Meditation Eleventh.
On the pain of loss.
I. THE greatest pain of hell is not the fire, nor the darkness, nor the stench, nor any other of all the material torments of that dreadful prison of despair, it is the pain of loss, that is, the pain of having lost God, which of itself, may be said to constitute hell. The soul was created to be for ever united to God, and to enjoy the sight of his enrapturing countenance. God is its last end, its only good, so that all the goods of earth and heaven, without God, could not make it happy. Hence it is, that if a condemned soul in hell could possess and love God, hell, with all its torments, would become to such a soul a paradise. But this will be its sovereign punishment, which will render it for ever inconceivably miserable, to be deprived of God for all eternity, without the least hope of ever again beholding him or loving him. Jesus my Redeemer, nailed to the cross for my sake, thou art my hope; O that I had died rather than offended thee!
II. The soul, being created for God, has an instinctive tendency to become united with its sovereign good, its God; but being united to the body, when it wallows in iniquity, it becomes so darkened by the created objects which allure the senses, that it loses its sight, and has so little knowledge of God, as no longer to desire to be united to him. But when separated from the body, and from sensible objects, then it will know that God is the only good that can render it happy; hence as soon as it shall have departed hence, it will feel itself drawn with most powerful attraction towards an union with God; but having left this life an enemy of God,
