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loss, whereunto the wicked
of the world are sentenced
in these several expressions;
"take him away"-
"cast
him out"-"I know you
not" " depart from Me, ye
cursed i."

"The pains of sense, in hell, are intolerable," saith Chrysostom; "yet for a man to suffer a thousand hells, is less irksome than to be banished from Heaven, to be driven from the presence of God, to be exiled out of the regions of light and joy, to be rejected of the Lord, and to hear from Him, 'I know you not'-'depart from Me.'

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The loss of Heaven must needs be the greatest of evils, because it is the loss of the greatest and most perfect good, and of all that is truly good.

To lose the good things we do now enjoy in the world, may be recompensed with advantage by the gain of Heaven; but to lose Heaven itself, to forfeit the right and title we once had happily obtained to be inheritors of the kingdom of Heaven, is a loss irreparable. "Nothing can compensate, nothing can equal, nothing to be compared to

this loss; it is hell enough itself, if there were no other!"

In this life, the most wise and holy understand not throughly the fulness of heavenly joys, and so cannot be sensible of the torment of their loss; but in the next life our eyes shall be opened and the veil upon our hearts removed, and then shall the ungodly see, to their unspeakable grief and anguish of spirit, the vast difference betwixt the never-fading pleasures of the right hand of God, and the empty transitory pleasures of sin; betwixt that fulness of joy in the presence of God, and the deplorable sorrow of its loss and absence.

It is very probable that this torment of hell is meant by "the worm that dieth not;" for nothing can more corrode, and eat so deeply even into the inmost recesses of damned souls, as to see and consider for what poor, beggarly, trifling things of the earth here below they have lost those blissful joys and ravishing felicities of Heaven above; when they shall remember how momentary were their sinful pleasures, but never to be end

i Mat. xxii. 13, and xxv. 30, 41; Luke xiii. 27. k St. Chrys. Hom. 28. 1 Id. Serm. Aug. Enchir. ad Laurent. c. 112.

ed their pains. Then shall they curse their parents that begat, and the womb that bare them, and the paps they sucked; so terrible shall be the torment of this never-dying, ever-gnawing worm, that they shall curse themselves that they do still live; yea, and curse God Himself, Who is blessed for

ever.

"I have called, but ye have refused m," saith the Lord; called, saying, "Turn ye, turn ye unto Me with all your heart ""_ "Come unto Me, all ye that are weary." But we, vain men, slight and neglect, nay, too many contemn such gracious invi- | tations; they are not affected or delighted with the presence of God; or if they come to His house, and approach His presence there, it is not either with that internal devotion and external reverence; it is not with such pure hearts and clean hands as becomes the presence of so great and glorious, so holy and pure a majesty; and is it not then most just and equal, that all such irreligious, irreverent and profane persons be banished the blissful presence of God for ever?

And so hath the Lord threatened. "Because when I called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear, but did evil. Therefore thus saith the Lord God, My servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry; My servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty; My servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed: behold, My servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit."

Whatever therefore be the guise of the multitude, to walk every one after the lusts of their own hearts, and to follow their own imaginations, in the contempt of the Lord's admonitions and commands; "yet as for me," whilst I have life and liberty "I will come into Thy house, even upon the multitude of Thy mercies, and in Thy fear will I worship towards Thy holy temple."

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m Prov. i. 24. n Ezek. xxxiii. 11. • Mat. xi. 28. 4 Isai. lxv. 12, &c. Psalm v. 7.

P John vi. 37, 44. ■ Psalm xxvii. 9, 10.

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moon nor stars, display the least ray or glimmering of their light, and where not the least beam of the Divine mercy shall ever appear.

my sins, and the thick cloud | earth, where neither sun, of my transgressions, nor cast away Thy servant in displeasure;" but vouchsafe that my approaches to Thy Divine Majesty may be so frequent and fervent, and with such humility, reverence and devotion performed, that my person and my services may in this life be accepted before Thee, that I hear not at the last day that dismal doom of the wicked, "Depart from Me, ye cursed."

MEDITATION II.

Of the Darkness of Hell. To be banished the presence of God, Who is the Fountain of Light, is to be involved in the terrors of darkness; and therefore after "take him away," it follows, "cast him into outer darkness" And so is the place of hell described: "A land of darkness and of the shadow of death; a land of darkness as darkness itself, and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness"." And this must needs be so, because hell is farthest remote from heaven the region of light, being seated, as it is generally believed, in the centre of the

Mat. xxii. 13.

There is fire indeed in hell, but such a fire as burns without shining, a fire without light, not unlike whereunto is the fire of blind zeal, "the tongue whereof setteth on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire of hell."

All the light which the sulphurous fire of hell affords, serves only to discover the ghastly sight of infernal fiends, reviling, scourging, tormenting the damned,

without mercy, without intermission; and there, perhaps, may the wicked see some of their friends and acquaintance, and of their companions in their sins, involved with them in the same punishment, which are sights so dreadful as shall augment their torments.

Here is darkness then, and no darkness: such darkness as shall hide from the eyes whatever is pleasant and desirable: and yet no darkness to hide from the dismal sight whatever is vexatious, and adds the " Job x. 21, 22.

- Jam. iii. 6.

greater anguish to the ach- | ing heart.

This dismal darkness of hell is called "the outward darkness," respecting the "inward darkness" of human souls, and those manifold deeds of darkness which issue from the one, and run headlong to the other.

If, then, thou hast followed the lusts of thine own "darkened heart," and obeyed the suggestions of Satan "the prince of darkness," -if thou hast loved and acted the "works of darkness" (of sinfulness and error) more than the sacred acts and influences of grace and truth, it is most just that thy portion be with "blackness of darkness" for

ever.

Vouchsafe, blessed Lord of light and life, vouchsafe to display the sacred beams of Thy celestial light into my darkened soul, dispel and dissipate thence all the black stain and guilt of sin contracted by my daily backslidings from Thee, all those clouds of ignorance and error which darken my understanding, all those noisome lusts of the world and of the flesh which incessantly infest and infect my soul, that I pass not from these

inward to that “outward darkness where is weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth."

MEDITATION III.

Of the Fire of Hell.

Of all the torments invented and practised by the malice of men or devils, that by fire is the most fierce and frightful: how does it amaze the minds of men, when they see it flaming in their houses, and consuming their habitations and estates? and yet the fire of hell is far more dreadful and tormenting, as differing from our ordinary fire, especially in three respects:

1. Our fire feeds only upon gross and corporeal substances, but hell fire feeds upon spirits, and damned souls; and it is therefore as much more fierce and piercing than our fire, as a spirit is more quick and active than a gross heavy body.

Be not deceived, O my soul, with any fond conceits of vain men, that this fire is only metaphorical or fantastical, allegorical or poetical, because it is prepared for the devil and his angels, who are spirits, and not liable to visible flames: but

y Jude ver. 13.

the word of God, which cannot lie, and many undeniable reasons by the learned deduced thence, do confirm it to be a real, yea, a material fire, but more spiritual and refined, and so more eating, piercing and tormenting than the fire which burns upon our hearths2.

therein of the same quality, yet in hell it is far otherwise; for there the more sinners with their sins, the more fuel is added to that dismal fire: so that when I consider all the sins that have been committed against the Majesty of Heaven, since the beginning of 2. Our fire doth alway the world to the end thereof, burn and torment after the are as so many fagots to feed same manner; but hell fire the fire of hell, I cannot but being the instrument of Di- | tremble at the greatness of vine Justice, doth more or its force and fury; and less rage and afflict, accord- carefully avoid the society ing as the persons condemn of sinners in this life, that I ed thereunto have been more suffer not with them to the or less guilty. increase of our mutual torments in the other world.

And it is observable that the sinful souls doomed to these flames are represented by our Lord unto those tares that are bound in bundles to be burnt, denoting all kind of sinners to be punished with them that are of their own rank and quality: e. g. the proud with the proud; the drunkard with his goodfellow; the adulterer with the unclean; and so in all others, according to the enormities of their lives, shall be their sufferings after death.

And although in this life it is some mitigation of sorrow to have companions

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Mat. iii. 12; xiii. 42; xxv. 41; Mark ix. 43, 47. b Mat. iii. 12; Isa. lxvi. 24; xxx. 33.

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a Mat. xiii. 30. Rev. ix. 6.

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