First Consideration: The Straitness of the Prison of Hell.
Consider, that the first injustice a soul offers to God, is the ... breaking of his commandments, and declaring not to be willing to serve him: ”Thou saidst, I will not serve.” --Jer. ii.[cf] To punish, therefore, so great a boldness, God has framed a prison in the lowest part of the universe ... Here though the place itself be wide enough, the damned will not even have that relief, which ... a poor prisoner has in walking between four walls ... because they shall be bound up like a faggot, and heaped upon one another ... and this by reason of the great number of the damned, to whom this great pit will become narrow and strait ...
Those miserable wretches will not only be straitened, but also be immoveable; and, therefore, if a blessed saint, as St. Anselm says, in his book of Similitudes, will be strong enough ... to move the whole earth: a damned soul will be so weak, as not to be able even to remove from the eye a worm that is gnawing it. The walls of this prison are more than four thousand miles thick ...
Consider, that this prison will not only be extremely strait, but also extremely dark. It is true, there will be a fire, but without light ... That will be true ... by a contrary miracle to what was wrought in the Babylonian furnace, for there, by the command of God, the heat was taken from the fire, but not the light of brightness: but in hell, the fire will lose its light, but not its heat. Moreover, this same fire, burning with brimstone, will have a searching flame, which being mingled with the rolling smoke of that infernal cave, will ... raise a storm of darkness, according to what is written ... in Jude xiii ...
Finally, the same mass of bodies heaped one upon another will ... make up a part of that dreadful night; not a glimpse of transparent air being left to the eye of the damned ...
If amongst all the plagues of Egypt, darkness alone was called horrible; what name shall we give to that darkness, which is not to last for three days only, but for all eternity?
Consider, how much the horror of this prison, so strait and obscure, must be heightened, by the addition of the greatest stench. First, thither, as to a common sewer, all the filth of the earth shall run after the fire of the last day has purged the world. Secondly, the brimstone itself continually burning in such a prodigious quantity, will cause a stench not to be borne. Thirdly, the very bodies of the damned will exhale so pestilential a stench, that if any one of them were to be placed here on earth, it would be enough, as St. Bonaventure observes, to cause a general infection ...
Air, itself, being for a time closely shut up, becomes insupportable;-- judge, then, what those unhappy prisoners must suffer from the collected sink of this eternally loathsome abyss.
Second Consideration: The Quality of the Fire
Even among men there never was found a greater torment [than fire] ...
If ... we cannot bear ever so little awhile the flame of a candle, how shall we for ever be buried in flames ... ?
Nevertheless, you must not think the fire of hell is like ours ...
Our fire is created for the benefit of man, to serve him as a help in most arts, and for the maintaining of life; but the fire of hell was only created for God to revenge himself of the wicked ...
Our fire is often applied to subjects not at all proportioned to its activity; but the fire of hell is kindled by a sulphureous and bituminous matter, which will always burn with unspeakable fury ...
Finally, our fire destroys what it burns, therefore, the more intense it is, the shorter is its duration; but the fire in which the damned shall for ever be tormented, shall burn without ever consuming ...
Consider what strength this devouring fire will have, on account of the great quantity thereof ...
A sea of fire, which has neither shore nor bottom ...
Who is there that can doubt, that if a whole mountain were thrown into this great furnace, but that it would melt as soon as a piece of wax? This the devil was forced to own, being asked by a soldier ...
... that flame, so fierce and so great, will not only afflict us without, as it happens with the fires of this world; but will penetrate our very bones, our marrow, and even the very principle of our life and being ...
Every one that is damned will be like a lighted furnace, which has its own flames in itself; all that filthy blood will boil in the veins, the brains in the skull, the heart in the breast, the bowels within the unfortunate body, surrounded with an abyss of fire ...
Consider, that whatever has been said either as to the strength, the quality, or the quantity of this infernal fire, it is nothing in comparison to the intenseness it will have as being the instrument of the Divine Justice ...
It will have its rise from the foot of the throne of God, that is to say, it will receive an incredible vigour from the omnipotency of God; working, not with its own activity, but, as an instrument, with the activity of its agent ...
... as God makes use of material water in baptism, not only to wash the body, but to cleanse and sanctify the soul, so in hell he makes use of fire, though material, to punish her when sinful and unclean. The infernal fire then is an effect of the omnipotency of God injured by sinners; it is a visible sign of that infinite hatred which the divine goodness bears to sin, as also an invention of his wisdom to recover the honour taken from him by the wicked ...
Third Consideration: The Company of the Damned
Consider, what great torment will be added to the infernal habitation by the inhabitants themselves. The being in ill company is so great a pain, that one would think the very plants on earth are sensible of it, whilst they withdraw themselves, and fly from those that are noxious or hurtful to them ...
... all laws being overturned [in hell], and all reason banished, there will be no regard to cosanguinity, parentage, country, or to any tie or motive which might mitigate their desperate rage against each other ... their very howlings and groans will make them intolerable ...
Consider, that the company of the accomplices in sin will be painful above all imagination ...
Who can conceive the curses, the blasphemies and execrations they will spit out ... ?
The punishment assigned for parricides was to be shut up in a sack with a cock, a serpent, and a monkey, and to be thrown into the sea: but how little do the lawgivers among men understand what pain is! The divine justice has found out other sort of company wherewith to punish criminals; a place full of executioners and condemned persons ... in the middle of a sea of fire ...
... those friends for whose sake you turned your backs on God, will be the cruelest furies ... no devil will torment you so much as the person you disordinately loved ...
Those eyes which are now your stars, shall then send forth darts more piercing than the very lightning ...
Consider, the company of the devils will prove far more tormenting than would that of our greatest enemies ...
They will afflict the damned two different ways, by their sight and by reproaches ...
St. Catherine of Sienna, speaking to our Saviour, said much more: ”That rather than behold again such a frightful infernal form, she would choose to walk in a road all of fire to the day of judgment.” According to this, one of those monsters alone would be enough to make a hell of the place he is in ...
But what will it be when reproaches and scorn are added to the sight of them ... ?
Fool ... who couldst so easily have saved thyself by restoring those ill-gotten goods, by breaking off that lewd practice, by one hearty sorrow, and thou wouldst not do it: why dost thou now complain? Thou wert thyself the occasion of thy misfortune.
Fourth Consideration: The Pain of Loss
“I am cast away from the sight of thine eyes.” Psalm xxx. 22 ...
For in sin there is a double malice: the first is the turning one's back on the uncreated good ... ; the other is the fixing one's eyes on a created good as the chief object ... of one's happiness ...
Now the divine justice prepares a punishment in hell suitable to both these disorders, in punishing the conversion to the creature ... with the pain of sense ... and ... the aversion from God, with the pain of loss ...
This pain [of loss] in substance is a hell of itself greater than all the rest; for, says St. Thomas, ”The worst damnation consists in this, that the understanding of man be totally deprived of divine light, and his affection obstinately turned from the goodness of God.” This pain, therefore, is infinite ...
... if all the other pleasures of heaven were multiplied a thousand times over and over, they could never equal the joy the blessed have in beholding God face to face ...
Though in this life we have but a very obscure knowledge of the infinite happiness which consists in enjoying God; yet in hell the damned, for their greater torment, will have a most lively comprehension of so great a good; and [know] that it is through their fault they have lost it ...
In this life, the soul ... continues in [the body] as a fire under ashes, but breaking loose from the body is in a violent state, like fire lighted in [illegible] ... so is a soul in endeavouring to get to her centre, which is God ...
It has sometimes happened that a mother led into captivity and parting from her son ... [has] fallen down dead ... merely by the excess of grief; what death will a soul feel then in parting with God for ever ... ?
God [is] ... the centre of happiness to a rational mind ... [and] to be violently separated from this object, and that for ever, must be a torment without equal ...
Fifth Consideration: The Sting of Conscience
Consider, that as in dead bodies worms are engendered from putrefaction, so in the damned there arises a perpetual remorse from the corruption of sin, which is called the sting of conscience ...
The worm, more cruel than any asp, will make three wounds in the heart of every damned soul, which may be further illustrated to us by the word of Innocent III, in his book of the Contempt of the World:-- ”The memory will afflict, late repentance will trouble, and want of time [ie, neglect of good occasions] will torment.” ...
First of all then, the memory will afflict. It is a great torment to the miserable wretch to remember his past happiness ...
He who once gave himself over to all sorts of pleasure; whose palate was filled with the greatest dainties; whose flesh had all the ease imaginable, and wallowed in all kinds of impurity, is now delivered up to everlasting lamentations, suffering, and despair ...
Judge what a misfortune it will be, after a great number of years, to remember a forbidden pleasure, a momentary delight vanished like a shadow, changed into an eternal torment ...
Consider, the second wound of this devouring worm will be a late and fruitless sorrow for sins committed ... divine justice will fix the understanding of those miserable wretches, continually to think on the sins they have committed ...
St. Augustine ... says moreover, that they will behold their abominations as they are in themselves, because God will impart to them his own knowledge of sin, so that it will appear to them as it does to God, that is, an abyss of deformity and malice ...
And though they shall deplore their sins for ever, yet they shall never come to any composition with God ...
Consider, the third wound which this sting of conscience causes in the damned. It is an infinite grief for having neglected so many fair occasions of saving themselves ...
This will be the most cruel viper which will gnaw our hearts ... was I not told of it by my ghostly fathers ... ? Was I not assured by faith, that the end of sin was damnation? And I ... would not open my eyes to my own good ...
There was a time when God invited me by so many inspirations, entreated me by so many voices, allured me by so many promises, deterred me by so many threats ...
Now ... after having shed a sea of tears, I shall never compass what formerly I might have obtained with one tear ...
[The thought of this] will make those unfortunate souls, with an hellish fury, to curse sometimes God, whom they hate, as their enemy: sometimes the devils, whom they abhor as traitors: sometimes their companions who entice them to sin; and sometimes their ownselves, for having been so mad ...
God, who was once so compassionate of my miseries ... will now become inexorable ...
Sixth Consideration: Despair on account of the extension of the pains of hell.
Consider, that man in this life, though he be capable of many evils, he is not capable of them all at once; because here one evil corrects the other, and one poison oftentimes drives out another, but in hell it will be quite otherwise; for pains there will lend to each other a fresh sting ...
Moreover, what has been hitherto considered, was in relation to the external senses: but as the internal powers are more perfect, so they are more capable of pain, and therefore, will be the more tormented ...
[As the damned] had made an ill use of all their senses and powers, to sin, so they deserved in every one of their senses and powers, to be punished with so many pains ...
The fancy will always be afflicted with frightful imaginations ... The sensible appetite will, like the ebbing and flowing of the sea, be continually swelling and falling ... into rage and anguish ...
Their understanding will be filled with interior darkness, more terrible than the exterior, which fills their prison ...
They will be obstinate in malice, without being able, during the whole space of eternal years, to have the least inclination to good, but continually adding malice to malice ...
Hell is the centre of all evils: and as all things are found to be much stronger in their centre than elsewhere ... so the evils that are in hell will not only be many without number, but intense without comparison, and pure, without mixture. Pains in this place will have no contraries to temper and soften them ...
Moreover, things that are otherwise good in themselves, in this place become bad. Company, which elsewhere is a comfort to the afflicted, will here be their greatest trouble; the light which in other places is so much coveted, will be hated here, more than the darkness itself; knowledge, which in the world does so much delight, will be there more tormenting than ignorance ...
In this present life our sorrows are either not long or not great, because nature either overcomes them by habits, or puts an end to them by falling herself under their weight ... but in hell the rules are quite contrary, for the pains there will always continue in the same state; intolerable as to intenseness, and endless as to duration: ...
As there is nothing moderate in the torments, so there is no rest in the tormented, who are continually kept, not barely alive, but in their full senses, to have greater feeling of their misery ...
It is what the divine Majesty, injured by sinners, requires: it is what the blood of Christ, that is trampled upon, demands: it is what heaven itself, despised and postponed to filth and corruption, insists on.
Seventh Consideration: The Eternity of Pain
O, eternity, then, O eternity!
Consider, that were the pains of hell less racking, yet, being never to have an end, they would become infinite. What then will it be, they being both intolerable as to sharpness, and endless as to duration ... ?
Were it proposed to the damned to suffer either by the sting of a bee in their eye for a whole eternity, or to undergo all the torments of hell for as many ages as their are stars in heaven, they would ... choose to be thus miserable for so many ages, and then to see an end of their misery than to endure a pain so much less, that was to have no end ...
Let us go on, and imagine ... a mountain of this small sand [as in an hourglass], so high as would reach from earth to heaven ...
Let us then imagine this great mountain to be multiplied as often as there are sands in the sea, leaves on trees, feathers on birds, scales on fish, hairs on beasts, atoms in the air, drops of water that have rained or will rain to the day of judgment ... and yet ... we are assured by faith ... that all these years shall pass, and when over, none of our pains will be lessened, nor so much as one instant taken from eternity ...
Enormity expects thee in a place of torment, always the same, with the same pains ...
So that we may say, that eternity not only every moment tortures the damned, but that to the damned every moment is turned into so many eternities.
Consider, that men reasoning always as men, are astonished that God, for so short a pleasure of a sinner, should have decreed an everlasting punishment in the fire of hell ... But ought not we rather to wonder at the astonishment of worldlings, grounded on the ignorance of spiritual things ... ?
“The sensual man perceiveth not the things that are of the spirit of God ... ” - 1 Cor. ii. 14.
If sinners did but comprehend the malice of their sin, they would soon change their wonder ...
Consider ... that every mortal sin is either a tacit or express contempt of the divine will, and an injury to God ... in a manner infinite ...
If the pain due to the offenders of God were to end, both the judge and the sentence would be condemned ...
The malice of sin is so exorbitant as not to be atoned and satisfied for, by the good works of all creatures; and, therefore, to pay this debt, it was necessary the Son of God should take from his veins, as a just price, the treasures of his divine blood. |