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rich covetous man, to whom Abraham denied so small a refreshment as to have his tongue touched with " the tip of" a "finger" dipped "in water." [1] Rather accidental torments will be added to them, by the new entrance of other damned; and that change which here is usually refreshing (if in hell there be any change) shall be there a new torment For if the luxurious (as it is said in Job) " pass from the snow waters to excessive heat," [2] it will be that the heat will more torment them, by reason of its opposition to the cold, and that the cold may cause the greater trembling and gnashing of teeth, through its contrast with the heat.

2. Finally, although these torments be so lasting and continual, yet custom in suffering gains nothing as any cause of their ease; rather every day they are as it were renewed, and are ever fresh with fresh impatience. For as "the pride of" these wretches " that hate" Almighty God (as says the prophet David) "ascendeth continually," [3] so likewise increases their wrath and envy, their impatience, fury and rage. Then what sayest thou, O my soul, and what art thou doing? If thou hast a lively faith of such torments, how is it that thy spirit fails not to consider such terribleness, such perpetuity, such continuation, such immutability and eternity? If, lying in a soft bed, thou feel it equal with death to pass a long night in watching and pain, expecting with much anxiety the refreshing and dawning of the day, how much more wilt thou feel it to be in an obscure prison, in a bed of fire, in perpetual watching, and in terrible pain, in a night so long and tedious that expects no refreshing of the day, because it is eternal?

Colloquy. — O justice of the Almighty, who trembleth not in Thy presence? "O Lord, rebuke me not in Thy indignation, nor chastise me in Thy

  1. Luc. xvi. 24.
  2. Job. xxiv. 19.
  3. Ps. lxxiii. 23.