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THE PUNISHMENTS
Ih*-HELL.
Rom.
viii. 32. will
never spare thee
who
art
the
personal
and
criminal transgressor.
Eternal
recompenses
are
due
to
the demands
of justice, and
he
will
punish till
full
payment
is
made,
equal. to the
evil
of
sin,
that
is,
to all
everlasting.
?
IL.
"
What
infinite
and
eternal
concerns
hang upon
the
short
and
tender thread
of
human
life
?"
An
eter-
nal heaven
or an
eternal
hell
depend upon
our
good
or
ill
behaviour
in
this
short
and mortal state. While life
remains,
the sinner's hope
remains;
he
abides on
the
stage
of
action;
and
this
is
the
state of trial for
eternity:
But
as
soon as
the
thread
of
life
is
broken,
immediately
ensues
endless
joy
or endless
sorrow.
What
a
poor
fleeting
vapour, what a thin
and
frail bubble
is this
fee-
ble
and uncertain thing
which
we
call life
?
And yet,
what matters
of
immense
importance depend upon
it?
This present
life
is
a
price
put into our
hands,
for
it
is
the
only time given
us
to
obtain deliverance and
escape,
from
eternal death
:
Life
in
this
view,
as
mere
a
bubble
and
vapour
as
it_
is,
carries in
it
something
of
infinite'
and everlastingmoment
:
But, alas,
how
wretchedly does
feolish
and
sinful
mankind
trifle
and squander it
away
amidst a thousand vanities
and impertinences, or
saunter
it
out,
in
sloth and laziness, with an
utter
disregard
of
the
important
eternity
that
depends upon
it?
What
mul-
titudes are
there
that
waste the golden
hours
of grate,
and
the seasons
of
hope, in
procuring
to themselves,
by
their
own
wilful
iniquities,
a
length
of
damnation and
everlasting
despair
?
While
we dwell
here,
in
the midst
of
mercy and
salva-
tion,
there
is
hope
that our
sinful souls may be
healed
of that
disease which
is
breeding
the
ever-
gnawing worm
within
us.
We
may
prevent the
fuel
of
divine wrath
fcotn
kindling into
a
flame which
cannot
be quenched
:
But
when
once the clock
of
life
has gone
through
its
ap-
pointed
spaces,
and the last hour
strikes,
whether
it be
.
three
or
five,
whether
at
twelve
at noon
or
at
midnight, all
hope
is
for
ever
gone
;
we
are plunged into the regions
of
death, despondency, and darkness, and nothing remains,
hut
the actual
torture of
the worm
of
conscience to
seize
on
us,
and the
fire
of
divine
anger actually breaks'
out,
which
shall
burn
to the lowest
hell,
O could
we
but
behold
ourselves
in
the
glass
of
wisdom,
while
we