"The impious pass from one punishment to another--from the burnings of concupiscence to the flames of hell." _St. Augustine._ _Seventh Day_.--On the Eternal Torments of the Damned. 1. Can the wrath of God go farther than punishing pleasures which are so soon over, by tortures which will never have an end? To be miserable while ever God is God!--can any misery be like it? Is it not enough that the evils of the damned are extreme? Must they still, besides this, be eternal? To be hurt by the point of a pin, is trifling in itself; yet were this pain to last always, it would become insupportable: _What shall it be then, &c_. 2. O eternity! when a damned soul shall have shed tears enough to make up all the rivers and seas in the world, did he shed but one tear in every hundred years, he shall not be more advanced, after so many millions of ages, than if he had only just began to suffer. He must begin again, as if he had yet suffered nothing; and when he shall have begun as often as there are grains of sand on the seashore, or atoms in the air, or leaves on the trees, he shall still be as far off from the end of his sufferings as ever. 3. The damned must not only suffer during eternity, but suffer every moment an eternity entire. Eternity is always present to them; it enters into their punishment; their mind is incessantly struck with the endless duration of their torments. O cruel thought! O deplorable condition!--to rage for an eternity!--to burn for an eternity! Ah, that we could conceive this, as those damned souls conceive it. {181} Make an act of faith upon the duration of the punishments which the justice of God inflicts for mortal sin. We must at least believe, what we are not able to conceive. It is a great misfortune for a Christian not to be persuaded of this eternity, but by his own sad experience. "Those who do not obey the gospel, shall suffer eternal punishment." 2 _Thessalonians _ i. "Momentary is that which delights, eternal is that which tortures." _St. Chrysostom._ _Eighth Day_.--On Heaven. 1. Heaven! thou glorious state! no heart can conceive, no tongue can describe what thou art! Exemption from all that is evil; assemblage of all that is good; masterpiece of God's omnipotence; the price of the blood of Jesus; and more than man can desire. 2. To see God clearly, and as he is in his glory; to love God without measure; to possess God without ever fearing to lose him; to be happy in the felicity of God himself; such is the object of my hope. But a day or two of pilgrimage or exile, and then I shall be with him for ever. 3. What matters it how we fare here below, provided we be with Jesus for all eternity? Can I justly complain that a never-ending happiness should cost me so little? The martyrs purchased heaven at the price of their blood, and thought it was given them for nothing. Shall not I then sacrifice my corrupt will for it? O happy eternity! if men only knew what thou art worth.