Spurgeon 1861 AD

“The idea is just this, that the love of Christ in the form of jealousy is as hard and as sternly relentless as is the grave and hell. Now hell never looses one of its bond-slaves. Once let the iron gate be shut upon the soul and there is no escape. When the ring of fire has once girdled the immortal spirit, none can dash through the flaming battlements. The dungeon is locked. The key is dashed into the abyss of destiny and never can be found.

“Fixed is their everlasting state, could they repent ’tis now too late.”

“Escape for thy life, look not behind thee,” is a cry which may be uttered on earth, but which can never be heard in hell. They who are once there, are there for ever and for ever. That modern doctrine of the restoration of damned souls, hath no foundation in the Word of God. It is a dream, and they shall find it so who once come into that place. “Where their worm dieth not, and where their fire is not quenched,” — a more perfect picture of an unrelenting seizure could not be found anywhere. The firmness and hardness of the grave and hell are without abatement. When once they have got their hands upon their prey they hold it with a tenacity which defies resistance. Well, but such is the love of Christ. If just now we had to speak of its strength, we have now to speak of its tenacity, its hardness, its attachment to those whom it has chosen. You may sooner unlock Hades, and let loose the spirits that are in prison there, than ye could ever snatch one from the right hand of Christ. Ye may sooner rob death of its prey, than Jesus of his purchased ones. Ye may spoil the lion’s den, but shall the lion of the tribe of Judah be spoiled? Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, and the lawful captive delivered? Ere one child of God shall be lost, ye shall go first and make death relax his grasp, and then next ye shall make hell with all its fury give up its prey. As soon as ever it can be proved that one child of God perishes, it can be proved that the fires of hell can be put out, but until then, there shall never be shadow of a fear of that. As certainly as ever lost souls are lost, so certainly believing souls are saved.”