Religion & morality > Human nature in its four-fold state ... in several practical discourses

Head VI. State of the ftamnd. 597
'thirdly. Their Punijhment ftiall be eternal, Mat.
xxv. 46. thefe Jhallgo away into everlafting Pu-
ntjhment. They’ll be, for ever, feparated from
God and Chrift, and from the Society of the ho¬
ly Angels and Saints; between whom and them
an impaflable Gulf will be fixed, Luke xvi. 2d.
Between us and you (fays Abraham, in the Pa¬
rable, to the rich Man in Hell) there is a great
Gulf fixed, fo that they which would, pafs from
hence to you, cannot ; neither can. they pafs to us,
that would come from thence. They lhall, for e-
ver, have the horrible Society of the Devil and
his Angels. There will be no Change of Compa¬
ny for evermore, in that Region of Darknefs.
Their Torment in the Fire will be everlafting :
They muft live for ever in it. Several Authors,
both ancient and modern, tell us of Earth-flax,
or Salamander's Hairs; that Cloth made of it,
being caft into the Fire, is fo far from being burnt
or confumed, that ’tis only made clean thereby, as
other Things are by wafhing. But, however that is,
’tis certain, the Damned fliall be tormented for ever
and ever, in Hell-fire, and not fubftantially deftroy-
ed, Ren}, xx. 10. And indeed nothing is annihilat¬
ed by Fire, but only diflblv’d. Of what Nature fo-
ever Hell-fire is, no Queftion, the fame God, who
kept the Bodies of the three Children, from burning
in Nebuchadnezzar's fiery Furnace, can alfo keep
the Bodies of the Damned from any fuch Diflblution
by Hell-fire, as may infer Privation of Life.
Laftly, Their Knowledge and Senfe of their Mi-
fery lhall be eternal, and they lhall afluredly know
that it will be eternal. How defireable would it be
to them, to have their Senfes for ever lock’d up,
and to lofc the Confcioufhefs of thfir own Mife-
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