Part 67 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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Part 68 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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But, fifthly, the greater any men are on earth, if they live and die without holiness, the greater will be their torments in hell! All their greatness, glory, and gallantry will but sink them the lower in hell. The Scribes and Pharisees were the rich, the high, and the great ones of the times—and these Christ lays under the greater damnation, Mat. 23:14. The Germans have this proverb, "The pavement of hell, is made of the bare skulls of the priests, and the glorious crests of gallants." Their meaning is, that the more eminent any are in church or state, and do not employ their eminency, power, and authority in ways of piety and sanctity—the lower they shall lie in hell—yes, these men, of all others, shall lie lowest in hell! Rev. 18:7, "As much as she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, give her that much torment and grief!" Isaiah 47:8. Babylon's torment and sorrow must be suitable to her sin. Babylon excelled all others in pride, haughtiness, luxury, and blasphemy, etc., and her punishments must be answerable. Just so, the great, the rich, the high, and the mighty men of the world—they usually exceed all others in pride, drunkenness, uncleanness, filthiness, oppression, vainglory, gluttony, and tyranny, etc., and according to their sins, will be their torments and their punishments in hell!
Isaiah 30:33, "Topheth has long been prepared; it has been made ready for the king. Its fire pit has been made deep and wide, with an abundance of fire and wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of burning sulfur, sets it ablaze." [Tophet is the name of a place in the valley lying on the south side of Jerusalem, Joshua 18:16. Now in this valley stood Tophet, wherein the idolatrous Jews used to burn their children in sacrifice to the idol Moloch, and it had that name from the drums or tabrets that their idolatrous priests used to beat upon at the time of their detestable services, to drown the hideous shrieks and lamentable cries of the poor sacrificed children!] Alas! the brick-kilns of Egypt, and the furnace of Babylon, were but as a blaze of straw, compared to this tormenting Tophet, which has long been prepared for the great and mighty ones of the earth!
Oh, how dreadful must that fire be—which is prepared by God himself, and which is kindled by the breath of the Lord, and which shall never be quenched! Such is the fire which is prepared for the great and mighty ones of the world! Oh, the easeless, the endless, the remediless, the inevitable torments which are prepared for those who are great and graceless! In hell their wanton eyes shall be tormented with ugly and fearful sights of ghastly spirits! In hell their ears, which used to be delighted with all delightful music, shall now be filled with the hideous cries, howlings, and yellings of devils and damned spirits! In hell their tongues of blasphemy shall now be tormented with drought and thirst; and though with the rich glutton, they cry out for a drop to cool their tongues—yet justice will deny them drops, who have denied others crumbs! In hell their hands of bribery, cruelty, and tyranny shall now be bound with everlasting chains, and so shall their feet, which were once swift to shed innocent blood. In a word, their torments shall be universal, they shall extend to every member of the body, and to every faculty of the soul.
Ah, sirs fire, sword, famine, prisons, racks, and all other torments that men can invent, are but as flea-bitings, compared to those scorpions! They are but as drops, compared to thosevials of wrath! They are but as sparks, compared to those eternal flames that all unsanctified people shall lie under.
Look! as the least joy in heaven infinitely surpasses the greatest comforts on earth, so the least torments in hell do infinitely exceed the greatest that can be devised here on earth.
For a close, remember this—as there are degrees of glory in heaven—just so, there are degrees of torment in hell; and as those who are most eminent in grace and holiness shall have the greatest degrees of glory in heaven—just so, those who are most vile and wicked on earth shall have the greatest degrees of torments and punishments in hell. [Mat. 10:15, and 11:22; Luke 12:47-48.]
Now common experience tells us that the rich, the great, the high, the honorable, and the mighty ones of the world—are usually the most excelling in all wickedness and ungodliness; and therefore their condemnation will be the greater, they shall have a hotter and a darker hell than others—unless they labor after this holiness, which will be their only fence against hell, and their sure path to heaven.
But, sixthly and lastly, of all men on earth—the rich, the great, and the honorable will be found most inexcusable. The poor and the lowly ones of the earth will plead their lack of time, and lack of means, and lack of opportunities; they will be ready to say, "Lord, we have risen early, and gone to bed late, Psalm 127:1-2, we have labored, and sweat, and drudged, and all little enough to get bread to eat, and clothes to wear, and to keep the police from the door, and to pay every man his own. Had we had but the time, the means, the advantages that such and such gentlemen have had, and that such and such nobles have had, and that such and such princes have had, etc., oh, how we would have minded holiness, and studied holiness, and pressed after holiness! But seeing it has been otherwise with us, we hope, Lord, we may be excused."
But what excuse will you be able to make, O you great ones of the earth, who have had time, and opportunities, and all advantages imaginable—to make yourselves holy and happy forever—and yet you have trifled away your golden seasons, and forgotten the one thing necessary, and given yourselves up to the lusts and vanities of this world—as if you were resolved to be damned?
Let me a little allude to John 15:22: "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloak or excuse for their sin." Just so, will God one day say to the great ones of the world: "Had I not given you riches, and greatness, and honor, etc., to have encouraged you to look after holiness, and that you might have time, and leisure, and opportunity to seek holiness and pursue it, you might have had some cloak, some excuse for your neglecting so great, so glorious, so noble, and so necessary a work. Oh! but now you have no cloak, no excuse at all for your sin. Now you can show no reason under heaven why an eternal doom should not be passed upon you." Ah how silent, how mute, how speechless, and how self-condemned, will all the great ones of the world be, when God shall thus expostulate with them! Oh, that such would seriously lay to heart Mat. 22:11-12: "And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: and he says unto him, Friend, how did you get in here—not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless." By the wedding garment the learned understand holiness of heart and life. Now when the king questions him about the lack of this wedding garment, he is speechless, or as the Greek word imports, "he was muzzled or haltered up," that is, he held his peace, as though he had a bridle or a halter in his mouth; he was not able to speak a word for himself, his own conscience had passed a secret sentence of condemnation upon him, and he sat silent under that sentence, as having nothing under heaven to say why he should not be cast into utter darkness. And this will be the very case of all the rich, the great, and the mighty ones of the world, who shall be found without the garment of holiness, when the Lord shall enter into judgment with them.
And thus you see by these six arguments, that there are no people under heaven who are so eminently engaged to look after holiness—as the rich, the great, and the mighty ones of the earth. But,
Objection 7. Seventhly and lastly, Others may object and say, "If we should we pursue after holiness—we shall be sure to be reviled, slandered, and reproached on all hands; everyone will hoot and hiss at us, we shall become a scorn and a byword to all that live in the family with us, and to all our neighbors round about us; everyone will scorn us, and hate us, and we shall be their table-talk, and their song, and the butt of their ridicule, etc.
Now that you may be sufficiently armed against this objection, I desire you seriously to consider of these five following answers:
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