57$ THE NArvRE OF THE PUNISHMENTS IN 'HEEL. {DISC. XII. But when death has divided the soul from this body, and from all the means of grace, and cut off all the hopes of pardoning mercy for ever, what smart beyond all our thoughts and expressions must the sinner feel from such inward wounds of conscience ? And it gives a twinging accent to every sorrow when the sinner is constrained to cry out, It is I, it is I who have brought all this upon myself. Life and death were set before me in the world where I once dwelt, but I refused the blessings ofeternal life, and the offers of saving grace. I turned my back upon the ways of holiness which led to life, and re- nounced the tenders of divine mercy : I chose the paths ofsin; and folly, and madness, though I knew they led to everlasting misery and death. Wretch that I was, to chuse.those sins and these sorrows, though I -knew they were necessarily joined together ! I am sent into those regions of misery which I chose for myself, against all the kind admonitions and warnings of God and Christ, of his gospel and his ministers of grace ! 0- these cursed eyes of mine, that led me into the snares of guilt and folly ! These. cursed hands that practised iniquity with greediness ! These cursed lips of mine, which disho- noured- my Maker ! O these cursed appetites and pas- sions, and this obstinate will, which have 'wrought my ruin ! This cursed body and soul, that have procured their own everlasting wretchedness!" These thoughts will be like a gnawing worm within, which will prey upon the spirit for ever. The fretting smart arising from this 'vexatious worm must be painful in the highest extreme, whenwe know it is " a worm which will never die," which will for ever hang at our heart, and sting our vitals in the most tender and sensible parts of themwithout intermis- sion, as well as without end. Here on earth the stings and scourges of conscience meet with some intervals of relief, from necessary busi- ness which employs the mind, from gay company which diverts the heart, from the refreshments of nature by day, or from the sweet repose of the returning night : But in.the world to come every hour shall be filled up with these cutting sorrows, for there is no season of refreshment, no diversion of mind, no sleeping there : All things are for ever awake in that world ; there are no shadows and darkness to hide us where this torment
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