598 / 674
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 of
eternal
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
of
sin; 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,
when
we
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
them
without
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