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DISC.
XIII.]
THE
PUNISHMENTS IN
HELL.
t4'7
teachers
be
approved of
God
or
good men, whose
evi-
dent
design
is
to lead the world
todisbelieve.this
solemn:
and terrible warning of
the
great God
?
Let
tis proceed
in
these inquiries,
and address our-
selves to those
wicked and miserable creatures,
who
are
actually
suffering
this
divine
vengeance.
Let
us ask
them,
how
they
approve
of
this
sort
of
preaching,
which
withholds from
the
eyes
and
ears, and
consciences
of
men,
the
most
dreadful
circumstance
of
these
horrors? Will
any of
the
damned
wretches,
of
hell
thank
us for
hiding
so-
dreadful
a
_part
of
these miseries
from
them?
Will
they
bless
us
for lessening
the
threatened
curses and
in-
dignation
-of
a'God?
"No,"
says
the condemned wretch,
"
those
preachers
are worthy
of
my curses,
and
not
my
thanks,- who
abated
these
terrors of
the Lord, and
short-
ened
his
threatened punishment;
for
they
persuaded
me
to hope there
would
be
an end
of
my
misery,
and thereby
tempted
me to
venture upan
those
sins
which
I
should
have
renounced
with
abomination,
had
I
believed
the
words of God, and
these everlasting torments.
'O
cursed
and
cruel preachers,
who, by
softening
and curtailing
the sentence of eternal
misery, gave
a
sort
of licence to
my wickedness,
and
broke one
of
the
strongest bars
that
restrained
me
from sinning!
'Tis
by
this
sort of
flattery
they paved
my way down
to
hell,
and have
brought me
into this prison, this
eternal
anguish whence
there
is
no
release."*
Say,
ye who
preach
that
the gates
of
hell
shall one
day
be opened to
let out
the prisoners,
ye who
tell
sinners
there
is
'a
time
of release
for
them,
say,
do
ye
expect to
fright them
out of their
sins
by
lessening their fear
of
God, and
his
wrath
to come?
Do
ye
hope to bring
obstinate
and
impenitent
rebels
to
a more speedy'
re-
morse for
sin,
and
to begin a
life
of
holiness,
by
per-
suading them
that
these
terrors of God
shall have an
*
Some
of the
ancients have called
those
preachers,
who shorten
the
pains of hell,
the merciful
or compassionate doctors: and
Doctor Thomas
Burnet
calls those merciless,
or
uncompassionate,
who
preach the
eternity
of
it:
but
I
think
it
will
appear
one ;day,
that
those
are
truly
the compas-
sionate writers and teachers,
who
most effectually
affright and
prevent
men
from sin
and
damnatioh
;
and
those who
have given wicked men
hope of
their
release
from
hell,
will be in
danger of being
charged
with
smoothing
their
way to
this misery, by softening
the
terrors of it.