566 THE NATURE OF THE PUNISHMENTS IN HELL. [DISC. XII. own entrails, and shall never be allayed or made easy : They send a thousand curses up to the heavenly world ; but the saints are for ever secured in happiness under the, eye of God, their heavenly Father, and the care of Jesus, their almighty friend. " O what a painful plague must this envy be, when with all her envenomed whips and stings she does but scourge and torment the heart where she dwells ? What an unspeakable torture must it be to feel this envy so violent and so constant, that it gives itself no ease through everlasting ages ? Who is there that dwells in flesh and "blood can conceive or express the horror and the twing- ing agonies that arise from such a hateful passion, fer- menting and raging through all the powers of the soul ?' VIII. The last thingI shall Mention, as partof those punishments of hell which affect the spirit, is a " perpe- tual expectationand dread ofnew and increasing punish- ments without end ;" and it is highlyprobable, that this shall be the portion of multitudes. When the souls of the saints are released by death, and arrive at the blessed regions, they are not°vested with all their brightest glories in a moment, nor fixed in the highest point of know- ledge and happiness at their first entrance ; but as their knowledge and their love increases, so their capacities are enlarged to take in new scenes and new degrees of pleasures, and it is probable that their felicity shall be ever increasing. And in the same manner, it is not un- likely, that the increasing sins, the growingwickedness, and mad rebellion of damned spirits, may bring upon them newjudgments and more weightyvengeance. So it was with Pharaoh the Egyptian tyrant, when he remained obstinate and rebellious against the messages of God by Moses, even while he and his nation lay under smarting scourges of the Almighty : How did his plagues increase with his iniquities ? And. he may be set before us as an emblem of sinners, and their sufferings, under the wrath of God in hell, as in Rom. ix. 17. 18. Or perhaps as the wicked of this world when they die, have left evil and pernicious examples behind them, or have corrupted the morals of their neighbours by their enticements,, or their commands, or by their wicked influ- ence of any kind, so their punishment may be increased in proportion to the lasting effects of their vile example, 5
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