A treatise on comforting afflicted consciences - The Digital Puritan

84 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMFORTINGvanity, which passeth away in the act, as tlie taste of pleasantdrink dieth in the drauijht, to bring upon it in the otherworld torments without end and beyond all ct)mpass ofthought ! And his madness is the more ; because, besides itsim.moitality, his soul is incomparably more worth than thewhole world, i'he very sensitive soul of a little fly, saithAustin traly, "is more excellent than the sun." Howought we then to prize and preserve from sin our understanding,reasonable souls, which make us in that respectlike unto the angels of God !9. What a horrible thing is sin, whose weight an omnipotentstrength, which doth sustain the whole frame of theworld, is not able to bear ! Almighty God complains evenof the sacrifices and other services of his own people, whenthey were performed with polluted hearts ; and professesthat "he was weary to bear them" (Isa. i, 14). And howvile is it, that stirs up in the dearest and most compassionatebowels of the all-merciful God such implacable anger ; thatthrew down so many glorious angelical spirits, who mighthave done him so high honour for ever in the highest heavens,into the bottom of hell, there most justly to continuedevils, and in extremest torment everlastingly ! (Jast allrnankind out uf his favour, and from all felicity, for Adam'ssin ! Caused him who delighteth in mercy (Micah vii, 18)to create all the afflicting miseries in hell ; eternal flames,streams of brimstone, chains of darkness, gnashing of teeth,a lake of fire, the bottomless pit, and all those horr.ble tormentsthere ! And that which doth argue, and yet furtheramplify the impbcableness and depth ot J3ivine indignation,the infiniteness of sin's provocation and desert, " Tophet issaid to be ordained of old " (Isa. xxx, 33), "everlasting fireto be prepared for the devil and his angels " ( Matt, xxv, 41 )as if the all-powerful Wisdom did deliberate,;and as itwere sit down and devise all stinging terrible ingredients,a temper of greatest torture, to make that dreadful fire,hellish pains, most fierce and raging, and a fit instrumentfor the justice of so great and niighty a God to tormenteternally all impenitent reprobate rebels. God is the" Father of spirits ;" our souls are the immediate creation ofhis almighty hand ; and yet to every one that goeth on impenitentlyin his trespasses, he hath appointed, as it were,a threefold hell. There are three things considerable insin. (1.) Aversion from an infinite, sovereign, unchangeablegood. (2.) Conversion to a finite, mutable, momentarygood. (3.) Continuance in the same. To these threeseveral things in sin, there are answering three singularstings of extremest punishment. To aversion from the chiefest