How will the heavens echo for joy, when the bride, the Lamb's wife, shall come to dwell with her husband for ever! Christ is the desire of nations, the joy of angels, the delight of the Father; what solace then must the soul be filled with, that hath the possession of him to all eternity! O! what acclamations of joy will there be, when all the children of God shall meet together, without fear of being disturbed by the anti-Christian and Cainish brood. Is there not a time coming when the godly may ask the wicked, what profit they have in their pleasure? what comfort in their greatness? and what fruit in all their labour? If you would be better satisfied what the beatifical vision means, my request is, that you would live holily and go and see. OF THE TORMENTS OF HELL. Heaven and salvation is not surely more promised to the godly, than hell and damnation is threatened to, and shall be executed on, the wicked. Oh! who knows the power of God's wrath? None but damned ones. Sinners' company are the devil and his angels, tormented in everlasting fire with a curse. Hell would be a kind of paradise, if it were no worse than the worst of this world. As different as grief is from joy, as torment from rest, as terror from peace; so different is the state of sinners from that of saints in the world to come. |