The Life of God in the Soul of Man by Henry Scougal

indignation and abhorrence, and never make one request
for their deliverance. Let us consider the eternal
punishment of damned souls, which are shadowed forth
in Scripture by metaphors taken from those things that
are most terrible and grievous in the world, and yet all
do not suffice to convey into our minds any full
apprehensions of them. When we have joined together
the importance of all these expressions, and added unto
them whatever our fancy can conceive of misery and
torment, we must still remember, that all this comes
infinitely short of the truth and reality of the thing.
It is true, this is a sad and melancholy subject; there is
anguish and horror in the consideration of it; but sure it
must be infinitely more dreadful to endure it: and such
thoughts as these may be very useful to fright us from
the courses that would lead us thither; how fond soever
we may be of sinful pleasures, the fear of hell would
make us abstain. Our most forward inclinations will
startle and give back, when pressed with that question in
the prophet, "Who amongst us can dwell with
everlasting burnings?"
To this very purpose it is that the terrors of another
world are so frequently represented in holy writ, and
that in such terms as are most proper to affect and
influence a carnal mind: these fears can never suffice to
make any person truly good; but certainly they may
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