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DISC.
xur.}
THE PUNISHMENTS IN HELL.
C41
and
sorrows here on
earth,
blessed be
God
they
are
not
eternal
:
There are
some
intervals
to relieve, and
there
is
some
period
to
finish them.
When
we
ask
a friend
who
is
sick
and
in
pain, " How fare
you
?"
"
Iam
in
pain
now,"
says he,
"
but
I
hope
I
shall
be
easy
anon
:
I
am
sick to-day,
but
I
trust
I
shall be
in
health to-
morrow."
This
is
a sweet mitigation
of
the
present
uneasiness,
and
gives
relief
to the
patient. But
how
dreadful and
piercing
would these,
accents
be,
if
we
should
hear our
friend
make
this answer to
us,
" I
am all
over
in
ex-
treme pain
and anguish, and
I
shall never,
never
be
eased
of it
:
I
lie
under
exquisite
torment
of
the
flesh,
and horror
in my soul,
and
I
shall for ever feel this
hor-
ror
and
this torment."
Such
is
the
case
of the
damned
,sinners
in
hell,
and
therefore_
their
agonies
are
intole-
rable.
But
if
you
have any comfortable
prospect of the
par-
don
of
sip,
and
a
well-
grounded hope
of eternal
salva-
tion, through the blood
of
Christ, and
by
the
rules
and
promises
of
the gospel, all
the,
temporal
toils
and plagues
that
can possibly
stand
between
us
and
heaven, should
he
despised'and
disregarded
by
us,
and
we
should learn
to triumph
over
them
with
the victorious
songs
of
thank-
fulness
and
praise. Blessed be the name
of our God,
though he
has
smitten
us sorely,
yet
he has
not
given us
Aver
to
everlasting death.
Let
our thoughts
ascend to the heavenly
regions,
and
let
us
ask those
who
are arrived thither out
of
the
land
of
temptation and
conflict,
out of
these
tabernacles of
sin
and sorrow; let
us ask them,
what
gave them
so
divine
a courage
and
so firm
a
patience
in
the
midst
of
all
their trials? With
one voice they
will
all make
an-
suer, it
was
the
view
of
our
deliverance
from an
eternal
hell,
and the hopes
of
obtaining salvation
by
Christ Jesus
with
eternal
glory; it
is
this
that
supported
us
under
every burden, and
bore
us
on with a
spirit
of
faith
and.
victory through every
hardship
on
earth.
It
was
for
this
we
laboured and
suffered,
and
counted not
life,
nor any
of
the
blessings
of it
dear
to
us,
nor
any
of
the sorrows
of
it intolerable,
that
we
might escape the everlasting
sorrows
of a
future state, and
enjoy
the
blessings
of
life
eternal.
And, O
may
every one
of
us
"he
the fol-
lowers
of
those
yvho
through
this
faith.
and patience
have.
VOL.
II.