399 / 674
DISC.
1II.1
SU&PRIZT IN
DEATH..
379
death,
shall
awake into
such
a
life
as
is
worse
them
dying."
He
shall be
surprized,
all
at
once,
into dark-
ness and
fire,
which
have no gleam
of
light,
and
sorrows
without
mitigation,
and
which
can
find
no
end.
The
punishment
of
hell
is
not
çalled
eternal
death, to
denote
state of
senseless
and stupid existence; but death being
the most
opposite
to
life,
and
all
the enjoyments
of
it,
the misery
of
hell
is
described
by
death,
as
the most for-
midable
thing
to
nature,
as
a
word
that
puts
a.period
to
all the enjoyments
of
this mortal
life,
and stands directly
opposite
to a life
of joy
and
glory
in
the immortal world.
Nappy
would
it
be
for such souls,
if
they could sink
in-
to
an everlasting
sleep,
and
grow
stupid and
senseless
for ever and ever;
but
this
is
a
favour
not
to
be
granted
to
those, who
have been
constant and unrepenting re-
bels
against
the
law,
and the grace
of
God.
The moment
when
the
body falls
asleep
in
death, the
soul
is
more awake
than ever
to behold its own
-guilt
and
wretchedness.
It
has
then such
a lively
and piercing
sense
of
its own
iniquities, and the
divine
wrath
that.
is
due
to them,
as
it
never
saw
or felt
before.
The
inward
senses
of
the
soul,
if
I
may
so
express.
it,
which have
been darkened, and stupified, and benumbed
in
this
body,
are
all awake,
at
once, when
the
veil
of
flesh is
thrown
off,
and
the
curtains are
drawn
back,_
which
di-
vided
them from
the world
of
spirits.
Every thought
of
sin,
and
the
anger
of
God,
wounds the
spirit deep in this
awakened state, though it
scarce felt any
thing
of
it
be-
fore;
and
"a
wounded spirit
who can
bear
?"
Prov.
xvüi.
14.
But
sinners must bear
it
days
without end, and
ages
without hope.
Then
the crimes
they have
committed,
and
the sinful
pleasures they have indulged, shall glare
upon
their
re-
membrance, and stare them
in
the
face
with
dreadful
surprize; and
each
of
them
is
enough
to
drive a soul to
despair:
Nor
can they
turn their
eyes
away from
the
horrid
sight,
for their criminal practices beset them
around,
and
their naked
soul
is
all
sight and all sense
;
it
is
eye
and
ear
all
over
;
it hears the
dreadful
curses
of
the
law,
and the sentence
of
the
judge, and
never,
never
forgets
it.
This
is
the
character,
these the circumstances
of
an obstinate sinner,
that
awakes
not
till
the moment
of
death,
and
"
lifts
up
his eyes
in
hell," as
our Saviour