The Christian Doctrine of HellWheeler, J. M. (Joseph Mazzini)
Religion
The Christian Doctrine of Hell
Wheeler, J. M. (Joseph Mazzini)
Hell
Dr. Barrow asserts that "our bodies will be afflicted continually by a
sulphurous flame piercing the inmost smews." Wesley says:
Eternity and deep despair
On every flame is written there.
Again he says: "From the moment wherein they are plunged into the lake
of fire, _burning with brimstone_, their torments are not only without
intermission, but likewise without end."
The sight of the torments of the damned in hell will increase the
ecstacy of the saints in heaven. This is the doctrine of St. John,
and it has been repeated by orthodox Christian preachers times without
number. And though orthodox Christian preachers dare not preach it now,
it is the legitimate outcome of their belief. In heaven the angels see
all, and must therefore witness the torments of the damned; and these do
not diminish their happiness, though the damned be their own parents or
their own children.
Jonathan Edwards, one of the most consistent Christians that ever
breathed, devoted a work to the subject. The Thirteenth Sermon of
his _Works_ is entitled "The End of the Wicked contemplated by the
Righteous," and is particularly devoted to the illustration of the
doctrine that "the sight of hell torments will exalt the happiness of
the saints forever." "It will," he continues, "not only make them more
sensible of the greatness and freeness of the grace of God in their
happiness, but it really makes their happiness the greater, as it will
make them more _sensible_ of their own happiness. It will give them a
more lively relish of it; it will make them prize it more. When they
see others who were of the same nature, and born under the same
circumstances, plunged in such misery, and they so distinguished, it
will make them the more sensible how happy they are."* In his direful
poem on the Last Day, the once popular Dr. Young makes one of God's
victims vainly ask:
This one, this slender, almost no request:
When I have wept a thousand lives away,
When torment is grown weary of its prey,
When I have ran of anguish'd years in fire
Ten thousand thousands, let me then expire.
The pious Dr. Samuel Hopkins thus displays the Divine character and
illustrates the loving kindness of the blessed Scripture promises: "The
smoke of their torment shall ascend up in the sight of the blessed for
ever and ever, and serve, as a most clear glass before their eyes, to
give them a bright and most effective view. This display of the Divine
character will be most entertaining to all who love God, will give them
the highest and most ineffable pleasure. Should the fire of this eternal
punishment cease, it would in a great measure obscure the light of
heaven and put an end to a great part of the happiness and glory of the
blessed."
Contrast with this holy utterance of the pious Christian, the burning
words of the Atheist poet, James Thomson:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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