presenting the Divine Word in such a form, that even the most sensual minds obtain therefrom those appearances of truth which are best adapted to their states. Minds that are unable to form any conception of spiritual misery, may, nevertheless, be very greatly benefitted, by being permitted to suppose, that there is reserved for the wicked some terrible physical suffering, like that of being eternally tormented in a lake of material fire and brimstone. The mind that is spiritually enlightened, sees in such representations, corresponding spiritual things,—the tormenting fire of self love, and the lust of false doctrines. While the man who thinks only of sensual things is greatly benefited, by being permitted to receive such descriptions of the miseries of hell, in their most literal sense. His impressions are as near the truth as the present state of his mind will permit. And so long as there is retained an idea of the miseries of hell, even in this most external form, the dread of eternal punishment remains; and exerts a most salutary restraint upon minds, not yet prepared to shun evil from better motives.
But if the miseries of hell are not caused by the wrath of an angry God, by remorse of conscience, nor by a lake of fire, from whence do they come? The answer, to this question, has been already anticipated, in some measure. They are the necessary and inevitable consequence of an evil and disordered state of the affections. If the man or the spirit who loves goodness and truth, and lives a corresponding life, is necessarily happy, as the consequence of the harmonious movement of his spiritual faculties, he in whose spiritual nature, this heavenly order is destroyed or perverted, must as inevitably be miserable. To deny the correctness of this inference, would be as absurd as to say, that while the enjoyment of health, is a consequence of all the bodily functions being in a normal state, the derangement of those functions is not productive of pain. Misery, in every form, is the opposite of the corresponding happiness. The one is the necessary consequence of obeying some law, that is, some
