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SU
THE NATURE
OF
THE PUNISHMENTS
IN
HLLL. [DISC.
XII;
presentation of
hell,
"
There
shall
be
weeping and
wail»
ing,
and
gnashing
of
teeth
;"
Mat.
'xxii., 13.
and yet
the
heart
ever living and ever obstinate, to supply
fresh
springs
of
these sorrows, and
to feel
the anguish
of
them
all.
..
VI. There
will be
also
"
raging desires
of
ease and
pleasure
which shall never
be satisfied;
together
with
perpetual
disappointment
and
endless confusion thrown
upon all.their
schemes
and their
efforts
of
hope."
It
is
the nature of
man,
while
it continues
in
being,
that
it
must
desire happiness, and make
some efforts
towards
it:
And some
divines have supposed,
that
men
of
wicked
sensuality and luxury
;in
this world,
have
so
drenched
their
souls
in
fleshly
appetite
by
indulging
lusts,
and
placing their chief
satisfaction and happiness therein,
that
they
will
carry
this very
temper
of
sensuality
with
them into the
world
of
spirits
;
and
it
is
possible
their
raging appetites
to this
sensual happiness,
may be
in-
creased
while
there are
no
objects
to
gratify them
:
if
this
be
the
case,
it
must
be
intense and constant
misery
to
feel
eternal hunger
with
no
bread
to
relieve it
;
keen
'desires
of dainties
with
no
luxurious
dishes to
please
their
humorous taste
;
eternal thirst without
one drop
of
wine
or
water to
allay or cool
it;
eternal
fatigue
and
weari-
ness
without
power
to sleep,
and
eternal lust of
pleasure
without
any hope
of
gratification.
But
if
we
should suppose
these
sensualities
shall die
together
with the
body,
yet
this
is
certain, the
soul will
have
everlasting appetites of
its own,
that
is,
the
general
desire
of
ease
and
happiness,
and of
some satisfying
good
:
But
God,
who
is
the only true source
of happi-
ness
to spirits, the
only satisfying
portion of
souls,
is
for
ever departed
and
gone
;
and
thus
the
natural appetite of
felicity
will be
ever
wakeful
and violent
in
damned spi-
rits, while .every
attempt
or hope
to
satisfy
it
will
meet
with
perpetual disappointment.
Milton,
our
great
English poet, has
represented
this
part
of
the misery
of
devils in
a beautiful manner.
IIe
supposes
that
ever
since they
tempted man
to
sin by
the forbidden tree of
knowledge, they
are
once a
year
changed
into.
the
'form
of
serpents,
and brought
by
mil-
lions into
a
grove
of
such trees, with the
same golden
appearance of fruit
upon them
:
And
while with
eager