MEDITATION XVI.
ON HELL, AS TO THE ETERNITY OF THE PAINS AND THE HORROR OF THE PLACE; AND ON ITS INHABITANTS, AND THE TORMENTORS.
POINT I.
First we must consider what hell is, in such a manner as by faith we are instructed, that, knowing its definition, we may tremble to hear the name.
1. The nature of hell. — Hell is a perpetual prison, full of fire and of innumerable and very terrible torments, to chastise perpetually such as die in mortal sin. Or, again, hell is an eternal state, wherein sinners, for the punishment of their sins, want all that good which they may desire for their content, and endure all kinds of evils which they may fear for their torment. So that in hell is joined together the privation of all that good which men enjoy in this life and angels in the other, and the presence of all those evils which afflict men in this life and the devils in the other.
2. This I may consider, by running through in my mind all the evils and miseries that I suffer or see others suffer, augmenting and eternising them in my thoughts; for all that in this life is suffered is little and lasts but a little time, because it has an end, but that which is suffered in hell is exceeding great, and will continue an infinite duration, which has equal extent with that of Almighty God, for it shall continue as long as Almighty God shall continue. If I here suffer hunger and thirst, I must understand that in hell I shall have another kind of hunger and thirst, incomparably greater, and, besides that, everlasting. If I here suffer any sorrow, or dishonour, or poverty, or melancholy, or want of friends, &c, all this I shall suffer in hell, with such excess
