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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

revenge

against

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 word

of 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

them

without 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

to

year,

are

walking

On

the borders

of

'all

this

misery,

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.