The Saint's Everlasting Rest: A Treatise of the Blessed State of the Saints in Their Enjoyment of God in HeavenBaxter, Richard
Religion
The Saint's Everlasting Rest: A Treatise of the Blessed State of the Saints in Their Enjoyment of God in Heaven
Baxter, Richard
Devotional literature
§ 14. (6.) Consider also that their torment will be universal. As all
parts have joined in sin, so must they all partake in the torment. The
soul, as it was the chief in sinning, shall be the chief in suffering,
and as it is of a more excellent nature than the body, so will its
torments far exceed bodily torments; and as its joys far surpass all
sensual pleasures, so the pains of the soul exceed corporal pains. It is
not only a soul, but a sinful soul, that must suffer. Fire will not
burn, except the fuel be combustible; but if the wood be dry, how
fiercely will it burn! The guilt of their sins will be to damned souls
like tinder to gun-powder, to make the flames of hell take hold upon
them with fury. The body must also bear its part. That body which was so
carefully looked to, so tenderly cherished, so curiously dressed; what
must it now endure! How are its haughty looks now taken down? How little
will those flames regard its comeliness and beauty? Those eyes which
were wont to be delighted with curious sights, must then see nothing but
what shall terrify them; an angry God above them, with those saints whom
they scorned, enjoying the glory which they have lost; and about them
will be only devils and damned souls. How will they look back, and say,
"Are all our feasts, and games, and revels, come to this?" Those ears
which were accustomed to music and songs, shall hear the shrieks and
cries of their damned companions; children crying out against their
parents, that gave them encouragement and example in evil; husbands and
wives, masters and servants, ministers and people, magistrates and
subjects, charging their misery upon one another, for discouraging in
duty, conniving at sin, and being silent, when they should have plainly
foretold the danger. Thus will soul and body be companions in woe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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