were left us! But what dost Thou say, O Lord? No! even then there shall be no end to their eternity; nor shall they have an hour less to suffer. Have done with those foolish conditions; they are but halting similes that can give no idea of eternity. The reprobate shall burn in hell forever, that is, always, without end, unceasingly, as long as I am God. O “always”! O long eternity! as long as God is God! Here my mind stands amazed, my understanding is baffled, my reason is nowhere! Well may I cry out with Thy Prophet, O Lord! “Who knoweth the power of Thy anger: and for Thy fear Thy wrath can number?”[1] How terrible it is to fall into the hands of an eternal, living God, who is always embittered against the dead sinner, always taking vengeance on him, and whose punishments are at the same time most just!
Folly of the sinner in choosing eternal fire for the sake of worthless things. O sinners! who are actually in the state of sin, and are not yet earnestly minded to make a good confession and to amend your lives, what are you thinking of if you refuse to consider this truth? What have you to be afraid” of if you do not fear hell? If an eternal fire cannot hold your bad passions in check, nor help you to deny yourselves a momentary pleasure, and to serve for a short time a God worthy of all love that you may gain heaven; what help is there for you then? Are you not foolish, senseless, mad, wantonly to sin and put yourselves in such a woful state, that if you die therein you will have to burn in hell forever without any mercy? Tell me, any one of you, if wealth or pleasure were offered yon on the condition that you should lie for a whole day on a glowing gridiron like St. Lawrence; how much would you ask as compensation for that torture? Would ten thousand pounds suffice? or ten years spent in all kinds of pleasure? Eh! you would exclaim; I would not suffer such torture for all the riches and joys of earth! But if you had to suffer for only one hour, would you then agree? No, you think; even that short time would seem too much for you. And I believe you, and am certain that if you agreed to accept the condition, you would repent the very first moment, without waiting to feel the pain of the tire, and you would take back your word, and renounce all riches and pleasures, rather than stand such a martyrdom even for a quarter of an hour. O man! where is your human reason? For all the goods of the world you would
- ↑ Quis novit potestatem iræ tuæ: et præ timore tuo iram tuam dinumerare?—Ps. lxxxix. 11, 12.
