consider your dismal state. Think this way to yourself: “It is true, I do love my sins, my lusts, and my pleasures. But what good will they do me at the day of death and of judgment? Will my sins do me good then? Will they be able to help me when I come to draw my last breath? What good will my profits do me? And what good will my vanities do when death will not take no for an answer? What good will all my companions do me, my fellow jesters, scoffers, liars, drunkards, and all my wanton friends? Will they help to ease the pains of hell? Will they help to turn the hand of God from pouring out his fierce anger upon me? No, will they not rather cause God to show me no mercy and give me no comfort, but instead thrust me down into the hottest place in hell, where I may swim in fire and brimstone?”

3. Consider this way with yourself: “Would I be glad to have all my sins, every one of them, come in against me, to inflame the justice of God against me? Would I be glad to be bound up in them as the three young men were bound in their clothes, and to be thrown as truly into the fiery furnace of the wrath of Almighty God as they were thrown into Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace?”

4. Consider this: “Would I be glad to have all Ten Commandments, every one of them, fire themselves against my soul?” The first saying, “Damn him, for he has broken me”; the second saying, “Damn him, for he has broken me”; and so on. Consider how terrible this will be. Yes, it will be more terrible than if you had the ten biggest cannons in England fired against your body, thunder, thunder, one after another! No, even this would not compare with the reports that the law, for the breaking of it, will fire against your soul. For those cannons can only kill the body, but these will kill both body and soul. And that not for an hour, a day, a month, or a year; they will condemn you forever.

Mark it: it is forever, forever. It is into everlasting damnation, eternal destruction, eternal wrath and displeasure from God, eternal gnawings of conscience, eternal company with devils. Oh, consider! It may be that the very thought of seeing the devil makes your hair stand on end right now. But oh, this! To be damned, to be among all the devils, and that not only for a time, as I said before, but forever, to all eternity! This is exceedingly miserable, forever miserable, so that no tongue of man, no, nor of angels, is able to express it.

5. Consider much with yourself: “Not only will my sins against the law be laid to my charge, but also the sins I have committed in slighting the gospel, the glorious gospel. These too must come with a voice against me.” It will go like this: “No, he deserves to be damned, for he rejected the gospel. He slighted the free grace of God offered in the gospel. How many times were you, damned wretch, invited, entreated, and begged to come to Christ and accept mercy, so that you might have heaven, your sins pardoned, your soul saved, and your body and soul glorified? And all this for nothing but accepting it, and through faith forsaking those imps of Satan which by their embraces have drawn you downward toward the gulf of God’s eternal displeasure! How often did you read the promises, yes, the free promises of the common salvation! How often did you read the sweet counsels and warnings of the gospel to accept the grace of God! But you would not. You did not regard it. You slighted it all.”

Second. Just as I would have you consider the sad and woeful state of those who die out of Christ and are past all recovery, so I would have you consider the many mercies and privileges you enjoy above some of your companions, perhaps, who have departed to their proper place. For example:

1. Consider that the thread of your life is still being lengthened, though for your sins it might have been cut seven years ago or more, and you might have dropped down among the flames.

2. Consider that the terms of reconciliation by faith in Christ are still offered to you, and that you are invited, yes, entreated, to accept them.

3. Consider that the terms of reconciliation are only (bear with me when I say “only”) to believe in Jesus Christ with that faith which purifies the heart and enables your soul to feed on him effectually, and so be saved from this sad state.

4. Consider that the time of your departure is at hand, and that the time is uncertain. Consider also that, for all you know, the day of grace may be past for you before you die, and may not last as long as your uncertain life in this world. And if so, then know for certain that unless you are converted in the meantime, you are as sure to be damned as if you were in hell already.

5. Consider that it may be some of your friends are giving all diligence to make their calling and election sure, being resolved for heaven, while you are working just as hard to make sure of hell, as if you were resolved to have it. And together with this, consider how it will grieve you that while you were making sure of hell, your friends were making sure of heaven. But more of this by and by.

6. Consider what a sad reflection this will cast on your soul: to see your friends in heaven and yourself in hell; your father in heaven and you in hell; your mother in heaven and you in hell; your brother, your sister, your children in heaven, and you in hell. As Christ said to the Jews about their relatives according to the flesh, so I may say to you about your friends: “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth,” when you see your fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, children and kinsfolk, along with your friends and neighbors, in the kingdom of heaven, and you yourself thrust out (Luke 13:27-29).

But again, because I would not only tell you of the damnable state of those who die out of Christ, but also persuade you to take hold of life and go to heaven, take notice of the following things.

(1) Consider that whatever you can do toward your acceptance with God is not worth the dirt on your shoes, but is all “as filthy rags” (Isa 64:6).

(2) Consider that all the conditions of the new covenant, as far as salvation is concerned, are and have been completely fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ, and that for sinners.

(3) Consider that the Lord calls to you to receive whatever Christ has done, and that free of charge (Rev 22:17).

(4) Consider that you cannot honor God more than by closing in with his offers of grace, mercy, and pardon of sin (Rom 4).

Again, here is what will add to all the rest: you will have to face the very mercy of God, the blood of Christ, the preachers of the word, together with every sermon, all the promises, invitations, and exhortations, and all the counsels and threatenings of the blessed word of God. You will have to face all your thoughts, words, and actions, together with all your food, your clothing, your sleep, your goods, and also all your hours, days, weeks, months, and years, together with whatever else God has given you. I say, your abuse of all these will come up in judgment against your soul. For God will reckon with you for everything, whether it is good or bad (Eccl 12:14).

(5) No, further, it is so unreasonable a thing for a sinner to refuse the gospel that the very devils themselves will come in against you, as well as Sodom, that damned crew. May they not, I say, come in against you and say, “O you simple-minded man! O vile wretch! You did not have as much care for your soul, your precious soul, as the beast has for its young, or the dog for the very bone that lies in front of him. Was your soul worth so much, and did you regard it so little? Were the thunderclaps of the law so terrible, and did you slight them so? Besides, was the gospel offered to you so freely, so frequently, so fully, and yet have you rejected all these things? Have you valued sin at a higher rate than your soul, than God, Christ, angels, saints, and communion with them in eternal blessedness and glory? Were you not told of hellfire, those unbearable flames? Did you never hear of the unbearable roarings of the damned ones who are in it? Did you never hear or read that doleful saying in Luke 16, how the sinful man cries out among the flames, ‘One drop of water to cool my tongue’?”

Thus, I say, the very devils, ready to go with you into the burning furnace of fire and brimstone (though not for sins of so high a nature as yours), may say with trembling, “Oh, that Christ had died for devils as he died for man! And oh, that the gospel had been preached to us as it has been to you! How we would have labored to close in with it! But woe to us, for we could never have it offered; no, not in the least, though we would have been glad of it. But you, you have had it offered, preached, and proclaimed to you (Prov 8:4). Besides, you have been entreated and begged to accept it, but you would not. Oh, you simpletons! You might have escaped wrath, vengeance, and hellfire, and that to all eternity, and you had no heart at all to do it.”

(6) May not the messengers of Jesus Christ also come in with a shrill and terrible note against your soul when you stand at the bar of God’s justice, saying, “No, you ungodly one! How often were you warned beforehand of this day? Did we not sound an alarm in your ears by the trumpet of God’s word day after day? How often did you hear us tell you of these things? Did we not tell you that sin would damn your soul? Did we not tell you that without conversion there was no salvation? Did we not tell you that those who loved their sins would be damned at this dark and gloomy day, as you are likely to be? Yes, did we not tell you that God, out of his love to sinners, sent Christ to die for them, so that by coming to him they might be saved? Did we not tell you of these things? Did we not run, ride, labor, and strive abundantly, if only it might have done some good to your soul, though it is now a damned soul? Did we not risk our goods, our names, our lives? Yes, did we not almost kill ourselves with our earnest pleading with you to consider your condition, and by Christ to escape this dreadful day?”

Oh, sad doom! For then you will be forced, sorely against your will, to bow under the truth of this judgment, saying, “Oh! ‘How have I hated instruction, and how hath my heart despised reproof!’ For indeed ‘I have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me’” (Prov 5:12-13).

(7) May not your father, your mother, your brother, your sister, your friend, and others appear with gladness against you on that terrible day, saying, “O you silly wretch! How rightly God has dealt with you! Oh, how righteously his sentence passes upon you! Remember, you would not be ruled or persuaded in your lifetime. As you did not care for us and our warnings then, so neither do we care for your ruin, terror, and damnation now. No, we will stand on God’s side in sentencing you to that portion which the devils must share.” “The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance, he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked” (Ps 58:10). Oh, how sad! It is enough to make the mountains tremble and the rocks split in pieces to hear this doleful sound.

Consider these things, and if you would hate to be in this condition, then take care not to live in sin now. How you will hate to be thrust away from the gates of heaven! And how you will hate to be deprived of the mercy of God! How unwillingly you will set one foot forward toward the lake of fire! Never did a condemned criminal step off the ladder so unwillingly, with the noose around his neck, as you will turn from God to the devil, from heaven to hell, when the sentence is passed upon your soul.

Oh, how you will sigh and groan! How gladly you would hide yourself and run away from justice! But alas, as it is with those who stand on the ladder ready to be executed, so it will be with you. They would gladly run away, but there are many guards with halberds to stop them. And so the angels of God will surround you, I say, all around you on every side, so that you may indeed look, but run you cannot. You may wish yourself under some rock or mountain (Rev 6:15-16), but how to get under it, you do not know.

Oh, how unwilling you will be to let your father go to heaven without you! Or your mother or friends, and the rest, go to heaven without you! How gladly you would hang on them and not let them go! “O father, can’t you help me? Mother, can’t you do me some good? Oh, how I dread to burn and fry in hell while you are singing in heaven!” But alas, the father, mother, or friends reject them, slight them, and turn their backs on them, saying, “You would have none of heaven in your lifetime, so you will have none of it now. You slighted our counsels then, and we slight your tears, your cries, and your condition now.”

What do you say, sinner? Will this not persuade your heart, or make you think again? And all this is before you fall into that dreadful place, that fiery furnace. But oh, consider how dreadful the place itself, the devils themselves, and the fire itself will be! And at the end of it all, this: “Here you must lie forever! Here you must fry forever and ever!” This will be more to you than any man can express with his tongue or write with his pen. There is no one, I say, who can uncover the ten-thousandth part of the state and condition of such a soul.

I will conclude this part, then, with a few considerations of encouragement.

Consider (for I would gladly have you come in, sinner) that Jesus Christ has made a way for those who are under the curse of God to come to the comfortable and blessed state of Lazarus that I was speaking of. See Ephesians 2.

Consider what pains Christ Jesus took to ransom your soul from all the curses, thunderclaps, and tempests of the law; from all the unbearable flames of hell; from that soul-sinking appearance of your person on the left hand before the judgment seat of Christ Jesus; and from everlasting fellowship with countless companies of yelling and soul-terrifying devils. I say, consider what pains the Lord Jesus Christ took in bringing in redemption for sinners from these things.

For “though he was rich, yet he became poor, that ye, through his poverty, might be” made “rich” (2 Cor 8:9). He laid aside his glory (John 17) and became a servant (Phil 2:7). He left the company of angels and took on the devil in combat (Luke 4; Matt 4). He left heaven’s ease for a time to lie on hard mountains (Luke 6:12; John 8:1). In a word, he became poorer than those who go out with flail and rake; yes, poorer than the very birds or foxes, and all to do you good.

Besides, consider a little the unspeakable and unbearable slights and rejections, and the many abuses, that came upon him from men. Consider how he was falsely accused, though he was a sweet, harmless, and undefiled lamb. Consider how he was undervalued, so that a murderer was counted less worthy of condemnation than he was. Consider, besides, how they mocked him, spat on him, beat him over the head with staffs, and plucked the hair from his cheeks. “I gave my back to the smiters,” he says, “and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I hid not my face from shame and spitting” (Isa 50:6). Consider his head crowned with thorns, his hands pierced with nails, and his side with a spear, together with how they treated him and scourged him, misusing him so miserably that they had largely spent his strength before they ever crucified him, so much so that another man had to carry his cross.

Again, not only this, but lay to heart a little what he received from God, his dear Father, though he was his dear and tender Son.

1. God counted him the greatest sinner and rebel in the world. For he laid the sins of thousands, and ten thousands, and thousands of thousands of sinners to his charge (Isa 53), and caused him to drink the terrible cup that was due to them all. And not only so, but he delighted in doing it: “For it pleased the LORD to bruise him.” God indeed dealt with his Son as Abraham would have dealt with Isaac; yes, and more terribly by ten thousand times. For he not only tore his body like a lion, but made his soul an offering for sin. And this was not done in pretense, but in reality, for justice called for it, since he stood in the place of sinners. Witness that horrible and unspeakable agony that fell on him suddenly in the garden, as if all the vials of God’s unspeakable scalding vengeance had been poured on him at once, and all the devils in hell had broken loose at once to destroy him, and that forever; so much so that the very pangs of death seized him in that same hour. For he says, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful” and “sore amazed,” even “unto death” (Mark 14:34).

2. Witness also that strange kind of sweat that trickled down his most blessed face, where it is said, “And he sweat, as it were, great drops” or clots “of blood,” trickling “down to the ground.” O Lord Jesus, what a load you carried! What a burden you bore, of the sins of the world and the wrath of God! Oh, you did not only bleed at the nose and mouth from the pressure that lay upon you; you were so pressed, so loaded down, that the pure blood gushed through the flesh and skin and so ran trickling down to the ground. “And his sweat was as it were great drops of blood,” trickling or “falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44). Can you read this, O wicked sinner, and still go on in sin? Can you think of this and put off repentance one hour longer? O heart of flint, yes, harder than flint! O miserable wretch! What place in hell will be hot enough to put your soul into if you persist, or still go on adding iniquity to iniquity?

3. Besides, his soul went down to hell, and his body to the bars of the grave (Ps 16:10; Acts 2:31). And if hell, death, or the grave had been strong enough to hold him, then he would have suffered the vengeance of eternal fire to all eternity. But O blessed Jesus, how you revealed your love to man in suffering like this! And O God the Father, how you also declared the purity and exactness of your justice! For though it was your only, holy, innocent, harmless, and undefiled Son Jesus who took our nature on himself, represented our persons, and answered for our sins in our place, you poured out your wrath on him so wonderfully that it made him cry out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46). And O Lord Jesus, what a glorious conquest you have made over the enemies of our souls, even wrath, sin, death, hell, and devils, in that you wrenched yourself free from under the power of them all! And not only so, but you have led captive those who would have led us captive. You have also received for us that glorious and unspeakable inheritance which “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man” to conceive (1 Cor 2:9). And you have also given your own some revelation of it through your Spirit.

And now, sinner, together with this, consider:

4. Though Jesus Christ has done all these things for sinners, yet the devils make it their whole work, and continually study, to keep you and others from enjoying these blessed privileges that have been obtained for sinners in this way by this sweet Jesus. He labors, I say, (1) to keep you ignorant of your state by nature; (2) to harden your heart against the ways of God; (3) to inflame your heart with love for sin and the ways of darkness; and (4) to get you to continue in all this. For that, he knows, is the way to get you to share with him in flaming hellfire, the very same that he himself has fallen into, together with the rest of the wicked world, because of sin. See to it, therefore.

But now, in the next place, a word of encouragement to you who are the saints of the Lord.

1. Consider what a happy state you are in who have gotten the faith of the Lord Jesus into your soul. Only be sure you have it. How safe, I say, how sure, how happy you are! For when others go to hell, you will go to heaven. When others go to the devil, you will go to God. When others go to prison, you will be set at liberty, at ease, and at freedom. When others must roar for sorrow of heart, then you will sing for joy of heart.

2. Consider that you will have all your well-spent life to follow you, instead of all your sins; and the glorious blessings of the gospel, instead of the dreadful curses and condemnations of the law; and the blessing of the Father, instead of a fiery sentence from the Judge.

3. Let death come whenever it will, it can do you no harm. For it will only be a passage out of a prison into a palace; out of a sea of troubles into a haven of rest; out of a crowd of enemies to a countless company of true, loving, and faithful friends; out of shame, reproach, and contempt into exceedingly great and eternal glory. For death will not hurt you with his sting, nor bite you with his soul-murdering teeth. Instead he will be a welcome guest to you, even to your soul, because he is sent to free you from the troubles you are in while you are here in this world, dwelling in the tabernacle of clay.

4. Consider that however it goes with friends and relatives, it will still go well with you (Eccl 8:12). However it goes with the wicked, yet “surely I know”; mark it, “yet surely I know,” he says, “that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him.” And therefore let this:

(1) In the first place, let it cause you to exercise your patience cheerfully under all the calamities, crosses, troubles, and afflictions that may come upon you, and by patient continuance in doing good, to commit both yourself and your affairs and actions into the hands of God through Jesus Christ, as to a faithful Creator, who is true to his word and loves to give you whatever he has promised you.

(2) And therefore, to encourage you to hold on with comfort while you are here, in spite of all your crosses on this journey of yours, be much in considering the place you must go into as soon as death comes. It must be into heaven: to God the judge of all, to an innumerable company of angels, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven, and to Jesus, the Redeemer, who is the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, which speaks better things for you than Abel’s blood did for Cain (Heb 12:22-24).

(3) Consider that when the time of the dead comes, when they are to be raised, then your body will be raised out of the grave and glorified, and made like Jesus Christ (Phil 3:21). Oh, excellent condition!

(4) When Jesus Christ sits on the throne of his glory, you also will sit with him, even when he sits on the throne of his glory. Oh, will this not be glorious? When thousands, and thousands of thousands, are arraigned before the judgment seat of Christ, then the saints will sit with him on the throne, and together with him pass sentence on the ungodly (1 Cor 6:2-3). Will it not be glorious to enjoy those things that “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man” to conceive (1 Cor 2:9)?

Will it not be glorious to have this sentence: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matt 25:34)? Will it not be glorious to enter then, with the angels and saints, into that glorious kingdom? Will it not be glorious for you to be in glory with them while others are in unutterable torments? Oh, then, how it will comfort you to see that you have not lost that glory; to think that the devil has not gotten your soul; that your soul should be saved, and that not from a little danger but from an exceeding one; not with a little salvation but with a great one!

Oh, therefore, let the saints be joyful in glory; let them triumph over all their enemies. Let them begin to sing heaven upon earth, and triumph before they come to glory and salvation, even while they are in the midst of their enemies. For “this honour have all his saints” (Ps 149:9).

Abraham said unto him, They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them (Luke 16:29).

In the verses before this you have seen the lamentable state of the poor soul that dies out of Christ and out of the special favor of God. You have also seen how little the glorious God of heaven regards and takes notice of their most miserable condition.

Now in this verse he magnifies the word that was spoken to the people by the prophets and apostles: “They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.” It is as if he should say: You ask me to send Lazarus back into the world to preach to those who live there, so that they might escape that doleful place you are in. What need is there of that? Do they not have Moses and the prophets? Have they not had my ministers and servants sent to them, coming as from me? I sent Enoch and Noah, Moses and Samuel. I sent David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, and the rest of the prophets, together with Peter, Paul, John, Matthew, James, Jude, and the rest. “Let them hear them.” What they have spoken by divine inspiration I will own, whether it is for the damnation of those who reject their doctrine or for the saving of those who receive it. So what need do they have for someone to be sent to them in another way? “They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.” Let them receive their word, and embrace the doctrine they have declared.

I will not speak at this time about the word “Abraham,” since I have touched on it already. But I will tell you what is to be understood by these words, “They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.” The things I will observe from them are these.

The Scriptures spoken by the holy men of God are a sufficient rule to instruct to salvation those who assuredly believe and embrace what they set forth. “They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.” That is, if they want to escape that doleful place and be truly saved from the intolerable pains of hellfire, as they desire, they have what is sufficient to counsel them. “They have Moses and the prophets”; let them be instructed by them: “let them hear them.” For “all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” Why? “That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Tim 3:16-17). Just mark these words: “All scripture is profitable.” All! Take it wherever you will, in whatever place you will, “all is profitable.” For what? For “the man of God,” that is, the one who is bound for heaven and who would instruct others in their progress there.

It is profitable to instruct him, if he is ignorant; to reprove him, if he transgresses; to correct him, if he needs it; to confirm him, if he is wavering. It is profitable for doctrine, and all this in a very righteous way, so that the poor soul may not only be helped but thoroughly furnished, and furnished not only for some good works but for all. And when Paul would counsel Timothy to stick close to the things that are sound and sure, he immediately directs him to the Scripture, saying, “From a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim 3:15). The Scripture sets forth God’s mind and will, his love and mercy toward man, and also the creature’s conduct toward him from first to last. So if you want to know the love of God in Christ to sinners, then “search the scriptures, for they are they which testify of him” (John 5:39).

Would you know what you are, and what is in your heart? Then search the Scriptures and see what is written in them (Rom 1:29-31; Rom 3:9-18; Jer 17:9; Gen 6:5; Gen 8:21; Eph 4:18), along with many others. The Scriptures, I say, are able to give a man perfect instruction in any of the things of God that are necessary to faith and godliness, if he has but an honest heart to weigh and ponder seriously the several things contained in them. Let me give some more particular instances to clear this up further. And first, let us come to the creation of the world.

Would you know something about that? Then read Genesis 1-2, and compare them with Psalm 33:6; also with Isaiah 66:2 and the end of Proverbs 8.

Would you know whether he made them out of something or out of nothing? Read Hebrews 11:3.

Would you know whether he put forth any labor in making them, as we do in making things? Read Psalm 33:9.

If you would know whether man was made by God corrupt or upright, read Ecclesiastes 7:29 and Genesis 1:10, 18, 25, 31.

Would you know where God placed man after he had made him? Read Genesis 2:15.

Would you know whether that man lived there all his time or not? Then read Genesis 3:23-24.

If you would know whether man, by nature, is still in the state that God placed him in, then read Ecclesiastes 7:29, “God made men upright, but they have sought out many inventions,” and compare it with Romans 5:16 and Ephesians 2:1-3.

If you would know whether the man was beguiled first, or the woman whom God made a helpmate for him, read Genesis 3:6 and compare it with 1 Timothy 2:14.

Would you know whether God looked on Adam’s eating from the forbidden tree as sin or not? Read Romans 5:12-15 and compare it with Genesis 3:17.

Would you know whether it was the devil who beguiled them, or a natural serpent, such as haunt the desolate places? Read Genesis 3:13 with Revelation 20:1-3.

Would you know whether that sin is imputed to us? Read Romans 5:12-15 and compare it with Ephesians 2:2.

Would you know whether man was cursed for his sin? Read Galatians 3:10 and Romans 5:15.

Would you know whether the curse fell on man, or on the whole creation with him? Compare Genesis 3:17 with Romans 8:20-22.

Would you know whether man is defiled in every part of him by the sin he has committed? Then read Isaiah 1:6.

Would you know man’s inclination as soon as he is born? Read Psalm 58:3: “The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they be born.”

Would you know whether man, once fallen from God by transgression, can recover himself by all he can do? Then read Romans 3:20, 23.

Would you know whether it is the desire of man’s heart by nature to follow God in his own way or not? Compare Genesis 6:5 and Genesis 8:21 with Hosea 11:7.

Would you know how God’s heart was disposed toward man before the world began? Compare Ephesians 1:4 with 2 Timothy 1:9.

Would you know whether sin was enough to draw God’s love away from his creatures? Compare Jeremiah 3:7 and Micah 7:18 with Romans 5:6-8.

Would you know whether God’s love still continued toward his creatures because of anything they could do to make amends to him? Then read Deuteronomy 9:5-8.

Would you know how God could still love his creatures and yet do his justice no wrong? Read Romans 3:24-26: “Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation” for sin, “through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”

That is, God has had his justice satisfied, for the sins of poor sinners, in the blood, the righteousness, and the death of his own Son Jesus Christ. So now he can save those who come to him, however great sinners they are, and do his justice no wrong, because it has had full and complete satisfaction given to it by that blood (1 John 1:7-8).

Would you know who and what he was who died for sinners out of his love? Then compare John 3:16-17 and Romans 5:8 with Isaiah 9:6.

Would you know whether this Savior had a body of flesh and bones before the world was, or took it from the Virgin Mary? Then read Galatians 4:4.

Would you know whether he bore all our sins in that body, and where? Then read 1 Peter 2:24: “Who bare our sins in his own body on the tree.”

Would you know whether he rose again after he was crucified, with the very same body? Then read Luke 24:38-41.

Would you know whether he ate or drank with his disciples after he rose out of the grave? Then read Luke 24:42 and Acts 10:41.

If you would be persuaded of the truth of this, that that very body is now above the clouds and stars, read Acts 1:9-11 and the end of Luke 24.

If you would know that the Quakers, who say that the body of Christ is within them, hold an error, consider the same scripture.

Would you know what that Christ who died for sinners is doing in the place where he has gone? Then read Hebrews 7:24.

Would you know who shall have life by him? Read 1 Timothy 1:14-15 and Romans 5:6-8, which say that “Christ died” for sinners, “for the ungodly.”

Would you know whether those who live and die in their sins shall go to heaven or not? Then read 1 Corinthians 6:10 and Revelation 21:8, 27, which say, “They shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone.”

Would you know whether men’s obedience can obtain Christ’s dying for them, or his saving them? Then read Mark 2:17 and Romans 5:6-7.

Would you know whether righteousness, justification, and sanctification come through the virtue of Christ’s blood? Compare Romans 5:9 with Hebrews 13:12.

Would you know whether the natural man can abstain from the outward act of sin against the law merely by a principle of nature? Then compare Romans 2:14 carefully with Philippians 3:6.

Would you know whether a man by nature may know something of the invisible things of God? Compare Romans 1:20-21 seriously with Romans 2:14-15.

Would you know how far a man may go on in a profession of the gospel and yet fall away? Then read Hebrews 6:4-6. Such people may taste “the good Word of God, and the powers of the world to come.” They may taste “the heavenly gift, and be partakers of the Holy Ghost,” and yet fall so far as never to be recovered or renewed again to repentance. See also Luke 13.

Would you know how hard it is to go to heaven? Read Matthew 7:13-14 and Luke 13:24.

Would you know whether a man by nature is a friend to God or an enemy? Then read Romans 5:10 and Colossians 1:21.

Would you know what, or who, they are that shall go to heaven? Then read John 3:3-7 and 2 Corinthians 5:17. Also, would you know what a sad thing it is for anyone to turn their back on the gospel of Jesus Christ? Then read Hebrews 10:28-29 and Mark 16:16.

Would you know what the wages of sin is? Then read Romans 6:23.

Would you know where those go who die unconverted to the faith of Christ? Then read Psalm 9:17 and Isaiah 14:9.

Reader, I might spend many sheets of paper here; yes, I might write a very great book on this subject. But I will hold back for now, desiring you to be very familiar with the Scriptures, “for they are they which testify of Jesus Christ” (John 5:39). The Bereans were counted noble on this account: “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the Word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily …” (Acts 17:11). But here let me give you one caution. Take care that you do not satisfy yourself with a bare search of them, without a real application to your soul of him of whom they testify. Otherwise, instead of faring better for doing this work, you may fare a great deal worse, and your condemnation may be very much heightened. For though you read so often of the sad state of those who die in sin, and of the glorious state of those who embrace Christ, you yourself would have been such a fool as to lose Jesus Christ, in spite of hearing and reading so plentifully of him.

“They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.”

It is as if he should say: What need do they have for someone to be sent to them from the dead? Do they not have Moses and the prophets? Has not Moses told them the danger of living in sin (Deut 27:15-26; Deut 28:15-68; Deut 29:18-22)? Has he not told them there what a sad state those people are in who deceive themselves with the deceit of their own hearts, saying they shall have peace even though they follow their sins? He says it in these words: “And when he heareth the words of this curse, he blesseth himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace though I” go on, or “walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst. The Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.”

Again, did not Moses write of the Savior who was to come afterward into the world (Deut 18:18)? Indeed, have not all the prophets from Samuel on, with all those who followed after, prophesied and foretold these things? So what need do they have that I should work such a miracle as to send one from the dead to them? “They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.”

From this, observe again that God honors the writings of Moses and the prophets as much as, indeed more than, if one should rise from the dead. “Should not a people seek unto their God?” What, seek “for the living among the dead? To the law, and to the testimony,” says God, “if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isa 8:19-20).

And let me tell you plainly: I believe the devil knows this full well. That is what makes him labor to breed light thoughts of these writings in the hearts of his disciples and followers. He persuades them that even a motion from their own deluded conscience, or from his own wicked spirit, is to be heeded and obeyed before them. Yet the very apostle of Jesus Christ, though he heard a voice from the excellent glory saying, “This is my beloved Son …”, still, when writing to the churches, commends the writing of the prophets above it, saying, “We have also a more sure word of the prophets, to which ye do well to take heed …” (2 Pet 1:17-19). Now if you doubt whether that place means the Scriptures, the words of the prophets, or not, just read the next verse. There he adds these words as a certain confirmation of it: “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Pet 1:20-21).

And so what a sad thing it is for those who set out to disown the Scriptures! I tell you, however much they may slight them now, when they come into hell they will see their folly: “They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.”

Further, who are those who are so tossed to and fro with the various winds of doctrine that have been broached in these days? For the most part, they are people who have had a low esteem of the Scriptures. For the ground of error, as Christ says, is that they do not know them (Mark 12:24). And indeed, it is just of God to give them over to follow their own dark, blinded consciences and to be led into errors, that they might be damned into hell, since they did not believe that the things contained in the Scripture were the truth, that they might be saved and go to heaven. I hardly know how to stop speaking for the Scriptures and on their side. Only this I consider: a word is enough to the wise. And so I will commit these things into the hands of those who are of God. As for the rest, I will say this to them: if they had a thousand souls apiece, God would destroy them all rather than save them from hell by breaking his holy Word; for “the Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35).

And he said, Nay, Father Abraham; but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent (Luke 16:30).

The verse before, as I told you, was part of an answer to those who lose their souls; and so it is a vindication of the Scriptures of Moses and the prophets: “They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them” (Luke 16:29).

Now this verse is an answer to what was said in the verse before, and an answer that rejects the former answer. “Nay, Father Abraham.” “No,” he says, “do not say so. Do not put them off with this. Send one from the dead, and then there will be some hope. It is true, you speak of the Scripture, of Moses and the prophets, and you say, ‘Let them hear them’; but these things are not as good as I could wish. I would rather you sent one from the dead.” In these words, then, “Nay, Father Abraham,” a refusal is given: no, let it not be so; no, I do not like that answer. Hear Moses and the prophets? No. Christ uses the same expression. Do you think that those on whom the tower of Siloam fell were sinners above others? “I tell you nay; but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:4-5). So here: “Nay, Father Abraham …”

By this word Nay, then, he signals that he rejects the first answer.

Now observe, I beg you, the reason he says “Nay.” It is because God directs all who will be saved to observe and receive the truth contained in Scripture, and to believe it; to have a high esteem of the Scriptures, and to love and search them. As Christ says, “Search the Scriptures,” for “they are they which testify of me” (John 5:39). But the damned say, “Nay,” as if the rich man had said:

“This is the thing, to put it shortly: my brothers are unbelievers and do not regard the Word of God. I know it by my own case, for when I was in the world, it was the same with me. Many a good sermon I heard. Many a time I was admonished, urged, entreated, begged, threatened and forewarned of what I now suffer. But alas! I was ignorant, self-conceited, surly, obstinate and rebellious. Many a time the preacher told me that hell would be my portion, that the devil would wreak his malice on me, and that God would pour out his sore displeasure on me. But he might as well have preached to the stump, to the post, to the stones I walked on. His words rang in my ears, but I kept them from my heart. I remember he quoted many a Scripture, but I did not value them. ‘The Scriptures,’ I thought, ‘what are they? A dead letter, a little ink and paper, worth three or four shillings. Alas! What is the Scripture? Give me a ballad, a newsbook, George on Horseback, or Bevis of Southampton. Give me some book that teaches curious arts, that tells old fables.’ But for the holy Scriptures I did not care.

“And as it was with me then, so it is with my brothers now. We were all of one spirit. We all loved the same sins, and all slighted the same counsels, promises, encouragements and threatenings of the Scriptures. And they are still as I left them: still in unbelief, still provoking God and rejecting good counsel. They are so hardened in their ways, and so bent on following sin, that you may let the Scriptures be shown to them daily, and let the messengers of Christ preach till their hearts ache, till they fall down dead with preaching, and still they will rather trample it underfoot, and like swine tear them, than close in with those gentle and blessed offers of the gospel.”

“Nay, Father Abraham, but if one should rise from the dead, they would repent.” Though they have Moses and the prophets, that is, the Scriptures, they will not repent and close in with Jesus Christ, though the Scriptures witness against them. So if any good is to be done to them, they must have it some other way. “I think,” he says, “it would work powerfully on them ‘if one should rise from the dead.’”

And indeed this truth, that ungodly people have a low esteem of the Scriptures, is so evident that it needs few strong arguments to prove it. It is shown so plainly by their everyday practice, both in words and actions, in almost everything they say and do. Yet for the reader’s satisfaction I will show you by a scripture or two (though I might show many) that this was and is true of the general run of the world.

See the words of Nehemiah in his ninth chapter concerning the children of Israel. Though the Lord offered them mercy upon mercy (Neh 9:19-25), yet, he says, “Nevertheless they were disobedient,” for all your goodness toward them, “and rebelled against thee.” But how? “And cast thy law behind their backs; slew thy prophets which testified against them, to turn them to thee, and they wrought great provocations” (Neh 9:26).

Observe: (1) they sinned against mercy; (2) then they slighted the law, or Word of God; (3) they killed the prophets who declared it to them; (4) the Lord counts this a great provocation. See Hebrews 3:10-19 and Zechariah 7:11-12, where he says of the wicked, “But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear” the law. “Yea, they made their hearts” as hard as “an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent” to them “in his Spirit by the former prophets …”

Mark, I beg you, that here also there is (1) a refusing to listen to the words of the prophets. (2) So that they might do this, they stopped their ears. (3) If anything was to be done, they pulled away their shoulder. (4) To bring this about, they labor to make their hearts as hard as an adamant stone. (5) And all this lest they should hear and close in with Jesus, and live, and be delivered from the wrath to come. All these things show an unwillingness to submit to and embrace the words of God, and so to embrace Jesus Christ, who is testified of by them.

I could bring in many other scriptures to confirm the point, such as Amos 7:12-13, and also 1 Samuel 2:24-25, 2 Chronicles 25:15-16, Jeremiah 7:23-28 and Jeremiah 16:12. Read seriously, too, the saying in 2 Chronicles 36:15-16, where he says, “And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling-place.” And did they make the messengers welcome? No, they mocked the messengers of God and despised his words. And was that all? No, they “misused his prophets.” For how long? “Until the wrath of the Lord arose against them. Till there was no remedy.” See also Jeremiah 29:19, Jeremiah 25:3-7 and Luke 11:49.

Besides, the way of life of almost everyone, religious and profane alike, bears witness to the same thing, in that they daily neglect, reject and turn their backs on the plain testimony of the Scriptures. For example:

First, take the threatenings laid down in holy Scripture: how they are disregarded! There are few places in the Bible without threatenings against one sinner or another: against drunkards, swearers, liars, proud people, harlots, whoremongers, the covetous, revilers, extortioners, thieves and lazy people. In a word, all kinds of sin are reproved, and without faith in the Lord Jesus a severe punishment will be carried out on those who commit them; and all this is mentioned in the Scriptures.

But for all this, how thick, and in heaps, these wretches walk up and down our streets! Just go into the alehouses, and you will see almost every room sprinkled with them, foaming out their own shame, so that it is enough to make a saint’s heart tremble. The saints would not be bound to keep company with them for any length of time for all the world. For as the ways of the godly are not liked by the wicked, so the ways of the wicked “are an abomination to the just” (Prov 29:27; Ps 120:5-6).

1. The Scripture says, “Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD” (Jer 17:5). And yet how many poor souls there are in the world who stand in such awe and dread of people, and so highly esteem their favor, that they would rather risk their souls in the hands of the devil, keeping that favor, than flee to Jesus Christ for the salvation of their souls! Indeed, though they are convinced in their souls that this way is the way of God, yet how they labor to stifle conviction and turn their ears away from the truth, and all because they will not lose the favor of a neighbor who opposes it!

“Oh! I dare not, because of my master, my brother, my landlord. I will lose his favor and the house I work in, and so my trade will decline.” “Oh,” says another, “I would gladly go in this way, if it were not for my father. He scolds me and tells me he will not stand by me when I come to be in need. I will never get a pennyworth of his goods; he will disinherit me.” “And I dare not,” says another, “because of my husband. He rails at me and tells me he will turn me out of doors, he will beat me and cut off my legs.” But I tell you, if any of these things, or any other things, prevail with you now so far as to keep you from seeking after Christ in his ways, they will also prevail with God against you so far as to make him cast off your soul. For you chose to trust man rather than God, and to delight in being embraced by man rather than in the favor of the Lord.

2. Again, the Scripture says, “He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy” (Prov 29:1). Yet many are so far from turning, though they have been convinced of their wretched state a hundred times, that when convictions or trouble for sin come on their consciences, they still go on in the same way, resisting and choking them, though remediless destruction is hard at their heels.

3. Again, you have heard it said, “Except a man be born again,” “he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:3-7). And yet you go on in a natural state, an unregenerate condition. Indeed, you are resolved never to turn or be changed, though hell is appointed on purpose to swallow up such people (Isa 14:9). “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God” (Ps 9:17).

4. Again, the Scripture says plainly that whoever loves and makes a lie shall have his part “in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone” (Rev 21:8, 27). And yet you are so far from dreading it that it is your delight to jest and jeer, and to lie again for a penny, or twopence, or sixpence. And if you can make the rest of your companions merry by telling false things about people who are better than you, you do not care a straw. Or if you hear a lie from someone, or about someone, you will repeat it and swear to its truth. Oh, miserable!

5. You have heard and read that “He that believeth not shall be damned” (Mark 16:16), and that “all men have not faith” (2 Thess 3:2). And yet you disregard these things so much that you have probably hardly ever so much as examined seriously whether you were in the faith or not. Instead you content yourself with the hypocrite’s hope, which at the last God will cut off and count no better than the spider’s web (Job 8:13-14), or the house that is built on the sand (Luke 6:49). Indeed, perhaps you flatter yourself and think your faith is as good as the best of them all, when, alas, poor soul, you may have no saving faith at all. And you do not have it if you are not born again and made a new creature (2 Cor 5:17).

6. You have heard that whoever neglects God’s great salvation shall never escape his great damnation (Heb 2:3, compared with Luke 14:24 and Rev 14:19-20). And yet when you are invited, entreated and begged to come in, you will make any excuse serve the turn (Luke 14:17-18; Rom 12:1; 2 Cor 5:19-20). Indeed, you will be so wicked as to put off Christ time after time, even though he is so freely offered to you. A little ground, a few oxen, a farm, a wife, a twopenny matter, a play; yes, even the fear of a mock, a scoff or a jeer, weighs more to draw you back than the salvation of your soul does to draw you forward.

7. And you have heard that whoever will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God (Jas 4:4). But you do not regard these things; quite the opposite. Rather than be out of the friendship and favor of this world, you will sin against your own conscience, and get yourself into favor by fawning on and flattering the world. Yes, rather than go without it, you will dissemble, lie, backbite your neighbor, and play a hundred other tricks.

8. You have heard that the day of judgment is near, in which you and I, all of us, must appear before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ, and there be made to give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. We must give account of all that we ever did, yes, of all our sins in thought, word and deed. And we shall certainly be damned for them too, if we do not close in with our Lord Jesus Christ, and with what he has done and suffered, for eternal life; and that not notionally or traditionally, but really and savingly, in the power and by the working of the Spirit, through faith (Eccl 11:9; Eccl 12:14; Acts 10:42; Acts 17:30-31; 2 Cor 5:10; Heb 9:27). “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books” (Rev 20:12).

There is the book of the creatures, the book of conscience, the book of the Lord’s remembrance, the book of the law, and the book of the gospel (Rom 1:20, compared with Rom 2:12, 15; Rev 6:17; John 12:48). Then “he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep on the right hand, but the goats on his left” (Matt 25:32-33), “and shall say to them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed” (Matt 25:34). But to the others: go, or “Depart, ye cursed” (Matt 25:41). Yet though the Scriptures speak so plainly and so plentifully of these things, alas, who is there that is weaned from the world, and from their sins and pleasures, to flee from the wrath to come (Matt 3:7)? And this though the Scripture also says that heaven and earth shall pass away rather than one jot or one tittle of the word shall fail, “till all be fulfilled,” so certain are its words (Luke 21:33; Matt 5:18).

But leaving the threatenings, let us come to the promises and say something about them. You may see how lightly people regard them and how little they value them, even though the mouth of the Lord has spoken them. For example:

1. “Turn,” you fools, you scorners, you simple ones, “at my reproof,” and “behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you” (Prov 1:23). And yet people would rather stay in their foolishness and scorning, and would rather embrace some filthy lust than the holy, undefiled and blessed Spirit of Christ through the promise. They do so though by that Spirit as many as receive it “are sealed unto the day of redemption” (Eph 4:30), and although whoever lives and dies without it is none of Christ’s (Rom 8:9).

2. God has said that if you will only come to him in Christ, “Though your sins be as” red as “scarlet, they shall be as white as snow,” and he will by no means cast you away (compare Isa 1:18 with John 6:37). Yet poor souls will not come to Christ that they might have life (John 5:40), but rather, in their hardness and impenitent heart, store up for themselves wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God (Rom 2:5).

3. Christ Jesus has said in the Word of truth that if anyone will serve and follow him, where he is, “there shall also his servant be” (John 12:26). But poor souls still choose rather to follow sin, Satan and the world, though their companions will be the devils and damned souls forever (Matt 25:41).

4. He has also said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all” other “things shall be added” (Matt 6:33). But as far as they are concerned, let whoever will seek after the kingdom of heaven first; for they will take the first time, while time serves, to get the things of this life. And if it must be that they seek after heaven or else be damned, they will wait till they have more leisure, or till they can better attend to it, or till they have other things comfortably settled around them, or till they are older, when they have little else to do, or when they come to be sick and to die. Then, Lord, have mercy on them! And yet even then it is ten thousand to one that they perish forever.

For the Lord commonly has this way of dealing with such sinners, who put him off when he is striving with them: either he laughs at their calamity and mocks when their fear comes (Prov 1:26, 28), or else he sends them to the gods they have served, which are the devils (Judg 10:13-14). Go to the gods you have served, he says, and “let them deliver you.” Compare this with John 8:44.

5. He has said, “There is no man that forsaketh father, or mother, wife, or children, or lands, for his sake and the gospel’s, but shall have a hundred fold in this world, with persecution, and in the world to come life everlasting” (Mark 10:29-30).

But men, for the most part, are so far from believing the certainty of this that they will hardly give up the earnings of a penny to hear the Word of God, the gospel of salvation. No, they will neither go themselves nor let others go, if they can help it, without threatening to do them some harm if it lies in their power. And further, many are so far from parting with any worldly gain for Christ’s sake and the gospel’s that they are still striving, by hook or by crook, as we say, to get more: by swearing, lying, cheating, stealing, covetousness, extortion, oppression, forgery, bribery, flattery, or any other way. And they keep at it, though along with these things they gather to themselves death, wrath, damnation, hell, the devil, and all the plagues that God can pour upon them. And if any will not run with them into the same excess of riot, but rather, for all their threats, will be so bold and careless (as they call it) as to follow the ways of God, then, if they can do no more, they will whet their tongues like a sword to wound them. They will do them the greatest harm they can, speaking against them to neighbors, to wives, to husbands, to landlords, and raising false reports about them. But let such people take heed that they do not come into the same state and woeful condition as the man who said, in vexation and anguish of soul, “One drop of cold water to cool my tongue!”

Thus I might add many things out of Holy Writ, both threatenings and promises, besides those heavenly counsels, loving reproofs, and free invitations to all sorts of sinners, both old and young, rich and poor, bond and free, wise and unwise. All of these have been, are now, and, it is to be feared, will be as long as this world lasts, trampled under the feet of those swine (I do not call them men) who will continue in the same course. But take a review of some of them.

1. Counsel. What heavenly counsel is that where Christ says, “buy of me gold tried by the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear” (Rev 3:18). And also this: “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Isa 55:1). “Hear, and your soul shall live” (Isa 55:3). “Take hold of my strength, that you may make peace with me, and you shall make peace with me” (Isa 27:5).

2. Instruction. What instruction is here? “Hear instruction and be wise, and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that heareth me,” says Christ, “watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. For whoso findeth me, findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord” (Prov 8:33-35). Take heed that no one deceives you by any means. “Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life” (John 6:27). “Strive to enter in at the strait gate” (Luke 13:24). “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). “Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits” (1 John 4:1). “Quench not the Spirit” (1 Thess 5:19). “Lay hold on eternal life” (1 Tim 6:12). “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matt 5:16). Take heed, and beware of hypocrisy; “watch and be sober”; “learn of me,” says Christ; “come unto me.”

3. Forewarning. What forewarning is here? “Because there is wrath, beware lest he take thee away with his stroke, then a great ransom cannot deliver thee” (Job 36:18). “Be ye not mockers, lest your hands be made strong, for I have heard from the Lord God of hosts, a consumption even determined upon the whole earth” (Isa 28:22). “Beware, therefore, lest that come upon you that is written, Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish. For I work a work in your days, which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you” (Acts 13:40-41). “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor 10:12). “Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation” (Matt 26:41). “Let us therefore fear lest a promise being” made, and “left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it” (Heb 4:1). “I will therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew this, how that the Lord having saved the people out of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not” (Jude 5). “Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown” (Rev 3:11).

4. Comfort. What comfort is here? “Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). “Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt 11:28). “Be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee” (Matt 9:2). “I will never leave, nor forsake thee” (Heb 13:5), for “I have loved thee with an everlasting love” (Jer 31:3). “I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:15). I lay down my life so that they may have life. “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). “I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee” (2 Cor 6:2). “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isa 1:18). “For I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins; return unto me, for I have redeemed thee” (Isa 44:22).

5. Grief to those who fall short. Oh, sad grief! “How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof, and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me” (Prov 5:11-13). They shall “curse their king and their God, and look upward. And they shall look unto the earth, and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish, and they shall be driven to darkness” (Isa 8:21-22). “He hath dispersed” abroad, “he hath given to the poor, his righteousness endureth for ever. … The wicked shall see it, and be grieved, he shall gnash his teeth, and melt away; the desire of the wicked shall perish” (Ps 112:9-10). “There shall be weeping … when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out” (Luke 13:28). All these things are slighted by the world.

So much, in brief, on this point: that ungodly people undervalue the Scriptures and give them no credit when the truth contained in them is set before them in simplicity. Instead they cry out, “No, but if one should rise from the dead!” Then, they think, something might be done. Yet alas, even if signs and wonders were worked by the hands of those who preach the gospel, these poor creatures would be converted none the sooner, though they suppose they would. This is evident from the conduct of their forerunners. Although the Lord Jesus Christ himself confirmed his doctrine by miracles, such as opening blind eyes, casting out devils, and raising the dead, they were so far from receiving either him or his doctrine that they put him to death for his pains! Though he had done so many miracles among them, yet they did not believe in him (John 12:37).

But to pass over this, I shall lay down some of the grounds of their rejecting and undervaluing the Scriptures, and so move on.

1. Because they do not believe that the Scriptures are the Word of God, but rather suppose them to be the inventions of men, written by some politicians on purpose to make poor ignorant people submit to some religion and government. Though they do not say this, their practices testify to it. They are like the man who hears the words of the curse, yet blesses himself in his heart and says he shall have peace, though God says he shall have none (Deut 29:18-20). And this must necessarily be so. For if people did but believe this, that it is the Word of God, then they must believe that he who spoke it is true, and therefore that every word and tittle of it shall be fulfilled. And once they come to this, unless they are stark mad, they will take care how they throw themselves under the lash of eternal vengeance. For the reason the Thessalonians received the Word was that they believed it was the Word of God and not the word of man; and it worked effectually in them through their believing it so. “When ye received the Word of God which ye heard of us,” the apostle says, “ye received it not as the word of man, but, as it is in truth, the Word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe” (1 Thess 2:13). So if people would only receive it as the Word of God, whether in hearing, reading, or meditating, they would be converted. “But the Word preached did not profit … not being mixed with faith in them that heard it” (Heb 4:2).

2. Because they do not truly see themselves to be, by nature, heirs of that exceeding wrath and vengeance which the Scriptures testify of. For if they did but consider what God intends to do with those who live and die in a natural state, it would either sink them into despair or make them flee for refuge to the hope that is set before them. But however great the sins committed, however great the wrath denounced, and however near the time of execution, yet if the guilty party is senseless and altogether ignorant of it, he will be careless and pay it no regard at all. And it is evident that man by nature is in this condition. For take the same man who is senseless and ignorant of the misery he is in by nature; take him, I say, at another time, when he is a little awakened, and then you will hear him roar and cry out, as long as trouble is upon him and a sense of the wrath of God hangs over his head, “Good sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

Yet the same man at another time, when his conscience has fallen asleep and grown hard, will lie like the smith’s dog at the foot of the anvil, though the sparks fly in his face. But, as I said before, when anyone is a little awakened, oh, what work one verse, one line, no, one word of the holy Scriptures will make in his heart! He cannot eat, sleep, work, or keep company with his former companions, and all because he is afraid that the damnation spoken of in Scripture will fall to his share. He is like Balaam, who said, “I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord” (Num 22:18), so long as he had something of the word of the Lord on his heart with authority, severity, and power; but at another time he could teach “Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel” (Rev 2:14).

3. Because the carnal priests tickle the ears of their hearers with vain philosophy and deceit, and so harden their hearts against the simplicity of the gospel and Word of God. The apostle warned those who are minded to embrace Christ to avoid these things, saying, “Beware lest any man,” be he who he may, “spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men, and rudiments of the world, and not after Christ” (Col 2:8). And you who muzzle your people in ignorance with Aristotle, Plato, and the rest of the heathen philosophers, and preach little, if anything, of Christ rightly: I say to you that you will find you have sinned against God and deceived your hearers, when God, on the judgment day, lays to your charge the cause of the damnation of many thousands of souls, and says he will require their blood at your hands (Ezek 33:6).

4. Another reason the carnal, unbelieving world so slights the Scriptures and Word of God is that the judgment spoken of in Scripture is not immediately executed on transgressors. “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil” (Eccl 8:11). Because God does not strike the poor wretch the moment he sins, but waits, forbears, and is patient, the world judges God to be unfaithful. So they go at it again and again, and every time grow harder and harder, till at last God is forced either to stretch out his mighty power to turn them, or else to send death, with the devil and hell, to fetch them. “Thou thoughtest,” says God, “that I was altogether such an one as thyself, but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver” (Ps 50:21-22).

5. Another reason the blind world slights the authority of Scripture is that they listen to the devil. Through his subtlety he casts false evasions and corrupt interpretations on the Scriptures, making them out to be not so plainly the mind of God, nor a rule of direction for poor souls, and persuading people that they must give ear and give way to something else besides and beyond them. Or else he labors to make the Scripture seem vile and contemptible by persuading them that it is a dead letter, when in fact they know neither what they say nor what they affirm. For the Scripture is not so dead but that the knowledge of it is able to make anyone wise unto salvation, through faith and love which is in Christ Jesus (2 Tim 3:15). And it is profitable for instruction, reproof, and correction in righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished for all good works (2 Tim 3:16-17).

And where it is said that “the letter killeth,” the apostle means the law as it is the ministration of damnation, or a covenant of works. And so indeed it does kill, and must do so, because it is just, since the one who is under it is not able to yield it a complete and continual obedience. But still I will call Peter and Paul to witness that the Scriptures are of a very glorious concern, because in them the way of life is held forth to us, and also because they give us good ground of hope. “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope” (Rom 15:4). And again, “Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith” (Rom 16:25-26). And therefore, whoever they are who slight the Scriptures, they slight nothing less than the Word of God. Those who slight that, slight him who spoke it; and let those who do so look to themselves, for God will be avenged on such. Much more might be said on this, but I would not be tedious.

A word or two more, and I am done with this. Consider the danger of slighting the words of the prophets or apostles, whether they are correction, reproof, admonition, forewarning, or the blessed invitations and promises contained in them.

1. Such souls provoke God to anger and to execute his vengeance on them. “They refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear” the law, and “they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of Hosts hath sent in his Spirit by the former prophets; therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of Hosts” (Zech 7:11-12).

2. God will pay no regard to them in their calamity. “Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof. I also will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh. When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me” (Prov 1:24-28).

3. God commonly gives such people up to delusions, to believe lies. “Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved,” therefore “God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned” (2 Thess 2:10-12).

4. In a word, those who continue to reject and slight the Word of God are, for the most part, such as are ordained to be damned. When old Eli’s sons did not listen to the voice of their father reproving them for their sins, but disobeyed his voice, it is said that it was “because the Lord would slay them” (1 Sam 2:25). Again, see 2 Chronicles 25:15-16. When Amaziah had sinned against the Lord, the Lord sent a prophet to reprove him; but Amaziah said, “Forbear, why shouldest thou be smitten?” He would not listen to the Word of God. “Then the prophet forbare, saying, I know that God hath determined to destroy thee, because thou hast … not hearkened unto my counsel.” Read, therefore, and may the Lord give you understanding. For those who go on sinning against God, rejecting his Word, will come to a miserable end.

Other things might have been observed from this verse, which I shall pass by at this time, partly because the sum of them has been touched on already, and may be more clearly hinted at in the following.

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 16:31).

“And he said”: that is, God answered the words spoken in the verse before. “And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses …” It is as if he had said: Moses was a man of great renown, a man of worthy note, a man who talked with God face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. The words Moses spoke were the words I commanded him to speak. Let anyone question them who will; I will own them and credit them, I will bless those who close in with them, and I will curse those who reject them. I myself sent the prophets. They did not run on their own initiative. I gave them their commission, I thrust them out, and I told them what they should say. In a word, they have told the world what I intend to do, both to sinners and to saints. “They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them” (Luke 16:29). Therefore whoever rejects and turns his back on the threatenings, counsels, admonitions, invitations, promises, or whatever else I have commanded them to speak concerning salvation and life, and the directions for reaching it, will be sure to have a share in the many curses they have spoken, and in the destruction they have pronounced.

Again: “If they hear not Moses and the prophets …” It is as if he had said: You would have me send someone from the dead to them. What need is there of that? They have my mind already. I have declared to them what I intend to stand by, both for saving those who believe and for damning those who do not. What I have said, therefore, I will make good, whether they listen or refuse to listen. And as for this desire of yours, you might as well ask me to make a new Bible, and so to revoke what I first said by the mouth of my prophets. But I am God and not man. My Word is immutable and unchangeable, and it will stand as fast as my decrees can make it. Heaven and earth will pass away, but not one jot or tittle of my Word will pass (Matt 5:18). If you had ten thousand brothers, and every one of them in danger of losing his soul, then if they did not close in with what is contained and recorded in the Scriptures of truth, every last one of them must perish and be damned forever in hell, for the Scriptures cannot be broken. I did not send them out so rashly as to call my word back again on second thoughts. No, for I speak in righteousness and in judgment (Isa 63:1-3), and with much wisdom and counsel. Since my Word has gone out of my mouth in this way, it will not return in vain until it has accomplished the thing for which I sent it (Isa 55:11).

But again, you suppose that miracles and wonders will work more on them, and that is what makes you ask me to send someone from the dead. But in this you are mistaken, for I have tried them with that again and again, by more than one, or two, or three of my servants. How many miracles my servant Moses worked at my command in the land of Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness! Yet the people of that generation were not converted one bit the sooner for it. Instead, they rebelled and lusted, and in their hearts turned back to Egypt (Acts 7). How many miracles were done by Samuel, David, Elijah, Elisha, Daniel, and the prophets, together with my Son, who raised the dead, cast out devils, made those who were born blind see, and gave and restored limbs! Yet for all this, as I said before, they hated him and crucified him. I raised him again from the dead, and he appeared to his disciples, who were called, and chosen, and faithful. He gave them commandment and commission to go and testify the truth of this to the world. And to confirm it, he enabled them to speak with various tongues and to work miracles in great abundance. Yet great persecution was raised against them, so much so that only a few of them died in their beds. And therefore, though you think a miracle will do so much with the world, I say no. For if they will not believe Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one should rise from the dead.

From these words, then, take notice of this truth: those who reject Moses and the prophets and do not believe them are a very hard-hearted people, who will not be persuaded though one rose from the dead. For those who do not heed the holy Scriptures so as to turn to God, even though they find them testifying of his goodness and mercy, there is little hope of salvation. For they will not (mark it), they will not be persuaded though one should rise from the dead.

This truth is confirmed by Jesus Christ himself. If you read John 5, where the Lord speaks of himself as the very Christ, you will see that he brings in four or five witnesses to back what he said: (1) John the Baptist; (2) the works his Father gave him to do; (3) his Father speaking from heaven; (4) the testimony of the Scriptures. When all this was done, and still they would not believe, he laid the fault on one of these two things: (1) their regard for esteem among men; (2) their not believing the writings of the prophets, even Moses and the rest. “For had ye believed Moses,” he says, “ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?” (John 5:46-47).

Now, I say, whoever slights the Scriptures, and the testimony the prophets give in them concerning Jesus Christ, must be in great danger of losing his soul if he remains in this condition. For whoever slights the testimony also slights the thing testified of, however often he may say the contrary. For as Jesus Christ has here laid down the reason why men do not receive him, so the apostle in another place lays down the reason again, with a high and mighty aggravation, saying, “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record.” Mark it: “the record that God gave of his Son” (1 John 5:10).

The record, you will say, what is that? Why, it is the very testimony God gave of him by the mouth of all the holy prophets since the world began (Acts 3:18-20). That is, God sent his Holy Spirit into the hearts of his servants, the prophets and apostles, and by his Spirit in them he bore witness, or record, to the truth of salvation by his Son Jesus, both before and after his coming. And this is how that place is also to be understood which says, “There are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood” (1 John 5:8). The Spirit there means the Spirit in the apostles who preached him to the world, as is clear if you seriously read 1 Thessalonians 4:8. There the apostle, speaking of Jesus Christ and of obedience to God through him, says, “He that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God.” “But it is you who speak,” someone may say. True, but it is by and through the Spirit: “He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit.”

This, then, is a mighty confirmation of this truth: whoever slights the record or testimony that God has testified to us by his Spirit in his prophets and apostles slights the testimony of the Spirit who moved them to speak these things. And if so, then I would like to know how any man can be saved by Jesus Christ who slights the testimony concerning Christ, yes, the testimony of Christ’s own Spirit concerning his own self. It is true that men may pretend to have the testimony of the Spirit, and from that conceit set a low value on the holy Scriptures. But the spirit that dwells in them and teaches them to do so is no better than the spirit of Satan, though it calls itself by the name of the Spirit of Christ. “To the law,” therefore, “and to the testimony”: try them by that. “If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isa 8:20).

When the apostle Peter speaks of the glorious voice that came to him from the excellent majesty, saying of Christ, “This is my beloved Son, hear him,” he says to those he wrote to, “You have also a more sure word of prophecy” (or “of the prophets,” for so you may read it), “unto which ye do well that ye take heed” (2 Pet 1:19). That is, though we tell you that we plainly had this excellent testimony from his own mouth, still you have the prophets. We tell you this, and you need not doubt the truth of it. But even if you should doubt it, you may not, must not, ought not to question them. Search into them, therefore, until the day dawns and the day star arises in your hearts. That is, until by the same Spirit who gave forth the Scripture you find the truth you have recorded in the Scriptures confirmed to your souls. That this word of prophecy, or of the prophets, is the Scriptures, you will see if you read on; for, he says, “knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation …” (2 Pet 1:20).

Objection. But, you will say, what is the need of all this fuss? Why is all this time and pains spent in speaking about something that is surely believed already? This is a thing received by all: everyone believes the Scriptures to be the Word of God, that sure word of prophecy. So you need not spend your time proving these things and their truth, since we grant and confess the truth of it before you even begin to give your judgment of them.

Answer. The truths of God cannot be borne witness to too often. (1) You might as well say that you need not preach Jesus Christ so much, seeing he has been, and is, received as the true Messiah already. (2) Though many may suppose that they believe the Scriptures, yet if they were well examined, you would find them denying, rejecting, and slighting the holy Scriptures, either by word of mouth or else by their manner of life. It is true there is a notional and historical assent in the head (I say, in the head) of many, or most, to the truth contained in Scripture. But try them, I say, and you will find little, if any, of the faith of the operation of God in the hearts of poor men, to believe the Scriptures and the things contained in them. Many, yes, most men believe the Scriptures as they believe a fable, a story, a tale, of which there is no certainty! But alas! There are only a few who indeed and in truth believe the Scriptures to be the very Word of God.

Objection. But you will say, this seems strange to me.

Answer. And to me it seems just as true. And I do not doubt that I can make it plain that there are but few, yes, very few, who effectually (for that is what I aim at) believe the Scriptures and the truths contained in them and spoken of by them.

But to make this appear, and to good purpose, if God wills, I shall set down for you the several operations that the Scriptures have on those who effectually believe the things contained in them.

First. Whoever effectually believes the Scriptures has, in the first place, been killed. I say killed, by the authority of the holy Scriptures: struck stark dead, in a spiritual sense, by the holy Scriptures, as they are set home upon the soul by the Spirit who gave them forth. “The letter killeth” (2 Cor 3:6); the letter strikes men dead. And Paul witnessed and found this before he could say that he believed all that the prophets have spoken. He says, “I was alive without the law once.” That is, in my natural state, before the law was set on my heart with power. “But when the commandment came, sin revived and I died” (Rom 7:9). “And that law which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death; for sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me” (Rom 7:10-11).

Now what is called “the letter” in 2 Corinthians is called the law in Romans 7. By its power and operation, as it is wielded by the Spirit of God, the law in the first place kills and slays all those who are enabled to believe the Scriptures. I kill, says God; that is, with my law I pierce, I wound, I prick men to the very heart, by showing them their sins against my law (Deut 31:26; Acts 2:37). And whoever is ignorant of this is also ignorant of the Scripture, and does not really and effectually believe it.

But, you will say, how does the law kill and strike dead these poor creatures?

Answer. The letter, or law, kills in this way. It is set home upon the soul and uncovers to the soul its transgressions against the law. It also shows the soul that it cannot completely satisfy the justice of God for the breach of his law, and therefore it is condemned. Mark it: “He that believeth not, is condemned already” (John 3:18). That is, condemned by the law: the law condemns him. Yes, it has condemned him already for his sins against it, as it is written, “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them” (Gal 3:10). Now all men, as they come into the world, are in this condition, that is, condemned by the law. Yet because they do not really believe their condemnation by the law, they also do not really and effectually believe the law that condemns them. For as men have only a notion of the one, that is, of their condemnation because of sins against the law, so they have only a notion of the condemning, killing, and destroying power of the law. For in these things, as the one is, so the other always is. No one really believes the law or the gospel any further than he feels their power and authority in his heart. “Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God” (Matt 22:29).

Now this letter, or law, is not to be taken in the largest sense. It is to be tied strictly to the Ten Commandments, whose proper work is only to kill, by showing the soul its sin against this law. And there it leaves him stark dead, not giving him the least life, or support, or comfort, but leaving the soul in a helpless and hopeless condition, as far as any help from itself or from any other mere creature is concerned.

It is true that the law has laid all men out for dead as they come into the world. But not all men see themselves as dead until they see the law that struck them dead striking in their souls, and see that it has dealt them that fatal blow. Think of a man fast asleep in a house that is on fire about his ears, who does not know it because he is asleep. Even so, because poor souls are asleep in sin, though the wrath of God, the curse of his law, and the flames of hell have surrounded them on every side, they do not believe it, because they are asleep in sin. Now, just as the man who is awakened and sees the fire sees that because of it he is a dead man, so those who see that their state by nature is so sad a condition also see themselves, by that law, to be dead men naturally.

But now, when did you feel the power of this first part of the Scripture, the law, so mighty as to strike you dead? If you never have, you do not so much as truly believe that the part of the Scripture which contains the law is the truth of God. Yet even if you have felt something, I say something, of the killing power of the law of God in your heart, that is no argument to prove that you believe all the things contained in Scripture. For there is gospel as well as law. And therefore I shall speak to that also: whether you have felt the power of the gospel as well as something of the power of the law.

Second. If you have found the power of the gospel, and so believed it, then you have found it working like this in your soul.

1. You have been shown by the Word, or truth, of the gospel, in the light of the Spirit of Christ, that by nature you were without the true faith of the Son of God in your soul. For when he, the Spirit, has come, he will show people that “they believe not in me,” says Christ (John 16:9). Mark this: though you have, as I said before, felt something of the power of the law, the letter, or the Ten Commandments, yet as long as you have not been brought to see by the Spirit in the gospel that by nature you are without faith, you have not yet tasted, much less believed, any part of the gospel. For the gospel and the law are two distinct covenants. Those who are under the law may be convinced by it, and so believe the law, or first covenant, and yet all the while be strangers to the covenant of promise, that is, the gospel, and so have no hope in them (Eph 2:12). There is not one promise that can be savingly believed until the soul is converted to Jesus Christ by the gospel. For however much people may think they believe the things or the Word of the gospel of our salvation, yet unless they have the work of grace in their souls, they do not, they cannot, rightly believe the things contained in the Scriptures.

2. Again, as the law kills those who believe it, so the promises contained in the gospel, through faith, give comfort to those who believe it rightly. My words, says Christ, my words “they are Spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). It is as if he had said: The words contained in the law as a covenant of works wound, they kill, they strike dead those who are under them. But as for me, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” That is, whoever receives them believingly will find them full of power to work, to comfort, quicken, and revive their soul. For as I did not come into the world to destroy people’s lives, so the words that I speak, as one sent to preach the gospel, have no such tendency toward those who believe them.

The promises in the gospel, oh, how they comfort them! Such a promise, and such a promise, oh, how sweet it is! How comforting to those who believe them! Alas! There are many poor souls who think they believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God, and yet they have never enjoyed anything of the life and the promises. These come in upon the heart to quicken you, to revive you, to raise you from the sentence of death that the law has passed on you. And through the faith that is worked in your soul by the operation of God’s Holy Spirit, though you were once killed by the law or letter, you are made alive in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is presented to your soul in the promises.

3. Do you, in deed and in truth, believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God? Then the things contained in them, especially the things of the gospel, are very excellent to your soul: the birth of Christ, his death, resurrection, intercession, and second coming. Oh, how precious and excellent they are to your soul! So much so that you regard nothing in comparison with them! Oh, it is Christ’s birth, death, blood, resurrection, and the rest, according to the Scriptures, that you rejoice in exceedingly and long for abundantly (1 Cor 15:1-6, compared with Phil 3:6-8)! “Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom though now ye see him not, yet believing ye rejoice, with joy unspeakable, and full of glory” (1 Pet 1:8).

4. Do you believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God? Then you stand in awe of them and greatly reverence them. Why, they are the Word of God, the true sayings of God! They are the counsel of God; they are his promises and his threatenings. Poor souls are apt to think, “If I could hear God speak to me from heaven with an audible voice, then surely I would be serious and believe it.” But truly, if God were to speak to you from heaven, unless you were converted, you would not regard him or really believe him. But if you do believe the Scriptures, you see that they are the truth as really as if God were speaking to you from heaven through the clouds. So never flatter yourself, foolishly thinking that if things were this way or that, then you could believe. I tell you, says Christ, “If they believe not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe though one should rise from the dead” (Luke 16:31).

5. Moreover, do you believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God? Then, through faith in Christ, you endeavor to have your life squared by the Scriptures, both in word and in practice. Indeed, I will say this: you may have this much even though you do not believe them all. My meaning is this. If you believe nothing but the Ten Commandments, your life may be, according to them, a legal holy life. But if you believe the gospel too, then your life will be the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is, either you will live in the blessed and holy enjoyment of what the Scripture testifies concerning the glorious things of the Lord Jesus Christ, or else you will be panting exceedingly after them. For the Scriptures carry such a blessed beauty in them to the soul that has faith in the things they contain that they take the heart and captivate the soul of the one who believes them, drawing it into the love and liking of them. So he believes all things that are written in the law and the prophets, and has hope toward God that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. “And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men” (Acts 24:14-16).

6. If someone who believes the Scriptures to be the Word of God merely supposes that any one place of Scripture excludes him, and shuts him out from a share in the promises contained in them, oh, it will trouble him, grieve him, perplex him! Yes, he will not be satisfied until he is resolved and the contrary is sealed to his soul. For he knows that the Scriptures are the word of God, all truth. And therefore he knows that if any one sentence excludes him or bars him out for lack of this or that qualification, then it is not the word alone that shuts him out, but the one who speaks it, God himself. And therefore he cannot, will not, dare not be content until he finds his soul and the Scripture, with the things contained in it, embracing each other, and a sweet correspondence and agreement between them. For you must know that to the one who believes the Scriptures rightly, their promises or threatenings have more power to comfort or to cast down than all the promises or threatenings of all the people in the world. And this was why the martyrs of Jesus so slighted both the promises of their adversaries, when they would have overcome them by offering them the great things of this world, and also their threatenings, when they told them they would rack them, hang them, burn them. None of these things could prevail upon them or against them (Acts 20:24), because they most really believed the Scriptures and the things contained in them. This is clearly found and to be seen in Hebrews 11, and also in Mr. Foxe’s records of their brethren.

7. Whoever believes the Scriptures to be the Word of God believes that a man must be born again, and must also be a partaker of that faith which is of the operation of God, as he has read and believed, or else he must and shall be damned. And whoever believes this rightly will not be content until, as it is written, he partakes of and enjoys the new birth, and until he finds, through grace, that faith which is worked by the operation of God in his soul. For this is the reason people satisfy themselves with so slender and fancied a hope that their state is good, when it is nothing of the kind: they do not credit the Scripture. If they did, they would look into their own hearts and seriously examine whether the faith, the hope, the grace that they think they have is of that nature, and worked by that Spirit and power, that the Scripture speaks of. I speak this of an effectual believing, without which all other believing is nothing toward salvation.

Now then, because I do not want to be too tedious, I will lay down no more marks at this time of one who savingly believes the Scriptures and the things contained in them. Instead, I will speak a few words of examination concerning the things already mentioned, as follows.

Use 1. You say that you do, in deed and in truth, effectually believe the Scriptures. I ask you, then: were you ever killed stark dead by the law of works contained in the Scriptures? Were you killed by the law or letter, made to see your sins against it, and left in a helpless condition by that law? For, as I said, the proper work of the law is to slay the soul and to leave it dead in a helpless state. It neither gives the soul any comfort itself when it comes, nor shows the soul where comfort is to be had. That is why it is called “the ministration of condemnation” (2 Cor 3:9) and “the ministration of death” (2 Cor 3:7). For though people may have a notion of the blessed Word of God, as the children had, yet before they are converted it may truly be said of them, “Ye err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God” (Mark 12:24).

Use 2. You say you believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God. I say again, examine yourself. Were you ever quickened from a dead state by the power of the Spirit of Christ, through the other part of the Scripture, that is, by the power of God in his Son Jesus Christ, through the covenant of promise? I tell you from the Lord, if you have been, you have felt such a quickening power in the words of Christ (John 6) that you have been lifted out of the dead condition you were in before. When you were under the guilt of sin, the curse of the law, the power of the devil, and the justice of the great God, you have been enabled to look sin, death, hell, the devil, the law, and all things that are at enmity with you in the face with boldness and comfort. You have been enabled to do this by the power of God in Christ, revealed to you by the Spirit through and by the Scripture, and through the blood, death, righteousness, resurrection, and intercession of Christ that the Scriptures speak of.

Use 3. And on this account, oh, how excellent the Scriptures are to your soul! Oh, how much power you see in such a promise, in such an invitation! They are so large as to say, Christ will by no means cast me out! My crimson sins shall be white as snow! I tell you, friend, there are some promises through and by which the Lord has helped me to lay hold of Jesus Christ, and I would not have them out of the Bible for as much gold and silver as could lie between York and London piled up to the stars. For through them Christ is pleased by his Spirit to convey comfort to my soul. I say, when the law curses, when the devil tempts, when hellfire flames in my conscience, and my sins with their guilt are tearing at me, then Christ is revealed so sweetly to my poor soul through the promises that they are all forced to flee and leave off accusing my soul. So also, when the world frowns, when the enemies rage and threaten to kill me, then too the precious, the exceeding great and precious promises weigh down everything and comfort the soul against it all. This is the effect of believing the Scriptures savingly. For those who do so have, by and through the Scriptures, good comfort and also ground of hope, believing that the things the Scriptures hold out are their own (Rom 15:4).

Use 4. Examine yourself: do you stand in awe of sinning against God because he has commanded you in the Scriptures to abstain from it? Do you give diligence to make your calling and election sure because God commanded it in Scripture? Do you examine yourself whether you are in the faith or not, since you have a command in Scripture to do so? Or do you, in spite of what you read in the Scripture, follow the world, delight in sin, neglect coming to Jesus Christ, speak evil of the saints, slight and mock the ordinance of God, delight in wicked company, and the like? Then know that it is because you do not, in deed and in truth, effectually believe the Scriptures. For, as I said before, if a man believes them, and believes them savingly, then he stands in awe, he watches his steps, he turns his feet from evil, and he endeavors to follow what is good, which God has commanded in the Scriptures of truth. Yet he does not do this from a legal or natural principle, that is, to seek life by doing that good thing. Rather, because he believes the Scriptures, he knows that salvation has already been obtained for him by the blood of that man Christ Jesus on the cross. Therefore (mark this, please), therefore, I say, he labors to walk with his God in all well-pleasing and godliness, because the sweet power of the love of Christ, which he feels in his soul by the Spirit according to the Scriptures, constrains him to do so (2 Cor 5:14).

Use 5. Examine yourself again: do you labor after those qualifications by which the Scriptures describe a child of God? That is, faith, yes, the right faith, the most holy faith, the faith of the operation of God. And do you also examine whether there is a real growth of grace in your soul, such as love, zeal, self-denial, and a seeking by all means to attain, if possible, to the resurrection of the dead? That is, not to be satisfied until you are dissolved and rid of this body of death, and transformed into that glory the saints will be in after the resurrection day. And in the meantime, do you labor and take every opportunity to walk as near as you can to that height, though you know you cannot attain it perfectly? Yet, I say, you aim at it, seek after it, press toward it, and hold on in your race. You shun whatever may in any way hinder you, and you close in with whatever may in any way further you in it. For you know that this must be, or you desire that it should be, your eternal frame. And therefore, out of love and liking for it, you desire and long after it, as the thing that most pleases your soul.

Or how is it with your soul? Are you one who does not regard these things, but rather busies your thoughts about the things here below, following things that have no scent of divine glory on them? If so, look to yourself. You are an unbeliever, and so under the wrath of God, and you will certainly fall into the same place of torment that your fellows have fallen into before you, to the grief of your own soul and your everlasting destruction.

Consider and regard these things, and lay them to heart before it is too late to recover yourself, by repenting of the one and desiring to close in with the other. Oh, I say, regard, regard, for hell is hot! God’s hand is up; the law is resolved to discharge against your soul! The judgment day is at hand, the graves are ready to fly open, the trumpet is near the sounding, the sentence will before long be passed, and then you and I cannot call back time again.

But again, the Scriptures are so certain, so sure, so irrevocable and firm. And saving faith in the things they contain works to reform the soul and bring it over into the things of God, really conforming it to what they contain, both on the point of justification and also in an impartial walk, giving up your soul and body to conform to all the commands, counsels, instructions, and exhortations contained in them. Seeing all this, then, it will teach us how to judge those who give themselves up to walk in the imaginations of their own hearts, who slight and lay aside the Scriptures, counting them only empty and uncertain things, and who live every day in open contradiction to what is contained, commanded, and forbidden in them. For example:

1. This will show us that all your drunkards, fornicators, liars, thieves, swearers, backbiters, slanderers, scoffers at goodness, and so on: I say, we may see by this that those who live in such things do not have in their hearts the faith of the things contained in the Scriptures, since they delight to practice the very things that are forbidden by them and in them. And so, if they go on living and dying in this state, we may conclude without fear that these portions of Holy Scripture belong to them and shall certainly be fulfilled upon them: “He that believeth not shall be damned” (Mark 16:16). “The unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor 6:9-10). “But the abominable, the unbelieving, the whoremongers, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone” (Rev 21:8). “Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt 25:41). Depart, depart from me, for I will not save you. Depart, for my blood shall not wash you at all. Depart, for you shall not set one foot into the kingdom of heaven.

“Depart, ye cursed”: you are cursed by God, cursed by his law, cursed by me, cursed by the saints, and cursed by the angels; cursed all over, nothing but cursed, and therefore depart from me. And where to? Into everlasting fire, fire that will scald, scorch, burn, and flame in earnest. “Fire that shall never be quenched” (Mark 9). Fire that will last to all eternity. “And must we be all alone?” you ask. No, you shall have company, plenty of company with you: namely, all the raging, roaring devils, together with an innumerable company of fellow-damned sinners, men, women, and children. And if the Scriptures are true, as they will one day wonderfully appear to be, then this must and shall be your portion if you live and die in this state, and the portion of all who continue sinning against the truth contained in the Scriptures. For example:

(1) Do you delight to sin against plain commands? You are gone.

(2) Do you slight and scorn the counsels contained in the Scriptures, and continue in doing so? Then you are gone.

(3) Do you continually neglect to come to Christ, and use arguments in your own heart to satisfy your soul in doing so? Then you are gone (Luke 14:17-18, compared with Luke 14:24). “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” (Heb 2:3). How shall we escape? That is, there is no way to escape:

[1] Because God has said we shall not: “See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth” (that was Moses), “much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven” (Heb 12:25).

[2] Because he has not only said they shall not, but has also bound it with an oath, saying, “So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest” (Heb 3:11). To whom did he swear that they should not enter into his rest? The answer is, “to them that believed not.” So we see “that they could not enter in because of unbelief” (Heb 3:18-19).

2. This will teach us what to think and conclude about those who, though they do not so openly show their folly by open and gross sins against the law, will still give more heed to their own spirits and the movings of them than they will to the holy and revealed will of God (Isa 8:20). They do this though those movings are neither commanded nor commended in Scripture; no, even though the Scripture commands and commends the contrary. I say, such people are in every bit as bad a state as the others, being disobedient to God’s will revealed in his Word just as they are, though in a different manner. The one openly transgresses the plain and well-known truths revealed in it. The other, though more close and hidden, still secretly rejects and slights them, giving more heed to their own spirits and the motions of them, although these are not warranted by the Scriptures.

A few words more, and then I will conclude.

1. Take heed that you do not content yourself with a bare notion of the Scriptures in your head. By that you may go far, even so far as to be able to dispute for the truth, to preach the gospel, and to labor to vindicate it against those who speak against it, and yet be found at the left hand of Christ on the judgment day, because you contented yourself with a notion or traditional knowledge of them.

2. Take care that you own the whole Scripture, and do not own one part and neglect or slight another. For example: to own the law and slight the gospel, or to think that you must be saved by your good doings and works (for that is all one as if you thrust Christ away from you); or else to own the gospel in such a way as if by it you were exempted from all obedience to the Ten Commandments and from conformity to the law in your life and conduct. For in doing so you will certainly make sure of eternal vengeance.

3. Take care that you do not put wrong names on the things contained in the Scriptures, such as calling the law Christ and Christ the law. For some who have done so, to my knowledge, have so darkened the glorious truths of the gospel to themselves that in a very little time they have resolved to thwart and oppose them. And so they have made room in their own souls for the devil to live in, and obtained a place in hell for their own souls to be tormented forever and ever.

Against this danger, then, in reading and receiving the testimony of Scripture, learn to distinguish between the law and the gospel, and to keep them clearly apart where the salvation of your soul is concerned.

(1) And so that you may do this, first of all beg God to show you the nature of the gospel, and to set it home effectually upon your soul by faith, with life and power. This is what you are to beg God to show you: that as you, being man, have sinned against God, so Christ, being God-man, has bought you back, and with his most precious blood has set you free from the bondage you have fallen into by your sins. And he has done this not on condition that you will do this and that, this and the other good work; but rather so that you, being first justified freely by mere grace through the blood of Jesus, should also receive your strength from him who has bought you, to walk before him in all well-pleasing. You are enabled to do this by virtue of his Spirit, who has revealed to your soul that you are already delivered from the wrath to come by the obedience, not of yourself, but of another man, namely, Jesus Christ.

(2) Then, if the law you read of tells you in your conscience that you must do this and the other good work of the law if you ever want to be saved, answer plainly that, for your part, you are now resolved not to work for life, but to believe in the virtue of that blood shed on the cross, on Mount Calvary, for the remission of sins. And yet, because Christ has justified you freely by his grace, you will serve him in holiness and righteousness all the days of your life; yet not in a legal spirit, or in a covenant of works. Rather, say this: “My obedience I will endeavor to make free and cheerful, out of love for my Lord Jesus.”

(3) Take care that you do not receive this doctrine in notion only. Otherwise you will bring a just damnation upon your soul by professing yourself to be freed by Christ’s blood from the guilt of sin while you still remain a servant to the filth of sin. For I must tell you that unless you have the true and saving work of the faith and grace of the gospel in your hearts, you will go one of two ways. Either you will go on in a legal holiness, according to the tenor of the law; or else, through a notion of the gospel, with the devil bewitching and beguiling your understanding, will, and affections, you will, like the Ranters, turn the grace of God into wantonness. Then you will bring double, if not treble, damnation upon your soul. For you could not be content to be damned for your sins against the law; but, to make your ruin sure, you would also dishonor the gospel and turn the grace of God, held forth and revealed to people by it, into licentiousness.

But so that you may be sure to escape these dangerous rocks on the right hand and on the left, see that your faith is such as is spoken of in Scripture, and do not be satisfied without it. That is a faith worked by the mighty operation of God, revealing Christ to you and in you as having wholly freed you from your sins by his most precious blood. If you attain this faith, it will so work in your heart that, first, you will see the nature of the law, and also the nature of the gospel, and delight in its glory. And you will also find your heart and soul engaged to Jesus Christ, even to the giving up of your whole self to him, to be ruled and governed by him, to his glory and your comfort, by the faith of the same Lord Jesus.