from whence they fell into it, that will be to them the buzzing noise and sharpened sting of the great and terrible hornet. 'How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer!' there is the sting (Isa 14:12). Thou that art exalted up to heaven shalt be thrust down to hell, though thou hast made 'thy nest among the stars,' from thence I will fetch thee down; there is a sting (Matt 11:23; Oba 4). To be pulled, for and through love to some vain lust, from the everlasting gates of glory, and caused to be swallowed up for it in the belly of hell, and made to lodge for ever in the darksome chambers of death, there is the piercing sting!
But again, as there is the sting of hell, so there is the strength of that sting; for a sting though never so sharp, or venom, yet if it wanteth strength to force it to the designed execution, it doth but little hurt. But this sting has strength to cause it to pierce into the soul; 'the sting of death is sin: and the strength of sin is the law' (1 Cor 15:56). Here then is the strength of the stings of hell; it is the law in the perfect penalty of it; 'for without the law, sin is dead' (Rom 7:8). Yea, again he saith, 'where no law is, there is no transgression' (Rom 4:15). The law then followeth, in the executive part of it, the soul into hell, and there strengtheneth sin, that sting of hell, to pierce by its unutterable charging of it on the conscience, the soul for ever and ever; nor can the soul justly murmur or repine at God or at His law, for that then the sharply apprehensive soul will well discern the justness, righteousness, reasonableness, and goodness of the law, and that nothing is done by the law unto it, but that which is just and equal. 38
This, therefore, will put great strength and force into sin to sting the soul, and to strike it with the lashes of a scorpion. Add yet to these the abiding life of God, the Judge and God of this law, will never die. When princes die, the law may be altered by the which at present transgressors are bound in chains; but oh! here is also that which will make this sting so sharp and keen, the God that executes it will never die. 'It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God' (Heb 10:30, 31).
FOOTNOTES:
1 'Gospellers,' a term of reproach given to our reformers under Henry VIII; changed to 'Puritan' under Elizabeth and the Stuarts; and to 'Methodist,' or 'Evangelical' in more recent times. All these terms were adopted by the reformers as an honorable distinction from the openly profane.—Ed.
2 Having the most solemn warnings mercifully given to us by God, whose word is truth itself, how strange it is, nay, how insane, to neglect the Saviour. Our author, in his 'Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners,' gives a solemn account of his own distracted feelings, when he, by Divine warnings, contemplated the probable loss of his never-dying soul; and, believing in the truth of God's revealed will, he felt, with inexpressible horror, his dangerous state. He describes his mental anguish, by comparing it with the acute bodily sufferings of a criminal broken on the wheel. Can we wonder that he was in 'downright earnest' in seeking salvation. Oh! reader, may we be thus impelled to fly from the wrath to come.—Ed.
3 Many have been the attempts to define the qualities, nature, and residence of the soul. The sinful body is the sepulchre in which it is entombed, until Christ giveth it life. The only safe guide, in such inquiries, is to follow Bunyan, and ascertain 'what saith the Lord' upon a subject so momentous and so difficult for mortal eyes to penetrate.—Ed.
4 The poor soul, under the irresistible constraints of conscience, bears witness against itself; sits in judgment upon, and condemns itself; and goeth, without a jailor, to conduct it, into the dread prison, where it becomes its own tormentor. 'A wounded spirit (or conscience) who can bear?'—Ed.
5 My Lord Will-be-will was a very eminent captain in the town of Mansoul, during the Holy War: wherefore Diabolus had a kindness for him, and coveted to have him for one of his great ones, to act and do in matters of the highest concern. Bunyan represents him as having been wounded in the leg, during the seige. 'Some of the prince's army certainly saw him limp, as he afterwards walked on the wall.'—Ed.
6 To the unregenerate, unsanctified soul, the language of the Saviour in John 6:48–58, must appear, as it did to the Jews, perfectly inexplicable—' He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.' Blessed mystery! to be one with Christ, in obedience to His will, and in partaking of His inheritance. To be enabled to say, 'For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.'—Ed.
7 Nothing short of a Divine influence can direct the passions of the soul to a proper use of their energies. 'Godly sorrow worketh repentance—carefulness—indignation—fear—a vehement desire—zeal—revenge,' (2 Cor 7:11). Reader, has thy spirit been thus excited against sin?—Ed.
8 This is perfectly true, but is only felt by those who are taught of the Holy Spirit rightly to appreciate Divine worship. How many pay undue respect to buildings in which public prayer is offered up? It is the worship that consecrates the place and solemnizes the mind. Very remarkably was this the case with Jacob while wandering in the open wilderness. He put stones for his pillow, and in a dream saw the angels visiting the earth, and said, THIS is the house of God, and the gate of heaven.—Ed.
9 If the body, which is to return to dust, 'is fearfully and wonderfully made,' past our finding out in its exquisite formation, how much more so must be that immortal soul which we can only contemplate by its own powers, and study in the Bible. It never dies, although it may be dead in sin, in time; and be ever dying—ever in the agonies of death, in eternity. Solemn consideration! May our adorning be 'the hidden man of the heart, which is not corruptible; a meek and quiet spirit; that which is in the sight of God of great price' (1 Peter 3:4).—Ed.
10 One of the first revelations to our race was, that 'God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.' And this great and important fact has, by tradition, extended over the whole of the human family.—Ed.
11 'An old horse shoe' must be mentioned, to throw utter contempt upon a custom, then very prevalent, and even now practised, of nailing an old horse shoe over the door of the house, to prevent a witch from entering. When will these absurd heathenish customs cease in Christian England?—Ed.
12 'A point,' the tag at the end of a lace.—Ed.
13 Nothing can more fully display the transcendant worth and excellency of the soul, than these two considerations:—first, That by the operation of the Eternal Spirit, it is made a habitation for God Himself, and susceptible of communion and converse with God, nay, of being even filled with all the fulness of God; and, second, The infinite price that was paid for its redemption from sin and woe—the precious blood of the Son of God.—Mason.
14 'A Relation of the Fearful Estate of Frances Spira.' He had been a Protestant, but, for some unworthy motives, became a Papist, and was visited with the most awful compunctions of conscience. A poetical introduction thus describes the guilty wretch:—
'Reader, wou'dst see what, may you never feel,
Despair, racks, torments, whips of burning steel?
Behold this man, this furnace, in whose heart,
Sin hath created hell. Oh! In each part
What flames appear;
His thoughts all stings; words swords;
Brimstone his breath;
His eyes flames; wishes curses; life a death;
A thousand deaths live in him, he not dead;
A breathing corpse, in living scalding lead.'
It is an awful account, and has added to it a narrative of the wretched end of John Child, a Bedford man, one of Bunyan's friends, who, to avoid prosecution,
