DISC. xur.} THE PUNISHMENTS IN HELL. C41 and sorrows here on earth, blessed be God they are not eternal : There are some intervals to relieve, and there is some period to finish them. When we ask a friend who is sick and in pain, " How fare you ?" " Iam in pain now," says he, " but I hope I shall be easy anon : I am sick to-day, but I trust I shall be in health to-morrow." This is a sweet mitigation of the present uneasiness, and gives relief to the patient. But how dreadful and piercing would these, accents be, if we should hear our friend make this answer to us, " I am all over in ex- treme pain and anguish, and I shall never, never be eased of it : I lie under exquisite torment of the flesh, and horror in my soul, and I shall for ever feel this hor- ror and this torment." Such is the case of the damned ,sinners in hell, and therefore_ their agonies are intole- rable. But if you have any comfortable prospect of the par- don of sip, and a well-grounded hope of eternal salva- tion, through the blood of Christ, and by the rules and promises of the gospel, all the, temporal toils and plagues that can possibly stand between us and heaven, should he despised'and disregarded by us, and we should learn to triumph over themwith the victorious songs of thank- fulness and praise. Blessed be the name of our God, though he has smitten us sorely, yet he has not given us Aver to everlasting death. Let our thoughts ascend to the heavenly regions, and let us ask those who are arrived thither out of the land of temptation and conflict, out of these tabernacles of sin and sorrow; let us ask them, what gave them so divine a courage and so firm a patience in the midst of all their trials? With one voice they will all make an- suer, it was the view of our deliverance from an eternal hell, and the hopes of obtaining salvation by Christ Jesus with eternal glory; it is this that supported us under every burden, and bore us on with a spirit of faith and. victory through every hardship on earth. It was for this we laboured and suffered, and counted not life, nor any of the blessings of it dear to us, nor any of the sorrows of it intolerable, that we might escape the everlasting sorrows of a future state, and enjoy the blessings of life eternal. And, O may every one of us "he the fol- lowers of those yvho through this faith. and patience have. VOL. II.
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