Monday 22 April 2013

REFLECTIONS

God's Wrath and the Worth of a Human Soul

"The Worth Of A Human Soul

The loss of the soul is the greatest loss that ever happened. If you were to gather all the losses caused by the Deluge, by the fire upon Sodom, and by the bloody wars of many ages; if you were to measure, I say, the magnitude of these losses in wealth, in kingdoms, in the blood of men and dear relations,-what grief, what woe, what pangs, what sighs, what deep and heavy groans, what dire wailing would they involve, from Abel to the present day! If all the misery of past times was gathered together into one terrible groan, it would be a trifle compared with the woeful groan of a soul that has been cast down into the unquenchable fire, not for a thousand or ten thousand years, nor for years innumerable as the sand on the sea shore, but for ever and ever. Blessed be God that we have not met with this irretrievable calamity.

There has been, on the other hand, great gain in the world, and great joy for the acquisition of wealth and glory, and for the victories obtained on land and sea, and for the possession of dear ' relations. But if you could gather together into one all the joys that have flowed in the river of time, yielding pleasure on its way to the millions of the human race; what is this after all compared with the salvation of a single soul? It is but like the chirping of a robin in the woods of Windsor compared with the jubilant songs of millions of the redeemed."

-From an Extract of a Sermon by Christmas Evans (born in 1766)  Found in Some Of The Great Preachers Of Wales by Owen Jones, M.A Published by Tentmaker Publications  England  1995

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“(4) Damnation is the greatest evil of suffering which can befall a man

It is the greatest punishment which God inflicts. This is the wrath of God to the uttermost; it is His vengeance. Who knows the power of His wrath? None but the damned ones. To be damned is misery, altogether misery and always misery. This will be more evident when we examine what damnation is. It may be considered in two ways:
1.Privately as a punishment of loss (poena damni). 2. Positively as a punishment of sense (poena senus). We have an instance of both of these in Mathew 25:41: “Then shall He shay to them on the left hand, Depart from me”-there is privative damnation-“‘into everlasting fire”-there is positive damnation.

As sin is negatively not doing good and positively the doing of evil, so damnation is a denial of  good to, and an inflicting of evil upon, sinners. Salvation is ad mali, the taking away of evil, and adeptio boni, the obtaining and enjoying of good. It is expressed in both ways in John 3:16: “God so loved the world that He gave his Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not peris”’-there is negative salvation- “but have everlasting life” – there is positive salvation. Similarly the damnation of sinners is negative and positive.

1.     Privative damnation. This penalty of loss will be the least plague of the sinner’s hell. He shall be deprived of all good, never to enjoy a good day or a good thing more. When once a man is damned he may bid adieu to all good (Luke 16:25).

2.     Positive damnation. This the schools justly call poena sensus, the punishment of sense. If it were not for this, that men will then feel both their loss and their gain-the pain which they have earned by their sins-damnation would seem to be but a dream or imagination. But their senses a well as their understanding, feeling as well as fancy, will tell them what a dreadful thing it is to be damned. It is a thing which I wish with all my soul that none of you ever know save by hearing of it, and wish that hearing of it may be a means to prevent your feeling it. But what shall I do? Who that has not been in Hell can tell what Hell is? Who would go there to find out what it is? Surely eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive what God hath prepared for them that love Him, and likewise for them that hate Him, that is for impenitent sinners. It is the design and work of sin to make man eternally miserable, and to undo him, soul and body, forever.”

-From The Sinfulness of Sin by Puritan Ralph Venning  Published by the Banner of Truth Trust  Carlisle, PA  1965  First Published 1669

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