252, On the Excellency of the Sorrl, fsftome.hathfuch an exprefloii, that hee would rather fuf, fer thoufands of yearn in pain and torment in Hell, than hee would lofe that good that hee might have In the enjoy- ment of God ; bee accounted pang damn:, the lofs of God to bee the greater, and it were a good fign of a foul that did underhand its own excellency, and what good it were ca- pable of, to fear as well the lofs of God, and what good it might have in God, and to account that " as great an evil to it, as pain, and horrour,.and torment Why, when wee come to exprefs the wrath of God to you, and the evil that fin deferves, we.fpeak of Hell fire, and fo the'Scripture doth; If wee would fet out the great evil of punifliment ( when wee fpeak to men and women that are lead by fenfe wee would tell them . of their bodies being thoufands of years in fcalding Lead, and kept alive there, and this would ftarde and amaze them; but certainly the evil of the fouls reject} ion from God, andbeing call off from the good that there is in God, it is as great, if not a greater evil; and a good fign, I fay it were, that God is going; to !hew what our fouls are to us and. the ,true ..excellency of them :; -If wee begin to bee affeaedwith the lofs of God himfelf, and the good wee might have in God, not onely afraid of Hell, becaufe of fire arid torment there, but afraid of having our fouls loft, becaufe of being deprived of fuck infinite good, otherwife wee" might come to enjoy with:, God : A gra- cious heart hat h more .thought .about.lofing the good that- there is in God; than .. of the pain that hee . fhould feel in Hell. To fet it out a little but in this refemblance, of the eye . being deprived of light An eye that hath "beheld the glory of the.Heavens, and of the Creatures, though it fh©uld never have any pain, but onely there lhould bee fuch an ill humour, fo as to take away all light from it; why what hurt is here to the eye ? it is but onely the abfence of a good thing, the eye feels no pain ; but what man in the world . but would rather bee willing to have his eyes w fee , and not to bee blinde all his life time, than to have the enjoy - Mar letic 4,
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