life? And where then are our faith and reason, when we will do so little for escaping the dreadful night of hell's merciless flames!
THE FOURTEENTH DAY.
On the exterior pains of hell.
CONSIDER the description which Holy Job gives us of hell: Job x. when he calls it a darksome land and covered with the obscurity of death; a country of misery and darkness, where no order but everlasting horror dwells. In this gloomy region, no sun, no moon, no stars appear; no comfortable rays of light, not even the least glimpse, are ever to be seen. The very fire that burneth there, contrary to the natural property of that element, is black and darksome, and affords no light to the wretches it torments, except it be to discover to them such objects as may increase their misery. Christians, what would you think were you to be sentenced to pass the remainder of your days in some horrid dungeon, or hole, deep under ground, where you could never see the light? Would not death itself be preferable to such a punishment? And what is this to that eternal night to which the damned are sentenced? The Egyptians were in a sad condition, when for three days the whole kingdom was covered with dreadful darkness, caused by such gross exhalations, that they might even be felt by the hand. But this misery was soon over, and they were comforted by the return of light. Not so the damned in hell; whose night shall never have a morning, nor ever expect the dawning of the day!
2. Consider, that the horrors of this eternal night shall be beyond measure aggravated by the dismal music, with which those poor wretches shall be for ever entertained in this melancholy
