Analiam1 604 THE NATURE OF THE PUNISHMENTS IN HELL. [DISC.,IM. what dreadful ferments of passion and rage, and hatred' of God have been found in the hearts of some sinful crea- tures, when they have grown. mad with revengeagainst God, and against themselves, and envy against all their fellow-mortals, who are not in the same circumstances ; think yet again how terribly their misery must be aggra- vated, when the torture of everlasting despair attends all the rest of the pains and sorrows they suffer ; and then say, it' the description'of a future hellin the wordof God may not be true and real. '\'hat anguish beyond all the power of present thought and language, may seize all the powers of wilful and impious rebels against the authority and the mercy of God, when all the stores of his ven- geance that have been treasuring up fòr many years, shall be poured out upon themwithout any mitigation or mixture of mercy. ReflexionIV'. "lt is matter of surprize, and greatasto- nishment, that thousands and ten thousands of the sinful children of men, from day to day, and from year toyear, are walking On the borders of 'all thismisery, and yet are so thoughtless and unconcerned about it:" They carry peaceful and easy minds in the midst of this dreadful 'danger, and while they have all the symptoms of the children of wrath upon them, they live without, fear, and make no effort toward their escape. Wretched creatures indeed ! it t o have a mortal disease upon them that will breed this gnawing worm of conscience, that will grow up into all this anguish and distress, and yet are senseless of their own peril, unacquainted with their own state of soul, and are daily ,treading their earthly rounds of business and of pleasure with a merry heart. All the heavy artillery of divine vengeance is ready to be discharged upon them as soon as the door of death opens and lets them into the invisible world ; and yet they walk on fearless and joyful, and have no guard or defence from all this misery, besides their own vain presumption. Stupid creatures, to lie down at night, and awake in the morning with an inch of hell, and yet secure and fearless ! They live without God in the world, and that even in this land of light and hope, where he offers to visit them with all his graces ; and yet they are hastening hourly to the eternal world, where they must meet and behold him in all his terrors.
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