104 THE GREAT MISERY OF THOSE dren crying out against their parents, that gave them encouragement and example in evil ; husbands and wives, masters and servants, ministers and people, magistrates and subjects, charging their misery upon one another, for discouraging in duty, conniving at sin, and being silent when they should have plainly foretold the danger. Thus will soul and body be companions in woe. 15. (7) Far greater will these torments be, be- cause without mitigation. In this life when told of hell, or if conscience troubled their peace, they had comforters at hand ; their carnal friends, their busi- ness, their company, their mirth. They could drink, play, or sleep away their sorrows. But now all these remedies are vanished. Their hard, presumptuous, unbelieving heart was a wall to defend them against trouble of mind. Satan was himself their comforter, as he was to our first mother ; "Rath God said, ye shall not eat ? ye shall not surely die. Doth God tell you, that you shall lie in hell? It is no such matter; God is more merciful. Or if there be a hell, what need you fear it ? Are not you Christians ? Was not the blood of Christ shed for you ?" Thus as the Spirit of Christ is the comforter of the saints, so Satan is the comforter of the wicked. Never was a thief more careful lest he should awake the people, when he is robbing the house, than Satan is not to awaken a sinner. But when the sinner is dead, then Satan bath done flattering and comforting. Which way then will the forlorn sinner look for comfort ? They that drew him into the snare, and promised him safety, now forsake . him, and are forsaken themselves. His comforts are gone, and the righ- teous God, whose forewarnings he made light of, will now make good his word against him to the least tittle. 16. (8) But the greatest aggravation of these torments, will be their eternity. When a thousand millions of ages are past, they are as fresh to begin as the first day. If there were any hope of an end,
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